Bare power armour colour?

[Lord Kallozar]

Hey all. In the fluff What is the colour of bare unpainted space marines power armour? Grey or silver I’m guessing? Any ideas?

 

Thanks

[Karhedron]

I believe ceramite is supposed to be grey in colour.

[Gederas]

The issue is there's three (four) factions that are stated to wear "unpainted Ceramite" armour and.... Well... It's an issue apparently:

"The Dusk Raiders' base pattern Power Armour was an unpainted storm grey. The entire right vambrace, gauntlet and shoulder plate (sometimes both) were painted the deep crimson of drying blood, which signified the XIV Legion's status as the "red right hand" of the Emperor's justice."

 

"After their Primarch Mortarion took command of the XIVth Legion, the newly redubbed Death Guard began wearing ivory-grey unpainted ceramite, save for a few murky-jade coloured markings."

 

"The Pre-Heresy Word Bearers Legion originally wore slate grey coloured Power Armour complete with inscribed/engraved prayers in Colchisian cuneiform script, phrases, and words of devotion, with no contrasting colors."

 

And the Grey Knights are described at times as having "unpainted, but highly polished" ceramite:

 

So basically: It's some kind of white to grey in colour.

[Xenith]

Probably slight variations in colour, but as per Gederas, general idea is that it's a kind of light grey in colour, that goes silvery when polished. 

[Doghouse]

I always remember it as grey, I'm pretty sure there was a Ceramite Grey paint as well. I do remember it being said that it chipped like stone when damaged ages ago.

[Gederas]

I always remember it as grey, I'm pretty sure there was a Ceramite Grey paint as well. I do remember it being said that it chipped like stone when damaged ages ago.

You're thinking of Drywall Spackle, err.... Ceramite White :lol:

[USNCenturion]

Edit: ceramic does make more sense. the more you know :) Edited January 22, 2021 by Crix

[The Yncarne]

I'd say it matches the color of an out of the box model's plastic. That has varied over time too. 

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

The new black book also makes mention of all Legions originally fighting in grey which I assume was just factory fresh mark II power armour with the First being the first one to stray and adopting their now familiar black coloring when they returned from fighting whatever they were fighting at the outer edges of the solar system. Quote from page 86: "The [Dark Angels] Legion would return to the inner worlds purged of weakness and hardened by adversity, their armour no longer the flat grey of the other Legions, but a deep and impassive black."

 

Additionally on page 85 there is mention of "an army 'clad all in grey, dark as the clouds of a storm and branded all as one'" in reference to the army that slaughtered the Thunder Warriors that survived the battle that concluded the Unification Wars on Terra  at Mount Ararat. This, too, seems to suggest that the bare power armour would be a dark grey, since it is heavily implied that this army was made of the First Legion before they had changed their heraldry to be black.

[andes]

In Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work, there are several references to unpainted ceramite. For example:

 

Cawl clattered past the Space Marine, who followed him with soulful, sad eyes. The warrior was heavily scarred, appearing cut up and stuck back together in haste. His armour bore no heraldry but was the pale, unpainted gunmetal grey of raw ceramite.

 

Alpha Primus emerged from Cawl’s transport and strode towards the others. The uncoloured ceramite of his plain armour was as grey as the landscape.

 

Dull metallic flakes of ceramite were gathered up and sucked away by a vacuum tube attached to the saw. 

 

Based on this (though lore isn't always consistent across sources), it's certainly grey and is probably metallic as well.

Edited January 21, 2021 by andes

[WARMASTER_]

As everyone else has said above it’s a matt dark grey that when polished goes shiny grey

 

Ceramite isn’t a concrete though as mentioned above

 

It’s a ceramic alloy so it’s able to deal with heat much better than a metal that would conduct

Edited January 21, 2021 by BladeOfVengeance

[pawl]

In Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work, there are several references to unpainted ceramite. For example:

 

Cawl clattered past the Space Marine, who followed him with soulful, sad eyes. The warrior was heavily scarred, appearing cut up and stuck back together in haste. His armour bore no heraldry but was the pale, unpainted gunmetal grey of raw ceramite.

