Chaos Space Marines: The Watchers Of Ophios (WIP)

So, here are the beginning phases of my recent Chaos Space Marines project: my Tzeentchian Warband, The Watchers Of Ophios. This is not a finished group shot (hence me labelling it a WIP), but it gives an idea of how the units may look against each other. Over the coming weeks, I intend to add some Havocs (built but not painted), some Raptors (ditto), some counts-as Thousand Sons, fashioned from the bolter-wielding Chosen from the Dark Vengeance kit; another Rhino (for the aforementioned Rubricae) and a Heldrake (hurrah!). This isn't designed to be a competitive force, and I won't even play them on their own, really. I have a much larger Nurgle force, with smatterings of Slaaneshi and Khornate units thrown in, forming a Chaotic Coalition of sorts, from which I will be able to draw whatever units I need for a particular battle. This Warband is more for fluff purposes, and because I like the paint scheme I stumbled upon.

These are my Chaos Marines, fashioned from regular CSMs, but using the Warp Talon heads from the dual kit Raptor box.

Here is my Chaos Sorceror, Orestes Agammemnon, who will lead this troupe of ne'er-do-wells into battle. As you can see, he's just a modified Chaos Lord from the Dark Vengeance box, with his head swapped out for one of the more Tzeentch-y ones from the CSM kit, and his arm hacked off and replaced with a freaky fireburst one from the Possessed kit.

All of my Cultists in this Warband are quite heavily modified, since I have so many sets of Cultists from a number of DV boxes. The Champion, for instance, features a Chaotic head (from Maxmini? Kromlech? One of those...) combined with the clawed hand from the other Cultist Champion that comes in the boxset, and the right arm from a Flamer Of Tzeentch. I've also used some parts from the Plaguebearer kit (which I have found look really different if you use an unfamiliar palette for them - ie, steering away from greens and browns) and the Empire Flagellants. The latter of these two kits is fantastic for combining with 40K miniatures.

And last, but not least, here is my Hellbrute: 'The Inconstant' (as named by my good friend, Himn). I hacked off his Multi-Melta and gave him a twin-linked Lascannon (fashioned out of two regular Lascannons) for a bit of variety and long-range capability in my army. I already have two Nurglite Helbrutes with Multi-Meltas, so this just offers something different (and possibly more reliable... I have lost count of the amount of times my hellbrutes have been destroyed after rolling 1's and 2's to hit with their Big Guns...)

Chaos Space Marines: Raptor

A change in photographical style today, with an attempt at a deliberately overblown shot for dramatic effect. Here's my first Raptor! Painted to match in with my Tzeentchian warband.

The colour scheme is fairly simple, and works pretty well with the lightning effects, I think.

The details on the Raptor miniatures are really nice, I think, although they do take a little time to complete with care - it must be quite hard to cut any corners with these models.

Chaos Space Marines: Completed Helbrute III

Hurray! My third Hellbrute is finally finished! The details took quite a long time, but it was quite satisfying at the end of it all.

All of the eyes, and teeth and tendrils and mechanical bits mean that there is an awful lot of stuff to pay attention to on this model, which can be quite daunting for new hobbyists picking up the Dark Vengeance boxset.

I went for fairly pallid flesh tones on this chap, which I had to re-do, after I accidentally applied too much Agrax Earthshade as an all-over wash.

I used purples and reds as spot colours on the tentacles and fleshy tubes on the Hellbrute, to match it into my collections of Cultists and Marines.

Here you go - more fleshy chimney-style bits atop his hull/body.  I really like this model.

Chaos Space Marines: Hellbrute III

So, for a change of pace (and to indulge in a little housekeeping), I decided to go back to this Tzeentchian Hellbrute which has lain dormant for far too long.

Given that I already have two Nurgley Hellbrutes with the original Dark Vengeance Power Fist/Multi-Melta axis of weapons, I decided to do a bit of slicing and dicing with this one; cutting out the Multi-Melta and replacing it with Lascannon bits that I plundered from some old Devastator kits.  They're not *entirely* straight, but this *is* Chaos Marines that we're talking about...

My first day of reclamation work saw me painting the Hellbrute in the style of a 1980s shellsuit, with nice greens and purples. YUM!

Day Two, however, saw the little blighter taking shape a little more, and looking a bit more civilised.  I applied the gold trim to his armour, and I also started adding a few more colours to the tentacles and tubes.

The reds and oranges that I applied are designed to tie the Hellbrute in with the other elements of my Tzeentch warband - The Watchers of Ophios, whose flame effects use some of these colours.

There's still a long way to go, but at least we're starting to get somewhere now...

(This is the scheme he needs to match to. Fingers crossed!)

Chaos Space Marines: Havocs

So, I'm finally getting back into the groove of things now, and I'm trying to finish off some outstanding (as in "not finished yet", as opposed to "amazing") projects.  Top of the list are my Plasma-totin' Havocs, including this Aspiring Champion with a Combi-Plasma (including defaced Aquila on the barrel).

These chaps were a response to my gaming buddy's increasing reliance on mech-heavy lists.  Against Chimeras (front armour) and Knights (all over), you need a reasonable amount of S7+, if only to whittle away some Hull Points.

I tried to tie as many of these guys as possible together using red top-knots almost as a spot colour to match their red/orange plasma weapons.

I know people usually have plasma weapons as blue (I do for my Imperial forces), but my idea is that the powers of the Warp are corrupting the power cells that fuel their powerful weapons, making them burn red.