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Hey All

As per my first ever post on the intro board I've just gotten back into 40k after finding a bunch of models in a long forgotten storage box. (Yes another project log based on Black Reach)

I have literally no intention of playing with the models so things like speed and reproducibility (not a word on spellchecker but I strongly disagree) aren't really an issue when it comes to painting.

As such when faced with my first primed model last week I decided to throw my usual grim-dark techniques out of the window and go polar opposite. Say hello to the first Chaos Marine guinea pig; because nothing says scary like fluorescent green, pink and blue



I'll be the first to admit that the standard of painting isn't great and we won't mention the photography but I still had a blast using such bright colours. Flush with 'success' I've already started work on the next poor victim, this time in a fetching orange and turquoise combo.



Any feedback or suggestions for unpleasant colour clashes would be much appreciated for marine three.

Cool to see them done in such bright schemes. Are you doing the whole black reach set or just these chaos marines?

Cool to see them done in such bright schemes. Are you doing the whole black reach set or just these chaos marines?

My initial plan was to just focus on the chaos marines as they're really nice sculpts. Having painting god-knows how many space marines I wasn't sure if I wanted to descend back into tactical squad madness; however after wrestling with all the fine chaosy-detail (see below) some nice smooth uncorrupted armour is looking mighty tempting. If I do work on the loyalists they'll be in a new chapter with a snappy colour scheme rather than Dark Angels.

Anyway Chaos Marine 2 has been completed if not to my satisfaction. The orange/yellow and turquoise colour-scheme was much less forgiving and the sheer amount of detail on this little guy certainly didn't help.



On a table top or held at arms length he looks alright but up close he's considerably rougher than his pink and green friend. My dodgy camera work came out generously soft focus so to save my blushes I'm inclined not to re-upload.

The hardest part was just working out what the hell each part of the model was. With all the transitions between armour, flesh and demon I ended up fudging some details and outright ignoring the ones tucked away out of sight. This was most prevalent on the torso so I think I'm going to tackle the next model in pieces then construct at the end.

Next on the cards will be subject three in red and blue. To continue the theme I'll be keeping things bright so think more along the lines of a popular Italian plumber rather than a crimson fist.

Edit - Just to add a picture of the two together

Sweat forms on Mr Stabby's brow as he expertly mixes and applies delicate layers of paint in order to grant the armour a dazzling cerulean hue that would shame a dreary Crimson Fist. Exhausted he steps back with a sigh to admire the labours of his work...

...IT'S A BLOODY CRIMSON FIST



Never before have so much effort and so many layers of paint come together to create such a flat lifeless result. For some reason I thought that starting with Macragge Blue and highlighting incrementally with Fenrisian Grey would look good. In fact it meant I started dull and worked my way towards the sort of painfully drab colour they paint on the walls of hospital waiting rooms.

This simply won't do so it's time to get serious, break out the emergency Sotek Green and throw caution to the wind. Nonsensical excessive highlighting is very much on the cards.

I'm hoping to get a quick turnaround on this monstrosity so I can start playing around with offensively bright purple on the next model.

Cool plog. Loving all the brightly coloured CSM.

EDC

 Mr Stabby wrote:

I'll be the first to admit that the standard of painting isn't great

Yes it is.

One swift repaint later and things are looking altogether more offensive to the eye.



Starting with a warmer colour in Sotek Green (I love it) gave much more wiggle room for introducing highlights without things getting all grey and sensible again. To keep things bright I also decided to highlight the red by gradually introducing some bright yellow; this gave a nice snappier orange edge and avoided things erring too close to pink.

Just for the hell of it at work I've been trying to come up with a reason why a collection of multi-coloured chaos marines might be hanging out together.

The simplest explanation could be that they're a band of outcasts and traitors from various different chapters mooching round the universe causing trouble. I like the idea that each of them is teamed up for as long as it benefits them or until they get a chance to screw the others over.

