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hey everyone,

i'm starting my own army for the first time. i've decided on chaos space marines, and i wanted to do something different. ive been looking at CSM warbands and I think the one i like the most is the Death Guard. I find their fluff to be pretty cool and I like their paint scheme.

thing is im probably going to buy the CSM battleforce to give me a bunch of models to paint and save money, so i can't really make an army that will be really true to the death guard; i.e. no plague marines and stuff like that. i don't have the ability to do conversions or anything.

so, what are the unofficial rules to painting your models? should i just not bother and do a traditional chapter that the battleforce fits, or should i go for it? i want something that will be cool fluffwise but i dont want to end up making my dudes look stupid or whatever. i also wouldn't want to piss off someone if i ever got a game going with them.

thanks for any help

You can paint your models in pink polka dots for all that matters. How your models are painted doesn't really matter at all, rules-wise. However, painting your army in colors that make sense thematically and look good is always appreciated, and can make things easier for your opponent. So, for example, if you had a Black Legion army, you'd still paint Plague Marines with some green or Khorne Berserkers with some red, just for clarity's sake. You can paint anything however you'd like though.

There is perhaps one guideline - don't turn up each and every week to play with just one unit painted, another undercoated and the rest not even primed. But thats about it. GW stipulate that if you're entering one of their official tournaments each model has to be painted with at least 3 different colours and be fully covered. Sometimes non-GW tournaments & FLGS follow that guideline as well.

Other than that, go for whatever you want.

As long as you like the look of your army, you're fine. Anyone giving you a hard time because you didn't follow the "painting rules" is simply being an idiot.

It's also much more fun to paint your models if you like the result.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Sparks_Havelock wrote:There is perhaps one guideline - don't turn up each and every week to play with just one unit painted, another undercoated and the rest not even primed. But thats about it. GW stipulate that if you're entering one of their official tournaments each model has to be painted with at least 3 different colours and be fully covered. Sometimes non-GW tournaments & FLGS follow that guideline as well.

Other than that, go for whatever you want.

I actually prefer unprimed models over black something-something. The painted units should be getting more over the weeks, though

I only put that in because I used to turn up each week to the local gaming club with one unit of Terminators painted, a squad of scouts undercoated and two tactical squads without undercoat. My Dreadnaught looked quite spiffy though. They eventually told me to either get my backside in gear & paint them, or to stop playing with them. I stopped playing with the Marines - I find Marines rather boring to paint, if I'm honest about it.

Some gaming clubs are very strict about it, others quite lax, but it is nice to have a fully painted army to play with.

The great thing about Chaos is the warp let's you justify just about everything. Maybe your Death Guard didn't get infected, or maybe they're all rotten cherry cobbler on the inside but their armor stayed outwardly clean. To me the most important aspect of choosing an army is the look. Paint the models you want how you want. If you play Grey Knights because of how powerful they are but hate the look of their cold, boring color scheme you will never be happy with your army.

I agree fully with Cannibal above, although maybe I'll skip the cherry cobbler...

Chaos is a great faction for painting, I know my army is literally a rag tag assortment of different styles and paint jobs to give it a real renegade feel.

Of course my Legion marines are still painted in their colours as I can happily run a Khorne, Nurgle or Tzneentch based army with their figures. Its chaos, go wild! And pink polka dots look brilliant on Noise Marines

Edit: Spelling.

Agreed, I can't recomend you eat Nurgle cherry cobler.

Heh... paint them whatever color you want.

My blood angels are green

First, you can paint your stuff any colour that you want.

Secondly, if you do paint them in a "known" colour scheme some people will give you grief about being un-fluffy no matter what you do. There was a big argument on here a while ago about devestator squads being unfluffy for Blood Angels even though they have just as many tactical and devestator squads as any other chapter. Lots of people have their own ideas about what is or isn't fluffy (and many of the most opinionated ones don't actually know the fluff that well) so you'll always get someone complaining.

There is only one rule considering painting:

THIN YOUR PAINTS!

Other than that, anything goes.

