What paint scheme do you paint your CSM army? >_<

[veelo]

Hi, I am starting up my CSM army again and I'm totally baffled at what scheme I'm going to paint them. I would like the keep 1 theme streamlined throughout the army but how the heck do you choose it? I like Word Bearers and Thousand Sons the most.

 

Examples of colours:

 

Word Bearers red/gun on everything? (including cult squads or ones with a mark)

 

Same as above but paint cults their own colours for the helms or a particular piece of armour etc? (I.e. word bearers body with nurgle/TS helm)

 

Paint anything undivided a legion scheme and the cults their own colours? What if its a havoc or obliterator squad with a mark? Would you paint them in your legion theme or in the mark colours?

 

Does anyone paint their whole army a cult theme (e.g. Thousand Sons) even if its a squad of plague marines you use?

 

 

I really can't decide how I'm going to do this :)

[techsoldaten]

I had to make the same choice about 2 years ago. After a bit of waffling, I did decide to go Black Legion. It wasn't for the fluff, it was because black and gold was cooler than the other schemes. So I made my choice based on what I liked more than anything.

 

That said, some of the challenges I have run into:

 

- Black is hard to paint. You may want to do up some test models in each color scheme just to understand what you can do with the paints. That might answer it for you right there.

 

- Cult troops are an opportunity to do something fun. It gets tiring dealing with 50+ models in black armor, painting my Berzerkers in World Eaters colors was a treat after all that effort. Just because you have an army that is primarily themed around one legion does not mean you can't do others. That's what a warband is all about, there's no regimentation.

 

- It's hard to get the details right. In my case, the Black Legion don't really use a lot of heraldry outside their base color scheme, which forced me to be extra creative to make them look like individuals (using wires, mutations, etc - and making choices about how to paint them). In your case, Word Bearers typically have a lot of proclamations attached to their armor, and Thousand Sons have a lot of flourishes to think about. Look at the models closely and consider how you are going to bring all that to life.

 

- It's hard to get everything in the same scheme. Obliterators, Defilers, Rhinos, even Raptors require some changes to the basic color scheme in order to achieve a satisfying paint job. You may want to look at the models closely and decide up front how you plan on handling the challenges you will encounter. With cultists, secondary HQs, Heldrakes, Forgefiends, etc, you may not want to be tied to the basic color scheme at all. Decide up front before you start.

 

- There's the matter of heraldry. I don't like transfers and freehand all my heraldry. You may want to do some test patterns to figure out how you like painting that, because there always seems to be a situation where there's not a transfer the appropriate size for what you are trying to do.

 

- Consider the fluff. I was away from the game for over a decade, the Black Legion worked up a horrible reputation in that time amongst players. Word Bearers are a little easier to play, since they are not tied to cult troops. Thousand Sons have impressive models but rules that do not forgive mistakes and challenge you as a player. I think it's important to consider a play style before investing a lot in the build out of an army, and these 2 armies have very different play styles.

 

- Talk to other players. Find someone else who plays TSons or WBs and get their take on what it was like putting together their army. My FLGS has a lot of people who really, really want to offer advice about how to model / play with their army. I have learned a lot more than I wanted to just by talking to people. The interwebs opens up many other avenues to collecting information and deciding what is right for you.

[Dallas Drake]

Pick a colour you like & try to decide how to tie that colour into your whole army.

 

I run Word Bearers & paint them like so;

 

Undercoat: Dragon Red (Army painter)

Trim: Boltgun

Gun: Black, pin highlight boltgun/mithrill

Eyes: Goblin green

Horns/bone: Deneb stone

 

Whole model washed in Badab then highlight as follows;

 

Armour: Blood red

Eyes: Goblin green/skull white 50/50

Horns: Deneb/skull white 50/50 then wash with Devlan

 

Skin: Elf flesh, elf flesh/skull white 50/50 then wash with Ogryn

 

Old names, but all GW paints aside from the red undercoat

 

Dallas

[veelo]

thanks for the responses

 

Pick a colour you like & try to decide how to tie that colour into your whole army.

