Brother Christopher's Purple Marines Project

[Brother Christopher]

On 7/15/2025 at 12:50 AM, Brother Anderson said:

That green is sumptuous! I'd say it definitely works for me, it's an uncommon combination but that makes them stand out which is the point of sergeants painting their helmets differently I'd say.

 

Covering old ground but I've only been lurking for ages, that purple power armour is so, so good too.

 

I'm glad you liked the green. After some consideration, I think I'll use the colour (that I also bought on a whim/by accident) for some detailing but not for the helmets.

 

And I'm very happy that you like the purple for the armour! As you saw yourself, I've been searching for the right thing almost forever!

 

On 7/15/2025 at 1:13 AM, space wolf said:

As for the helmet color, I agree with your wife, the green doesnt quite work. Not sure why since they are next to each other on the color wheel....

 

However, I was really bored and had my phone so maybe you'd like one if these combinations? I did it using a free program called impcat. A real time saver, when it comes to testing schemes.

 

I think that you're right. I also absolutely love and appreciate the digital mockups. They are very, very helpful. I will be trying out blue helmets next but will also try and find another hue of green since that was my initial plan for the sergeants. 

 

On 7/15/2025 at 1:13 AM, space wolf said:

May fave is actually the most conservative one (UL corner), of course there is something to the one I call the "Megaman" (UR corner) lol

 

On 7/15/2025 at 10:36 AM, Firedrake Cordova said:

I like the @space wolf's upper-right example too (although personally I'd have the backpack all purple to further highlight the head), although I also like the idea of the helmet matching the shoulderpad trim like the one in the bottom right...

 

I agree with the both of you - the upper-left seems to be the most obvious 'best one,' but I also very much like the combination with the blue arms. Since I'm planning on doing different arms for different battle roles, I might use that.

 

On 7/15/2025 at 7:16 PM, gaurdian31 said:

Yeah, I think white helm for the standard marines and the blue helm for the sergeant would work well, or you could bring back the white helm with green stripe, that was nice as well.

 

I'm reserving white helmets for the veterans: firstly, white helmets are kind of special and secondly, they are a bit of a pain in the neck to paint ;) 

 

***

 

Here are some more photos of the same stuff. I'm endlessly impressed by the fact that there are NORMAL people who can churn out squads over a week or two. While I'm still here, painting the same 5 and posting the painstakingly minor updates.

 

Setting off the slightly self-deprecating remarks aside, I spent another Emperor-knows hoe much time and I think that I have most of the armour done. 

 

Please note the arrows (colour-based squad designation) on the lower-leg armour, the round bits on the backpack (with the battle role designation) and my first ever stab at battle damage. I think I probably could be able to refine it more but it's already taken a lot of effort. I think that this should be the right amount of dents and scratches - while they are quite fun to paint (maybe due to the novelty of the process), I don't want to overdo them.

 

I forgot to keep my ISO at bay so the photos are a bit noisy but for one, this works to my advantage. Regardless, I do hope that the next stage of the paintjob is visible.

 

 

 

 

 

And here's a close-up on one of the models with the intention to better showcase the wear on the armour:

 

 

One cool side effect of the decision to add these chinks, dents and scratches is that it helps a lot with hiding screw-ups with the edge highlighting. Getting nearer and nearer the finish line with this bunch of Marines, I'm starting to see how the colour and technique choices come together. I'm surprised how nice they're starting to look - the odd and random different colour here and there (like purity seals, single bolt casing, the silly beads on the power sword, the brown belts and pouches) plus the 'battle damage' go a long way to make the models somehow more interesting.

 

As always, C&C is welcome.

[Rusted Boltgun]

My favourite detail: the half arrow on the left legs. Harks back to the 'good old days'!

[space wolf]

Yep the half arrow and the battle damage has come out REALLY well. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look really nice

[gaurdian31]

Looking really good! The battle damage is great and the arrows on the backpacks and legs are fantastic!

