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Hey all, I have returned to Dakka after a good year or so away from GW in general, the new Apocalypse book has pretty much put me and my mates back in the gaming mood. That said, I've decided my CSM army needs a complete repaint. Some of the models are converted Marines from the Battle for Macragge set I bought back in 2004 (almost a decade ago!), my painting skills were pretty dire back then and I'm planning on repainting the 2000-point force to match my current standards so I can play them happily alongside the new(ish) codex.

Basically the force is a split between Nurgle and Khorne units (I wont write out the army list but it's roughly a 50/50 split). Currently it looks just like a red and green swarm, but I much prefer standardised colour schemes where all units look similar despite their mark/aspect - for example my eldar force is entirely light blue/white even though it consists of different aspect warriors such as fire dragons, dark reapers, swooping hawks, howling banshees etc. I don't like having every squad a different colour like GW do as the army soon turns into a rainbow force. So I am wondering if anyone has an idea for a colour scheme which will unify the army but possibly still show the difference between Khorne and Nurgle units. My original thought was simply black armour (with grey highlights), and green shoulder pads for nurgle and red for khorne. Obviously that's a pretty unexciting idea so hopefully some of you have more interesting ones. Pictures would be really helpful too

How about something like this

Also your idea is very similar to how I paint my own army swapping black for a medium gray. The way I differentiate between gods is by painting the sholderpads different colors and for nurgle and tzneecht sculpting mutations and they're respective symbols. For slaneesh some purple and nipple rings go a long way. Eye color is also an other less noticable way of differenciating your units gods.

You could try an overall bone coloured scheme with a very light wash of green on Nurgle units and red on Khorne units whilst unaffiliated units are a purer bone colour?

+Prime white

+ Use a watered down kaki/bone colour (I don't know the new GW paint range names - or use paints from another company if you want ) to liberally wash the models a bone colour.

+ Mix a little green/red wash into sepia wash and black wash (experiment with ratios but probably 3:2:1?) to give a reasonably dark, dirty wash - apply generously to models and use a large soft, clean, wet brush to wash the coloured wash from the raised parts of the models and into the recesses

+ Paint details as per normal when the wash is dry

For the unalgned bone models do the above but don't add the green/red wash into the mix. If you add any models from the other two powers, add purple or blue to the mix.

My own idea that I'm toying with for a CSM force is a Sons of Horus using a lot of models and conversion kits from Forge World. Khorne Berzerkers will be built with the Forgeworld conversion kits, the new mk IV despoilers and the phobos bolt pistols and chainaxes. Plague Marines will have the standard mk III armor, but will be heavily worn and rusted. Noise Marines will most likely be converted using the new Palatine Blades. I really want to get a pack of the new SoH Reavers for my veterans. The paint scheme will be SoH, it's the details that will designate the specialists.

I always loved the iron warriors so I simplified their scheme and have gone with a dark silver base with tin bitz drybrush and bronze trim. Then for nurgle I just went for dark green sholders/kness and dark red for khorne. I wasn't expecting much but tried on a test marine and it actually looks pretty great, the metal looks worn and rusted and it's easy to tell which units are devoted to Khorne or Nurgle. ATM my yellow paint has dried up so I havent' been able to add the yellow/black 'hazard' lines on yet but they will come soon.