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UPDATE: Over six years and still enjoying myself! Thanks for checking out this blog

UPDATE: Over four years into my misadventures in mini painting, I've slowly finished(?) a disparate Chaos Warband. Along the way I have had a few small disasters, learned a lot from my fellow "dakkanaughts", tried my hand at making some terrain, and now I am now working on my next project, an Inquisition force with more charm than tabletop potential. Thanks for having a look!



Original post: I am new to painting miniatures, though I've been a fan of WH40k since I was a kid...back then I was mostly busy playing D&D . I always wanted to get into 40k but, as you all surely know, it's a big commitment in terms of both time and money. Nevertheless, I've finally taken the plunge. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to pick a starting army and finally settled on Chaos Space Marines. Though to be honest, I will likely do a lot of jumping around between factions before I ever finish any one army...I'm a fluff junkie, I admit it. My love of Dan Abnett is probably to blame, but I can't wait to do some Inquisition and Imperial Guard minis...and space marines...and Adeptus Mechanicus.

Anyway, right now I'm working on some Chaos miniatures. I just finished my first set, a group of five Chaos Cultists.


Next up I'm starting a set of ten Chaos Space Marines.


Starting with this guy:


I've yet to decide what legion/warband to go with and have been considering going with a mix of different legions, perhaps even renegades and corrupted space marines from loyal legions. I'm primarily interested in the hobby aspect of 40k, but I would love to actually play the game at some point also. Any thoughts or feedback on my work so far are incredibly welcome. I of course appreciate courtesy, but please feel free to be completely honest. I look forward to learning everything I can from everyone kind enough to take the time to help.

Chaos Cultists Gallery: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-101497-50574_Chaos%20Cultists.html

Heretic Tom

 evildrcheese wrote:
Is there a story behind the red skin?

EDC

The short answer is I learned the hard way that a little reikland fleshshade goes a long way

...but the fluffy answer is these cultists once worked at a manufactorum on one of the forge worlds of the Segmentum Obscurus, after suffering horrific burns in service of the vast war machine of the supposed god-emperor, they turned from their faith and bitterness drove them to seek out and serve the forces of chaos.

Heretic Tom

So, before I move forward, I'd like to share with you a little about my first major "oops" in my quest to become a miniature painter. It all started at my local game store, there I was, just a naive newcomer looking to get into the art of mini painting...it feels like only weeks ago. It was, in fact, only weeks ago, so, it makes sense that it feels as such. Anyway, I spoke with the owner and explained my ignorance and then took his suggestions because he seemed like a nice sort of fellow. When I had finished, I was the proud owner of a $15 can of Army Painter Uniform Grey spray primer as well as a hundred or so dollars worth of other supplies. Time to get started...

I assembled my cultists, easy enough given that they consist of only two pieces, and set my sights on that shiny can of "absolutely essential" primer. I could not in fact open it though, and this is where the trouble started. Upon further inspection, I noticed some handy visual instructions on the can.


Ok, easy enough. I'll just grab a screw driver, insert it into the tab as shown, gently twist and...



So, did I turn and throw it into the trash can three feet away? No, of course I didn't. I panicked and my first thought was "get it outside!" so I headed for the back door.



Incidentally, my second thought was "my wife is going to kill me"

The store owner acted as though he felt sorry for me, not sorry enough to give me another can of primer mind you...but anyway, I opted for a cheaper can of primer in the meantime and it seems to have been up to the job.




Here's a little closer* look at my Cultists, which I just based yesterday. I didn't have any basing supplies in my budget, but I was feeling rather impatient about getting something done. Those plain black bases were taunting me with their bareness...I couldn't stand it any longer. Fortunately, I purchased my Chaos Cultists in a "starter kit" that came with ten small pots of Citadel paint. One of those was Armageddon Dust, a texture paint. I'm guessing it's overt yellowness is supposed to be representative of sand, but I painted over the top of it in hopes of achieving a dry mud/dirt kind of look.


*click the above image and zoom for a better look and please feel free to rate my work as well!

 Paradigm wrote:
Superb work, especially for some of your first minis! I look forward to seeing your progress and you're off to a great start!

 evildrcheese wrote:
Looking good. I like the cultists. Is there a story behind the red skin?
Looking forward to see how you progress.
EDC

 corpuschain wrote:
Great story! I look forward to seeing more of these.

