Prim Ponders Painting Power Armour

[Primarch]

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice regarding how to paint the models I have in my collection.

For background, I have tons of Space Marines, proper firstborn, MK.VII Armour style marines. Over the many, many years I have been collecting 40K minis, marines have always been what keeps drawing me back to the hobby. Over that time, I have painted several armies, but I have also started and then stopped painting forces dozens of times. Recently, I sorted out all of my unpainted/half painted and damaged minis, rebased them and undercoated them ready to be painted properly. Due to my love of all things Power Armour-y, my two areas of focus in 40K are the Horus Heresy (no surprise there) and the Badab War.
For those of you who aren't aware of it, the Badab War was a small group of secessionist chapters trying to break away from the Imperium because their leader Lufgt Huron threw a temper tantrum when the Imperium wouldn't make him a dozen or so new chapters to lead on a glorious crusade into the warp storm known as the Maelstrom. When the Imperium finally got wind of this secession, they did what the Imperium does best and responded with overwhelming force, deploying 13 chapters to put down the 4 rebel chapters.
Now, I already have a couple of forces painted for the Badab War, (more on those below), but I still have well over 100 marines to paint and I'm looking for some advice. Below I have included pictures of all of the chapters who took part and created a poll for you to cast your vote. Even if marines aren't really your thing, I'd like to ask, "Which army do you think I should paint my spare marines as?" You can vote for as many as you like, but preferably please choose at least one Loyalist and one of the two Secessionist options.

Red Scorpions (Loyalist)

Salamanders (Loyalist)

Carcharodons/Space Sharks (Loyalist)

Fire Hawks (Loyalist)

Raptors (Loyalist)

Minotaurs (Loyalist)

Star Phantoms (Loyalist)

Fire Angels (Loyalist)

Exorcists (Loyalist)

Nova Marines (Loyalist)

Sons of Medusa (Loyalist)

Marines Errant (Loyalist)

Howling Griffons (Loyalist) (2 paint schemes for these guys)


Astral Claws (Secessionist)

Mantis Warriors (Secessionist)

Executioners (Secessionist)

Lamenters (Secessionist)


You may notice that a few of these aren't in the poll. I already have Astral Claws and Space Sharks, so I don't need to paint a second army in those colours. The Lamenters are a Blood Angel successor chapter and so require some BA upgrades and kits like Death Company and Baal Predators that I don't have. I don't want to buy anything new as I am trying to paint what I already have. Plus they are yellow with black and white checks...

You may also notice that Salamanders aren't on the list. I may well paint some Salamanders, but IF I do, they will be built and painted to pull double duty in 30K and 40K using older marks of armour. The bulk of my unpainted minis* are in post-heresy armour, so I won't be painting them here.

*I do have a second pile of unpainted 30K models, but they are already spoken for in other projects.

[jus]

I vote Lamenters! you can have all my blood angel bits if you want!

[Primarch]

I vote Lamenters! you can have all my blood angel bits if you want!

Thanks! But they are still bright yellow with black and white checks.

[Grantholomeu]

Voted 99% based on looks. Also Salamanders.

[The Other Dave]

Voted Mantis Warriors for the natsukashii and Fire Hawks for the ijiwarui.

[Primarch]

@Grantholomeu - Doing it based on looks is fine. Marine chapters are really very shallow and vain.
@ToD - Those are also valid reasons.

[Jye Nicolson]

Minotaurs because they are jerks and there are some solid gameplay reasons to run them.

[Primarch]

Minotaurs because they are jerks and there are some solid gameplay reasons to run them.

While I don't know much about 9th, even back in 5th Minotaurs were a good anti-astartes choice. Perfect for the marine-centric Badab War.

[Jye Nicolson]

While I don't know much about 9th, even back in 5th Minotaurs were a good anti-astartes choice. Perfect for the marine-centric Badab War.

In 9th, because it's unknown which Legion they descend from you can use whatever first founding rules you like, and still take their named characters etc. People have found that useful!

I think a couple of the other Badab War chapters are in the same position, such as Red Scorpions (who also get used, if not quite as often).

[me_in_japan]

i voted nova marines because most of the other ones require a second look to determine what chapter they are (there's lots of darkish green marines, for example) but nova marines are nova marines and nobody else.


Also because I double dog dare you to actually paint a whole army in that scheme. go on. go on. go on go on go on go on go on go on go on...