WH 40k Space Marine armor

[Pulp Hero]

A Space Marine's power armor is basically a chronicle of his exploits, adorned with ribbons and blessings and whatnot.

Does a Space Marine, upon graduating to Sergeant get his helmet repainted, or does he get a new helmet?

Does a Space Marine upon graduating to a Terminator unit/Chapter Master, keep his regular armor in addition to his Terminator suit? Is is given to another Marine? Put up in a display?

When a new Space Marine gets his first power armor suit, are all of the blessing and custom paintings taken off the suit? It seems like a kind of sacrilege.

[Feil]

To the last, I believe Space Marine armor is never stripped, though it can be overpainted.

[Imperial Overlord]

The suits, like the weapons, are heritage items passed from warrior to warrior as long as they survive. Their is no dishonour in passing the suit to another honourable warrior, in the case of a warrior being granted a special heirloom set of armour (like Dante's). The First Company is the one with privilege of wearing Terminator armour, but that's generally only appropriate for certain situations and wear their standard suits when Terminator armour is not appropriate.

Honours are a tricky matter.

[Pulp Hero]

To the last, I believe Space Marine armor is never stripped, though it can be overpainted.

That seems like bad juju from a painting perspective. What about parchments and seals, do those stay with the original Marine?

[Feil]

Purity seals and any assorted scraps of this or that are awarded to the Marine; they would not be kept on the armor, because they do not belong to the next wearer.

[Falkenhayn]

To the last, I believe Space Marine armor is never stripped, though it can be overpainted.

That seems like bad juju from a painting perspective. What about parchments and seals, do those stay with the original Marine?

Yes. We can tell from the graphic representations of Marines that the amount of decoration or personal embellishment on a suit is a Chapter-by-Chapter issue, just like the varying decorations themselves. They aren't compelled to display ever decoration. In the event the Chapter recovers the body, the Marine is buried in plain clothe robes, with his decorations, and a testamonial to his deeds. These decorations are removed from his armor, if he chose to wear them there.

[Darwin]

The new sergeant may paint his helmet, get a new helmet with upgraded comms, or be awarded the armor of a fallen brother-sergeant. It would depend on the particular chapter's traditions.

most terminator suits are so prized that they are only brought out of display when the need is there. First Company veterans often fight in standard power armor, so they (or their serfs) would likely need to maintain 2 suits. Some leaders may choose to operate in terminator armor all the time, and might not need to have a suit of standard power armor at all.

Not all spacemarine armor suits are relics that are handed down. The chapter's forges and the AM produce enough new power armor nsuits to meet demand, so that a Brother's personal armor suit could well be enshrined (likely after painstaking repair) if he earned any particular honors. Again, this varies widely on chapter.

[Azazal]

To the last, I believe Space Marine armor is never stripped, though it can be overpainted.

That seems like bad juju from a painting perspective. What about parchments and seals, do those stay with the original Marine?

Reminds me of a short story from the orginal Space Hulk game. A squad of Blood Angel termies were about to teleport into battle. One of the members is wearing a suit that was on loan from the Ultramarines. Anyone who had worn the suit with the orginal Ultramarines marking covered up had die in battle. The current user had enough painted to show he was a Blood Angel, but also left enough of the old marking showing through to show the true chapter of the suit. Needless to say, he was a vet with manys years of service.

[NecronLord]

This is of course, why the Deathwatch don't completely paint over their suits either. It would offend its spirit to completely obscure it's chapter.

[Setzer]

That's also why Deathwatch Space Marines have one shoulder showing their original chapter's markings. Covering it all up is thought to be an insult to the armor's machine spirit.

[andrewgpaul]

To the last, I believe Space Marine armor is never stripped, though it can be overpainted.

That seems like bad juju from a painting perspective. What about parchments and seals, do those stay with the original Marine?

There's some (very) old fluff text on Terminators, from White Dwarf 112 describing a Blood Angels squad about to teleport down. One of them is wearing a suit in Ultramarines colours, because every time it gets repainted, the wearer dies. They decided it 'knew it was only borrowed' and left it in its original paint.