The only rules of painting are...

1: Paint your models, no one likes playing with unpainted minis

2: (The most important rule) Is the rule of cool, if your army looks cool, it needs no explanation.

thanks for the replies everyone!

now i'm just stuck at a crossroad... do i want to just do whatever and paint my dudes whatever colors i think look cool or do i want to make a fluffy army and paint them according to how they would look in "reality"? decisions, decisions...

i think in the end i will make them like my AoBR Ultramarines and make them adhere to how they "should" look but add in my own personal touches. i love painting, it's my favorite part of the hobby. so as long as i'm painting the guys it doesn't matter what they adhere to

You could also look at it like a goal. Paint your CSM Battleforce to look like Death Guard and then add Plague Marines when you can afford them.

If someone's army is a work in progress, I get it. But if you game with a completely unpainted army or just basecoated army, I don't want to really play with you (casually-if its a tournament, whatever). I want the game to look decent on the tabletop.

Dr. Spaceman wrote:thanks for the replies everyone!

now i'm just stuck at a crossroad... do i want to just do whatever and paint my dudes whatever colors i think look cool or do i want to make a fluffy army and paint them according to how they would look in "reality"? decisions, decisions...

i think in the end i will make them like my AoBR Ultramarines and make them adhere to how they "should" look but add in my own personal touches. i love painting, it's my favorite part of the hobby. so as long as i'm painting the guys it doesn't matter what they adhere to

Nota bad idea. It's often a smart idea to take a known and existing color scheme, something with complimentary colors which looks good, but then tweak it to make it your own. My Dark Angels are painted Dark Angels Green, but I tweaked some of the supplementary colors. For example, I paint the eyes gold instead of red, which is a different complementary color that still goes well with green. I also added some metallic accents, using Tin Bits and Brazen Brass.

Heck i dont have any official plaugemarine models bu that dosnt stop me from using the rules, Heck i dont even use Gw paints as my main supply, aside from the fonation blue for my 1k sons. You can pant your models a sickly green color with a dull trim, and considier calling them moss marines, also if you want cheap pluage, and there's a Flgs that allows models to have non-gw bits i now of some good headswaps that give them the feel of being plauge marines.

here are a couple of mine

Cyvash wrote:Heck i dont have any official plaugemarine models bu that dosnt stop me from using the rules, Heck i dont even use Gw paints as my main supply, aside from the fonation blue for my 1k sons. You can pant your models a sickly green color with a dull trim, and considier calling them moss marines, also if you want cheap pluage, and there's a Flgs that allows models to have non-gw bits i now of some good headswaps that give them the feel of being plauge marines.

here are a couple of mine

DAMN. those are really cool. i dont really know much about using bits yet but this looks like exactly how i'd want my chaos army to look.

It dosnt take much, though im not that good of a painter i can tell you what i used
primed black
basecoated olive green (testors hobby paint)
trim testors model master steel
details ie piping, gun base testorst gunmetal
eyes/lenses red metal flake
horns testors model masters panzer interior buff

as for the heads i simply bought these
http://www.maxmini.eu/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=133

http://chapterhousestudios.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=85_112&product_id=174

it dosnt take much to use bits, you simply dont use the heads that come with the actual kit, except for the nugle specific stuff, i dont know how well the scheme i used will work on actual plauge marines figures, but my moss/mold/sludge marine look pretty good to act as plauge marines

Mannahnin wrote:

Dr. Spaceman wrote:thanks for the replies everyone!

now i'm just stuck at a crossroad... do i want to just do whatever and paint my dudes whatever colors i think look cool or do i want to make a fluffy army and paint them according to how they would look in "reality"? decisions, decisions...

i think in the end i will make them like my AoBR Ultramarines and make them adhere to how they "should" look but add in my own personal touches. i love painting, it's my favorite part of the hobby. so as long as i'm painting the guys it doesn't matter what they adhere to

Nota bad idea. It's often a smart idea to take a known and existing color scheme, something with complimentary colors which looks good, but then tweak it to make it your own. My Dark Angels are painted Dark Angels Green, but I tweaked some of the supplementary colors. For example, I paint the eyes gold instead of red, which is a different complementary color that still goes well with green. I also added some metallic accents, using Tin Bits and Brazen Brass.

