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hello dakka,

I'm putting together a multi-god CSM army and I'm wondering how to tie it all together visually. list details aside, here are some random observations:

chaos lord with a mark of khorne on a juggernaut - khorne always makes me think of blood and bronze
raptors/warp talons - I imagine these guys as wayward night lords, so something dark along those lines
demon engines (forgefiend, etc) - I tend to imagine these guys in black legion or iron warriors colors
sorcerer with a unit of thousand sons cult troops - 1k sons have their own scheme, so that's easy enough
a dark apostle with a gaggle of cultists - dark apostles scream word bearers to me, so something in their color scheme seems reasonable. the cultists themselves could go any which way, depending on the flavor of the cult
any unit with a mark of chaos - seems like it should be painted up in that god's colors (nurgle green, tzeench blue, etc)

etc.

now, put all that into a single army and it's quite the mis-matched riot of colors and styles. I could just paint everyone up in one consistent scheme, but that feels wrong for some reason. basing them all the same way would tie them together a little bit, but I still feel like something's missing to really make them look cohesive on the table. any thoughts?

on a related note, any model suggestions for cultist troops? I know I can pick up dark vengeance cultist sprues from ebay, but I'm curious if anyone has other ideas that would be tournament legal (i.e., at least 50% GW bits) and cheaper than the cultist sprues.

One consistent color and design on one shoulder pad would go a long way, as would a consistent basing style.

It's probably not much cheaper than cultist sprues, but Warhammer Fantasy Empire Flagellants make excellent cultists and I'm pretty sure they fulfill the 50% rule, plus you aren't fielding a bunch of cultist clones by mixing them in with the regular guys.

@Eldarain:

I thought about that, as well as doing a custom warband icon type of thingie in place of a chapter symbol, but I wasn't sure if it'd be a enough to stand out against all the other variety. sounds like one more step in the right direction, though. thanks

@Badablack:

that's a cool idea. you're right, not much cheaper, but I could see mixing a few of these guys into a larger cultist unit just to add variety. a few auto pistol bits and they'd be good to go. thanks for the tip

Besides using the warband icon, there are 2 other ideas that come to mind for me to unite your forces visually.
The first relates to the similar basing. You could create a "favorite enemy" for your army and use models/bits from that army on the bases and actual models. Example: Your army finds particularly enjoyment from fighting cadians. Therefore you sprinkle dead cadians and bits like backpacks or lasguns through out the army. The benefits are that there are so many ways to incorporate this theme (dead bodies, trophies, war zone with left behind things, etc) and you'd only need a box or 2 to use for the whole army.
The second way is to use a consistent spot color throughout the army. You could paint all the gems, cloth, and the like in a certain color. This would allow you to paint the individual Legion/Chaos god schemes while still uniting the force. The one thing is that you will have to plan out ahead of time what color to use, since there will be so many schemes. From what you've told us, I would recommend orange. None of the other scheme use that color and it would stand out well on models such as Noise Marines, Black Legion, Night Lords, etc.
Hope this helps!