[Volgon]

Thank you for sharing your creative process with us! It's fun to read about others going through a similar situation as I did about a year ago when starting up my homebrew Marines. I read a comment you posted a few weeks ago:

Quote

It seems like I'm still trying to figure out what I want with these guys. While painting the most recent model, the power sword guy, I've decided to take a slightly different approach. However, it seems that whatever I try, I end up with results that are more or less the same.

 

I wanted to say that this mirrors my experience as well so you aren't crazy! Within the last 2-3 minis I've been experimenting with different paint recipes for the blue armor on my Marines, changing the shadow and midtone colors but leaving the bright blue the same, and no matter which slightly different tone I used the overall scheme reads basically the same. Even with multiple different recipes on the same mini, the scheme remains cohesive unless you are looking at a blown up photo on a monitor or have the mini up to your face.

 

Also wanted to comment on the helmet color: I like @space wolf's mock ups personally. I think the color you used for your tester pushed too far into the green/jade territory for my tastes, whereas the mock up was more of a blue/turquoise which is closer to purple on the color wheel. Some recommendations from me would be Army Painter Hydra Turquoise (I use this color myself for certain things) or Pro Acryl Dark Turquoise (this looks like it might be nearly a 1 to 1 match for the impcat mock up, but never a 100% guarantee on a monitor) for something a bit darker with a bit more blue. 

 

EDIT: Also wanted to suggest maybe including whatever color you decide on for the helmet as an accent color for some smaller details. For example, some areas I think would look good with a turquoise accent color (doesn't have to be all of these, just one would probably be enough IMO):

1. the knee pad or knee trim (though some Tacticus sculpts these days have neither, like the new Blood Claws)
2. the band of armor wrapped around the wrist
3. the armor panel on the back of the hand
4. the forearm armor panel
5. options 2, 3 and 4 together (I think this would be my choice personally but would need to see it before deciding)

Whatever you choose would also assist in tying your veterans' color scheme (with their white helmets, should you decide to go that route) with your basic grunts, as otherwise the scheme on the grunts would contain a color that isn't present on the veterans (turquoise, or whatever helmet color you choose, is the grunt helmet color but not present anywhere on a veteran) but not vice versa (the white helmets on the veterans is also on the pauldron trim that, presumably, every Marine will have).

 

Secondly you mentioned wanting to do different arms for different battle roles: if you mean color rather than sculpts I think you risk making the scheme too busy. Just as an example: I think purple armor with turquoise helmets (and let's say turquoise arms to go with one of my suggestions) looks good. Now let's say you are doing your melee/assault role: purple armor + turquoise helmets + red arms is now 3 colors vying for attention. And then your heavy support/gunline infantry doing with purple armor, turquoise helmets, and green or yellow arms? And then you throw in veterans with their white helmets. It's an interesting idea but personally I think too many color combinations and would make the army look like a bag of skittles 

Edited July 17 by Volgon

[Firedrake Cordova]

19 hours ago, Volgon said:

It's an interesting idea but personally I think too many color combinations and would make the army look like a bag of skittles 

I'm pretty sure that's how Tyranids see all Space Marines  

[Brother Christopher]

@Rusted Boltgun, @space wolf, @Firedrake Cordova and @gaurdian31 - Thanks for dropping a post. I appreciate the feedback. I'm also glad you like the half-arrows. I was considering extending them to the back of the leg armour (to make 'full arrows') but I suppose the armour panel makes a natural border for the arrows (and, in the future, other squad designations).

 

On 7/17/2025 at 5:18 PM, Volgon said:

Thank you for sharing your creative process with us! It's fun to read about others going through a similar situation as I did about a year ago when starting up my homebrew Marines.

 

No, thank you! I sometimes feel like oversharing but this forum is basically my only interaction with a broader hobby community and I'm very much glad whenever people drop by.

 

On 7/17/2025 at 5:18 PM, Volgon said:

I wanted to say that this mirrors my experience as well so you aren't crazy! Within the last 2-3 minis I've been experimenting with different paint recipes for the blue armor on my Marines, changing the shadow and midtone colors but leaving the bright blue the same, and no matter which slightly different tone I used the overall scheme reads basically the same. Even with multiple different recipes on the same mini, the scheme remains cohesive unless you are looking at a blown up photo on a monitor or have the mini up to your face.

