okay, gonna try my hand at a tutorial on something that has made painting my models much more fun and more engaging.
If you are someone who is not interested in speed painting an army of clones then this tutorial might interest you as it is all about making an army that consists of individuals, an army where each one of your models has some kind of story behind them that can be seen in a summary type form over their bodies and/or armor. This becomes especially entertaining if you have made up fluff for your own army... in fact you will likely need to do this in some way before you start.
there are multiple ways for coming up with home brew fluff for your army. if you enjoy writing, you can straight up jot down some major events that have occurred in your army's history, or go into detail and post it in the fan fiction threads on here. If you play a lot of games with the same group of people often, their armies could be the main enemies of your army in their fluff. if you are space marines and fight an ork player all the time, come up with markings that signify someone has killed a lot of ork bosses or something. you have to know your army before you can start individualizing them properly.
I will be showing you several examples from my own army. I am a black templar player but if you are a horde based army do not for a second think you cannot individualize them as well. every ork can be unique for example just like a space marine. the only army i dont think this would be useful for is tyranids, i do think you could pull it off with necrons to some degree.
the examples i show dont have to be replicated as they are for my own army and its 'history' or customs that no other army has. You can, but it is more to spark some ideas for your own army. ideas on ways you can make your men unique and have their armor tell a story.
Anyway, onto the painting:
Here is a model i painted to show many of my army's markings/iconography.
though every marine i make in the future will likely be at least this detailed as it is so much fun to do so. i will be going back through my army and adding things to their armor.
My BT are of the Crozius fleet in which The Crozius is the flagship.
![Image]()
you might say that it is easier for me as a black templar player having a BT upgrade kit and all, but with the current trend of many part/better plastic kits with the release of each new codex, i don't think it should be a problem.
if you already have a lot of models painted, you can find common things you have painted onto your models and decide that they mean something instead of just being there.
for example i had several marines with boltgun metal knee pads. i decided this could mean something and decided that if they have the metal colored knee pads it means that they have successfully defended an objective or an ally against overwhelming odds.
so far then, from this templar's armor i know he has at one point in time defended an objective with all his might against the seemingly impossible and came out on top.
![Image]()
Black Templars have been known to carry incense on their armor, or holy censors as they are called that produce the incense. I decided that my BT fleet would grant marines the right to hang these off of their armor into battle if they have shown an exceptional ability to lead on their brothers in prayer and motivation. so these marines have good charisma so to speak lol.
so now we know that this marine is also good at keeping his brothers in the right mind set for difficult situations.
![Image]()
also in this picture you may note his elbow guard is bronze/gold, it also has a black templar cross on it. For my black templars this is a sign that shows the marine is experienced and is soon to be promoted to the rank of sword brethren.
So, now we know he is also a battle hardened veteran even amongst other space marines.
![Image]()
Looking at him from above we can see another indicator of his past and experience, and i got this one from a GW article. The black and white checkers may usually be associated with Goff orks, but for my templars, each white checker represents an ork warboss that the marine has killed.
so, now we know this marine has also had a lot of experience fighting orks.
![Image]()
I think this one will really stick out to you. the Four bright blue dots on the back of the lower leg. this comes from something that actually derives from the story i have been producing in the roleplay threads with my RPs and so any of my players from the AB:TN series may relate to this, though this is a symbol coming from the plot surrounding what will be ABTN3 when the templars come back to Tri'vaa to exact revenge on the Tau there.
since the templars were going to kill the tau on this world in revenge they wanted a marking to represent how many tau bastards they killed. For every blue dot the marine has killed ten tau for the revenge on Tri'vaa. crisis battle suits however, are equivalent to five tau, so killing two battlesuits would earn one a blue circle as well.
so, now we know this marine has killed an equivalent of 40 tau in the revenge on Tri'vaa.
Also, the power sword would of course indicate a surpassing skill in close combat as well as a high level of experience.
