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So, What is a good way to mOdel or paint my space marines that would reflect that they cause fear? In case your wondering I play carcharadons.

Um... skulls, bones, chains... Daemons? I dunno, I think most people (humans) would be afraid of a Space Marine anyways.

First of all, averyone must have a knife. No exceptions. Secondly, no one doesn't have a helmet on. Thirdly, they all have dead things on their bases. Four; they have a disproportionate amount of bludgeoning weapons, skullmasks, and chaplians


Ok , now that I have thought of it, in terms of scary marines, there are two ends of the spectrum. there are the emperor-loving zealots who yell "for THE EMPRAHH" so loudly that heretic eardrums pop, and then there are the non-compliant violent savages who border on heresy. try to think which one you are going for.

From what I have read the Space Sharks are the Silent violent and murderous types, so lots of fetishes to their individual sagas, dead/smashed bitz at their feet, blood stained feet and legs, and no idle hands.

none of the arms should be "resting" but raised in a ferocious attack style, it will either be scary, or look like they desperatley need a hug.

Judging from the whole grimdark universe, I think everyone needs a hug. Especially Tyranids.

You can just paint up some fleeing models on separate bases. And place them in front of your marines displaying that they cause things to run away. I recommend bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and Eldar.

Use the chaos space marine helmets with the snarling grills and skull themes (shave the arrows into normal crests). Use Dark elf swords for melee weapons, lots of serrated edges and nautical themes that go well with space sharks. For that matter use dark elf corsair cloaks and whatever other pirate bits come with the set, makes them seem larger and more imposing.

Maybe the occasional missing limb that's been replaced with a grafted xeno limb of the same body part. XV25 arm on a scout or the old necron leg on a terminator deal. For a bit of extra style, try the head of the harvested xenos hanging somewhere off the marine.

Look for subtle ways to accentuate their brutality. Dynamic action poses are a good approach, using the right chain weapons another. Use the Chaos and and Space wolf chainswords with two edges, go forgeworld and get some of their Mk. II or III chainswords, chain axes?

Skull trophies, dark colour scheme, realistic spatters of blood on the armour; these will all help.

 JWMarines wrote:
You can just paint up some fleeing models on separate bases. And place them in front of your marines displaying that they cause things to run away. I recommend bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and Eldar.

This is brilliant, I may have to start doing this! Bonus points if you paint them in the schemes of your regular opponents

Maybe paint some standards with a space marine hero murdering something on it? If that sounds too much like hard work, try having some trophies on top of the banner pole like Ultramarines seem to enjoy doing with Tyranids- see the FW site and look up the Ultramarines Venerable dreadnought. You'll see what I mean. Lotsa hatred for the Xenos filth..

Bare heads and painted like clowns, with little torn teddies at their feet. Maybe a dead child here and there.

Forgeworld sons of Horus helmets. They just ooze brutality.

Check out the new FW Ashen Circle assault marines. They have some hurtful-looking chain weapons, and great poses.

Also, anything that makes them look inhuman will be scarier. I actually don't think heraldry is the way to go, especially for Sharks. Sharks are scary because they have rows of razor-sharp teeth, come up from dark, cold water and tear you apart.

Charcarodons in particular should have blood spatters, jagged and painful-looking melee weapons, bayonetted bolters, etc. They need to look like they're not just going to shoot you or smash you, but dismember you.

Their chapter tactics back this up; they -enjoy- the killing, rather than it just being a means to an end. Chain weapons are a must, I would think, and not the straight-edged chainswords we're used to seeing. Model these guys to make them look like tearing flesh from bone is what they do

Legion of the damned can be pretty scary when done right, but, the problem is, marines aren't really scary, they just look badass. Scary would be in the realm of daemons, so.... you'd have to swing some kind of CSM, probably do some up-scaling so they're a tiny bit bigger, and get a lot of well-done gore/dead things onto the base/model. Think: in the progress of ripping out a spine; fishing through a guardsman's intestinal tract/ribcage.... that kind of disgusting thing. Even then, they won't look so much scary, but, mostly brutal and disgusting.

Also, check out this article if you haven't already:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/wnt/blog.jsp?pid=11000026-gws

Thank you every one for your ideas. And to CDRAlbrecht I loved the link.