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I have not played this CSM since 3rd edition. Wow, that was some time ago!

In any case, I have pulled most of what I need out of storage and will be getting to work on it very soon. My FLGS ran out of copies of the new Chaos codex, so I am waiting for next week... until then, here is what I am starting with (plus a Mk III Land Raider NIB):




Please consider following along. I will likely add quite a few more pics this week, as I begin to decide how to best organize these figs.

Oh wow, zooming into that picture reveals a lot of very old models, this army would be great to play against!

I decided to start with my Word Bearer Chaos Lord and a squad of Raptors.



These are some OOP models from the late 90's, IIRC (like most of my stuff), it's been in storage for years. Anyway, I started to put this army together in 3rd or 4th Ed and now need to make some changes. This mainly has to do with list construction rules and allowed weapons. the model third from the right has a metal gun from some 3rd party vendor, so it can be a flamer or a melta gun, depending on the mission.

Here is a close-up, you can also see the old Raptor "wings":


This is going to be the Lord model when I go mostly non-daemon-specific (the Gods I add will later be Nurgle and one unit of Khorne Berzerkers, because I have a scratch-built Kharn model that I just love). I think that I am going to have the SM helmet in his trophy rack painted as Space Wolf colors and the one under his foot as Imperial Fist, the yellow should stand out nicely.



I was going to use this SOB model as the Aspiring Champion, but now that model can't have a flamer...
The skull hanging from her waist will represent the Icon of Vengeance.



I broke up some of my other old conversions and put the new Champion into a rather dynamic pose. The lightning claw is a conversion - plasticard claws added to a power fist arm from the earliest SM kit:



A majority of these figs were primed in red, so the color scheme of red armor with metal contrast should be pretty easy.

EDIT: There is one more, all-metal, Raptor model that I am working on that will be a Librarian, er, Sorcerer with a jump pack.

I appreciate any comments you may have.

Good work so far always wanted some of them old Raptor parts

So, my Lord is coming along nicely:



As is the former SOB, though her chest armor is not looking right, too pink, IYKWIMAITYD:



Here is the Sorcerer that I found yesterday and assembled. It is an OOP metal Raptor (the others are from the plastic boxes that you used to be able to get around 2001):



As always, I look forward to your comments and criticism.

Okay, this represents about 18 hours of work over the past three days. Here they are pretty much done, I am going to set them aside for a while and then come back to check for tiny details and add gravel/flock to the bases. While I let my mind rest from concentrating on all the silver-over-black-bordered-by-red I am going to work on converting a Dark Apostle. The pic in the CSM Codex is pretty cool, that will be my starting point...there are also some pretty cool conversion that folks have posted pics of that I'll be taking a peek at (http://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-search.jsp?dq=dark+apostle)

Any way, here are the pics. Please note that only the Lord has had the WB icon painted on his shoulder pad (the bottom half anyway), I am looking for some transfers/decals so I don't have to hand-paint 40-50 of those icons...


My Chaos Lord, with Power Axe and Plasma Pistol:





The Chaos Sorcerer with Force Axe and Bolt Pistol:



The Raptor Champion, Lightning Claw and Plasma Pistol:



And my favorite conversion so far in this project, the former SoB with flamer and combat weapon. (I don't know if Flamer Pistols are even in the rules any more, but so what? It can "count as" a flamer for the purposes of play). Before I clearcoat these models I am going to take a Micron pen and draw some runes on that skull to be the Icon of Vengeance.



There are more pics and different angles in the Gallery, please consider popping over there and voting. C&C welcome!

Hey cool work man! That lord is painted really ace =)

@Two Spartan: Thanks!

To create a custom Dark Apostle I dug into my bitz box for some old OOP Space Marine parts that I have, and some leftover sprues from when I initially started building this army (about 10 years ago). After my Steel Legion construction frenzy last month I appear to be out of slotta-bases...so I made a base with a washer and a bit of plasticard. This inspired me to grab the sandbag.



I wasn't completely sure where I wanted to go with this, but after perusing the gallery I decided on having a more narrative pose. I have an impression that I will use him as part of a cultist-heavy army, so he will be at the front, directing the charge.

Repositioning the leg so that he could stand on the giant sandbag was simple enough, and transformed the feel of the whole model.

After I added the torso I decided that it made him look pretty jacked, as the newer CSM are a bit larger than the original Mark VI plastic kit. In the image below you can see the difference. You also see the Codex-inspired backpack, in-process combi-weapon, and the multi-part power maul (GK thunderhammer shaft, WFB Empire Knight arm, plastic bits for the maul head and a CSM helmet crest for the butt).



In the next pic his pose starts to come together, he'll be brandishing the power maul with his right hand while holding the combi-weapon at rest with the left. I added some GS to fill in the space from his waist, a GS tabard and some bits for the shin armor.



After I got the right arm on I was not happy with the way he was holding the gun, it seemed like he was handing it off to someone:



So I took the left arm off, trimmed some of the shoulder, repositioned the hand at the wrist, then reattached it will a slightly more open position so the butt of the gun could rest on his knee. I also wasn't happy with the power maul, it looks kinda plain, so I added a cable coiled around the head and cleaned up the joints. The right shoulder pad is leftover from my GK sprue, it's plain with a scroll at the bottom, the left one has a GS sculpt of the Word Bearer icon (strangely I don't have a pic of that...will add one when I start painting).



