After another few rounds of tinkering with the color scheme for my Poseidon Legion marines, I'm pretty sure I've settled on the following. Once again using the ever so helpful
Bolter and Chainsword forum's Space Marine Painter (the 5.0 iteration to take advantage of the wargear options), I came up with the following.
Note, the Dark Angels chapter badge is there only as a place holder for the Legion's trident symbol.
First, the basic marine scheme. This will be used on all standard marines, whether tactical, assault, or devestator. The will wear squad type badges on their right pauldrons, though I haven't decided which particular version of the codex symbols I will use. In all likelihood, I'll allow a far bit of variation, suggesting that each marine is allowed to customize his particular squad badge. However, they will all incorporate some type of numbering system along with the squad badge, denoting from which particular squad within a company they originate. The company to which they belong is marked by the number on their left knee pad, which will not vary and will be the same font/style for every marine within that company.
This is a Sgt. of a non-veteran squad. The only distinction from the regular marine scheme is the addition of a helmet stripe, though sergeants will no doubt bear an even more stylized squad badge than a regular marine, likely incorporating some form of personal heraldry.
This is a veteran marine, and thus a member of the first company. All first company marines wear helmets painted in the contrasting orange color, but otherwise their color scheme remains generally unchanged. As all veteran marines that haven't been assigned a squad leader position in another company belong to the first company, there is no need for a company number indicator and their left knee pad remains blank. As with sergeants, vets will display their personal heraldry on their right pauldron that incorporates the squad number to which they belong.
Finally, we have a veteran sergeant. This is an individual who has risen through the ranks to command one of the elite veteran squads of the first company and is likely only a step away from becoming the captain of a company within the Legion. As with regular sergeants, a veteran sergeant wears a generally similar scheme to the men he leads, adding only a white stripe to his orange helmet.
In addition to the iconography noted above, I will likely also select an army badge of some type to apply to the greave of every marine as well as somewhere on all of the army's vehicles. As with Codex marines, this will generally be a temporary badge that ties together the soldiers and vehicles drawn from across the companies and the armory of the Poseidon Legion for a particular campaign.
I will still have to decide on scheme variations for the variety of specialists in a marine army - apothecaries, techmarines, chaplains, librarians, command squads, and honor guard - as I'll want some standardization. For the character types of the first four, this will most likely consist of mostly the basic Legion scheme, with the white, red, black, and blue, respectively, used as an accent color (though I've always been partial to black-armored chaplains, so that character may get more than just an accent). For the latter two unit types, I will likely use the same scheme of whatever company to which they belong. So, for instance, the command squad of the third company captain would use the scheme of a basic marine with a stripe on the sergeant's helmet, whereas the first company captain's command squad would have orange helmets. For the chapter master's honor guard, as they no longer belong to any particular company, I'm leaning towards gold helmets, as used by the Ultramarines and Blood Angels. Though I'm trying to avoid anything overly gaudy in my Poseidon Legion force, it's a pretty small step from orange to metallic gold, so it should fit the theme nicely.
Next time I post on the Poseidon Legion (currently working on Malifaux figures), perhaps I'll even have something tangible to show off! :)