 

I think you might be right. I suppose that in my case, these nuances get lost due to a skill threshold I'm unable to break. Then again, similalry to your experience, this might be a good thing: using/trying different methods should make painting Marines that much more interesting.

 

On 7/17/2025 at 5:18 PM, Volgon said:

Also wanted to comment on the helmet color: I like @space wolf's mock ups personally. I think the color you used for your tester pushed too far into the green/jade territory for my tastes, whereas the mock up was more of a blue/turquoise which is closer to purple on the color wheel. Some recommendations from me would be Army Painter Hydra Turquoise (I use this color myself for certain things) or Pro Acryl Dark Turquoise (this looks like it might be nearly a 1 to 1 match for the impcat mock up, but never a 100% guarantee on a monitor) for something a bit darker with a bit more blue. 

 

Currently, I'm painting the helmets and am doing (what probably will be) my last foray into the green territory. This time with a more neutral (warmer?) dark green that I mixed. Also, thank you for the paint recommendations: I'll look into them.

 

On 7/17/2025 at 5:18 PM, Volgon said:

Secondly you mentioned wanting to do different arms for different battle roles: if you mean color rather than sculpts I think you risk making the scheme too busy. Just as an example: I think purple armor with turquoise helmets (and let's say turquoise arms to go with one of my suggestions) looks good. Now let's say you are doing your melee/assault role: purple armor + turquoise helmets + red arms is now 3 colors vying for attention. And then your heavy support/gunline infantry doing with purple armor, turquoise helmets, and green or yellow arms? And then you throw in veterans with their white helmets. It's an interesting idea but personally I think too many color combinations and would make the army look like a bag of skittles 

 

I absolutely hear you here: that's my underlying concern with the idea for colour designations for battle roles. On the whole, you're absolutely right. My 'but' is the subjective motivation for my current plan: after doing my ~300 Firstborn Templars, I'm a bit tired of painting identical Space Marines (...but apparently not as tired to drop them altogether). My hope is that by doing different arms, I'll be able to keep things interesting by trying new things out for the ~70 Primaris Models - instead of opting for doing squads from different chapters, I want to 'cheat' a bit by mixing up the colour scheme and incorporate designs that I liked or hope to enjoy painting within the structure of my homebrew chapter.

 

But here's a but to the 'but' above: nothing's set in stone: it seems that I have to see things with my own eyes before making a decision. I might take the more reasonable/safe way you suggested.

 

On 7/17/2025 at 5:18 PM, Volgon said:

EDIT: Also wanted to suggest maybe including whatever color you decide on for the helmet as an accent color for some smaller details. For example, some areas I think would look good with a turquoise accent color (doesn't have to be all of these, just one would probably be enough IMO):

1. the knee pad or knee trim (though some Tacticus sculpts these days have neither, like the new Blood Claws)
2. the band of armor wrapped around the wrist
3. the armor panel on the back of the hand
4. the forearm armor panel
5. options 2, 3 and 4 together (I think this would be my choice personally but would need to see it before deciding)

 

I appreciate you taking the time to post this - I'll make sure to use some of these ideas since they're a great way to elegantly introduce more colour variety.

[Brother Christopher]

Almost done!

 

These are control photos and I think I still need to touch up the tilt shields and the face of the helmetless guy.

 

 

 

Some close-ups: 

I think I should try and redo the eyes and brows.

 

I'm not quite happy with the yellow halo-thingy (it turned out a bit too oval for my taste) but I don't see a way to fix it so it'll stay as-is.

 

And here the blue is a bit uneven; I'll also perhaps brave improving the yellow chequers but that's not without its risks.

 

Do you think that this green for the sergeants' helmets works better? The heads aren't fixed in place yet so I can easily replace it. Having said that, I feel it's quite okay - definitely better than the original, jade-like one.