Then there are the small details that can be bettered with practice like any other painting technique. the parchment paper seals are in every SM set so those are usually in abundance and look nice. the free writing, just tiny tiny dipping of the tip of a fine detail brush and vigorously vibrate your hand so the brush just touches the surface of the model. try to make the spaces between the words look realistic. any kind of details like this really serve to better bring out the shape of the model and keeps people's eyes moving from one place on the model to the next which kind of forces their attention on the model. this is why we dont like bland three color models, because the eyes can take in the whole thing with a glance.
here are some more examples on other models i have:
my main opponent is a necron player, so since my army fights a necron army more than any other they have begun making symbols that represent this.
![Image]()
![Image]()
white crosses on the knee pads or on the helmets show that they have survived a charge through the horrid volleys of gauss weaponry and subsequently sent great numbers of necrons to their grave. the knee pads stand for taking out something such as a unit of necron warriors either alone or with a squad. a cross on the helmet means they have killed a necron of higher importance such as a lord or destroyers. You COULD make markings after your games to indicate what has actually happened to the models on the gameboard....but i dont do that lol. I'm sure it would make this all even more 'real' for you though.
Also based on my roleplay threads, my templars have had some bad times with a splinter fleet of the Hive Fleet Kraken in the eastern fringe near their tau enemies. they also fought in the damocles crusade, and have fought side by side with the scythes of the emperor sm chapter but sadly i have yet to add crossing yellow scythes to any of their armors yet.
but back to the tyranids, if one has killed an innumerable amount of lesser tyranid types, such as gaunts, they earn the right to stripe their legs and/or torso with silver or boltgun metal:
![Image]()
the more they kill the more stripes they add. so this guy has killed a lot of tyranids. (btw, i see it looks like his name is Julia lol....but it continues around the base. it is Julias Var)
If one kills a particularly tough or problematic tyranid synapse creature he earns the right to put red stripes on his helmet in this fashion:
![Image]()
So by now i am sure you get THE idea, but now you'll have to think of what your own army has been through or is going through now, and come up with your own ideas for iconography and symbology that will tell you, and anyone else who may also know your army's fluff, a story about each of your models.
This kind of idea behind painting has added a whole 'nother spectrum to the painting part of the hobby for me. it also has motivated my homebrewing fluff ideas, and it adds something to the games for me as well.
if this is what your looking to do with your army then i hope this helps spark some ideas.
.
If you are someone who is not interested in speed painting an army of clones then this tutorial might interest you as it is all about making an army that consists of individuals, an army where each one of your models has some kind of story behind them that can be seen in a summary type form over their bodies and/or armor. This becomes especially entertaining if you have made up fluff for your own army... in fact you will likely need to do this in some way before you start.
there are multiple ways for coming up with home brew fluff for your army. if you enjoy writing, you can straight up jot down some major events that have occurred in your army's history, or go into detail and post it in the fan fiction threads on here. If you play a lot of games with the same group of people often, their armies could be the main enemies of your army in their fluff. if you are space marines and fight an ork player all the time, come up with markings that signify someone has killed a lot of ork bosses or something. you have to know your army before you can start individualizing them properly.
I will be showing you several examples from my own army. I am a black templar player but if you are a horde based army do not for a second think you cannot individualize them as well. every ork can be unique for example just like a space marine. the only army i dont think this would be useful for is tyranids, i do think you could pull it off with necrons to some degree.
the examples i show dont have to be replicated as they are for my own army and its 'history' or customs that no other army has. You can, but it is more to spark some ideas for your own army. ideas on ways you can make your men unique and have their armor tell a story.
Anyway, onto the painting:
Here is a model i painted to show many of my army's markings/iconography.
though every marine i make in the future will likely be at least this detailed as it is so much fun to do so. i will be going back through my army and adding things to their armor.
My BT are of the Crozius fleet in which The Crozius is the flagship.
you might say that it is easier for me as a black templar player having a BT upgrade kit and all, but with the current trend of many part/better plastic kits with the release of each new codex, i don't think it should be a problem.
if you already have a lot of models painted, you can find common things you have painted onto your models and decide that they mean something instead of just being there.
for example i had several marines with boltgun metal knee pads. i decided this could mean something and decided that if they have the metal colored knee pads it means that they have successfully defended an objective or an ally against overwhelming odds.
so far then, from this templar's armor i know he has at one point in time defended an objective with all his might against the seemingly impossible and came out on top.