I am pleased with how this turned out, now the challenge will be to add the cloak and backpack at the end of the painting. that has been trickier. As you can see in the pic of the Lord model above, I want my HQ models to have a themed look, so helms, horns and cloaks will be similar in effect.

If you click over to the CSM Gallery ( http://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-user.jsp?u=64081 ) you can see the rest of the images and the next squad I am working on. Later I will add the rest of the "named" figs that are already painted (Abbadon, Kharn, Bile, etc).

C&C welcome!

Good god man your work is truley outstanding, cannot wait for more photos! The dark gods demand it!!!

@Gale Prime: thank you! I appreciate that. If you have any requests, please let me know. (After the next WB squad is done I'll be working on some Nurgle stuff, including Typhus).

 hdbbstephen wrote:
@Gale Prime: thank you! I appreciate that. If you have any requests, please let me know. (After the next WB squad is done I'll be working on some Nurgle stuff, including Typhus).

Yes the more Nurgle the better, I'd love to see how you tackle it , thinking of getting any of the new machines/scratch building your own?

I have a Predator that I started converting to Nurgle way back, also a 3rd party mortar thing. I am thinking of scratch-building another Great Unclean One (my first one looks like a 3rd grader built it).

Nice can't wait to see, have subscribed to this

As promised, here are some pics of my already painted Chaos Characters

Abaddon and a Sorcerer that I painted about ten years ago. The sorcerer model is OOP and one of my faves. The blade on the gun is one of my very first conversions!



Fabius Bile and Kharn the Betrayer. Kharn is built from a host of pieces, including an ooooold beastman and Necromunda Goliath.



Here are some vintage figs for my Nurgle Death Guard/Plague Marines. I had some WFB skeletons that I hacked to pieces, merging them with the old Nurgle Plague Marine plastic set. There are two units of 7...

I will be updating the bases when I start working on the Nurgle side of the army.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here is a shot of the GS shoulder pad that I did for the Word Bearers icon on the Dark Apostle model. It is going to take some careful painting to make it look the way I want. Good thing I picked up a 5/0 brush last week: (I have to say that it looks better at arm's length...)



Here is a front view (there are more pics in the Gallery page):



This model seems to be the only one I put in this unit that had a molded shoulder pad, so the entire unit will be getting their pads painted yellow and then the black drawn in to make it look like this one. I figured that for the Chosen this was a good choice. We'll see what it looks like:



As I have wrapped up my "work" for the day I may have another update for you with this sub-project later on tonight.

Here we are with an update. The latest batch are painted and I am half-done with the bases. Let's get to it, starting with the Dark Apostle:



Here is the Chosen Champion:



The Icon Bearer with battle-damaged shoulder pad and plasma pistol:



And this is the core squad of 5, I can add 5 more, 1 with a plasma gun:



Next up, Khorne Berzerkers!

I have 8 models like this, basic plastics from back in the day. I cut all of them to reposition the bolt pistol or chainsword, or both:



The Champion of the Berzerkers is a conversion. I started with Fabius Bile's body, added a power fist from I know not where, and the axe is from a Khorne biker/jugger rider I picked up somewhere in my travels through the warp. I suspect that I was going to use him as a Nurgle sorcerer at some point (note the cloven right boot) but I wanted something for the Berzerkers now. I can build a new sorcerer later.



This will probably be the last batch of "red" CSM for a while, kinda getting tired of the red. Once these are done I will start on a batch of Nurgliciousness, including Typhus...and I just might scratch-build a Daemon Prince.

I finished up the Berzerkers yesterday, even got them based. So I decided to take a little break, creatively speaking, and work on some terrain. Specifically, an Aegis Defense Line



I have been meaning to start working on this for a while, but wasn't looking forward to the cutting and glue-ing of so much plastic. Then I decided to go ahead and use thin corrugated cardboard (thanks Smuttynose!) and save a bunch of time and energy. The small sections were laid out, cut out and glued in about ten minutes. The long sections took a little longer than that. Now they will get a dark base-coat, some dry-brushing, some painted detail work for aquilas and skulls... Bam! Easy peasey.



No sense going to a lot of trouble with these, they will look just fine on the table.

And here are the Berzerkers themselves. I added some "gore" effects to their boots and chainswords, which is unusual for me, I don't really like that sort of thing but they just looked to "clean" and tidy. For bloodthirsty Chaos Berzerkers anyway.



Here is a close-up of the gore effect:



And here is the Champion (more pics in the Gallery, the lighting doesn't really do him justice):

Good morning! Since Sandy didn't wipe us out I am going to get some Nurgle-work done.

CSM as Death Guard. I am going to paint them up in a bone color, with nasty green and purple where the guts and stuff spill out. The model on the far right will be the Champion with Lightning Claws.



This is the Nurgle Warpsmith. I converted an old Mk II marine by adding a GS Nurgle belly, an old Techmarine backpack, and will be scratch-building the mechadenrite arms.