[gaurdian31]

These look great! For the face, I think the brows look good, but see if you can make his pupils a little smaller? I am horrible at painting eyes so as is they look great to me! The green helmet is painted very well, but it still feels a little off, but it is hard for me to describe why. All in all great job and also love the yellow checker pattern!

[Dr. Clock]

24 minutes ago, Brother Christopher said:

Do you think that this green for the sergeants' helmets works better?

Yes - it's a little jarring/surprising but green/purple is always a neat turn (shades of Joker). I think it just needs another step of highlight to match the extreme pastel/pink highlight you've perfected on the purple.

 

Smashing success in general! Keep it up!

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor. 

[Rusted Boltgun]

Some fantastic details you have there and the green on the Sergeant 's helmet is very nice (but then I'm a sucker for that shade). 

[Firedrake Cordova]

I think they look great.  

 

I'm not sure the green helmet on the sergeant works for me - it feels like it's a bit dark? Personally, I wondered about using the blue from the shield...

Spoiler

(crudely re-coloured in GIMP)

 

Edited Thursday at 03:28 PM by Firedrake Cordova

[space wolf]

I think the green helmet looks great. Could probably use anothet level of highlight as @Dr. Clock suggests, but either way I think it looks good. I think the green does kinda now clash with the blue though. But, they are YOUR marines, if you like it, i say run with it 100%

[Volgon]

I just want to mirror what @space wolf said, I think they hit the nail on the head. At the end of the day, they are your marines, so it's more important for you to like the color scheme than anyone else. It's good to get feedback or consider color theory but if your heart sings for green helmets then green it is!

[Kurgan the Lurker]

Inquisitor Germanicus approves of Dark Purple! 

 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

On 7/24/2025 at 1:01 PM, space wolf said:

Could probably use anothet level of highlight

I did ask chatGPT to do this as an example (I thought an illustration might be helpful), and instead it decided to turn the Marine to Chaos (the mouth vent grew teeth)  I wonder if it were sending a message?  After reciting the litany of purification, it proceeded to lighten the whole helm to an approximation of Bilious Green, turned the chest eagle bronze, and the should pad trim blue.  I can see why mankind purged the Abominable Intelligence ...

 

[Brother Anderson]

These look fantastic! If you hadn't pointed out the oval halo I wouldn't have noticed it wasn't fully circular, it looks good to me.

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you all for the immensely positive feedback! It means a lot and adds to the feeling of satisfaction at finishing my first ever modern GW Marines. I didn't expect that it'll take me this much time to get them painted but I hope that the next batches won't take as long as these - I have some decisions made, after all. Having said that, it was fun and refreshing to try paint different skittles Space Marines and have some fun with new colours.

 

I must say that the battle damage elevated the models to a higher level. I ended up liking the aesthetic a lot and there's the added bonus of the damage helping distract from the subpar edge highlighting. By 'subpar' I mean that it didn't end up 'eavy metal style, as I initially hoped/intended but, as you may remember me mentioning earlier, I don't want to get bogged down my doing super-fine lines that are still probably beyond the scope of my skill/brushwork.

 

Because of highlights and battle damage that are not as fine as possible, the style is a bit more cartoony (?) than I hoped for but I've grown to enjoy it a lot. I suppose I must admit that I've found a happy medium with the models. And I can't express how helpful you were in this process.

 

***

 

Final upgrades following the most recent posts:

 

@gaurdian31 I tried following your advice with the pupils but I think I've failed a bit. Maybe die to my skills, maybe due to the weather (it's hot!) - I struggled a lot with getting the paint off the brush. I did something but got worried that my attempts will result in more harm than good.

 

Also, following others' advice, I added another layer of highlights - this time with some yellow. I think it helped with the definition of the detail and general feel of the colour.

 

I also realised that I forgot to paint some lightning effect that I planned so that's another small update, together with some text/scribbles on some of the models (and on the tilt shield of the guy reloading his boltgun). Since I haven't had anything specific in mind with regards to the lightning/power effect, I'm quite pleased how it turned out. Maybe the lines could be more subtle/refined but at the moment, I'll stick with what I have.

