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Black Like My Soul


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Alright, as negative as I may come off at times in the rumor threads, 6th edition in general and the upcoming chaos codex in particular has me positively psyked. Psyked enough to bust out the remains of my once massive chaos marine collection - now a pale shadow of its former self, and start sorting and modeling in preparation for a major painting offensive!

 

Anyway, with a mess of sorting and assembling and priming underway, it was time to decide how to start off this painting log, and for a dedicated Black Legionnaire such as myself there was only one model suitable for such an ostentatious occasion - Ezekyle Abaddon himself! Or rather, my conversion of him using a plastic termie lord and old Abaddon's weapons. So here he is, my take on the Despoiler in all his dark glory:

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/abaddon01_zpsbb2bcbef.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/abaddon02_zps4ca81c2d.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/abaddon03_zps6a1d2a6f.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/abaddon04_zps368ad67e.jpg

 

And here he is with his terminator retinue, hanging out on my new, top-of-the-line, genuine corrugated cardboard painting station (Like I'm going to hand GW my hard earned boondollars for an overpriced plastic tray when I could be buying overpriced plastic models instead!) The terminators were painted long ago, and I imagine some of them will be getting hacked apart and reconverted based on how their options look in the new book.

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/paintingStation_zps853f6caf.jpg

 

 

As for what's next? Well with a monstrous HQ and massive elite retinue already painted, I'm going to have to work overtime on troops squads to catch up, so next in line is a whole mess of chaos marines! (along with maybe a hint of something else fancy if your eyes are good).

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm00_zps5ecea2a2.jpg

 

I'll be updating in the coming weeks, along with a step by step of my color scheme, and battle reports with pictures, once I've got enough troopers painted to play.

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I really like the way you've done the eye's of Horus, something that i think every Black legion army needs alot of. GW dont seem to bother with on their Black legionaires.

 

Is the one o the far right an obliterator or just making sure that everyone know's its twin-linked?

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Darkwind: Thanks!

 

Fullbrook: I agree the Eye of Horus is important, and I do free hand a couple extra when I find prominent flat surfaces on my models. Though when I do, it's more 'Eye of Sauron' style, both because I think it looks cooler and because I can freehand a red circle a lot easier than a styalized yellow eye shape plus arrows with crisp corners. Abaddon got an extra greenstuff eye in the middle of his armor 'cause he's special, plus the one on his oversized personal icon..

 

The far right terminator is a reaper autocannon, converted in 3.5 days, back before we had a plastic terminator set, along with a few other models in the retinue including the iconbeaer. They were made from old old plastic loyalist terminators that I got cheap after their new terminator box was released, converted to make them much larger and chaosier. They were huge compared to the old metal chaos termies at the time, and are large enough to not look completely out of place alongside the new plastic chaos termies, which was a relief. I used the defiler's reaper autocannon on the terminators for a more dreadnought looking effect on the heavy weapons. The only thing I didn't do, which I regret now, was magnetize their weapon options.

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But where's his topknot!? :lol:

 

He looks great. Weirdly, I really like the cloak you've got some good depth of colour going on there. I'd say it's a small touch, but as it covers his entire back it's really not! His armour is a nice black, not so dark that you can't highlight up a bit, and the gold is gorgeous.

 

Looking forward to the Daemon Prince and the rest. Will you be having any Cult troops or are we talking pure CSM who haven't lost themselves to the Gods yet?

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Yeah, the primer came out a bit gribbly, which was part of why I kind of abandoned it before, but now that it's painted it doesn't look too bad. Notably, the flash on the camera made it seem worse than it is. As for the topknot, I was really on the fence about it, but ended up dropping it as per the cover to the eye of terror campaign book, particularly since I would either have had to cut away the halo over his head, or have the head sticking way forward from where it should have been. Sometimes I feel like I made the right choice, that the topknot would have been dumb and that he looks a bit more serious business without it, and sometimes I feel like the model's missing something iconic. But he is what he is, and I'm pretty happy with the result, even if it's clear my skills have slipped a bit after not painting anything for a couple years. Wish I had a pic to post of my prize winning wood elf prince.... Anyway.

 

The other thing is that Rumors have a new, finecast Abaddon being released with the new choas codex, and I'm sure it will blow my conversion out of the water, model wise. I've made a deal with myself that, once I've got 5k points painted (and I've got at least that much waiting in the wings), if the new Abaddon is that much more awesome than my current model, I'm allowed to buy it and replace this guy as warmaster, letting me fix the primer issue. This guy wouldn't disappear, though, I do like him, I'd just replace his weapon arms and use him as a generic lord. Maybe drop the defiler icon to keep him from standing taller than the hypothetical new Abby model. But that's a lot of what iffs, and at the moment I'm still extremely pleased with this guy, so while it's a possibility it isn't exactly something I'm planning on.