What better way to spend a cold, rainy, blustery day?

 hdbbstephen wrote:
Here we are with an update. The latest batch are painted and I am half-done with the bases. Let's get to it, starting with the Dark Apostle:





The Icon Bearer with battle-damaged shoulder pad and plasma pistol:

These are both well put together. I love the Icon Bearer's use of the shield and the simple effect of the freehand works very well. What did you use for the back pack "Gear/Cog" thing on the Dark Apostle's back pack?

@Moltar: Thanks for your feedback! In all honesty, I am not sure where that came from...my bitz box is 12 years old! I suspect it's from a non-GW model, originally picked up for WFB back in the 90s. I think there are a couple more, I'll probably use them for Cultist leaders.

Here is an update on the work I got done yesterday afternoon. The Warpsmith conversion is coming along nicely, if I say so myself. I really like the way the mechatendrils posing came out. The flamer-tendril tip is from a vintage SM weapon sprue and the melta tip started as a boltgun, added some sprue pieces and tube stock.





In this pic you can see an OOP CSM that I painted years ago. I am going to do my best to match the color scheme, I want the Nurgle characters to have a theme... pale green, bone, brass and magenta highlights/contrasts. Looking forward to adding Typhus to the project shortly.



Here are the Death Guard themselves, the first of two squads. I am doing them seperately because the Steel Legion mass-production project really took a psychological toll on me (70 IG all at once!). I am planning on all-bone armor, dark green shoulder pads, with brass highlights and maybe some magenta here and there. Kind of the reverse of the characters.



This is the Champion and Icon Bearer.



I have two squads of Havoc HWT in the queue, one for Death Guard, one for Word Bearers. I'm not ready for any more red just now!

C&C welcome! (and there are more pics in the Gallery http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-64081-29557_Chaos%20Space%20Marine%20Army.html )

great stuff like the semi retro painting style to match the minis, can't wait to see what else you have in store

@cerealkiller195: Thanks! I'll take the "semi retro" comment as a compliment, I've been out of the painting scene for 9 years, so I definitely have some new techniques to learn.

Good morning! Today's update is on the Warpsmith and DG in progress on the workbench. I have been trying some new (for me) techniques for layering colors to create shading and highlights. First up was the Warpsmith, as he is the only one that is going to be green.

It doesn't show up so well in the pic but there are four shades of green here


That I used to create the color scheme (step 3)



I built them up slowly, alternating between darker and lighter shades to give them time to dry. I had shaded the shoulder pads of the rest of the squad in a similar fashion, but they were still wet, which created an interesting effect (see below). Here is step 4, after I did all the green and a similar technique for the purple on the tendrils and backpack. I was even able to get into the eye-slit with my 5/0 brush and paint the glass blue.

The fuel bottle for the flamer is going to be orange and I am not sure what to do to add color to the melta...

Step 4


QUESTION: should I go into that wound in his belly and paint the edges red?

Here is a shot of the DG trooper, showing the shoulder pad effect (it looks much better at arm's length/tabletop)



Later on today I will tackle the bone color layering. My intention is that the dry-brushed base will allow for enhanced shading under very thin coats of off-white.

Again, there are more images in the gallery, C&C welcome.

Good morning Dakka! I finished (well, almost) the Warpsmith yesterday, and the layering went well. So well, in fact, that it lulled me into a false sense of accomplishment. When I started on the off-white for the DG, oh man, not as easy.

Here is the Warpsmith, I just have to finish his sword, depending on what weapons he is allowed:



And here are two of the DG, the one on the left has had more of the layering process completed. It has been much more laborious and painstaking than I anticipated, I suspect that I got ahead of myself and laid it on too thick.



Thoughts?

Starting on squad two of the DG, and working on a Nurgle-ed-out Predator with dual auto-cannons. When it is dry I will hit it with some more highlights and upload some pics.

After the experience with the first squad and some YouTube tutorials on layering I am looking forward to how this next batch turns out.

Good evening, Dakka. Today's update covers the DG CSM I am working on. I suspect that these started out grouped in three different units, as the priming was in red, black and white. In any case, the Havocs are going to be the most tricky, especially getting them to "match", as much as Chaos Marines should match, anyway.

The weapons are a lot of fun, as they are super-vintage!





Here is the CSM Champion



The Icon Bearer



and a Marine with a meltagun

Ok, I finished the DG squad and the Havocs, so I decided to take a break from painting and build some new Punisher turret stuff:

A punisher turret for my LRBT



and a Crassus Assault carrier




There are more WIP pics in the gallery http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-64081-29002_Armor%20WIP.html

I gotta say, Death Guard probably have the best of the old school 2nd Ed models for Chaos marines and they really do stand up well once a good paint job is put on them.

Their special weapons guys (eg: the meltagun) have reasonably dynamic poses and they all look good for their era. They're one of the types that I feel has actually suffered with the advent of the multipart kits as Nurgle lends itself more to greenstuff modelling than premade, symmetrical kitbashing.

In short, I love the old style look of your DG.

Thanks, I need to post some pics of the "finished" product