Alpha Primus emerged from Cawl’s transport and strode towards the others. The uncoloured ceramite of his plain armour was as grey as the landscape.

Dull metallic flakes of ceramite were gathered up and sucked away by a vacuum tube attached to the saw.

Based on this (though lore isn't always consistent across sources), it's certainly grey and is probably metallic as well.

Despite previously thinking "anything from grey to cream is fine, maybe even a clay-red-brown", this post and this article (I know 1d4 isn't an authoritative source) are making me question silver again!

[WARMASTER_]

Nah it’s grey Darren Latham even said it in a recent painting tutorial and he’s been a mini painter and designer at GW for 15+ years it’s also it loads of books as seen above I wouldn’t trust 4chan for much at all

[mel_danes]

As everyone else has said above it’s a matt dark grey that when polished goes shiny grey

 

Ceramite isn’t a concrete though as mentioned above

 

It’s a ceramic alloy so it’s able to deal with heat much better than a metal that would conduct

Bingo.

Ceramite is a ceramic. Marine armor is composed of layers of it between other layers of plasteel.

An old third edition source mentioned how many layers thick the various armors were.

To see how it looks with battle damage,an old piece of art by Kev Walker shows I believe a Black Templar Ancient holding a banner heavily damaged, with dead littered at his feet. The damaged armor shows the layers really well.

[pawl]

 

As everyone else has said above it’s a matt dark grey that when polished goes shiny grey

 

Ceramite isn’t a concrete though as mentioned above

 

It’s a ceramic alloy so it’s able to deal with heat much better than a metal that would conduct

Bingo.

Ceramite is a ceramic. Marine armor is composed of layers of it between other layers of plasteel.

An old third edition source mentioned how many layers thick the various armors were.

To see how it looks with battle damage,an old piece of art by Kev Walker shows I believe a Black Templar Ancient holding a banner heavily damaged, with dead littered at his feet. The damaged armor shows the layers really well.

"Last Stand", says Google.

https://warhammerart.com/shop/warhammer-40000/space-marine/last-stand/

[Subtleknife]

Isnt there a gw paint called ceramite grey. The lore has always said it is grey and I presume it is the shade of the paint.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Isnt there a gw paint called ceramite grey. The lore has always said it is grey and I presume it is the shade of the paint.

It's ceramite white, as answered earlier in the thread.

[Doghouse]

Isnt there a gw paint called ceramite grey. The lore has always said it is grey and I presume it is the shade of the paint.

 

We might be thinking of Codex Grey because I thought the same.

[Subtleknife]

 

Isnt there a gw paint called ceramite grey. The lore has always said it is grey and I presume it is the shade of the paint.

It's ceramite white, as answered earlier in the thread.

Fair one. Didn't know that hahaha.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

Given that the AdMech overall have had such a dim view of anything approaching actual innovation, it would make sense that all of their fabrication materials are only available in Mechanicus Standard Grey. Cawl can only do so much...

[Xenith]

It just clicked that I know where these features are from: dull plain grey straight from the factory, metallic properties, bright metallic shine when polished: Modern pure silicon:

 

Straight from the factory silicon rod or ingot is pretty dull, flat grey. Slight shine, but mostly matt.

 

Break it open or polish it up, however, and you get this on the inside, silicon 'metal':

 

 

Shiny, metallic, reflective. Blue tint. Kind of like GK armour...

Edited January 25, 2021 by Xenith

[Fenrykus]

I've always thought the overwhelming majority of ceramite is the various shades of gray everyone keeps mentioning. In addition, however, there is still the possibility for "colored", but unpainted ceramite. Not all ceramics are one color, and given the number of worlds in the Imperium, it would be feasible that the armor of different Legions could be different colors because of the varying levels of other substances in the mixture before casting the pieces of armor.