The Granite Guard Space Marines

After way too much debate, I've finally settled on a paint scheme for my DIY Space Marine chapter.  I kicked around scheme after scheme, several of which I never posted, trying to find something original and enjoyable.  I came to the conclusion that any scheme was going to resemble another chapter somewhere, so I'm going with colors I enjoy painting/like the look of.

I revised my painting for the Granite Guard, bringing it closer to what I originally envisioned...darker, more muted, less Ultramarines.  My current thinking is that the Granite Guard are a successor chapter of the Imperial Fists, and will inherit some of their aptitude for siege and defense.  I like the idea of running Vindicators and Ironclads, and the vehicles will further separate the chapter from any blue brothers, as they will predominately be the 'granite gray' of the pauldrons (copy-catting Red Scorpions paint layouts in a lot of ways).

DIY SPACE MARINE CHAPTER

While most of my hobby time during the past year has been devoted to Orks, I still kick around ideas for my DIY space marine chapter. After going through several ideas, I'm starting to see why there are so many people with an Ultramarines army. It's frustrating to have a great idea in mind, only to see it turn to crap once a mini is actually painted (maybe it's just my painting).

The culls include (in various states of incompletion):

The Dawn Breakers

The Granite Guard (these guys might find their way out of the cull pile...not much different from Ultras...but I like blue)

The Ursus Bellum

Other randumb schemes

So after all that, I'm thinking of making my own Ultramarines army, or maybe Imperial Fists. I'd probably get caught up in Red Scorpions if I could afford Forgeworld's resin crack.

The Ursamarines vs. The Ursus Bellum

Still struggling with the name decision, but I guess I'm leaning toward Ursamarines. In the grim dorky world of my far 40K tournament future, I think it will be more acceptable to other players. Ursus Bellum sounds singular, some might need an interpretation, and it might come off like I'm just plain trying too hard. It's a tricky thing, finding something that's cool in a nerdy world, and still have it be my brand of nerdy.

I need to work on the lighting for my pics, but below are a couple marines showing my newly finalized colors. The ML was painted entirely with this new scheme, while the flamer was painted in a different scheme and then touched up to bring in line with the new.
This was more about finding the colors, and less about painting to top standard. Hopefully, my line highlights will be more careful and neat on showier pieces. Also, these obviously need a lot more work (weapons, details, etc. but I do like the eye of the ML trooper).

I decided to ditch the pauldrons with a bleached bone field. They are bears...bears that have been charging through the blood of their kills, seeking more enemies to slay. Really, I wanted brown, but after deciding that most will have red legs, I found that the brown was overpowered by the huge white pauldrons. I think this will also help with the chapter symbol, a nice dark background to slap a white symbol on. I may have some vets with white helms, and some sarge's with red helms. We'll see.

Because of the dark lighting, you'll definitely need to view the larger pic to see anything, and maybe even zoom in on that.

Also, with the switch to brown pauldrons, I can get away with a pauldron trim color, which is more appropriate since it's a codex chapter at the moment. I'm leaning toward a muted gold for second company or red for third (Ultramarines standards)

Blah blah blah...

Update: a stab at correcting the shoddy pic...colors are a little more true to life: