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Short Intro - Why the White Scars?
I first saw/heard of the White Scars in 2004 when I was helping a friend look through various miniature stuff he had in storage when I saw an army box I never noticed he had. I asked him what army it was and he lit up and said that was his White Scars army and proceeded to tell me how awesome they were. All bikes? Really? ALL bikes? You can't be serious! I was too busy collecting and painting Tyranids (and painting, and painting, and painting...) but the army stuck in the back of my mind as a pretty cool idea.

Flash forward years later and I haven't played in a few years when I pick up the 5th edition rulebook and the new space marine rulebook trying to get back into 40k since married life has settled down a little and I have a little free time again. I forsake going to Tyranids because the wife thinks the models look absolutely hideous (isn't that the point? ) and I know space marines are the "gateway drug" into 40k, let alone how competitive they can be and how few models they can have ESPECIALLY compared to tyranids. Yes, I leave my bugs behind (or rather, on eBay) and read through the space marine codex for a while, trying to find the army that's "just right".

I see the new characters and at first I skip over the Kahn because Vulcan and Pedro are attractive picks, but as time goes on I keep flipping back to check on what exactly the Kahn does, what is outflanking? How does this guy work? He makes it to my top 3, largely because of the allure over first seeing them so many years ago and also because how crisp and classy a white paint job looks to me. I talk it over with Stephanie (see also, "the wife") because I want the army I model and paint something she at least likes looking at, whether that's tanks or footsloggers, or dreadnoughts, or... bikes She's not exactly a fanatic about 40k but she lit up at the idea of the bikes in combat and while she liked the color green (salamanders) and blue was nice (ultramarines) the white army full of fast moving units and mobility was really something she liked. Since I was torn between my top 3 of Ultramarines (plenty of tutorials out there), Salamanders (seriously, vulcan, he's awesome), and the White Scars, seeing the potential of a wife interested in the army I'd be painting and playing won out and I began ordering the bikes the next day.


Who wouldn't want to pick something so crisp looking as space marines in all white armor with contrasting bright red accents? What could be more exhilirating than a bike squadron in all white and red slinging mud off their tires as they approach melta range? Or imagine the roar of the engines and the battle cries of these genetically modified warriors as they approach charging range on a group of ork boyz?

Chapter Organization

There are quite a few links out there about the White Scars but the following comes from http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/White_Scars It's a basic Organization description of the White Scars, which gives a good feel from their history and gameplay. Interestingly enough, I only just now realized that they didn't use dreadnoughts. Interesting.

The Chapter organization of the White Scars reflects their home world's tribal culture. White Scars recruit from a single planet, Mundus Planus. The steppes of the world are inhabited by feuding tribes, from which are chosen the best and most promising young warriors, regardless of tribe. Once a warrior becomes a White Scar, loyalty to his tribe is replaced by loyalty to the Chapter and the Emperor.

As their Primarch did during his campaign to unite the steppes, recruits from different tribes are mixed together in squads. Each squad becomes part of a Brotherhood, roughly equivalent to a standard Company.

The remainder of the Chapter is organized differently from most Codex Astartes chapters, due to the style of warfare favoured by the Chapter. For example, their Librarians are known as Stormseers. They also do not possess any Dreadnoughts since the thought of confining a warriors' spirit within a sarcophagus is abhorrent to them.3d, 11

First Pictures

I've been using some space marines I had around while I wait on the shipments to start coming in the mail with the bikes. So what do we have? A Chaplain in terminator armor and 3 space marines. It's a start. It gives me a chance to test out the white paint job on the regular guys and the Chaplain will be in all black armor with a good amount of red, because I think all chaplains should wear black armor. Is that fluff or just my personal opinion?



Progress by these pictures (october 2010), the 3 marines have had a light black wash, red basecoat for what will be red, and codex grey basecoat on the rest of their armor and guns. Black has been added in places and bleached bone on the parchments. It's kind of demoralizing to see that codex grey makes them look almost exactly like unpainted models, but the texture is noticeably different, which will make a huge difference as I add on the lighter colored layers. There are stray brush marks and uneven lines and I know they look horrible now but I wanted to get these pictures out there for that niche audience that likes to see a small force of models go from looking horrendous to a huge battle force that looks superb.





The Chaplain has had several light layers of black (still building it up; I'm trying to get the paint mix right and would rather be too light than too thick) and a basecoat of red for what's red, and the parchment has been painted. The iron halo on top was an oversight as I didn't notice I hadn't put it on until after a couple of layers of black. I'm still debating what to do with it and the rest of the metallics. Gold? Silver? I'm going with silver for the rest of the army for their metal accessories so the merits of silver for the chaplain are that he would match the rest of the army and look like he belongs. The merits of the silver are that he would stand out and look like he was "gold" while the others were "silver", which is pretty true in close combat.

Suggestions? Gold or silver for the metallics for the chaplain?

EDIT: fixed the pictures.

Silver, I think it'll look the best. And double check for mold lines next time.
Also, YAY white scars =D
If you need some inspiration or want to read a decent novel get your hands on Hunt for Voldorius
http://www.blacklibrary.com/Warhammer-40000/Space-Marine-Battles/Hunt-for-Voldorius-The.html
Both Kor'sarro and Shrike is in it =)
I'll be looking forward to seeing more

Thanks for the advice and the encouragement! I'll make sure to have the future models cleaner than these guys when I start painting them. I think I was just eager to get the paint on them and I jumped the gun on these guys. Live, paint, and learn, I suppose.

Also, thanks for the link; I didn't know there was a book with the White Scars! I'll definitely check into it for extra background fluff, I love that type of thing.

Thanks again for the encouraging post!

White is a hard color to paint, but it looks beautiful if done right. That and the fact that I have never seen an actual White Scars army means I will be following this blog closely. The Chaplain is shaping up nicely too, and to answer your gold or silver question, Ive always used gold for medallions (crux terminatus hanging on his parchment) and silver for chest pieces and chains. It looks nice without looking like bling. Though it is entirely up to you.

EDIT: spelling

It looks a lot like you are doing the detailing first. I would do the overall color first. This way you can quickly and without worrying about soiling your nice detail work, apply most of the color that the model will be.

Also for painting white it goes infinitely faster if you prime white or light grey. Also fewer layers would be required. You could prime white, wash and detail and basically be done. This way you could churn out basic marines quicklike.

Interesting White Scars background & some gaming notes
The White Scars recruit their members from the planet Mundus Planus, a planet with many tribal territories warring with one another. The recruits are selected from among the best warriors of many different tribes and, intentionally, are placed as battle brothers with one another so that previously warring tribesmen are now battle brothers. In the indoctrination that is a large part of becoming a space marine, the recruits learn how to set aside their differences with the other tribes in favor of serving the Kahn and the Emporer. ("For the Kahn and the Emporer!" is their official battlecry. Maybe I'll try to work that on a banner one day.)

While the White Scars replace much of the idealogy of the recruit with the orthodoxy that is part of the routine training, the tribal customs and warrior culture is embraced. The original Adeptes Astartes who were recruiting from Mundus Planus accepted a cutting ceremony of the Talskars tribe which intended to leave a large scar on the face of the initiate. After adopting this ritual, they renamed thierselves the White Scars. Though this ritual is not practiced throughout the chapter by all battle brothers, it is still very common and may be an indication of rank or glory in battle. On a side note, until I read some articles on putting scars on models none of my warriors will be partaking in this ceremony.

The White Scars relish in their warrior strength and enjoy using bikes to engage the enemy or harass their lines. Because of the large number of bikes in a company, their techpriests have been busily adapting the motivators in the White Scars Rhinos and Razorbacks and even their Land Raiders in order to have them keep up with the rest of the company. To represent this in game, if you take Kor'sarro Kahn you can have your dedicated transported outflank. Eventually, I'll load up a squad of assault terminators and a chaplain in a Land Raider Crusader and try this out. A 4 in 6 chance of having a land raider crusader cruise in on a deep set objective in the opponent's DZ is a wonderful thought.

No miniatures were harmed in this picture -- Only the camera.
I posted the following picture for 2 reasons 1) to prove that I really am painting, and 2) because taking macro pictures and blowing them up on a screen helps me see what horrible things I've missed. I'm relatively new to painting in any other method other than basecoat + drybrushed highlights = completed model! So this type of blog helps me a lot and helpful feedback works wonders.

That said, thank you for the wonderful people who have pointed out the mold lines. I didn't notice them until someone made a comment about them, and I will fix them before the next picture goes up. Just gotta get a file and smooth them out and then repaint the color I scratch off in the process. Better to do it now than later though. The Sgt's boot is a faded red because I tried some detail work which I decided I'll add later instead of adding it now and constantly working around it.

I had to stop painting before I got as far as I'd like and I have one sick toddler who requires attention more than these models currently but I'll get them looking back to spiffy in no time! Note: These guys are "wolf grey" at the moment, this isn't the final color; I'll be layering on several thin coats of white soon.

White looks pretty smooth, good job! But I think it would have looked even better if you'd been more careful around creveses, leaving the grey showing to add more depth. You'll probably need to wash these models to get that depth, which will mess up your current white.
And don't forget to add scars to their heads

White scars are possibly the biggest pain in the butt to paint...but if you complete the army, the look on the battlefield is definately worth it. Great work

I've been building my White Scars army since 2nd ed. (when you weren't allowed to field Dev squads & all of your infantry had to have a transport)& I'm currently in the 8000 - 9000pt range with them. My painting style for them has changed a bit over the years also. I started out doing layered white over a light grey base, but I've actually found that priming in white and carefully doing the detail around them, gives me a much brighter (and faster) look. I also do a controlled wash of shadow grey in the recesses & a final highlight of skull white here and there (the skull white is a bit brighter than the primer). With almost 60 bikes in the army, and HQ's mounted also, you can really mess up someone's day, especially if they've never played against a bike army before!

White is such a cool colour when done properly. I can't do it, but I hope you'll have more success.

Let me get my white dwarf 300.....

Indexc Astrates First Founding
Origins
The Apocrypha of Skaros speaks of the White Scars only rarely and even then the text is colored by the fact that much of what is said comes from the White Scars Themselves. One legend tells that their young Primarch set out on his own from Terra to discover the galaxy for himself, while another speaks of him being abducted as a baby. The Truth is likely to be somewhere in-between. Whatever the true story, the Liber Historica Vangelia Records that Jaghatai Khan arrived at a world in the Segmentum Pacificus designated by Imperial Cartographers as Mundus Planus, but know to its inhabitants as Chogoris.

Beliefs
The White Scars Space Marines hold true to the vision of Jaghatai Khan in the ultimate unification of Humanity. They venerate the Emperor as the ultimate Uniter and as their founding father, but not as a deity.

Battlecry
For the Khan and the Emperor!

Taken from White Dwarf 256 PG 77-84

Why not prime them white instead of black?
Never done it myself, but some of the best "white" models I've seen are very slightly grey with white highlights.

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiF3gD8Bqnw

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29GcmpKcbfY&feature=channel

This really does offer a great finish for the Scars, hope it help.

Thank you to everyone who has posted helpful advice! I'm new to Dakka and it's great to see how supportive everyone is for WIPs, even when it's a struggling but aspiring painter like myself who's not "there" yet.

@J'santai Kahn, thanks for the advice on priming white first. I had been wondering about doing it this way but was unsure because of the AwesomePaintJob team's youtube video has them starting with no primer at all and just a black wash before layering it on the greys and white. As I'm sure you know, this takes forever and a day to get to a clean smooth white!

@Limbo, Yeah, I'm not impressed with the depth of the paintjob either but unsure of what to do except washing with a light grey. Maybe a 1:1 shadow grey:skull white wash and then highlight with pure skull white? Also I'm thinking that once the magijcal tamiya weathering powder is applied it'll give it that extra "feel" I'm looking for.

Another idea for depth is something I'd like public opinion on, and that's basically ripping off Sons or Orar's wonderful painting technique for lightly sponging on a brown:black mixture and then putting the whole model through a devlan mud wash that gives an excellent weathered effect. Has anyone else had experience with this? Or with using Tamiya weathering powder like the AwesomePaintJob's youtube?

Thanks again for everyone offering their support! I can't wait to deploy of nothing but squads of bikes on the table; my only wish is that I can use them against an all mech IG army one day

Now, for the updates:

The chaplain I'm painting just because I already have the model and I think they look great. I'm not sure I'll use him in any lists but the model looks so darn great that I can't not paint him.



Here's an update on the squad. I've added a black wash to the metallics and the skin tones and I've highlighted the reds and added White Scars markings. Not too bad for my first freehand work; I like how crisp they look now (as opposed to Darth Vader's Stormtroopers). Next up is to add squad marking to the shoulder pads, define the lens for the missile launcher and helmets, highlight the skin tones and give them a weathering job (Tamiya powder is what I'm planning on unless I'm talked out of it. I have zero experience with it)



Finally, a group shot. Ironically, this is a WIP squad standing amid WIP terrain



Finally, here's a great comic I found on All Things 40k on the chaplain http://masterdarksol.blogspot.com/2008/09/never-interrupt-chaplain-when-hes.html

Two things;

firstly the awesomepaintjob video uses a model that is primed white to begin with.

secondly I bought the tamiya weathering kit that Les uses in the white scars video, its great for subtle weathering on vents and greaves for troops but for tanks and vehicles I would recommend investing in either pigments or trying out other techniques like GreyDeath's sponged battle damage.