Thanks for the kind words guys! I really appreciate it.

I assembled my first Chaos Space Marine and decided to leave his left arm detached for now to make it easier to paint.



I decided to go with a Nurgle loving Death Guard for the first member of my chaos warband. I couldn't afford a bunch of citadel paints, with the exception of a pot of reikland fleshshade, the small pots that came with my Cultist kit, and a pot of p3 khardic flesh, all my paint is cheap apple barrel craft paint. Luckily, I did invest in some matte medium and flow aid. So all of my washes are home mixed and primarily made with paint. I did buy a jar of black ink, but I've yet to figure out how to use it without devastating a mini.

Base coat and wash


Heretic Tom

 KernelTerror wrote:
Promising start, that is an interesting bony scheme for your marine, looking forward to how it goes next.

 Paradigm wrote:
Very nice colour for 40k Death Guard, looking forward to seeing how it comes together!

Thanks!

Joyboozer wrote:
I can't help but think by not filming yourself trying to open that primer, you've robbed mankind of something wonderful.

I appreciate that, as tragic as it felt in the moment, I'm sure you're right.



I made some progress last night, still have a few details and of course the base left, I'm also considering putting a "mud" wash over the entire thing. Any thoughts?


Heretic tom




Here is my finished* Death Guard Chaos Space Marine. What do you think? Any suggestions? Should I do anything else to this blighted scourge of the Imperium?

*I will probably add something from the transfer sheet to his right shoulder

Heretic Tom


Edit: I put a death guard emblem on the shoulder pad and immediately realized why most people don't like the transfer sheets, it looked like a sticker. I am going to try my hand at painting something instead. Wish me luck!

Also, I thought I'd mention that the transfer sheet that came with the Chaos Space Marines does not include the symbol for Nurgle, though it does include the symbols of each of the other three gods of Chaos. I'm guessing that the Plague Marines come with a transfer sheet that does have the Nurgle symbol, but I have no way to confirm this.

 J-paint wrote:

Just be aware that if you just use water they will look very 'shiny' at the end!

Keep it up!

Thanks for the encouragement and the tip! I was a bit unsure about the decals, but I realize now it just takes a little more effort (and supplies) than I anticipated.

Well, I can't stop messing with this model. I probably should have quit as I may be doing more harm than good. I hated the copper trim on the shoulder pads, so I painted them steel and then tried my hand at a rust effect. I also changed his weapons a bit and put a little red in the eyes. Those changes came out ok, i think, but I was unhappy with the level of contrast on the armor so I picked up a brighter green and tried to remedy this perceived problem and now I'm regretting it to some degree. Thoughts? Suggestions? should I just strip the whole thing, lol?




Update: Ok, it was a mess. I couldn't take it, so I did my best to fix it. Thoughts?

Fluff: A Death Guard Chaos Space Marine. As a member of a disparate chaos warband, he has spent little time in the Eye of Terror, and as such, shows minimal signs of the festering plague that inhabits the vast majority of the Death Guard.

Here's my next Chaos Space Marine:

Fluff: An Emperor's Children Chaos Space Marine, still wearing the legions original colors. Originally a loyalist, he has fallen to the ruinous powers in the tumultuous years since the great heresy, mocking the false emperor with his appearance and deeds alike.

I decided the Death Guard marine could use a little zazz, so I added a Nurgle icon to the base. I clipped the bottom of the icon bearer's pole off to mount it to. My Icon bearer will just have to make due with half of a pole


Heretic Tom

 evildrcheese wrote:
Looking good dude. I really like the Death Guard marine.

EDC

Thanks EDC, I appreciate the kind words!

So, just a quick update on my primer explosion debacle...I sent The Army Painter an e-mail relating the details of the incident, not expecting anything in particular, and a few weeks went by without any sort of reply. Then, quite unexpectedly, I received a reply, which was uncharacteristically apologetic (you would expect them to word everything carefully so as not to imply liability on there part), and showed genuine concern for myself and for the minor property damage related to the incident. Later that week a received a package from Army Painter which included not only a replacement can of color primer but also this:


I was honestly surprised by their response and more than a little shocked to be reminded that some companies actually care about their customers. So, in summary, Army Painter is awesome and you should buy stuff from them, I know I will.