Black Templars have been known to carry incense on their armor, or holy censors as they are called that produce the incense. I decided that my BT fleet would grant marines the right to hang these off of their armor into battle if they have shown an exceptional ability to lead on their brothers in prayer and motivation. so these marines have good charisma so to speak lol.
so now we know that this marine is also good at keeping his brothers in the right mind set for difficult situations.
also in this picture you may note his elbow guard is bronze/gold, it also has a black templar cross on it. For my black templars this is a sign that shows the marine is experienced and is soon to be promoted to the rank of sword brethren.
So, now we know he is also a battle hardened veteran even amongst other space marines.
Looking at him from above we can see another indicator of his past and experience, and i got this one from a GW article. The black and white checkers may usually be associated with Goff orks, but for my templars, each white checker represents an ork warboss that the marine has killed.
so, now we know this marine has also had a lot of experience fighting orks.
I think this one will really stick out to you. the Four bright blue dots on the back of the lower leg. this comes from something that actually derives from the story i have been producing in the roleplay threads with my RPs and so any of my players from the AB:TN series may relate to this, though this is a symbol coming from the plot surrounding what will be ABTN3 when the templars come back to Tri'vaa to exact revenge on the Tau there.
since the templars were going to kill the tau on this world in revenge they wanted a marking to represent how many tau bastards they killed. For every blue dot the marine has killed ten tau for the revenge on Tri'vaa. crisis battle suits however, are equivalent to five tau, so killing two battlesuits would earn one a blue circle as well.
so, now we know this marine has killed an equivalent of 40 tau in the revenge on Tri'vaa.
Also, the power sword would of course indicate a surpassing skill in close combat as well as a high level of experience.
Then there are the small details that can be bettered with practice like any other painting technique. the parchment paper seals are in every SM set so those are usually in abundance and look nice. the free writing, just tiny tiny dipping of the tip of a fine detail brush and vigorously vibrate your hand so the brush just touches the surface of the model. try to make the spaces between the words look realistic. any kind of details like this really serve to better bring out the shape of the model and keeps people's eyes moving from one place on the model to the next which kind of forces their attention on the model. this is why we dont like bland three color models, because the eyes can take in the whole thing with a glance.
here are some more examples on other models i have:
my main opponent is a necron player, so since my army fights a necron army more than any other they have begun making symbols that represent this.
white crosses on the knee pads or on the helmets show that they have survived a charge through the horrid volleys of gauss weaponry and subsequently sent great numbers of necrons to their grave. the knee pads stand for taking out something such as a unit of necron warriors either alone or with a squad. a cross on the helmet means they have killed a necron of higher importance such as a lord or destroyers. You COULD make markings after your games to indicate what has actually happened to the models on the gameboard....but i dont do that lol. I'm sure it would make this all even more 'real' for you though.
Also based on my roleplay threads, my templars have had some bad times with a splinter fleet of the Hive Fleet Kraken in the eastern fringe near their tau enemies. they also fought in the damocles crusade, and have fought side by side with the scythes of the emperor sm chapter but sadly i have yet to add crossing yellow scythes to any of their armors yet.
but back to the tyranids, if one has killed an innumerable amount of lesser tyranid types, such as gaunts, they earn the right to stripe their legs and/or torso with silver or boltgun metal:
the more they kill the more stripes they add. so this guy has killed a lot of tyranids. (btw, i see it looks like his name is Julia lol....but it continues around the base. it is Julias Var)
If one kills a particularly tough or problematic tyranid synapse creature he earns the right to put red stripes on his helmet in this fashion:
So by now i am sure you get THE idea, but now you'll have to think of what your own army has been through or is going through now, and come up with your own ideas for iconography and symbology that will tell you, and anyone else who may also know your army's fluff, a story about each of your models.
This kind of idea behind painting has added a whole 'nother spectrum to the painting part of the hobby for me. it also has motivated my homebrewing fluff ideas, and it adds something to the games for me as well.
if this is what your looking to do with your army then i hope this helps spark some ideas.
.
Luckily I don't play hugely often, so I'll have plenty of time to do this.