 

I run Word Bearers & paint them like so;

 

Undercoat: Dragon Red (Army painter)

Trim: Boltgun

Gun: Black, pin highlight boltgun/mithrill

Eyes: Goblin green

Horns/bone: Deneb stone

 

Whole model washed in Badab then highlight as follows;

 

Armour: Blood red

Eyes: Goblin green/skull white 50/50

Horns: Deneb/skull white 50/50 then wash with Devlan

 

Skin: Elf flesh, elf flesh/skull white 50/50 then wash with Ogryn

 

Old names, but all GW paints aside from the red undercoat

 

Dallas

 

what theme do you paint your plague marines/zerkers and normal marines/havocs etc with a mark?

[Fibonacci]

I agree with techsoldaten. Except my Black Legion is more like a midnight blue legion because I think it looks better than black.

[Verythrax Draconis]

I'm making The Fallen right now, but didn't started painting, but I plan on painting the cult troops on their own colors, and maybe keep some parts or the armor black (specially easy for Noise Marines - but I'll use light blue instead of pink), and keep the chapter symbol on the shoulder pad - they are marines that worship an specific god, but they still are part of The Fallen, anyway.

 

I'm considering just keeping the plague marines black, but with rust and dirt robes, but I'm not sure, maybe I'll make them rotten green afterall. Only the Thousand Sons will really be truly Thousand Sons, since I'm considering them as allies, fluff-wise.

 

Berzerkers will be all red, except the lower part of the torso and the upper part of the legs, and I'll keep the silver trim as the rest of the army, chapter logo on left arm, Khorne mark on the right one.

 

For simple, non-cult but marked marines, I'll keep them black, with the main warband look, and just add a token to the unit to signal which mark it have during that game.

[Attomsk]

Mine are orange with black trim. They are very... bright. Not many orange armies of any sort out there so I thought I would be different. Orange is a pain in the rear to paint though. Dark colors are generally easier to get looking nice. I would try picking colors you like (that go together) and do a test mini or two. If you want to really stick to an established legion and color scheme then you won't have to do much testing since there are lots of people out there that have done those schemes and will be able to tell you what colors to pick.

[Tamwulf]

I want to try this scheme from the last Chaos Space Marine Codex:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v58/Tamwulf/BlackLegionColourSchemeVariant.jpg

 

The devil will be in the details I have a feeling. It's a very monochromatic black armor with that dull yellow Chaos star. I'll have to decide how much color I'll want in other areas. I'm thinking the opposite shoulder pad in the brass colors, and maybe some muted silver in other places. We'll see how it turns out.

[Dallas Drake]

thanks for the responses

 

Pick a colour you like & try to decide how to tie that colour into your whole army.

 

I run Word Bearers & paint them like so;

 

Undercoat: Dragon Red (Army painter)

Trim: Boltgun

Gun: Black, pin highlight boltgun/mithrill

Eyes: Goblin green

Horns/bone: Deneb stone

 

Whole model washed in Badab then highlight as follows;

 

Armour: Blood red

Eyes: Goblin green/skull white 50/50

Horns: Deneb/skull white 50/50 then wash with Devlan

 

Skin: Elf flesh, elf flesh/skull white 50/50 then wash with Ogryn

 

Old names, but all GW paints aside from the red undercoat

 

Dallas

 

what theme do you paint your plague marines/zerkers and normal marines/havocs etc with a mark?

 

I run a squad with MoK, I've kept them the same colour scheme but used possessed legs/bodies/heads/backpacks. I also gave them some berserker pouldrons with Khorne symbols on, subtle but enough.

 

I don't run Plague Marines but if I did I'd paint them the way they did in that White Dwarf with the Daemons updates in. I think Cult troops can break the mold of your army colour scheme.

