Chaos Basing

Holiday season has been a pleasant slowdown from painting in the last few weeks. As a small filler post while I'm finishing up a few things, I thought documenting what I'd done on the basing for my Warriors of Chaos.

In the past I've had a tendency to overcomplicate life and come up with weird and wonderful schemes, so on the current armies I'm keeping it simple (stupid) to not get in my own way. In the previous post I mentioned that it's a few pieces of cork as rocks, some gravel and tiny stones, then sand atop everything. 

Here's what the basing materials and early stages look like. Cork and slate are superglued in place first and usually a tactical position to cover basing holes, or create resting points for feet and weaponry. Then liberal application of PVA across the rest of the base, a sprinkle of the heavy gravel, then the lighter gravel, tapping back out into the box each time so any loose material is saved for later, and finally the sand over everything.

The ballast fixer is great, but I can't stress enough how awful it smells. It's fine on one model, but when you're basing 80+ models at the same time, it's a powerful odour and I was happy to leave these out in the garden for a day to avoid the worst of the smell.

 Google have added a potentially interesting feature to Blogger, where it will auto-generate search links for useful terms. I tried it on my previous post, but the decision making, and therefore quality of links is poor. I don't think anyone wants to search for blue, for example, but the link to NMM is excellent. It could have utility in the future, just not yet for me.

Warriors of Chaos: Marlockt Beastface

So, it's time to share the test model - Marlockt Beastface.

He's done with NMM but I think that needs to change on the next model as it doesn't quite suit the feel of what the army should be; which is encapsulating that late 80s feel for how things were painted. Loath to repaint him at the moment, so next test model will be the starting point and then I can make a comparison between them. 

The freehand on the shield is a bit wonky, but captures the late 80s vibe I'd like and doesn't feel especially polished, which is fine for me.

  

The model is metal primer (yes it's oldhammer), black primer for grip, white ink over the top of that for general volume and light, magenta on top of that (bear with me), blue in the shadow areas to create a more purple tone, then layer up the colours quickly atop that. Sounds arduous but it works well enough en masse, so I'm hoping it'll speed the project up long term. Even if right now I'm thinking "Dave, you're an idiot".

Basing is simple. It's a few pieces of cork as rocks, some gravel and tiny stones, then sand atop everything. Left to dry overnight then a ballast fixer applied to make it rock hard. But maaaaan that stuff smells AWFUL. Leave it outside if you can because it's stinky. After that, just a couple of earthy tones on the base and job done.

Warriors of Chaos

Starting one army and focusing on that would be perfectly sensible, so ... that's not happening. I'm also going to dive into the The Old World too.

I saw there's a fantastic challenge running on this blog (https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com) and realised this is the structure I've been missing from a lot of my projects. In my rush to demonstrate how clever I am by painting whole armies, I manage to actually achieve nothing but a series of half-painted or abandoned armies.

Their challenge feels a bit cluttered with so many participants, but I love looking at the results. For the second half of 2025 I'm going to follow along! I'll aim to paint a unit per month, starting with infantry. I've made headway in preparation and finally based my oldhammer metal collection.  

 

They're set up in units of 20, but I won't be painting them quite that fast! This is just to gauge the effect and how it looks en masse, and I adore them already. This will probably be plenty for the next 6-12 months I think, but there's more in the drawer - in desperate need of a paint strip and some pieces need fixing. No-one needs to see that though, it's quite boring.

In addition, I've created a unit filler for the four Chaos Gods to use in different sized units for variety and adding a more thematic approach. Khorne and Nurgle were easy enough to finish up but I need to decide how to enhance the Slaanesh and Tzeentch ones now. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big challenge is sitting down to prime everything. It's going to take quite some time to go through everything and get it ready for painting. My silly brain also wants to ensure post-prime that everything is grouped up by Chaos God so I put the right colours on things. Well done brain, making my life significantly more complicated yet again.

It's Heresy, Brother ...