Heretic Tom

 Ashley_Chaos wrote:
Some great looking models there bro, good to see more Chaos!
Nightmare with the primer :O they are a pain to get off those lids tbh, cut my hand with a screwdriver trying to get one off. I would definitely recommend getting army painter or Citadel again though, that Krylon stuff is ok I guess but not really made for detailed models.
One tip I'd give is try dry brushing your golds for the next model, the metallic paints are quite thick.
Anyway keep at it, that last Death Guard Marine looks great! can't wait to get round to painting mine

Thanks! It's nice to hear I'm not the only person to have had trouble with those damn things. The krylon worked alright, but I am glad to have a better quality primer again, particularly because it didn't cost me another $15

When you say to dry brush my golds, do you mean instead of painting them on? Or do you mean dry brush a layer on top of them? I'm sure part of my problem is the quality of the paint I'm using (super cheap craft paint), but my technique is also surely to blame as I am very new to this. Any tips are greatly appreciated.

 JeffyP wrote:
Glad to see another Chaos player out here. Keep it up!

Sanity is for the weak! Thanks for the encouragement.




This guy is next in line! I'm trying to decide between Alpha Legion (which seems like it would be a bit of a challenge) and Red Corsairs for this aspiring champion. Fluff wise I'm leaning towards Alpha, it just seems to make sense that they would be involved in a Warband full of corrupted renegades and cultists. Any thoughts?


and here are some (slightly) better pictures of my first two Chaos Space Marines before I added some weathering to their armor:

 Raskana wrote:
Very nice work on the DG and EC. Don't feel bad about the primer I had something similar happen to me and it was a reinforcement of why I should only play with them outside. It is a lesson that is sometimes learned at a cost.

Thanks! I really appreciate that, and yes, lesson learned...the hard way.

Heretic Tom

The combat knives that came with my CSM kit don't have a hand that fits them, so rather than put them in the open hand meant to hold the bolter I utilized a chainsword arm. Also, I hated the pony tail on the only head that had a partially exposed face, so bye bye pony tail.




I haven't had a chance to do any painting as of late due to a new tiny person joining my brood, but I'll update again as soon as I have a chance to do some painting. Thanks guys!

Heretic Tom

Also, I think I'm going to repaint the Melta Gun on my Emperor's Children Marine, that brass/copper color is driving me crazy...I think I hate it and need to stop using it.

I still haven't had any time to paint, but I did finish assembling and priming the rest of my Chaos Space Marines. I made some minor modifications to them, not really anything worthy of being called a "conversion" but at any rate, here they are.


having used the lower half of my banner pole elsewhere, I replaced it with the old skull on a spiked chain.


I just put a spike on the handle of the heavy bolter.


Added a blade to the grip of the bolter.


altered the right arm so that he could point the plasma rifle straight ahead and carry a power sword also, rather than having a two-handed grip on the P.R.


added a spiked chain to the grip of the bolt pistol.


As above, I altered the right arm to change the angle he was pointing the flamer so that I could pair it with a chainsword.


I was annoyed that chainswords were only able to be held in the left hand, making it impossible to have one in each, so...i fixed it.

After doing a little online research, I attempted a weathering effect on the power armor of my Emperor's Children and Death Guard Chaos Marines. This tutorial by TheApatheticFish was my primary source: https://youtu.be/l4LvLh_R5qY





I was pretty happy with the results. As I'd previously experienced with metallics, the viewing angle alters the appearance considerably and again my photography skills are lacking, but I think I've more or less managed to show the general appearance of the models. Any thoughts or tips for future attempts? Criticism welcome.

Heretic Tom

 Ustrello wrote:
Personally when I weather my marines, (for any color other than black) I do a sponging of a black paint, then a sponging of a metallic sliver (leadbelcher all the way to runefang depending on how bright you want it to be). For black power armor marines I use a 50/50 mix of dryad bark and abbadon black for the initial weathering and then go back to a silver metallic.

I was pretty pleased with the effect the "burnt umber" primer color had on the death guard but I thought it was much less effective on the emperor's children, black may indeed have been a better choice. I have a small pot of "leadbelcher" from my cultists starter kit which I used here, but it's the only "silver" metal color I have besides a cheap "gun metal grey" that is too similar in tone to be of much use here.

