The exorcists will be chaos rhinos with the turret hatch on back with a set of havoc launchers on it like an old-school chaos whirlwind tank.

I already have a Reaper mini in mind for converting into the priestess for the sisters.

The inquisitor is still up in the air, but I do have a spare chaos sorcerer mini I might use. The retinue will be some odd cobbled up things.

The guardsmen will be converted catachans most likely as I think they’ll fit best and the new plastics should be easy enough to work with. Add the odd mutation, maybe a robe here or there and a little greenstuff should play out fine.

The Black Knights are the ones I’ve been contemplating building the most because the GK models are just plain sweet. But they’re basically just blinged-up space marines with different weapons. Chaos marines are already pretty blinged-up as is. So I built a prototype with converted gauntlet-mounted storm bolter, halberd / pike thing, and a slimmed down backpack to help him stand out from normal chaos marines. I also added a smidge of greenstuff in the waistline to lengthen the torso a tad, though I think I may add a little more in the future. The rest will be in the paint job. Might do head swaps over to ones with plumes instead of the various horns as well. Have a look:

I’ve gotten an idea to build a chaos version of the Inquisition, however. Fallen Sisters of Battle are a cannon occurrence. And some catachans would make great cultist conversion fodder for an IG contingent. As for some Grey Knights, well they’re incorruptible. However, after 13+ Black Crusades, I think it’s high time Chaos made their own dark mocking mirror: the Black Knights.

The army’s concept sprang from a radical inquisitor that pulled in an entire convent of sisters and a regiment of guardsmen to hunt down a chaos sorceress. The sorceress being my own previously converted fallen sister in my chaos marine army. The Inquisitor and friends get pulled along and eventually most of them either become corrupt themselves or are killed. With the right persuasion they come to see things the renegade’s way (Emperor is a false god and unworthy of worship, etc) The remainder found a new sub-group from my chaos marine army as a mirror inquisition out to destroy the fools of the Imperium’s Inquisition.

The army list is based on a Witch Hunter core with inducted guard and some allied Daemonhunters.

–HQ–
High Magus (fallen inquisitor), with mystics and multi-melta servitor
High Priestess (Cannoness) and her retainers (celestians, 2x flamers, eviserator vet) in an Immolator

–Troops–
2 squads of 10 Sisters, 2 meltas each, vet with book and melta bombs, all in smoke-rhinos
2 squads of 7 Black Knights (PAGKs) with frags and melta bombs on the justicars
1 mob of cultists (IG platoon) consisting off:
Autocannon squad with commissar and dozer-chimera
Autocannon squad with dozer-chimera
Command squad with mortar and chimera

–Heavy–
3 Exorcists with smoke

Grand total 2000 pts exactly

The Knights pile into the chimeras with dozers, and the Magus parks it in the last chimera. The cultists make one big mob with the leader hiding behind them lobbing shells. The sisters and knights rush the enemy with everything else giving fire support.

The great thing is that the knights get good dozers and good front armor for a frontal assault but can also go slower to pop the hatch and fire off 5 extra storm bolters. And if they get popped out of the transport they still get some shooting cover from the Shrouding. The sisters are providing close fire support with 2 anti-tank squads, and one all-around assault support unit in the priestess. The army as a whole has great anti-psyker defense from both a hood on the Magus and the innate abilities of the sisters and knights. Good Leadership, and some anti-deep strike in the firebase to ward off some unwanted surprises. Lots of bodies, and lots of tanks, and up to 7 scoring units available.

I think this army may actually stand a chance competitively, and provide a lot of fun flavor

Now, there’s a few things I didn’t like much about WHFB the first time we met. I didn’t enjoy the big blocks of unwieldly infantry for starters. Playing dwarfs made this dramatically worse with thier pitiful move allotment. For you WHFB players out there, imagine being used to everything in your army being M6 skirmishers all the time, then adjust to just blocks that don’t want to move. So I wanted an army with at least a decent bit of speed to it so I could feel like it actually moved on the battlefield instead of crawled.

After spending a good deal of time painting and still never quite finishing off a complete 40k army, the thought of building and painting those blocks of infantry is depressing. Multiple units with 15-20+ guys each and every model virtually identical in every way. I’d have to paint 150-300 models to complete an army. That sucks at my rate of model painting. So I wanted an army that had as few models as possible while still being viable and fun.

