Question about Company Markings

[KaosRaptor]

Howdy Frater! I had a question about company markings I was hoping someone might be able to help me with.

 

So I've been collecting space marines from the Exorcists chapter on-and-off for a while now, because I love their background and their colour scheme. I've always given them black shoulder trim because that's how I first saw them depicted in FW's Badab War series, and I thought it looked great.

 

Now the Badab War books state that the Exorcists follow the Codex Astartes regarding insignia, and the current SM codex (pg 58) shows a battle brother from second company with gold trim, so you'd figure mine would be fifth company. Problem is I'm converting up a model for Silas Alberec, the Exorcists Captain of the Third, so I want my marines to be third company - but I don't like the look of red trim on red shoulders, so I'm looking for suggestions on how to make my marines third company without getting rid of the black trim.

 

And just to muddy the waters, the Badab War books have a veteran sergeant wearing the white helm and trim of first company, while a squad of marines from a tactical reserve company (I forget which) have black trim - which you'd think would make them from the fifth, a battle company.

 

TL;DR: Want to make my marines from the third company while keeping black trim, looking for suggestions! 

 

(I wasn't sure whether I should post this here or in another sub-forum, but it's technically about painting and colour schemes so I thought this would be appropriate - apologies if it's not.)

 

Thanks for your time!

[deathspectersgt7]

different color red on a knee pad.

[Grotsmasha]

The thing about the Codex Astartes is that it really is super flexible, and the current models depicted are a snapshot in time. Space Marine chapters frequently change up their squad, rank, and company marking so as to prevent them becoming familiar to their enemies. Shoulder trim is one way companies are depicted, chest eagles is another, kneepads, shoulder inserts, squad markmings, it could be a company badge instead of a colour. It's all "codex legal".

 

So, paint him however you want :tu:

 

Cheers,

Jono

[KaosRaptor]

Thanks for the replies brothers!

 

@Grot I had no idea that loyal chapters changed up their iconography, I always thought it was pretty rigid - so glad to hear that's not necessarily the case!

 

@Death thanks for the idea! Instead of doing a colour on the knee though I've found a tonne of loyalist decal sheets lying around, so I've come up with a new plan.

 

Keep the black trim, squad marking/number goes on the right shoulder as per the codex, and I'll use a small number 3 decal on the knee to denote the company.

 

It's funny, collected Chaos for so long I've never had to worry about this - thanks again gents!

[Major_Gilbear]

It should also be noted that as well as colours, different companies also use numbers (or numerals) and also different shapes to denote them on unit markings:

This is often combined with company colours, and the location of such markings can be positioned in different places on the armour for various reasons - legibility, tradition, or simply to confuse the enemy as Grotsmasha says.

If you look at other chapters (Blood Angels and Dark Angels), you'll see that that they also use these shapes to mark their companies, even if the colours or the positioning of the markings are different, or sometimes only displayed in a limited way. You can often see these shapes on most Chapters' company banners.

These shapes and/or colours can also be combined with other unit insignia too - so they could cover a shoulder pad that's overlaid with the squad marking, or the kneepad can be in a company colour (possibly also in the company shape) with the squad number laid over it.

What's cool about this is that it gives you a lot of flexibility in marking your units clearly, whilst also keeping the colours and heraldry of your Marines' scheme looking smart (because as you say, some company colours either clash rather badly or are invisible when combined with certain colour schemes).

[Jamafore]

I'm running the 5th Company of my diy chapter, which the codex says is normally black.....I use red because it looks better to me. I just say something like, "This chapter uses different colors", or as Grotsmasha said, "this chapter is rotating the colors they use for which company." 

 

The first explanation might not work for Exorcists, given that they aren't diy, but the second excuse could work easily.

[KaosRaptor]

More great points, thanks guys. I had no idea there could be so much variation with this stuff!

 

@Major I had totally forgotten about how other chapters did it, and I definitely remember seeing Dark Angels banners with company markings incorporated into them. I might keep mine simple for now and stick to using the knee, but I like that image you've got there for the third company - a black knee pad with a red stripe should work I think!

 

Out of curiosity, where is that image from?

 

@Jama Very true, nothing wrong with saying my third company is just using the black trim for now to change things up.

 

You learn something new every day huh? Thanks!