Lennysmash wrote:...firstly the awesomepaintjob video uses a model that is primed white to begin with.

I re-watched the video and you're correct, they were primed white. Now it's less of a wonder how he built up that nice white paint so quickly

I also noticed the second time through how he leaves some space for the darker greys to show through as he builds up the white. No surprise after seeing it over again but I'll try to let the darker colors show through in the recesses more on my next models (they should be arriving in the mail this week!) Also, I think I'll count these models as test subjects and try a few more things on them like the sponge battle damage and the wash wearing, then I'll do just the tamiya weathering on another and see how they compare. Thanks to LennySmash for mentioning GreyDeath's sponged battle damage, I checked it out and it looks amazingly simple yet effective.

The feeling of inadequacy hasn't subsided yet but at least it feels more justified as I find more excellent painters out here.

You should always start with a test figure anyway, this allows you to trial several different paint options. Also don't forget that in the US you can pick up simple green, it'll strip your models back to the plastic so when you are settled on you style you can rescue you test minis.

If you haven't yet discovered the Son's of Medusa thread from a couple of months ago I suggest you try and nail it down to see some really great uses of the technique.

It’s been a while since the last update because I’ve been experimenting with painting methods for getting these guys up to a low-to-mid (depending on how picky you are) tabletop standard. My goal is still to just get them painted and game-worthy and then later take one squad at a time, strip them, and paint them up proppa. For now the mold lines and a few stray marks stay; they look bad in macro photography but they looks passable at 3 to 5 feet.

I’m still messing around with army lists but the current goal right now is to have two small patrol forces that can skirmish with each other based on the models I have now. This means getting a couple more tactical marines and painting up the Chaplain in terminator armor you may have seen a few pictures back and then painting up a fewer number of bikes. My current goal is to have home games with the 10 tactical marines with a couple of missile launchers and the chaplain in TDA stave off a mounted assault of 5 space marine bikes plus a captain on a bike. A classic battle of a small number of elites trying to displace a larger number of standard troops!

As you take look through these pictures you can see I’ve just figured out how to use a sakura ink pen for black lining and that I’ve been experimenting with freehand drawing. I found the beauty of using a pencil and outlining what I would later paint and saw a DRAMATIC difference. I was shocked at how incredibly hard it is to paint accurately without first drawing a pencil outline of it. It’s a rookie mistake but I urge anyone reading this to pencil outline first and not waste your time making horrible lightning bolts that kind of look like a squished bat-arang (first picture below).

The main focus on this following picture was the detail on the sakura black lining on just about everything: the gun, the shoulder pads, his boot, the chain sword, etc. I got excited. The creepiness of his bionic face is muted by the not-so-scary “freehand” lightning bolt on his shoulder pad. Meh.



This next one is a half-squad shot of this still-WIP squad of White Scars. Still to complete: more fine black lining around the hands and bolter pieces, highlight the reds with blazing orange, fill in the bars on the lightning bolts with yellow (not in picture), lens-ify the helmets of some of these guys and the scope of the far left bolter, and clean up the smeared scripting on the missile launcher marine’s right leg.



This last shot is the other half of the squad, also still WIP. The lightning bolts here still look a little wobbly but I think we can all agree they’re better than the first attempts. Still to-do: Clean up the white on the bolters around the eagles/skulls, highlight the reds with blazing orange, black line the hands on the bolters, fill in the bars on the lightning bolts with yellow, and lens-ify the helmets of one or two marines here.



After all that, which isn’t too terribly much, I’ll get to basing them all; probably with a dark urban grey with some more bits and wire added. I’m toying with the idea of practicing my shadowing on them back adding a grey glaze or wash where the shadows would be cast since highlighting the armor is out of the question (can’t get any lighter than skull white).

Comments and criticism welcome, just keep in mind the standard I’m going for here.

Your Whitescars are looking pretty good. A technique I used is white basecoat, 3 or 4 watered down coats of Skull White, then used a Micron Pen to do the lines. Size .005. Yeah, I know its kinda like cheating, but I tried many other ways over the years and failed miserably.