 

I did put extra effort into the highlighting on the cloak, more so than anywhere else on the model apart from maybe Drach'nyen, because it does cover such a large area. Early on, I had considered doing some sort of freehand design, or painting it in a more ostentatious color, but I like my Abby as a grimmer, more no-nonsense kind of hero, to contrast with my showboating, extravagant daemon prince.

 

By the way, here's that guy. He was painted about six? eight years ago, maybe? And while much of him still stands up (he was by far my best work at the time), he'll be getting some touch ups to bring him in line with my current chaos marines.

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/DPFront.jpg

 

The other old model I still have painted is my 3.5 era chaos lord, Mojo Jojo. He fell out of favor with the release of the 4e codex, when he lost his kai gun - prompting the creation of the above prince in the first place. He also is in need of repainting, more so than the Daemon Prince. Rebasing, too. I'm excited about the rumored 'warpsmith' HQ option in the upcoming chaos book, and may be re-converting Mojo slightly to fit its equipment and options.

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/Mojo.jpg

 

 

However, before I work on either of them, I've got to re-establish a base of troops choices. Besides, Mojo at least needs to wait until the new book is out for me to know if I need to reconvert parts of him, anyway.

 

EDIT: As for cult units - for my collection I'd eventually like at least a unit of each, but for my army I tend to be more undivided focused. I've got eight berzerkers and seven plague marines unassembled, but they're going to be waiting until I get my sixty odd basic marines (including heavy weapons & magnetized specials, icons, & champions) done. not to mentions 40 odd cultists after the release of the starter box (I'll be splitting a couple boxes with a friend), and maybe 10 to 20 chosen if their rules turn out to be good and the 'Abby makes them troops' rumor turns out to be accurate.

 

And even then, I've got 10 possessed I'll probably paint before cult units, and a trio of oblits that need repainting, and a defiler, and some allied daemons, not to mention some of the rumored new daemon engines....

 

Yeah, cult units are on my long term plans, but aren't even on the horizon yet.

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Thanks! Mojo's from way back in the day, like 10 years ago at least, back when I had plans of doing a whole PPG villain themed chaos marine army, promoted to chaos lord with the 3.5 dex (my prior Mojo model had him as the pilot of a hollowed out metal dreadnought - sadly, like my heavily converted 'Him' Keeper of Secrets, it no longer exists). He was my warlord through the Eye of Terror campaign, back when I hung out on the now defunct Black Legions board.

 

While most of my plans for the current batch of models are pretty generic, I do have ideas for a couple fancy 'recognizable character' conversions. I won't state them yet, though, as they aren't started, and wouldn't be started for a while, and I don't want to jinx myself.

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the tail (and the plastic wings) on the prince are from the old wood elf forest dragon (before they put little forest spirits all over it). The sword is from a keeper of secrets (spare bit after making my tragically lost 'Him' conversion - I'll have to re-make that some day), with an extended hilt and blade w/ green stuff. Because a sword simply can't be too big.

 

I thought I had close ups of those termies somewhere, but I guess not. I'll take some new pics along with progress on some CSMs tomorrow - My next goal is two units of ten chaos marines, each with magnetized special weapons, icon, and champion. Should take me a few weeks, but I'll have in progress pics along the way. After that, I don't know what, probably a defense line, maybe another character, then more bolter bodies.

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Ok, so there have been a couple requests for better pics of my terminators, so I'll start with those.

 

First up is the old ones, primarily converted out of 2nd edition plastic loyalist terminators, expanded and chaosified in various ways. I'll start with the icon bearer, magnetized for different icon options:

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/TermIcon2.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/TermIcon1.jpg

 

Next up is the reaper autocannon, using bits from the defiler

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/TermReaper1.jpg

 

And last, a couple with combi plas

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/TermOld2.jpg

 

 

And here's my newer terminators, built primarily off the current kit

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/TermNew1.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/TermNew2.jpg

 

 

And we'll wind up with a mixed group, so you can judge how well the old & new termies fit together:

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/Terminators_1.jpg

 

This is pretty much how I ran them in 4th & 5th edition - six termies, with a champ, an icon - either undivided or tzeentch depending on points - a chain fist, 2 p. fists, 3 combi plas, 2 comi melt, and a heavy flamer, deep striking into combat. I may or may not try to work up the nerve to reconvert some of their weaponry based on how the new book looks.

