Originally posted by Amazon warrior
I have this problem with Space Marines, of which there are seemingly thousands! I find them impossible to judge fairly. I look at one, think it looks ok, nothing special, then read some of the comments and see \"9: Wow! Brilliant conversion! Great use of fluff!\", or alternatively \"4: Dude, you can\'t do that, it says so in the books!\"
How can I form a balanced opinion when I don\'t have any frame of reference for these guys? The solution might be to get into WH40K, but that ain\'t never going to happen with me. I just skip them now. Oddly enough, I tend not to have this problem with minis from other manufacturers, but I think that\'s because generally they\'re much less fluff-bound.
Edit: Mind you, in my more cynical moments, I think I could really boost my rating if I could bring myself to buy a box of SM and painted them up half-decently...

Does that make me a bad person?
the problem with psace marines and ALL Warhammer figures. along with their 3 color ninimum to play tournament the minis MUST be WYSIWYG.
that means everything on the army list for the mini must be on the mini so its easily distinguishable furing play.
its the dumbest thing i have ever heard of since they want an army to be fully painted in a single scheme. my crisi suit for my tau army are all different. no two intentially close to looking like each other. it would seem that would be more indicative of being able to diferentiate them while playing is that they look different.
the chia suit is the commander.
the dodge viper pace car one is his bodyguard.
etc.
that way i know whats what and can easily tell by the stats rather than trying to look at the minis to see what little \"bits\" are glued to it, and i can model my mini anyway i want without being confined to GW methods..only GW parts, GW paint, GW etc, etc, etc.
and sicne many armies have a set paint scheme some people get fooled into thinking that the colors chosen by the \'EAVY METAL team of painters is required for say an ultramarines army must be ultramarine blue.
its sad really, but luckily that will change as they now allow for creating your own chapter maybe people will get the idea better that the color scheme given are those that were chosen by the painters for the box art and codex art, rather than required colors.
its a two part hobby warhammer is. playing a minis game, and painting/modelling the minis.
and it should be that way.
i hope that explains some of the GW problems and how/why some of those people can\'t think outside the box on painting styles and color schemes for space marines.
but i agree that is a problem with warhamme players and what they like, but i wouldn\'t want to see every dark angels army painted dark angels green. why not spice up the colors a bit?
so don\'t look too down on the poor marines it is just the logic shoved down the throat of the players by the company and their tournament rules i think.