Space marine helmet stripes

[justicarius6]

A quick question that I'll admit has bugged me for a long time now ever since they started vanishing. Does anyone know why the helmet stripes that used to adorn most (if not all?) of marine helmets going back to rogue trader days? We're talking a long time back of course, but I never really heard an explanation or reasoning they just quietly vanished.....

[Kinstryfe]

I just scrolled thru the GW website. They definitely aren't gone, but they do largely seem to have changed too a full helmet color instead of a stripe in a lot of cases. A lot of theirs sergeants are also bare headed. The rest tend to have either a red helmet (Sergeant), white helmet (veteran), or in cases like the anniversary Primaris Sergeant red with the white stripe. So I don't think the convention is gone, it just seems to have changed. As for why, I could guess but don't have any special insight. My best guess is that it's now full helmet because it's both easier to paint and larger to see.

[Disruptor_fe404]

Hasn't a white stripe on a red helmet historically been used to specifically denote a Veteran Sergeant? They shouldn't have been all that common really...

 

That being said, in the current Codex, every sergeant is a Veteran Sergeant, so they are certainly less common than they should be...

[Aqui]

I used to use stripes to denote a squads company (instead of the edge of shoulder guards. The Marines in question were mark VI and didn't have any). Ultimately, there are a number of ways to denote status of a squad and the members within it. It comes down to personal preference :)

[Wargamer]

The answer is Third Edition. In Third, GW encouraged people to do their own thing, make their own Chapter and their own unit markings, etc. As a result, the official way of doing things fell away, with most people simply not bothering.

[Toxichobbit]

Helmet stripes were almost completely gone by 2nd edition, with only the Veteran Sergeant stripe remaining and the rest replaced by coloured helmets. Originally in 1st edition every rank of Marine, from Trooper through to Captain Veteran and even Field Police had a helmet stripe. I don't know if 2nd edition was where the change occurred of if it happened in one of the 1st edition supplements. I suspect it also might have had something to do with the introduction of MkVII armour as well.

[justicarius6]

As an example to what I mean, check this image:

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mXEQFQwLKjc/UePyHjgVrQI/AAAAAAAACC0/cvnFzTGM0fc/s1600/RTmarinecolours.jpg

 

I think it was earlier than the MkVII armours were brought in that the stripes began to vanish completely just from the marines pictured on the first Space Marine Paint set:

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MZl5HxliR24/UEHoD-WC34I/AAAAAAAAA0E/LILSjdCj014/s640/DSC07880.JPG

 

but I wonder if there was ever an "official" or canon reason behind them being discarded?

[Race Bannon]

Let's face it: from a hobby perspective, stripes are not relatively easy to pull off.  If this were considered a "requirement" to have accurate-looking models then it's a turn-off.  Sure, you could do your own thing, but there are plenty enough people who won't do it, if it's not done right.

[justicarius6]

I think that's probably one of the reasons it irks me that they just vanished without a trace or explanation, I'd gotten pretty good at painting the helmet lines on my mark VI's back in the day.

[Race Bannon]

Why not use your talents then?  The Codex certainly has some rules, yet even various sources throughout the years suggest it is a "guide" toward organization.  Man, if you can pull it off with ease, then do it :tu:

[Rik Lightstar]

There was SO much that changed over the course of the life of 1st Edition. There's currently a lot of kick back over fluff advances, during 1st there was new stuff with every release and it was often totally contradictory to the previous iteration or a full ret-con.

 

Really, most stuff didn't get "codified" until 2nd Edition. And these codexes are where to start looking for any real consistency.

 

Rogue trader is almost a related but separate setting.

 

Rik

[Trevak Dal]

Are Primaris substantially bigger so that it's easier to put rank stripes on them than older models?

[Kinstryfe]

Primaris heads are pretty much the same size as everything else. I've used mkIII helms on Primaris, and those Primaris helms on some mkIV and it all looked fairly normal.

 

I kinda wish I knew where my copy of Insignium Astartes was. I'm curious if they included the stripes as an option, because I know they included tons of other stuff. I still almost always add a painted iron Halo to my "combat squad leader" to denote the second in command :)

 

As to the original question, I think the most logical guess I can make is that the helmet stripes were pre-mkVII armor, and thus didn't tend to have shoulder rims or knee plates, making the helm about the only place to have a clearly visible rank marking. Once mkVII was modeled, you then had both those pieces as even easier ways to signify rank or company status. It was probably just an artistic choice based on the limitations of old models and the benefit of new models. That being said, there are clearly still /some/ examples of it out there, so I would wager the in-universe explanation would be that the shoulder pad rims can be seen from a lot more angles than the helm, and is the more common choice made by whomever makes that kind of decision in a chapter. I'd still think that rank/company/unit markings on the helm would still be acceptable, and think it could look neat if pulled off right.

[Toxichobbit]

I've looked in Insignium Astartes. There's no alternate helmet stripes for rank marking. Just the Vet Sarge stripe. There are some Chapter's pictured with helmet stripes though, always in yellow. No explanation as to what they denote. Also FW's Red Scorpions often have yellow helmet stripes. I don't remember if it's explained in the various FW books in which they feature what the stripes signify. I'd have to go back and re-read them.

 

MkVI armour used to have icons on the helmets and forearms to denote rank. That was pre-2nd ed and pre-MkVII. In fact, they were featured in the Space Marine Painting Guide that came with the Paint Set that someone above linked. Some models even had them sculpted on. I don't know if these markings were a replacement for the stripes or not, but like the stripes they were long gone by 2nd ed and the first Ultramarine Codex.

 

http://www.ozdestro.com/uploads/1/3/0/1/13014732/4006665_orig.jpg

Edited February 16, 2018 by Toxichobbit

[Rogue]

I still use those rank badges on my sergeants.

[Trevak Dal]

They don't look like they would be distinct enough. One of the problems I had with my Nightblades CSM was that, with the horns and spikes pared down, and parts brought in from loyalists, and b@c to plug in holes, my guys looked hodgepodgey but also very similar, so I'd lose track of my champions or special weapons guys.

 

So I painted the champions heads a bright blue, and put blue marks on the tops of the specialists power packs, super visible it really pops.

 

In those pictures the Sargent is far more important looking than any of the other ranks, which between the captain and lieutenant look samey.

 

Then again, it might be hard to inscribe two stars and three bars of a Strike Commander (bars less so, but the stars would be a pain to get them in proportion)

Edited February 23, 2018 by Trevak Dal

[Rogue]

True. They don’t stand out a mile, even in yellow on black armour. But then, all my sergeants also have a back banner, which helps identify them on the field, and specialists have distinct colours on their weapons too.

 

It’s mostly there to be a nice detail, I guess.