I have a plan for two of the other Chaos Space Marines above, the one wielding two chainswords will be a world eater and the one with the plasma pistol and power sword will be an Emperor's Children marine in their 40k style armor. This conflict is what led me to ask in the rules forum if my units could attack each other. I thought it would be a funny, fluffy thing to do, in the middle of a battle have the World Eater hack an Emperor's children to death, but anyways...

As far as the others, I haven't settled on any affiliations for them yet and I'd love to hear any suggestions my fellow dakkadakka users might have. Thanks!

 shasolenzabi wrote:
Chaos marines are looking good!

Thanks! I'm hoping to make some progress on another mini soon.

I considered making this guy a traitorous Imperial Fist, but decided to make him an Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marine instead. Naturally, he has the impaled head of an Imperial Fist as decoration...after this one I have a new found hatred of the color yellow and a greater respect for anyone who paints Iron Warriors effectively. As you can see, those hazard stripes gave me some trouble.


I also got around to taking some better pics of my other two finished Chaos Marines

 shasolenzabi wrote:
Yep, I tried to do my SM as Imperial Fists, got tired of the way Yellow gave me trouble and will only use yellow for smaller applications where needed…

Thanks Shas. Yah, I would have been inclined to blame my cheap craft paint if it weren't for all the people who seem to have the same trouble despite presumably using different/better paints. I don't remember specifically, but I think that imperial fist head must have 6 or more coats of yellow, not counting wash and highlights.

I started on my aspiring champion last night, didn't get much further than a rough base coat. I decided to go with a red corsair, though my color range is extremely limited I think the crimson is looking alright. At some point I'm going to buy like $300 worth of paint and look back on this time with face-palming dismay

progress! I still have a lot to do though.

 Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
I really like your Iron Warrior, a nice conversion and well painted too. Fair play for even attempting hazard stripes, I just left them off my IW altogether.

The Red Corsair is looking good already, hope to see some more progress soon.

Thanks Thraxas. That Iron Warrior made me glad I hadn't decided to do a whole army of Iron Warriors. I may never paint hazard stripes again


I finished up my Red Corsair and I'd love some feedback. Please, let me know what you guys think.


Heretic Tom

 evildrcheese wrote:
Looking good dude. Really like the blue claws on the powerfist.

EDC

Thanks iniquitous cheese, m.d. This was my first attempt at both glowing eyes and a power weapon. For a first try, I was pretty pleased with the results.

Thraxas Of Turai wrote:I think your red and gold look really good. The question is which traitor Legion is next?

Thanks thraxas. That is the question indeed. I really want to do a corrupted marine from one of the loyalist chapters. I was considering either a Lamenter (in spite of their notoriously difficult chapter symbol) or a Mantis Warrior, since both a have ties to the Red Corsairs.

KernelTerror wrote:Very cool latest addition Tom !

Thanks, much appreciated.

Drakeslayer wrote:Loving the new chaos warband, definitely my army of choice if you want character. If you run out of chaos legions/renegade chapter paint schemes at any point, Hakanor's Reavers are always a surefire way of driving you mad.
Next question: do YOU hear the voices TOO???

Thanks! That's definitely going to be a tough one, I like a challenge though and I'm getting more confident with every mini. Plus, Hakanor's Reavers have some awesome fluff. Very tempting
To answer your 2nd question; sanity is for the weak!!



Following a bit of advice from Paradigm (who is an awesome painter fyi) I painted the grill in the chest piece to help break up the colors a bit. I think it was definitely an improvement.

This is my as yet meager work station. I would probably be working in my garage but it's far too humid here this time of year.

teban wrote:Hey mate! That iron warrior looks awesome .

It's fairly easy to paint those hazard stripes, just start with averland sunset (remember to thin it down!) and give it a good amount of thin layers. Eventually, you will be able to apply yriel yellow and you're set!

I think I like your iron warrior the most out of all your other chaos marines

Thanks! I realized after the fact that I probably should have painted the whole field yellow, using as many layers as I needed and THEN painted in the black lines. I did this in te reverse order, so every time I added a layer I had the added frustration of trying to keep my lines straight. Lesson learned.

evildrcheese wrote:Yeah that little improvement makers a big difference to the overall look of the model. What's on the agenda next?