 

On the topic of the sergeants' helmets: I like this feedback a lot. It's mixed but skewing towards the positive so I'll settle with this: the choice of colour isn't obviously bad. And that's enough for me at the moment.

 

Given my experience with wacky colour ideas that I have had while painting my squat-marine Templars, I know that some concepts don't age well - I'll give the green helmets time to mature and give myself the time to reconsider should I come to regret this in the future. That's why I won't be gluing on the helmets.

 

On 7/24/2025 at 2:01 PM, space wolf said:

think the green does kinda now clash with the blue though.

 

Yeah, that was my initial concern - the original concept included a dark green for the helmets but the chapter markings were supposed to be more neutral (black or white). But at the time of typing this, this isn't a big issue.

 

6 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

I did ask chatGPT to do this as an example (I thought an illustration might be helpful), and instead it decided to turn the Marine to Chaos (the mouth vent grew teeth)  I wonder if it were sending a message?  After reciting the litany of purification, it proceeded to lighten the whole helm to an approximation of Bilious Green, turned the chest eagle bronze, and the should pad trim blue.  I can see why mankind purged the Abominable Intelligence ...

 

Haha, that's an effort that I appreciate but one that I haven't thought of! Thank you for the litany of purification, though. 

 

On 7/24/2025 at 1:16 PM, Firedrake Cordova said:

I think they look great.  

 

I'm not sure the green helmet on the sergeant works for me - it feels like it's a bit dark? Personally, I wondered about using the blue from the shield...

  Reveal hidden contents

(crudely re-coloured in GIMP)

 

Again, thank you for the mock-up. I think this is a reasonable idea, given the choice of secondary colour, but in real life, there's something off/wrong with the light blue helmet. 

 

 

However — as I've remarked — I'm reserving the right to change my mind - I might do my best to see how it looks like properly painted, instead of the base colour and a rough recess shade.

 

***

  

23 hours ago, Kurgan the Lurker said:

Inquisitor Germanicus approves of Dark Purple! 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Many thanks - it's always good to be on the inquisitor's good side ;) And he even has green stones/crystals!

 

***

And here's a group photo, with the base rims painted black and some grass added here and there:

 

 

The sergeant and the updated helmet:

 

The lightning/power 'effect:'

 

Some scribbles on the tilt shield - the intention was to make better use of the empty surface:

 

And the updated face:

 

Since I've probably posted too many photos of the other guys in the process, I decided not to spam more with just the updated bases ;)

[Firedrake Cordova]

The sergeant's helmet looks a lot better this time around.  Out of curiosity, what colours did you use? It's a nice green.

 

Looking at the previous pictures and comparing, I think what I didn't like about the previous iteration was that whilst the helmet wasn't darker than the armour, it read as though it were - I think this is down to the edge highlight on the lip of the chest armour being that much brighter, it created an incorrect perception (and given that the human eye is drawn to light things, you expect that to be the head). The additional edge highlights have helped lift it somewhat.

[space wolf]

Yep, nailed the green. I think it works now.

[Pearson73]

Wow, it's been ages since I checked in on this log and it looks like I've missed a lot of cool progress.

 

The faces you did last year are great, particularly the eyes. I can echo the others in saying that a red/purple glaze helps a lot with the tongue and lips, as well as a dash of off-white for teeth. I tend to mix a bit of Screamer Pink into my standard skin tone to get the lips sorted, but Carrobourg Crimson souds good too.

 

The green is a lovely colour and works well with the rest of your scheme. I'm quite surprised, if someone said to me purple and green, I would never have expected it to work so well! I dig the pale blue stripe on the power packs, it's a really nice touch and breaks up all that purple, keeping the visual interest. Same goes for the yellow tactical marking on the leg, never thought about that kind of placing, but I like it a lot!

 

All three basing options look solid, and you've done a good job making them look realistic too.

[gaurdian31]

The updated highlights make the green work on the sergeant's helmet, I don't feel that it feels off anymore. Also I think that the touch up on the eyes that you did came out well! The squad looks great together, the added details of the script and battle damage as well as the base work are all great. The power sword came out great as well. The squad came together really well. Great work!