Do non-fluff painted models bother you?

[Charon]

If you think the spirit of the game is giving GW as much money as possible, then no, it isn't in the spirit of the game, but if you believe the spirit of the game is other than that, game as thou wilt and let thy opponent do the same.

According to GW the hobby is "buying GW products". So I guess to them, spending as much money as possible, is indeed the spirit of their game.

[Erik Setzer]

But that's clearly what he's saying, if you bring your bright purple marines and always use IF tactics or always use BA tactics its not an issue. Now if he uses whatever tactics suit playing against your army, then changes for Straightsilvers different army, and does the same again against Denzark. That's just not in the spirit of the game is it?

Eh... I wouldn't be enthused with that, but I don't see it as much different from someone changing their army list between games, taking lots of templates against Orks and then switching to high-AP weapons against Space Marines for example. If someone makes it clear what they're playing before the match, that'd be okay with me.

But I do think if someone tried using a very specific chapter that happened to use another very specific chapter's rules, that would be something of an issue, as it would be way too easy to confuse what they're actually playing. Unless they're specifically wanting to play a "proxy game" so they can test an army they're considering buying (like how I let a guy use stand-ins of Chaos Warriors and Marauders and such to test whether he wanted to sink some money into Beastmen or not... it was a one-time thing to test with intent to actually buy the army).

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As to painting Berzerkers non-red colors... I keep thinking of doing an actual World Eaters army some time using the original World Eaters colors, even on Berzekers. I think it's perfectly fine. Even green. Berzerkers have a pretty distinct look to the model, so if you're using the models for them, that makes it easy to tell what they are.

[YorkNecromancer]

Does it bother anyone else playing opponents with off-colored models? Especially when green typically means one set of rules and red means another? Should I give in and just paint my models however I want?

Chaos: where your chosen Ruinous Power means you can grow six heads, nine tentacles and suddenly manifest spells out your a**, but heaven help you if you don't paint your armour in exactly the same colour as literally every other follower of your chosen Ruinour Power IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.

Anyone who says you can't paint a chaos army in whatever damn colour you choose needs to be shown a f***ing dictionary with the definition of the word 'Chaos' in it.

As for green: are you seriously telling me that the God of War - THE LITERAL GOD OF WARFARE - has no followers of any kind dressed in camouflage? That he cares not where the blood flows, but you have to do it dressed in red? That there's no such thing as an aspect of Khorne given over to intelligent, what-we-would-understand-as-modern warfare?

Bollocks.

The only people - the ONLY people - who would complain or go 'wah wah that's not right all Khorne followers dress in red! It's completely Chaotic for us all to look nicely ordered!', are ones with failed imaginations. Or to put it another way: there are currently hundreds of factions of Christianity. Hundreds. That's before you get to crazy splinter groups and cults. If Khorne Berzerkers are your Catholics, and Blood Pact are Protestants, then your green guys are Baptists, or maybe Mormons; a smaller, but equally viable religious order, less recognised by the 'official' church of Khorne, and maybe even at war with other factions. Because Khorne loves it when his followers fight - there's a reason the World Eaters only come in warbands now, not a Legion.

So, man, just paint your army in whatever colour you like and tell anyone who complains to shove broken glass up their a** and fart a bloody tune. This is a fun, creative hobby. You paid for them, they're your models, so assemble them how you like, do what you like with them, and f*** anyone who tells you otherwise.

[Cactus]

I was always thinking, "F' the haters" and I feel quite a bit better after reading some positive comments about, "paint them as you like."

With my other armies, I've always enjoyed painting my models to the codex schemes and making sure I get the markings for Sgt., command, heavy, the correct (I think it's from playing historical games) so it felt a bit odd picking a color scheme that could create confusion.

[Psychosplodge]

If you think the spirit of the game is giving GW as much money as possible, then no, it isn't in the spirit of the game, but if you believe the spirit of the game is other than that, game as thou wilt and let thy opponent do the same.

No, theres nothing wrong with Erik's example of using it to learn what you want, but to abuse it for advantage is poor sportsmanship.

[DrBored]

I painted my Thousand Sons red and my Noise Marines green, and my Plague Marines black.

The only problem I faced were people saying, "Oh wow, Cool Heresy Thousand Sons! Great Nurgle Marines! Awesome Black Legion!" respectively.

And I would say, "No, they're just.. Red Thousand Sons, and those are Slaanesh Marines, and my Plague Marines are Black Plague Marines. Get it?"

And they'd be like, "Oh cool."

End of conversation.

I'm a HUGE proponent of painting Chaos Marines whatever color you like, and even converting things up to devote whatever Chaos God you like. The only times I've heard of people not liking non-fluff painted minis is in Warmahordes, and I don't like those guys.

[Mr Mystery]

Yep.

About the only thing I wouldn't countenance for my own paint scheme is Astartes in camo painted armour. I see them in their bold livery, and take that as a statement. They aren't trying to hide. They're here, and they're coming for you, and they want you to know there's not a damned thing you or anyone else can do about it. It's a statement of intent. The Astartes are here, and you are dead already, you just don't know it.

The psychological impact of Astartes warfare relies on that, outside of the Scout Companies (whose Snipers use camoflague for the standard reasons - to prevent you being able to readily tell where they are, and who keeps killing your commanders). They are terror troops, not commandoes. All about spreading that fear!

[Haighus]

I would happily paint Raptors, or anyone using the Raptors or maybe Mantis Legion Chapter tactics, in camo colours though, because they are Chapters which are all about the ambush, and the Raptors are basically a Chapter of veteran scouts in power armour anyway.

[Morgrim]

If you're painting them in the precise colour scheme nurgle models are painted it - that distinct murky greygreen with brown tones and bone accents - then you'll probably have a problem with people confusing them at first glance. If you paint them a nice vivid green with brass or bronze shiny metalics they won't look anything like plague marines and you shouldn't have much of an issue. Although if you paint them as Salamander-lookalikes you may get some confusion from that end. So perhaps keep away from black and fire tones as your accents.

Also "have stolen Salamander geneseed to make more marines" possibly works better than "have managed to corrupt Salamander marines to chaos" if you're using that bit of fluff.

[Charon]

Doesn't bother me at all but I can see a few problems.
Starting with Ultramarines using Iron Hands Chapter traits... because... they are stronge.. erm.. I mean more fluffy.

Chaos has a big problem with clarity. As the red and brass is commonly associated with Khorne (which is not the God of Warfare) players might get confused if this colors are applied to MoN marines.
Neutral colors should not be a problem but using existing color schemes on models with a different representation might cause confusion on the table.