 

Dallas

[muadib02]

I am building a Red Corsairs army....but looking more like they were described in the Gildar Rift

 

So Huron, his bodyguards, and most sergeants are Corsairs red and black. The remainder of the army are all in their original warband/chapter colours with their chapter badge/shoulder pad painted red and replaced by the corsair claw. It is a huge pain as I cannot really batch paint them (except for the shoulder pads and weapons).

[zyl-]

I did a warband that was similar to black legion in color, with the exception of a light blue mixed in randomly (it's chaos) on some of the armor plates. It's a bit more challenging than some of the other legions due to all the color switching, but I like the look as seen here. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=249710

 

Berzerkers and plague marines are their "actual" colors. Noise marines are purple/light blue. Thousand sons are so terrible I've never yet painted one.

 

To bring it all together nicely on the table, I did a coal bank looking base (black) with the light blue trim for all the models. Basing with the army colors tied it together nicely for me, but it's also a pretty simple base, and some people wouldn't be satisfied with something as simple.

 

I think if I had to do it all over again, I'd just go pure death guard fof simplicity's sake, but I don't regret my decision.

[Khestra the Unbeheld]

For the rank-and-file Black Legion Chaos Marines, using the old names because the new names suck:

 

Undercoat: Chaos Black

Trim: Dwarven Bronze

Gun: Chaos Black with Boltgun Metal barrel and Shining Gold decorations, exposed shells in Mithril Silver and Hammered Copper (Vallejo)

Eyes: Scorpion Green

Horns/bone: Bleached Bone or Aged Bone (Vallejo)

Skin: typically Elf Flesh

Wash: Badab Black for metallics, Devlan Mud for organics

 

For Terminators, Possessed, Champions, Sorcerers & Lords:

 

Undercoat: Chaos Black

Trim: Shining Gold

Gun: Chaos Black with Boltgun Metal or Tin Bitz barrel and Shining Gold decorations, exposed shells in Mithril Silver and Hammered Copper (Vallejo)

Eyes: Scorpion Green, except for Possessed whose eyes are Macharius Solar Orange to represent Daemonic Possession

Horns/bone: Bleached Bone or Aged Bone (Vallejo)

Skin: typically Elf Flesh with Possessed getting a Baal Red wash afterwards

Wash: Badab Black for metallics, Devlan Mud for organics (except for Possessed skin, as noted above)

 

Auxilia units from other Legions or units Marked to a specific Chaos God typically get a left shoulderpad with a color appropriate to that, i.e. Iron Warriors get a helmet and left shoulderpad done in Boltgun Metal instead of Chaos Black, or Plague Marines getting a left shoulderpad of Gretchin Green with the armor trim done in Brassy Brass instead of Dwarven Bronze, with Rotting Flesh instead of Elf Flesh on skin, etc. There's usually one shade of differentiation between a Black Legion auxilia's color and the color of a Marine from their actual Legion, like using Scab Red for Black Legion Berserkers instead of Red Gore/Blood Red like I use for my World Eaters.

[Minsc]

I paint cult-troops they way they are "intended".

 

I paint units that I know will have a specific mark in a way that clearly resembles what mark they have. (CSM/Terminators with MoN for instance, I paint like "The Purge", CSM/Terminators with MoS are painted purple/pink and black, but different from Noise Marines, etc.)

 

I had alot of Black Legion-painted units in 4th ed, but I've started repainting everything now. I really don't want anything BL-related in my CSM-army.

 

My converted Warpsmith will probably be painted to resemble Iron Warriors, despite being the only IW-painted mini in my army.

[Irabrai]

I'm doing a Word Bearer army, Main red is the Gory Red from Vallejo, with boltgun metal for the fun, trims etc.

 

The squad im working on right now is some Berzerkers, similar paint scheme to the normal WB, but all Khorne logo's, chains etc are done in Runelord Brass.