EDC

Thanks EDC, I agree. That small change made a large improvement to the overall look of the model. I'm researching right now who I want to represent with my next addition to this rag tag bunch of emperor haters. I'm considering a Grey Death marine, but their colors and such aren't listed in official fluff. At first I thought of this as a negative, but I've been considering the possible plus side of this, as it would allow me some artistic freedom. Another thing I've wanted to do since I first decided to work on chaos marines is to do a marine like the one that Eisenhorn encounters early in the eisenhorn trilogy (I forget which book), Abnett described him like this: "He was well over two metres tall, wrapped in a cloak that seemed to be made of smoke and silk, and his ornately decorated armour and horned helmet were a shocking mixture of chased gold, acidic yellow, glossy purple, and the red of fresh, oxygenated blood." However, I have no way of making a cloak, as I have no green stuff, have never used it before (but hey, you have to start somewhere) and additionally, I can't afford to pick up any new supplies at the moment. So, that idea may have to stew a bit longer.

teban wrote:Also, have you considered doing the chaos stars (shoulder pad and belly) a different colour? metallic perhaps?

I have, I considered doing them goldish, like much of the other accents, but I didn't want to over do it with that particular color and I felt I'd already reached my preferred limit. I also considered doing them black, as this is the secondary color of the Red Corsairs. However, I worried that I wouldn't be able to give them as much depth of tone/contrast, in part because this seems to be inherent to black, and also because of the inferior range/quality of the paints I have available would likely exacerbate the problem. Still, I'm open to ideas.

ckig wrote:Nice work. Liking the individuality of each marine. Looking forward to the next one

Thanks! I'll start as soon as I can settle on what legion/warband to represent. I've been more than a little indecisive in this regard thus far.

I tried my hand at a "burnt muzzle" effect on what I thought was a much too pristine looking melta. It didn't come out quite as I'd hoped, but I wouldn't call it terrible either. Thoughts? Suggestions?

I think I probably need to throw a sepia toned wash over it.

 evildrcheese wrote:
Looks good to me. How did you do it (the burnt Melta end)?

EDC

Thanks EDC. It was not a very complex/thorough process (which may explain my mixed feelings about the end result) but basically I just took some very thin brownish paint (I tried to go for the color of a roasted marshmallow ) and brought it from the tip of the melta barrel down, leaving a bit of untouched metal near the other end, I then did the same thing a few more times not going quite as far with each subsequent layer in an attempt to feather the color. I then painted the tip of the barrel solid black, bringing it down the barrel just the slightest bit. After this, I then stippled the black further down the barrel with my dry brush, I had considered using sponge for this last step but I feared I may not be able to cover as small of an area with the sponge. And that's it, as I said above, I considered/am still considering putting a light brownish wash over the entire "charred" area.

Heretic Tom

 reiner wrote:
Sounds like good fun. Keep it up Tom!

Fun indeed! Thanks for the encouragement.

I'm visiting the inlaws today, but I'm hoping to get some painting done tonight. Still haven't settled on the identity of the next chaos marine, but here's what I'm currently debating: I've been wanting to do a traitor marine from one of the loyalist chapters, but I haven't been able to settle on one. I had an idea though, to create a character who rather than being from a loyalist chapter wears pieces of armor from defeated foes. So he might have a shoulder pad from a blood angel, the helmet of a salamander, chest piece of an ultramarine and so on and so forth. Thoughts?

I'm also considering doing a marine from the Grey Death legion, as mentioned above this would require some imagination as their colors and heraldry aren't listed in official sources. I also plan to do a world eater and another emperors children marine, an odd couple of sorts

As far as an actual traitor, I've been kicking around the idea of a lamenters marine, but…yellow. I hate yellow

Or maybe a mantis warrior. Decisions, decisions. I'd love to hear any thoughts you guys have about it.

Heretic Tom

Well, having no opinion other than my own to go on, which I don't put much stock in , I decided to do a Mantis Warriors traitor marine. Here's a wip shot to give you guys an idea of where I'm at with it. Feedback welcome!

 teban wrote:
On the melta thing, What I do, is I apply a black wash on the whole muzzle, then brown wash half-way and finally a purple wash at the very end of the muzzle.

Cool, thanks for the tip!

teban wrote:That green is looking good . What are you going to do with that yellow? If I recall correctly, you have painting yellow

evildrcheese wrote:Mantis Warrior is looking good. Solid green and yellow really pops.

EDC

Thanks guys. I'm trying to exercise patience with that yellow. I'd like to say he's about 50% done at this point but…you know how it goes.