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Hello dakka. I've been inspired finally...I'm throwing down the gauntlet and going to do an army like I have always dreamed of...taking all the time in the world to model and paint each miniature individually...I'm far from a perfect painter or modeler but this project is designed to be a learning experience coupled with completing a vision of an entirely unique army that I have devoted time to. I realize that this may turn out to be an entirely personal decision since I am the one that will spend MANY hours working on this but I thought I would pop in here and ask Dakka for some advice...I was scrolling through the GW website looking for some inspiring models that I could work with and I had a few thoughts:

1. I considered Tau due to the dynamic nature of them where as I could model battle suits flying from ruins or pathfinders sniping through ruins.

2. I considered Deathwing since the fluff has always interested me and it would be easier to model the "fewer" models when compared to Tau.

These were my major thoughts but a few other armies crossed my mind such as Grey Knights (low model's with high detail) or Blood Angels (dynamic much like the Tau) I am looking for anybody's thoughts on my project or advice on a what army would be "best" for me...I will not be picking up a codex or reading tactics...I am simply modeling and painting this army to the highest standard I can get....and hopefully improving as I go...Thanks in advance Dakka.

Blood angels are hard to get right, but look amazing when painted up nicely. Red is a complicated colour to paint well though, so your mileage may vary.

Whatever you do, I wouldn't lock yourself in to anything - grab a little set of tau and one of BA - work out what you like and sell or strip the rest.

For BA, check this out -> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/313003.page

My advice is to pick an army with a lot of variation if you're trying to paint every piece as display quality, otherwise you'll give up as you get bored of spending hundreds of hours painting the same thing over and over. Suggestions would be Daemons, Dark Eldar, or anything else that is fairly elite and not in power armour.

Daemons probably give the largest scope to really going to town with both painting and modelling. You really can sculpt/kitbash pretty much anything to represent the horrors and manifestations of the Warp, with paint jobs to match.

Be as abstract or as "traditionalist" in your model creation/selection as you want.

And it doesn't matter if your sculpting is pants to start with... that is the joys of the Warp

For my own project like this, I chose a Horus Heresy army. Not only do you get access to some amazing models, both from FW and others (such as Anvil Industry) but the high per-model cost is somewhat offset by the time and effort you can put into each model.

Another option would be to work on something akin to an Armies on Parade display, with a 2x2 board section to display models on. You could do a single army, a battle scene diorama, all sorts of awesome and rewarding stuff. Because of the terrain aspect, there's also more to it than just painting minis, which could offer a nice change of pace.

@kb_lock Yes that link is very informative and helped a lot thanks for that.

@Silver MK2 Daemons have my interest now as well...I feel like I would be limited to a Tzeentchian theme because all other factions aren't mutated or 'random warp energy given sentient'

@Stormphoenix I don't see the sculpting or 'dynamic' possibilities with Dark Eldar could you please elaborate.

I'm going to have to suggest something that has not been mentioned in this topic yet, which surprises me a tad.

"Inquisitor Taskforce". I know that this might not sound like a real army, but it is the perfect way to paint a lot of miniatures without getting bored.

You start out by making a bunch of cool, converted inquisitors (the perfect place to do some neat conversions and try out new colorschemes) and then see where you'd like to go from there. You can add some badass assassins, you could add space marines that have been lent to the inquisitor. If you want to paint black, add some deathwatch? Want to try something new? Sisters! Add some Kroot mercenaries an inquisitor has picked up. Servitors? Mercenaries? Imperial Guard?

You can add small detachments of basically anything to an inquisitor taskforce and make it fluffy.

This has me very interested...Never read much into the Inquisition but when I look at the range of models I have seen...this may just be exactly what I am looking for...I could paint and model IG Marines servitors...wow the possibilities are literally endless...Theik thank you...i will give it a little more thought but I am leaning heavily toward this option.

 Drogga wrote:
.wow the possibilities are literally endless.

This is the first and only reality of the Inquisition. Literally anything can be done, and because their codex is so flexible, if you ever do decide to use these in games you can counts-as basically any model you have as something in there (not to mention using them in Necromunda/Inq28/In The Emperor's Name).

Be sure to check the various Inq28 blogs on Dakka and other forums, there's a real gold mine of inspiration from some of the world's best converters out there!

Another great way to get to a hobby force is to convert up anoyher thing you are fond of into 40k. It has the benefit of having a lot of the background and units already made and yourchallenge is to get good representations into 40k. I did this for Starcraft and am stalled in doing it for Mass Effect, but its great fun.

Well i spent some time trying to get siked up about the inquisition thing but find myself not as enthused at i thought i was when I first heard the idea...I'm back to leaning toward Tau Dark Eldar...maybe daemons

This is kind of what brought me back to the hobby, so I'll share what I'm doing.

I found a box of old valhallan models. I'm very into music now, and I started to think about how fun it would be to turn them into "vanhallans." My project now is to paint them up in the style of eddie's guitars. I have a white platoon, a red platoon, and all tanks are being done with the black and yellow stripe pattern.

I realize this is going to take me a loooooong time to complete, but having a theme like that is really cool as the force gets larger.

I then add on attachments of fluff based space marine lists. So basically, my advice would be pick a non-40k theme that you're into and make an army out of it.

I've thought about doing use your illusion themed necrons, and iron maiden themed tomb kings, etc etc. I have some cadians I'm painting up to look like my college football team of choice, for example.

It makes painting a lot of fun.