Beyond that I was pretty open. It needn’t be a beginner’s army. It could be good at shooting or stink; good at magic or not. In the end, I settled on the Ogre Kingdoms. For my first 2000 point army I’ll only need to build and paint a scant 25 models. Each one is larger then most I’ve done so I’ll get to enjoy painting on a somewhat larger scale, and I can put some more effort into them. It’s also feasible to convert most ogre units from the plastic kits in the battallion box set, which is a big draw to a customization nut like myself. So, I ordered up my fist half of the army and some new paints to flesh out my vallejo range for use on ogres. They should be arriving later this week

What’s more, I’ve signed up to play the part of some raiders that wander around the map in a new campaign in town. So I should be seeing some action fairly soon with them. As I get the army converted, built, painted and played, I’ll be keeping you up to date on how the venture pans out. Personally, I’m really looking forward to this

Footslogging chaos marines have finally finished up.

Havoc squads were worth thier weight in pure awesome.

Lesser Daemons proved thier worth as a backup unit or as a cheap objective camper.

Any icon other Chaos Glory doesn’t work well for me, because the squad will break while under half strength. My dice betray me often on this.

I also learned what you can really do with joe chaos marines and what they can and can not handle. My intuitive grasp of how I can use my troops has improved.

I’ve alos learned to think farther ahead for what I want my units to do. You have to when your mobility is so limited.

I gained an appreciation for a cheap Karmoon special squad of chaos terminators. They get the job done well once you learn where to plunk them down.

Now, with this experiment wrapping up, I’m moving back into my old favored grounds with a mechanized list. But, still looking to shake things up a little and broaden my tactical horizons further, I picked up a few things I wouldn’t normally.

I’ve taken a chaos lord of nurgle in power armor with a daemon weapon for my sole HQ. He rides in a rhino with some plague marines. I normally don’t care for the randomness of daemon weapons, but I think this one will work out well with the new poisoned weapon rules in 5th Edition.

2 Chaos Dreadnoughts are also seeing some table time, and I have to admit I like the crazy little nuggets. Pop a missile launcher and a CC arm on them, pop transports or let them charge around like maniacs. They absorbed an obscene amount of fire ni thier first time on the field and still got one across the board to pull a scoring unit off the objective. For a piddly 100 points each, these guys are pretty brilliant for me. they’ve also sparked conversion ideas I’ll be working on, but that will probably take some time.

I also got around to making some objective markers. I used some nice reaper minis, mounted on the bases I use for my chaos marines, then painted them like they’d been turned to stone, with all thier old gear still hanging on them. Figure we’ve got a few old artifacts on the statues to fight over. Or even to revive them. Whatever, it’s still chaosy.

Lately it’s been a question of just what I want to work on. There’s the chaos marine footslogging army that still needs some paint. There’s an inquisition army waiting in the wings. There’s an Ork army that only lacks 4 vehicle models to have everything I need to build it. And there’s more chaos marine ideas to work on, too. And let’s not forget the Warmachine army that’s been languishing for some time now (never seem to find enough local players!)

I’ve about come to the conclusion I should try to stick with chaos marines. They’re the only 40k army I’ve never seriously considered getting rid of, and they do still offer a lot of neat modelling options, even if a lot of them got gutted from the codex with the last rendition.

Among the chaos projects hitting the table is a revival of the sculpted daemon princess. That project got buried (figuratively and litterally) some time ago when I started trying to avoid the Lash-prince because it just felt so darn cookie-cutter. That’s more or less a death-knell o my interest when it because a sea of sameness. However, it’s still useful for any other prince version, and unlike the idea I have of using Monique de Noir from Reaper minis, it’d actually be tournament legal (yay for greenstuff casting hybrids!).

To that end I’ve started poking around with some more sculpting supply options. I’ve basically given up on attempts at mold-making with Flex Rubber. It’s just to darned time-consuming and labor-intensive. Back to good old OOMOO for me. I’ve heard something like a Mold Max 1000 latex compound is good, but haven’t found a good supplier yet. Ah well. As an added bonus, the extra supplies will give me the chance to refine my molding and casting techniques for customized bases. I’m trying to nail down a good consistent result and it’s basically going to require 2-part molds instead of the 1-parters I’ve been using. Hence, I need more molding material.