I modified the Biel-Tan color scheme on my Guardians by playing the green on the armor. I added it to the chest plates and knee pads.

If you are gonna get into tourny play you'll need to paint with at least 3 colors is about the only real rule I've ever really seen

It is a game. Paint them something you will enjoy looking at for years and painting for hours on end. If someone doesn't like it because of either their personal tastes or some bit of the fluff then they are an idiot.

The models are too expensive for you to only be luke warm on how you feel about their appearance.

Have fun with your hobby. It is too expensive and takes up too much time not to enjoy it.

MakersHitstheMark wrote:It is a game. Paint them something you will enjoy looking at for years and painting for hours on end. If someone doesn't like it because of either their personal tastes or some bit of the fluff then they are an idiot.

The models are too expensive for you to only be luke warm on how you feel about their appearance.

Have fun with your hobby. It is too expensive and takes up too much time not to enjoy it.

Damn straight!

Cyvash wrote:It dosnt take much, though im not that good of a painter i can tell you what i used
primed black
basecoated olive green (testors hobby paint)
trim testors model master steel
details ie piping, gun base testorst gunmetal
eyes/lenses red metal flake
horns testors model masters panzer interior buff

as for the heads i simply bought these
http://www.maxmini.eu/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=133

http://chapterhousestudios.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=85_112&product_id=174

it dosnt take much to use bits, you simply dont use the heads that come with the actual kit, except for the nugle specific stuff, i dont know how well the scheme i used will work on actual plauge marines figures, but my moss/mold/sludge marine look pretty good to act as plauge marines

Hang on, the maxmini Biohazard heads fit on space marines/CSM?

That makes my job of making my converted Noise Marines a lot easier.

I thought they were intended for IG, and thus wouldn't fit on CSM

Brother SRM wrote:You can paint your models in pink polka dots for all that matters. How your models are painted doesn't really matter at all, rules-wise. However, painting your army in colors that make sense thematically and look good is always appreciated, and can make things easier for your opponent. So, for example, if you had a Black Legion army, you'd still paint Plague Marines with some green or Khorne Berserkers with some red, just for clarity's sake. You can paint anything however you'd like though.

Said it all in the first post. Remember than you can use the 'Counts As' rule to use anything as anything, if your opponent agrees with it. A friend of mine stuck some spare bits on normal chaos marines and painted them epically green to make his plague marines.

If your army causes me to have seisures (I'm looking at you harlies...), I reserve the right to play the game blindfolded and recruit an assistant from the crowd at your expense to take measurements and move my models...

Otherwise, paint them how you like, use forge world figures or play counts as... unless these are what you're fielding:

http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/3637659/img/3637659.jpg

ceramice wrote:If you are gonna get into tourny play you'll need to paint with at least 3 colors is about the only real rule I've ever really seen

I wish that was actually a rule. That was a rule for GW official tournies, but most tournaments I enter I just see hordes of grey plastic. I've seen pictures from 'Ardboyz and almost had a heart attack.

Use the same paint scheme. I once played against dark angels and I saw a splattering of every color under the sun, except dark angels green. They look like they were painted with a paintball gun.

Mr Nobody wrote:Use the same paint scheme. I once played against dark angels and I saw a splattering of every color under the sun, except dark angels green. They look like they were painted with a paintball gun.

saying that you could cover your death guard in cotten wool, saying that they are full of a nurgle fungus with the helmet, gun/hand, backpack and boots/legs showing for a truely 'fluffy' army

Mr Nobody wrote:Use the same paint scheme. I once played against dark angels and I saw a splattering of every color under the sun, except dark angels green. They look like they were painted with a paintball gun.

While a coherent paint scheme makes sense in most cases. Chaos I would say has a general exception for squads, as it makes sense to paint Khorne Berserkers red and Plague Marines green/yellow.