Blood for the Blood God!
I’ve always had a fascination with the Warhammer 40K universe. That has only been reinforced recently as I started reading the Horus Heresy series of novels. In general, I’m not really a huge fan a “licensed” fiction – the unholy union where bad writing meets contrived storylines is more than I can usually stand. So, I was thankfully surprised when I picked up the first book based on the cover alone. I wasn’t disappointed. The series tell the story of the Warmaster Horus, favored of the Emperor and leader of his great crusade as he is seduced and ultimately falls to the perilous forces of the Warp. The series is masterfully written, and deftly handles epic themes of honor, duty, faith, pride and hubris. Good stuff.
So, it was this newly-found Warhammer 40K fascination that left me particularly vulnerable when I saw Games Workshop’s new Chaos Space Marine Army box. Mmmmmmm…. Chaos.
“My wife was out of town for the weekend," I quickly rationalized, "I'll need something to pass the time." (Never mind the mountain of unprimed pewter sitting on the top shelf of my closet.) "Still, that's a lot of money to drop on a hobby... My wife won't like that." A silent moment passes as my better judgment almost gets the situation back under control. Almost - but too late. I'm already holding the box. How did that happen? "She may not like it, but that’s what she gets for leaving me alone - I can't be depended on to make good decisions by myself." So I bought it. It's her fault, really.
It’s a really nice set, with an almost overwhelming amount of plastic inside the box. Rather than taking the time to discuss the contents myself, I’ll send you over to Hyun at WeeToySoldiers.com. He has already posted a good review with pictures over there. (And if you have never been to this guy’s site, check out his hobby room. Holy shit, it's awesome.)
I don’t have a lot of experience with plastic miniatures, but I will admit that I have always had a natural bias towards metal miniatures. I’m not completely sure why that is… I guess it's because that’s the way they have always been, and because there is something reassuring about the weight of a good pewter miniature. Still, I have to admit that as I dug through the piles of sprues that came with my CSM army, I began to warm to the idea of plastics. As I started assembly, I found a couple of nice advantages:
First, assembly went a lot faster. With pewter models I pin everything. After seeing the kind of bond that I was getting out of plastic glue (which actually melts the parts together) I decided I probably only needed to pin high stress components, which saves a ton of time. In all, I found plastic assembly to be much faster and more pleasant than metals.
The second (and probably the more important) is in the huge amount of variety and personalization that is possible with plastic. With metal miniatures, a unit may contain 6-8 models that are typically composed of 2-3 different poses. I'm guessing that thanks to the low cost of plastics, they are able to give you a huge array of components that you can mix and match to come up with all kinds of different looks. I assembled fifteen chaos space marine models yesterday, and not one of them looks alike. On top of that, when I was all finished I still had a huge pile of unused bits on the sprue.
So, here is my fully-assembled CSM squad. I never liked the idea that chaos marines were just regular marines with horns, so I went out of my way to dress them up to better match the image of depraved psychopaths that they are supposed to be, adding lots of bayonets, chains and trophy spikes.
So, it was this newly-found Warhammer 40K fascination that left me particularly vulnerable when I saw Games Workshop’s new Chaos Space Marine Army box. Mmmmmmm…. Chaos.
“My wife was out of town for the weekend," I quickly rationalized, "I'll need something to pass the time." (Never mind the mountain of unprimed pewter sitting on the top shelf of my closet.) "Still, that's a lot of money to drop on a hobby... My wife won't like that." A silent moment passes as my better judgment almost gets the situation back under control. Almost - but too late. I'm already holding the box. How did that happen? "She may not like it, but that’s what she gets for leaving me alone - I can't be depended on to make good decisions by myself." So I bought it. It's her fault, really.
It’s a really nice set, with an almost overwhelming amount of plastic inside the box. Rather than taking the time to discuss the contents myself, I’ll send you over to Hyun at WeeToySoldiers.com. He has already posted a good review with pictures over there. (And if you have never been to this guy’s site, check out his hobby room. Holy shit, it's awesome.)
I don’t have a lot of experience with plastic miniatures, but I will admit that I have always had a natural bias towards metal miniatures. I’m not completely sure why that is… I guess it's because that’s the way they have always been, and because there is something reassuring about the weight of a good pewter miniature. Still, I have to admit that as I dug through the piles of sprues that came with my CSM army, I began to warm to the idea of plastics. As I started assembly, I found a couple of nice advantages:
First, assembly went a lot faster. With pewter models I pin everything. After seeing the kind of bond that I was getting out of plastic glue (which actually melts the parts together) I decided I probably only needed to pin high stress components, which saves a ton of time. In all, I found plastic assembly to be much faster and more pleasant than metals.
The second (and probably the more important) is in the huge amount of variety and personalization that is possible with plastic. With metal miniatures, a unit may contain 6-8 models that are typically composed of 2-3 different poses. I'm guessing that thanks to the low cost of plastics, they are able to give you a huge array of components that you can mix and match to come up with all kinds of different looks. I assembled fifteen chaos space marine models yesterday, and not one of them looks alike. On top of that, when I was all finished I still had a huge pile of unused bits on the sprue.
So, here is my fully-assembled CSM squad. I never liked the idea that chaos marines were just regular marines with horns, so I went out of my way to dress them up to better match the image of depraved psychopaths that they are supposed to be, adding lots of bayonets, chains and trophy spikes.
Being new to the game side of 40K, there were a few choices that I felt poorly equipped to make - for example, which Chaos God I should choose for the unit icons, etc. From what fiction I do know, I'd really like to make a good Nurgle army, but that seems like it would take a ton of customization to really get right. (Something I'll probably still to come back to once I'm a little more grounded in the WH40K universe.) Instead, I settled on a Khorne army, as it seemed nice, straightforward choice for a first outing. Plus, I like the idea in-your-face melee monsters who like to stick their enemies heads on pikes.
Next thing to work on is a paint scheme, but I think I’ll save that for next time.
Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warhammer 40K
Hi there...your Email Me link emails get rejected by hotmail btw...
However I'm in exactly the same situation as you building my new chaos army (although having been into 40k for a long time) and was looking for a quick run down on the steps and paints used to do the prototype you've posted the picture of (oh I almost exclusively use P3 paints already)
Many thanks
Rob
Posted by
Anonymous |
8:20 AM
Hey Rob -
On the e-mail, you just have to drop the "_REM0VE.spam_" bit... That's there to keep the bots off me.
As far as the paint scheme, here is how I'm attacking them:
1) Black Primer
2) Drybrush the entire model lightly with boltgun metal (or pig iron if you use P3). Don't cover completely - you still want it mostly black with slightly highlighted edges. Then go back with black paint and clean up black areas (thighs, joints, etc.)
3) REDS: Skorne Red (P3) on all red areas (this took 2-3 coats for total coverage) then highlight with Khador Red Highlight (P3)
4) GOLDS: Minimum gold highlights. Basecoat with Tin Bitz (GW) and then topcoat with Shining Gold (GW). I like to follow up with a dark brown (Scorched Earth)/black wash to fill in the deep places. I'm not sure why, but I still prefer the GW metallics. It's three steps, but it gives a really nice luster to golds.
5) BLACKS: Use a thinned black ink wash of the drybrushed trim to darken the recesses again. Highlight with Greycoat Grey or Thornwood Green (both P3) depending on the look you want.
5: HORNS: Start with bone white, blend over with Bleached Bone as you go down the horn. I like to wash the whole thing with thinned Flesh Wash(all GW colors).
In a nutshell, that's my scheme. Hope it helps.
Posted by
Dangerfish |
10:06 PM