 

If i get around to doing the other Cult troops, i'll do the same kind of thing i expect, They're still Word bearers at the end of the day, they've just thrown themselves down the path of worshipping a select god, and show it that way. So, if i get Thousand Sons, the right shoulder will be gold and blue i expect, and then whatever colours for Plague Marines and Noise Marines; but at this moment i dont intend on getting any of the 3.

[Sception]

Black armor, silver trim, brass/gold shoulder trim, pale purple soft armor, pinkish/purplish/greyish cast to the fleshy bits, red/orange/yellow spot colors, some muted browns & beiges where necessary for cloth, leather, & bone bits that I don't want to distract too much from the rest of the scheme, light dusty grey with some brown & green undertones for ruined cityscape bases, with the occasional bit of rusty metal or spot of color from a fallen enemy bit (particularly blood angels helms).

 

It... takes a while. I haven't even finished the basic 'two troops & an HQ' yet, so it will be some time before I have to worry about cult troops. Cultists, however, will fall into the same color ranges, just with more brown & beige.

[Urauloth]

If i get around to doing the other Cult troops, i'll do the same kind of thing i expect, They're still Word bearers at the end of the day, they've just thrown themselves down the path of worshipping a select god, and show it that way.

They're not really supposed to do that, are they?

 

Different people seem to have differing opinions on this, of course. It's always been my impression that straying too far from the undivided path is generally looked down on by the apostles, although I also suppose it might vary between hosts. (and there's always the case of the Sanctified, a whole host who went for mono-god Khorne worship*)

 

*depending on whrre you read about them

 

edit; to actually answer the OP's question, I actually don't know yet. I've done test models for Black Legion (who I love, fluff and aesthetic wise) and Iron Warriors (fun to paint, but ultimately not for me I don't think) and I'll start work on a Word Bearer (my favourite legion, especially after Know No Fear) sometime in the next couple weeks. Picking a legion and sticking with it is hard for me because I like several and I have so many conversion and theming ideas for each one...

 

Either way, when I come to add cult troops, I'll do them as their own sub-warbands. My plague marines will likely be be Apostles of Contagion, Lords of Decayor Cleaved, with a fluff explaination of why they're working with the main force. Berserkers, though, will likely be heavily converted counts-as units; fanatical zealots in the case of Word Bearers which is almost certainly the legion I'm going to settle on.

[Kol Saresk]

I think it ends up falling the category of "Each Host is organized according to its Apostle's wishes." So some are lenient to a degree, some don't care and some will shoot you as soon as look at you if you pick a single god.

[Biaz]

My army's now a mix of Red Corsairs and Black Legion, because Lugft Huron is my favourite character in the 40k universe, and I love the background of the BL. My cult units are pretty much converted CSM, because the prices are crazy enough as it is and why pay $72 AUD for 7 plague marines when I can pay $60 for 10 CSM (less when regular CSM are so much easier to bulk buy on ebay). For this reason I make sure I paint them differently, so they stand out a little more, plus its good fun to paint new designs.

 

Basically, my army's a rainbow. A grimdark rainbow that will consume your soul.

[Irabrai]

If i get around to doing the other Cult troops, i'll do the same kind of thing i expect, They're still Word bearers at the end of the day, they've just thrown themselves down the path of worshipping a select god, and show it that way.

They're not really supposed to do that, are they?

 

Read Dark Disciple of the Word Bearer omnibus. Thats all im going to say. (Only just got to the point im refering to, and remembered this thread.)

 

But at the end of the day, its the OP's army, let him do it how he wants, I'm not taking anyones advice on how I should do MY army.

[Storm Dragons 3rd Company]

My guys are mostly burnt umber with blaze orange pauldrons, shin guards, and backpack crowns, all with gold trim. Some gunmetal and black involved too. On blue-grey bases. I wanted them to stand out on the table-top. Took some test figs to balance the orange and brown.