Another interesting* (*translation: stupid) idea could be that they're brightly coloured just because it's looks cool. Perhaps they committed some gold star worthy sadism and caught the eye of Slaanesh who decided to make their armour glow or pulse adding a little flair and spectacle to their depravity. I like the idea of victims being dazzled or transfixed by the all pretty colours regardless of their impending death.

Last of all they could have thrown their lot in with tzeentch resulting in their bodies and armour shifting and changing colour in a constant state of flux. Because if there's one thing the changer of ways likes it's ruddy changing stuff

Anyway enough fluff. Thanks for reading.

Haven't had time for any painting but I did make a pretty picture for the hell of it.



I've seen quite a few staged models and thought they looked cool but until now I've never given it a go. All I can say is kudos to the people that actually do this well.

If find taking a decent picture of models hard enough but wrestling with photoshop to combine them with real-life images was a maaaassive pain. It turns out with the simple addition of some rain, camera distortions, soft focus, glow effects and a colour filter my painting looks alright

In my defence at least the outer glow fits with the chaos infused fluffy stuff in my previous post.

Next proper post should include some actual paint.

Progress has been slow but work is now underway on the next skittle inspired homicidal maniac.

Turns out I don't own any purple paint so I threw together a few reds and blues until things looked about right. Of course I didn't keep track of the recipe so as the mixture dried out on the palette it struck me that I'd probably struggle to make it again. (Not the first time I've done it and it won't be the last, I'm pretty sure that no two of my old orks were the same colour.)

For the sake of expedience I kept things quick and dirty by incrementally chucking in white for hitting the highlights rather than trying to get clever with pinks. I may have cut corner here but it actually looks alright, turns out purple is pretty forgiving.



I've only applied the base orange layer on his armour trim but I plan on bringing this up to almost yellow to really maximise the colour clash. While I'm doing that I need to start thinking about what I'm going to do with the fancier offerings from the chaos contingent. I usually apply the rule of cool when it comes to officers etc so they get a paintjob to make them stand out. The problem here is that I'd normally use a bright colour to get the desired effect and in this case that just isn't going to work.



As a solution I was thinking of going for one of two extremes in black or...wait for it....white. Either way the majority of their armour would be kept monochrome with their cloak and weapon covered a dulux colour chart. This should keep them tied in with everyone else while leaving their lovely smooth cloaks free for rainbow shenanigans.

Your thoughts?

To keep myself entertained I've started to work on a few things so painting is now underway on this cheery fellow.



I decided to go for white so he's nice and bright but still stands out from the crowd. I googled a few different ways to do white armour but lo and behold it turns out you need more than one pot of paint, outrageous!

This caused a bit of a problem as of all the paints suggested I only have one; a ropey old pot of ceramite white. Now ceramite white is definitely white; which is great, but it certainly doesn't give you much room to menoevre for highlights. In the end I settled on the laziest/woest method possible, white > black wash > white again. It's not big and it's not clever but I think it looks alright.

As a seperate point I refuse to end my long running vendetta against eyeballs on model hence the bloody mess on this guy's face. Streams of gore are muuuuch easier to paint that tiny retinas and he can always get by on his creepy middle eye even if depth perception will be a problem.

The only issue now is deciding what to do with the armour trim. On one hand I think black trim with a colourful cloak etc would look good but on the other I think a selection of multicoloured trims could be so hideous it's beatiful

I'm liking your colorful take on chaos marines, especially the lime green one. As you finish more models it'll be interesting to see how you tie them all together. You should try colorful accents on the latest model, if you don't like it you can paint over it in black.

I totally understand your vendetta against eyes on models I always choose helmeted head options if I can.

Will you be painting the dark reach hellbrute?

So newsflash, painting your Chaos models ice white with skittles trim is not actually a good idea. (What do you mean I told you so!?!?)

Turns out that it's actually a horrible idea, don't do it, it looks bad...like really bad. Brace yourself and may god have mercy on your eyeballs.



I think the white was a step too far, it doesn't sit right next the other models as if he doesn't belong or isn't finished. The upside is that I'm pretty happy with how the various coloured sections turned out. I spent plenty on multiple highlight layers and they may still be salvageable if I slap some black over the shiny white armour. Time to go cross eyed colouring in the white sections without going over the lines.

Will you be painting the dark reach hellbrute?

Yep the hellbrute is lying in pieces on my desk at the moment because I've been using him to test out a few things. Once the little guys are done I'll start on the big lad, It'll be nice to work on some nice large areas of relatively smooth model after battling with the detail heavy troops. Expect a dangerous quantity of neon green.

I love these. So 80's.

Got some really nice models here dude

I think what i like most is the level of detail you're getting

Might i suggest you look into some camera tutorials though so we can see them in their full glory

This is dam cool man, good work.

Thanks for the positive feedback guys! The salvage operation is well underway and things are going well.



As the switch to black armour made him look a little too sensible he's taken to wearing a rainbow cloak to balance things out a little. There's still some work to do smoothing out the transitions but even at this stage it still looks pretty eye-catching / eye-melting..

But wait there's more good news. (Try to stay calm)

While I was in town this afternoon I ducked into a dodgy indoor market to wait out a hailstorm. Killing time I had a wander through the stalls and found a guy selling models. Most of his stuff was real life military or train related but he also had a loose box of miscellaneous bits and bobs. Amongst the redcoats, shermans and coal carts this little beauty sat patiently waiting for me.



A good old fashioned Raptor; and a cool one at that, all for the princely sum of one pound. With his giant skully chest and possessed armour he'll fit right in with the rest of the warband. The only problem I have with the model is that his bolt pistol arm blatantly isn't right, it looks like a previous owner lost the original and just stuck on something with a similar gauntlet. This had to go because it looks a bit rubbish. I don't have much in the way of a bits box but using stuff from the black reach stuff I came up with this solution.



Now I know what you're saying "Mr Stabby that arm doesn't match, you've fixed one problem by creating another you idiot". Worry not reader for I already have a fix in mind.

Might i suggest you look into some camera tutorials though so we can see them in their full glory

Yeah I know the pictures aren't great. As soon as I can lay my hands on a box the right size I'll throw a light box together and dig out the camera stand. Of course this will increase the odds of my Mrs finding out I have blog about little models

Are you a Chaos god? Do you hate it when your most promising champions are hacked to pieces? Why not reanimate the dismembered limbs with armour forged from an accursed demon skull?



This gives me a legitimate reason for the armour not matching up on his arms and an excuse to shoehorn in extra colours. (This might even make a good basis for another project. Imagine an outcast group of space marines forced to cobble their armour together from fallen enemies)

Working on this guy reminds me how much a like the older chaos models so I'm definitely going to try and add a few more to the warband. I don't suppose anyone has a link for old GW catalogues or pictures of oop models so I know what to look out for?

Can't decide if I love them or not, but I sure respect them!

This might even make a good basis for another project. Imagine an outcast group of space marines forced to cobble their armour together from fallen enemies

I was quite taken with this idea so one cheap bag of bits later I had a go at making a renegade marine as proof of concept.



The plan was to make the marines original armour look as though it has been stripped back to bare rusting metal. Being an enterprising renegade he's replaced inoperable armour components with pieces "borrowed" from loyalist marines that didn't need them any more. Specifically he's rocking donations from the Blood Angels and Ultramarines topping things off with a Lamenters' chainsword.

The hooks on his back definitely aren't for hauling casualties to a more convenient location for looting.

Bashing this guy together was really fun and I've already got ideas for a few other renegade friends for him. I'm thinking that it may be interesting to get a second warband of sorts up and running to keep things interesting; the grubbiness is certainly a nice contrast from the chaos colour explosion.

What do you reckon?

That rainbow cape is awesome, makes me happy.

 Mr Stabby wrote:
This might even make a good basis for another project. Imagine an outcast group of space marines forced to cobble their armour together from fallen enemies

I sent this image (see spoiler) to Heretic Tom ages ago, seems very relevant here. I think it's the Red Corsair's who are known for pinching bits of other space marines armour.

Also +1 for the Rainbow cape, looks rad!

Cheers juptrking that image is awesome! Of course now it will torment me to the grave, did I come up with the mismatched armour thing on my own or have I seen that picture at some point, absorbed it and then unknowingly copied.

I'd like to think my renegade isn't quite as far gone as a Red Corsair, something more along the lines of a Relictor or Soul Drinker. He'd happilly desecrate a dead loyalist marine for his gear but he wouldn't actually kill one for the opportunity...yet.

I'm finding kit bashing really fun to the point that it could easily highjack my entire thread. A swarm of dirt cheap SM stuff on ebay is calling to me.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The first renegade has a friend!



This lucky chap has bagged himself a Deathwatch power fist to go with one donated by a Dark Angel. I've always loved how dual power fists and the scavenger theme means I can get away any equipment combination I want, codex be damned! The options are endless; akimbo pistols, flamer-hammers, sniper bolters...if only 12 year old me could see this

The hardest part painting in this theme is deciding which colours will work together and how much armour to use them on. I don't want the models to look too much like they belong to a particular chapter. As it is I think any more green and the model would have come across as too Dark Angel-y so I definitely won't go any further than this in future.

The bright chaos marines are still underway and I plan to keep adding to them as I find interesting models. Having two mini-projects on the go keeps my options open so hopefully I won't burn out on either.

I think I speak for everyone when i say "flamer-hammers?" Do go on.

I think I speak for everyone when i say "flamer-hammers?" Do go on.

Yeah, surely everyone knows about flamer-hammers.



A hammer with a built in flamer, because if if you're going to smash something why not incinerate it at the same time? It's a no brainer really The only hard part is deciding whether or not to pay extra for the eagle wing heat-shield upgrade.



My thinking is that once you've been declared excommunicate traitoris and everyone wants you dead, you stop worrying about offending machine spirits or tweaking the odd STC. Flamer-hammer - go for it. A plasma fist - why the hell not. Melta-spear - you get the idea.

These Chaos marines are pure awesome! Most armies (mine included) tend to use pretty drab and samey colours throughout the whole thing so this is a great way to make each model look individual.

Rainbow cloak is my favourite thing so far, great blending of the colours!

My champion has completed his transition from ivory armoured mistake to classic black elegance. Well as elegant as you can get bearing in mind my wonky painting and all the demon faces.



His rainbow cloak really sets off the outfit. Zippy, Bungle and George would be proud.

I'm think I'm going to finish off the two CSMs (Purpley and Skull Chest) plus the hellbrute then give the chaos colour spectrum a rest for a while. I'm running out of interesting colour combos so if I tried to fill out a full 10 man squad there's a good chance I'll start to repeat myself. That's not to say I'm going to give up on them but going forward I'll probably only add the odd cool oop model or character.

I'd actually quite like to work on a collection of these traitor squads in different styles. In addition to the rainbow squad and fallen scavengers it'd be fun to try my hand at a group of rotten nurgle followers or some horrible mutants.

Awesome stuff. Love the champion with the rainbow cape, he is magnificent!

EDC

And lo the fifth and final member of the squad is complete.



It's a tough choice but I think the purple & orange might actually be my favourite colour clash so far with green & pink a close second. This leaves me torn as to how I'm going to paint the hellbrute so I may go scatter gun and use aaaaalll the colours.

The hellbrute is well underway and I'm pretty happy with the colour scheme so far. Turns out painting demonic abs is pretty fun.



I'll probably repaint the tentacles green though I'm concerned about things getting too pink.

Since the CSM squad is getting a hellbrute is only seems fair that the renegade SM squad gets a rickety old dreadnought. Ebay ahoy!



...As a side note I think my hellbrute's face looks like the Ditto in a pokemon movie made by David Cronenberg.