 

 

But that's all past models, I painted the terminators a couple years ago, I think. Today I started work on a new squad of 10 chaos marines, including magnetized special weapons, champion, & icon bearer. The optional bits will come after, leaving the champion without arms at the moment.

 

Here's how they started the day:

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm01_zpsad1e7fbd.jpg

 

And here's how they're finishing it out, after a dark grey overbrush, lighter grey drybrush, dark metal trim, P3 gold shoulders, black wash, and light purple ribbing:

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm02_zpsbf4d72fe.jpg

 

 

Hopefully i'll be able to make some more progress tomorrow, but if not there will at least be some updates this weekend.

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Alright, work on the chaos marines continues. Steps from last time:

 

purple ink the ribbing

khacki hornes, bones, paper

tan cloth

pink flesh for the white guy, dark flesh for the black guy

iyanden yellow tassels & top knots

mud wash all the khaki/tan/flesh/yellows

highlight ribbing w/ light purple

highlight cloth/hornes/bone w/ tan & khaki

highlight bone & paper w/ mix of khaki & white

highlight yellow w/ iyanden & brighter yellow

highlight white guy w/ flesh & flesh mixed w/ pale grey

highlight black guy with brown & tan

purple & red inks around eyes, cybernetics on the two guys without helmets

stipple/highlight hair for salt & pepper effect

pick out silver trim highlights * studs

pick out gold detail highlights

paint bullets brass

 

And that's all I could get through today. Should hopefully be able to finish these guys up tomorrow. Here's how they look now:

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm03_zps5e24e035.jpg

 

I'm really liking how the champion's turning out. Probably my favorite champ I've worked on. My headcannon is those purity seals are trophies from loyalist sergeants that he's slain who had themselves sworn to slay him and wore those vows to their deaths. I'll have to come up with a fittingly brutal name for him.

 

Since there's less metal trim on the power armored marines, they look a lot grimmer than my terminators. Later on in this project, I may re-paint the terminators slightly to bring them down a bit. But that wouldn't be for a while.

 

In the mean time, I need to finish these guys, and then decide whether I'm going to paint something else as a treat before I tackle ten more just like them.

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Nah, not yet. Mojo has to wait for the codex release. Based on rumors, I'm planning on using him as my warpsmith (fitting, no?), but that may involve doing some new conversion work on the model to fit whatever the warpsmith's equipment and options turn out to be.

 

If I do need a break from power armor, maybe a rhino, or some allied daemons, or another hero - either my power armored lord, or terminator armored sorcerer? Or maybe paint up a vampire or necromancer for my fantasy army. Then again, apart from the trim (the trim's always the worst part!), painting these guys has been pretty enjoyable, maybe I'll be able to roll out the next ten troopers without stopping inbetween. I don't know. Regardless, that's getting ahead of myself. Gotta finish this lot first.

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Alright, first batch of ten chaos marines is done, and here they are!

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm03_zps5e24e035.jpg

 

Alright, well, they aren't done done. I still need to paint up the magnetized bits - special weapons, icons, & champion arms. That's the next project going, I've still got some magnets to add and mold lines to trim, but I should be able to have that stuff primed tomorrow, and the squad can be done done this weekend.

 

Anyway, they're done enough for some close ups, so...

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csmCmd01_zpsb7077c7b.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csmBolt01_zps555d539b.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csmPistol01_zps6e04e1ba.jpg

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I don't think my army will ever be "done" - there's just too much waiting to be assembled, converted, and painted, not even counting new stuff I hope to add in the future (cultists!!! new daemon engines! Chosen, if they don't suck! Daemon & guard ally detachments!). But I am looking forward to the point when I'll be able to field a fully painted army for the first time since I started playing chaos.

 

I'm going to be working on the swappable magnetized bits for this unit today, gotta get them all fixed up and primed so I can do some painting tomorrow. I've been thinking about it, and I think I'm going to put in a change from my terminator scheme. Back when I painted my terminators, I was concerned that the black legion color scheme might be too drab, so I looked for extra places to fit in some color - purple ribbing and red-orange eyes, but also blue power weapons and green plasma coils. Looking back now, and setting these chaos marines next to the terminators, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I went a bit overboard with the number of different colors used? I don't want my Black Legionnaires to be drab, but I do want them to have a grim & sombre feel.

 

I love the purple and red/orange bits, I think they look great, but I'm considering replacing the blue of the power weapons and green of the plasma coils with more red-orange. Glowy orange power weapons and plasma coils matching the the eyes. I'm going to try it for the little bits I do for these guys, and if I like it that will just be the way going forward, and I'll eventually repaint Abby and the terminators to match.

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