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Hey guys.

I'm currently putting together a green tide Ork list. Its great fun to play, and the models are brilliant; but painting all that green gets a bit dull. I've decided the best way to break it up, and keep motivated is to begin a secondary side project, something I can build/ paint occasionally to take a moment out from Orks. The problem is that I can't decide exactly what I want to do!

I have a rough idea. I want to do a "single model painting" marine army. Basically, this means I build, then paint 1 individual model at a time to HQ/ centre piece standard. I plan to try and make every model as individual as possible; keeping with the idea from Black library that each marine is handed down an ancient set of armour, they in turn care for etc., and that no warriors armour is ever identical. I'm then going to add in loads of extra, purity seals, honours and the likes. The end result should be a real show piece army with ever model having a distinct character, with hordes of different mks of armour and such.

The problem is I'm not entirely sure which chapter would be best for this. I've narrowed down the list to a few interesting ones, and after I give my thoughts, I would love if you guys could give some input on the matter too.

Firstly I considered doing a Pre-Heresy army. Either Dark angels or Thousand Sons. Dark angels appealed to me, as I could basically collect both Loyal and traitor units, and use the army as a CA list, or a renegades "fallen" list. This is doubly appealing as I think we all expect the new CA pretty soon. 2 draw backs to the list however, are as follows. A pre-heresy army will quickly become expensive and limited. It means I can only use armour up to and including mkV heresy armour, and as this is from forgeworld and costs £22 for 5 models, that’s going to be really expensive to get the army on the table. Secondly, I'm not convinced I can do the pre-heresy colour scheme very well. Totally black armour, with just shading and highlights looks great if it is perfect, but I’m not sure I can pull it off, and I don't want to ruin expensive models by choosing a colour scheme I don't have the skill to pull off.

My next choice was Pre-heresy thousand sons. Again, the idea of a pre-heresy army is pretty appealing, and the 1k sons have a colour scheme that is easier to work with. They also allow me to be more flexible with conversions; adding in Egyptian parts/ iconography etc... Again however, the mks of armour are more limited, and the idea will probably be even more expensive than dark angels, if you count in Egyptian parts etc... It would also be difficult to truly represent the psychic nature of the squads of pre-heresy 1k sons within the current rules. ((On a side note, that would be an -ideal- forgeworld project, pre-heresy army list book))

My third, and final, choice is Crimson Fists, after reading Rynn's World. These guys have a number of pluses. Firstly, being a "modern day" chapter, they allow me access too many more mks of armour, and thusly I can use plastic tac squad boxes, making the army significantly cheaper to produce. Secondly, I feel the "single model painting" idea would work extremely well with the fists, as they are so few in number, it would particularly highlight the personalities of each individual warrior. I like to think that as there are less than 500 marines left, each crimson fist army is like a collection of veterans, fighting for the survival of their chapter, and painting/ modelling each space marine will really bring that element of the army forward. The downsides to CF are simpler too. They isn't really a CF line, besides the odd accessory sprue, and no CF pattern dreadnaught, so most of the indivualising would have to be based on a standard model, and even with a cool paint job and a lot of time and effort, the army would be just "vanilla" marines and really lack that x-factor that doing a more established, individual chapter might have.

So guys, any thoughts would be appreciated?

Aww, no one's got any thoughts, or tried something similar??

Thats no help

I like the Crimson Fists idea. The level of detail you are planning on doing would really shine given their background. And the money you save on the rank and file marines could free up some funds for Forge world kits/Aircraft.

I second Crimson Fists. Don't forget that there are upgrade sprues in both the standard GW line and the forge world line (you can also use any Crimson Fists upgrades, as the imagery is similar , so if you wanted you could use both Pedro Kantar and Lysander as HQ models).

Looks like it's CF then. Thanks guys =) I was leaning that way myself anyways, but wanted to get a consensus of what everyone else thought.

I had a look at the upgrade sprues; the only thing that bothered me is the chapter symbol is different on all 3 kits. 1 has the fist, in a circle. 1 has the fist, without a circle, and the last has a fist, on a raised circle, but not technically in a circle. Is there any significance to this?