Motivation Help

[Alys]

I've worked on some fluff for my Chaos Warband for a bit now, and, I still like it... it's just I wonder about coherency.

 

Long fluff-story short, Renegades from the Rampager's Chapter end up in the Eye of Terror, and realise Chaos is just as bad as the Imperium. Time spent in the warp has... *dun dun duuun* warped the leader, who is more charismatic, and ends up recruiting not only chaos forces, but also loyalists (preferably marines stranded, left behind, etc) with his aide, (and counts-as chaos sorcerer) a (now heretical) inquisitor, to achieve one goal: To kill the Emperor, which in his eyes, will destroy Chaos. (Chaos and Emperor are two sides of one coin, if you remove one side, the coin is no longer a coin, Chaos defeats itself, Humanity hits a golden age, etc. Remember, This is logical to someone who was cast aside by the Imperium, and spent maybe too long in the Eye of Terror)

 

Ok not so short. Maybe I can do a TL;DR version.

 

Warband made of Chaos and Loyalist Renegades, lead by a charismatic leader and an inquisitor, to destroy the Emperor, and thus destroy Chaos (in their eyes).

 

Better!

 

Ok, so the motivation. The idea was simple, I get whatever power armoured figures I want, paint them as I want, put them together with some form of unit coherency (shoulder pads etc), and bingo. Hell, I even have figures painted, including some weird dark red/bronze/black chapter I was working on with the AoBR figures and my take on some Blood Angels (Kinda more towards flesh tearers in colour). Problems are hit though.

 

1: If I do such a scheme (we're talking marines from every chapter that takes my fancy, made up from chaos and space marine parts mixed together, with some black templar and dark angel bits for fun) how can I make them identifiable as... well, a warband, and not just me hitting ebay and grabbing random coloured figures? Is shoulder pads enough?

 

2: Fluff wise, wouldn't chaos marines (even renegade chaos marines who renounce the four) have problems trying to perform squad actions with loyalist marines? Would a loyalist, yet renegade marine (say, I dunno, a Flesh Tearer), be pretty miffed if he gets lumped in with some rogue Alpha Legion/Black Legion? Would it be easier to work in squads, and say, have loyalist marines (with some chaos bits added on), in one squad, while chaos marines (with some loyalist parts added on) fit into another?

 

See, I wonder if it's easier to either ignore the figures I have already painted (AoBR made up chapter, my 'Flesh Tearers', and a friend's Blood Angels which I will never be able to replicate the paint scheme), and start fresh. It's an easy solution, as the true Chaos bits (Oblits, Terms, Raptors etc) are unpainted. However, I lose the chance of using stuff I have already painted (not a terrible terrible loss really? Maybe start a Flesh Tearers army on the side) I could then find a colour scheme I like, and then do a mockery of Death Watch, where their original chapters are represented via a shoulder pad.

 

I dunno. I don't even know if this is the right area for this, but... I am starting to run out of steam, with a pile of metal in front of me (and some in a tub waiting for me to get a new toothbrush to strip), a wad of various loyalist figures already painted, and no idea what to do.

 

I even have stuff I could use, but have no idea how to integrate it! Original Legion of the Damned (well the squad boxed set, with all but the backpacks and bolters, which is a crying shame), 1st and 2nd generation Death Company (counts-as berzerkers!), Space Crusade Marines (yay!), plus a selection of the '1990' Loyalist regular bodies and blood claw bodies too.

 

Any motivation would be appreciated.

[chillin]

The orig red corsares paint scheme was squads of loyalist in their loyalist armor and colors with the eagle X'ed out and chaos symbols painted on it in red. You could do that or something like it.

[Alys]

True, I did look into that idea. I wonder if there needs to be more unification though in the paint schemes, to stop it getting truly hectic on the table (imagine playing a Blood Angels army, with Blood Angel renegades in my army, I'd end up moving their figures by accident!).

[bertboxer]

i'd recommend having at least some form of color coherency among the models

and most definitely keep the bases uniform in some way

 

it'll help to avoid the mix and match sort of issue

[Papewaio]

Loving the backstory. Absolutely brilliant.

 

I'd try and keep the models in some sort of coherency just for the sake of easily playing games. Not necessarily paint schemes that are identical, but like bertboxer's suggestion about the bases, and maybe having some unifying colour across your army? Like having every right lower leg as purple or whatever.

[RolandTHTG]

Well if Deathwatch keep the shoulder pad to Honor the armor and their chapter, maybe give all of them Black shoulder pads, as they have obliterated their past ties for their new cause.

[Alys]

I do like the death watch idea. and the black pad idea. I have however dragged out some of my figures, put them together, and the black shoulder pads does not offer enough coherency. However I was thinking, maybe a steel arm? No matter the colour, they have a black pad and steel arm to represent a test of faith* offered to all that wish to join.

 

Slap on a black pad, gold border, and bingo.

 

So now, I have two ideas.

 

1: All 1 colour, barring a pad of the original colour, however I do intend to make this coloured pad paint-damaged... maybe even that where the emblem would sit, that has been scratched down to the metal, while the existing colour survives around that... to represent they removed their ties to the former chapters when they joined

 

2: Different colours, one pad that is black (the one that would identify the chapter/legion/warband) with a gold trim, the corresponding arm is a metallic silver, shining as it just had an acid bath.

 

Both options would be mounted on bases, I'm thinking either Cork basing (never done it before but it looks good), or MicroArts, although their bases are beautiful... I can't seem to find one that would not cause problems for mounting marines. (I love the Ruins, but I can't see how the figures could stand on some of the based scenery!) Plus... cost. It's either, something I've never done before (Cork), or spending close to £52 on basing that I just need to drybrush a few colours and then pin.

 

 

*The ritual of Joining would be a private affair, offered simply to the new 'recruits'. Those present know exactly how the ritual works, and as such they are normally the Lord and his honour guard (the remaining Rampagers who followed him), and the Inquisitor. The recruits must place their arm into this vat of Goop, supposedly pulled from the Eye of Terror. If their faith in the cause of the warband is strong, it will just remove the paint, and strip them of their former alliances. If their faith is weak, it will react, disolving the armour, bonding with the flesh so that the Astarte's own blood supply pushes this poison around that would feel as bad as someone who has been pumped full of preserving fluids being brought back to life... so much so they beg for death (Yes. Flash Gordon. <_<) Reality is, the goop is just acid, strong enough to dissolve paint (Fairy Power Spray!), but not enough to damage the armour/soft armour, and the whole thing is a psychological test. The Inquisitor trained for most of her life with Astartes, enough that she knows the psychology of them... and can determine the slightest doubt (Recruits are unhelmeted to aid this), of which she releases the stored sorcery in the vat, which then melts through the armour, overloading the Astarte's immune system, and causing limitless pain, enough that even the strongest would beg and plead for mercy.