How to Paint the Horus Heresy
Signature colour schemes and step-by-step recipes for every Horus Heresy force, each with an exact cross-brand paint recipe you can tweak in the generator.
The Heresy is a painting game before it is anything else. The same plastic MkVI Legionary becomes any of eighteen Legions on the strength of a colour scheme and a transfer sheet - no conversion, no different kit - which makes the paint decision the one that actually distinguishes your army. It is also why the Legion you pick matters more here than the faction does in 40,000: you are committing to that colour across sixty or more identical models.
Armies are infantry blocks and tanks rather than elite squads, so batch painting is the norm and the scheme has to survive being repeated. Legion colours are flat and unweathered by 40,000 standards - these are freshly raised Crusade forces, not ten-thousand-year-old relics - so clean basecoats, controlled edge highlights and crisp transfers do more work than chipping and grime. Where a 40,000 Marine wants battle damage, a Legionary wants uniformity.
Part of the range is Forge World resin, which behaves differently under paint: it needs a proper wash and a careful primer coat, and it rewards thinner paint than plastic does. Each guide below covers the force's signature palette and the order to paint it in, and the generator will rebuild the recipe in whichever brand you already own.
Core paints
A Heresy force needs its Legion armour colour and a matching shade, a clean edge-highlight tone, gunmetal and bronze or gold for weapons and trim, black for joints and undersuits, and a plain earth base - plus a second Legion colour if you are painting a quartered or split scheme.
Horus Heresy Factions
Signature Schemes at a Glance
- Knight Houses - Huge flat panels, heraldry and freehand
- Legio Custodes - Burnished auramite, black underplate, dark red cloth
- Legiones Astartes - One method for eighteen Legions, then pick your colour
- Mechanicum - Machine red, tarnished brass and honest engine grime
- Solar Auxilia - Pale carapace, dark bodyglove, tanks and a great deal of resin
New to the hobby? Start with How to Paint Horus Heresy Legions. Or jump straight into the scheme generator to build a custom colour scheme with a full paint recipe.