by For the most part, all the regular Chaos Space Marines units I’ve ever built have gone right into Black Legion colors. Cult troops (Khorne Berzerkers, Plague Marines, etc.) got their cult army colors, but my regular Chaos Space Marines – including transposable units like Chaos Bikers and Havocs – all were painted in Black Legion colors. There were two reasons for this. First, Black Legion was my first Chaos Space Marine force, and my first Warhammer 40,000 army to boot. Second, the Black Legion fluff always indicated that some units could be open to operating with other CSM factions. So if I wanted Nurgle-marked marines that were not Plague Marines in my Death Guard force, I rolled in some of my Black Legionnaires. I did this even in the more WYSIWYG editions with no problem. However, when I started my Khorne Daemonkin force, I decided to do up some Chaos Bikers in the red-and-gold getup. And after playing some games using my Black Legion guys as Khorne-marked CSM, I started to get the feeling that the guys in black and gold looked out of place. I really wanted a more uniform looking force. So I decided I’d put together some CSM and paint ’em up the same as the rest of my Khorne Daemonkin army.
And now I’ve finally started that process. Yes, even though the Khorne Daemonkin might cease to exist as an army, I should still be able to use the models. But, I’m hoping to have them all painted up before the next edition drops. You can see the assembled models above. The careful observer will note that I have three of the snap-fit Chaos Space Marines included in this squad. I had them laying around in the box of unbuilt models and figured, like Jack Burton says, “what the hell?” Another thing the careful observer will note is that there are two distinct shades of grey plastic on those models. Yep, that’s right. Some of those kits have been sitting in my box since pre-2007, which is when I think the CSM sprue got updated and the sprues came in a darker color.
In addition, I also decided to try using some of the extra bits from the updated CSM sprues. I hadn’t done much of that before, mostly out of laziness. But for these guys, I wanted to have a little fun with them. So everyone got spikes or blades. I also made sure most got some kind of skulls, too. These are Khorne marked CSM after all. I even used a couple of the smaller spikes to add “horns” to one of the CSM heads. I tried to make each head for this squad unique, which was not too hard given the squad is only eight models.
Taking a closer look at the Aspiring Champion, you can see I also included some bits from another kit. I really like the arms from the updated Chaos Raptor kit, so I decided to use them here. The arms poses are a bit more dynamic and also have much more detail. Since I’m going to run the champion in this squad with just a close combat weapon and bolt pistol, I thought I’d give him a little more elaborate versions of those options. I also used the updated Khorne champion CSM head.
At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep with the smaller 25mm bases for this squad or add the adapters. I decided to go with the adapters as the 32mm base is now pretty much standard for power armor marines. Also, the larger bases just frame the marine models better.
So far, I am pleased with how this squad is turning out. I’m hoping to start painting them in the next day or so, though I likely won’t finish them until next weekend, as I’m going out of town this weekend. But given there is a looming deadline, what with 8th edition and all, I can’t wait to get them painted.