So now we're onto in-progress and upcoming projects. It's far less exciting at this stage now we've caught up on everything I've painted over the past year or so but it's going to get quicker in the coming months. Promise. Maybe ...

 With the previews on new Horus Heresy box and terminator armour, I was immediately smitten. Smit in full. Smited to 100%. The smooting was complete. Saturnine Terminator armour is a joyful throwback and I can't wait to paint up a few, it's a sculpt that definitely encourages opinion but that's fine - you enjoy your hobby, I'll enjoy mine.

 

It's nice to get excited about new models being released, as it doesn't happen too often. However! There is a small matter of a) waiting for the box to arrive and b) deciding what legion to paint and c) building bloody everything.

It has to be one of the original legions though, not a successor chapter. I already have a lot of Space Wolves, so they're out. I paint a lot of yellow for my Orks, so no Imperial Fists. Dark Angels irk me, so they're out. Alpha Legion & Thousand Sons are pearlescent so that can fuck off. Iron Warriors & Iron Hands are metallic and of no interest, Blood Angels & Word Bearers are red and I have too much red. Sons of Horus are right nobheads, so they can do one. No to predominantly white armour, cheerio White Scars and World Eaters. I want a bit of grit and weathering, so that rules out Emperor's Children. I want to do a 40k Death Guard force, so they're out. Raven Guard would drive me mad from edge highlighting to show off the black. Night Lords kick cats, so they're out. I've got a LOT of green on the horizon for an Orc & Goblin army, so Salamanders are out too.

Hello, Ultramarines.

I'm as surprised as you.

I've always had them down as the full-fat wankers of Space Marines, but working my way through all the Horus Heresy books and currently on Know No Fear, and they're great. It doesn't hurt that Dan Abnett's no slouch at writing, and this novel appears to have avoided the curse of him picking a phrase to use and beating it to death through the book ("how's your choler, brother?"). It also helps that at the halfway point of the book, they're having the snot beaten out of them and I do love an underdog.

While the GW studio paintjobs, and a lot of the online community ones are a touch too clean cut for my liking, that can be solved with a more interesting paint job. I've been looking for schemes that have visual interest, a little character for each model, and shift in hues to make it more fun to paint. I came across this piece by Paul Dainton, I think, and in the shadow areas there's a touch of purple or magenta and boooooy I'm a sucker for magenta. The high-shine on the metallics works well too. The armour itself is still quite tidy though.

But then I came across this old post on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/C0jtaTNs10M/) and it captures the look I wanted from a Horus Heresy force, and for an army I was hoping to find reason to paint. The colours aren't quite there for me, but I think we can address that with the colours above, and it's a great starting point. I like the individuality of the markings, and a few of the embellishments, in particular the crests and flag. It says "we're a small, elite force, and we look fucking AWESOME" to me.

I'm not wild about the blue here, but it's the overall aesthetic he's achieved with this scheme that appeals. I'll have a think about adding richness (see: magenta) into this scheme for depth to complement the warm golds. With only a couple of days until the box arrives, the next step will be to dig out a test model and try the scheme to see what works and what needs adjustment.

Freeguild Marshall

 When I saw the Cities of Sigmar box released in 2023, I required it. I'd failed to connect with Age of Sigmar as a game because it lacked character for me. The main army of Stormcasts just lacked oomph and never appealed. Then I bought a Kruleboyz army and completely forgot about it (whoops) then picked these handsome fellows up.

 More to follow in time, but I started with the best model in the box. Swapped the standard head for one of the fancy helmets for the cavalry. Beyond that it's a case of trying to find the focal points then spending a little more time on those - face, sword, and gold plates on the leg.

I want this army to feel fancy and not downtrodden, but they're also on the edge of a horrible surprise ot find themselves in swampy environons. Possibly more suited to swampy orks ... 

  

Alchemite Warforger

 It started as a one-hour speed paint, but it was far too cool a model to leave at that. Glad I spent the extra time on it to improve everything. I wish more modern sculpts were like this - it has a ton of detail and yet remains reasonably uncluttered.