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25K views 115 replies 33 participants last post by  The Son of Horus 
#1 ·
I've taken a long hiatus from 40k, and spent all my gaming time playing Fantasy. But I've had an odd itch to play some 40k lately, and while working on a friend's Night Lords army, I realized I hadn't touched my own beloved Chaos Space Marines more or less since the current Codex came out. And with rumors on the horizon of a new Codex more like the previous one, I've decided to give in and build a new Chaos Space Marine army. It didn't help that the store had a couple of those $50 Rhino and Squad boxes calling out to me... it was sort of a hard deal to pass up.

I actually had begun The Pyre as a painting project about four years ago in an effort to learn how to do light sourcing and blending across large surfaces. I painted a couple squads and a tank or two, but I never really got the whole army together and on the table. I'm hoping that starting a project log will help remind me to paint a Pyre Marine every couple days or so, and actually get these guys on the table where they can start some fires!


I'm working towards a non-competitive 1850-point army list, themed around bringing as many flamers as humanly possible while maintaining a tactically functional army.

HQ/
Chaos Lord
-Dual Lightning Claws, Combi-Flamer, Mark of Tzeentch (I want the 4+ Invul as a game effect, but view him as Undivided in terms of actual allegiance.)

HQ/
Chaos Sorcerer
-Force Weapon, Bolt Pistol, Wind of Chaos

Elite/
10 Chosen
-4 Flamers. Aspiring Champion with a power fist. Icon of Chaos Glory
-Rhino APC with extra armor.

Troops/
9 Chaos Space Marines
-Flamer. Aspiring Champion with a power fist and combi-flamer. Icon of Chaos Glory
-Rhino APC with extra armor.

Troops/
9 Chaos Space Marines
-Flamer. Aspiring Champion with a power fist and combi-flamer. Icon of Chaos Glory
-Rhino APC with extra armor.

Troops/
10 Chaos Space Marines
-2 Flamers. Aspiring Champion with a power fist and combi-flamer. Icon of Chaos Glory
-Rhino APC with extra armor, additional combi-flamer.

Fast Attack/
Chaos Spawn
(Yes, I know they suck. I want to make a big silly fire daemon thing to go with the army though, and this is the cheapest way to do it points-wise. It's also good to just babysit the Havocs for a little extra close combat kick if someone manages to engage them.)

Heavy Support/
10 Havocs
-4 Missile Launchers. Aspiring Champion with a bolter. Icon of Chaos Glory

Heavy Support/
Predator
-Twin-linked Lascannon, Lascannon Sponsons


So, to get things started, here's a little teaser.



and a Terminator that I did for a painting competition a few years ago:


I'm going to probably do dark bases on these guys to help the orange glowy effect "pop" a bit... so of the models that I did before, I'll have to rebase them. But that's not a big deal.
 
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#3 ·
"I am the god of hellfire, and I bring you fire!" - Jeremy Clarkson
Seems apt.
I like the idea for the list and where the hell have you found the boxset of marines + rhino? I want the guard equivalent =-(

Love the list, and great models

Lethiathan
 
#5 ·
I knew they exsisted from MWG but I never saw them on GW, Maybe a US only release!

anyway just a small tip. make a made up squad, like a special named squad, make them termies. 5 HF. You get me bro?
 
#6 ·
Totally. I actually do have a game-legal Terminator squad... I just didn't really find a good home for them in the army list. I have 10 with two heavy flamers and 8 combi-flamers. The pictured terminator above is the Aspiring Champion.
 
#10 ·


So I've finished the first of the "new" Pyre Marines. I say "new" mostly because I had like twenty Chaos Space Marines that I had intended to be a part of the army sitting primed in a box, and I haven't looked at them in about two years.

I couldn't quite remember the progression I used on the armor, so the tone is slightly different on this model than previous ones I've painted. But I think that's ok-- fire is never uniform throughout, so a little variation here and there in the oranges in a unit should actually help accentuate that sort of glowing orange effect I want. I did make an active decision not to have a glowing effect on the base from the Marine, even though I want a somewhat "glowing" feel from the oranges on the armor-- I thought about it, and decided that the model sort of washed into the base too much like that. I want the model to be distinct from the base-- it should accent the model, but not necessarily be a seamless part of the greater whole. In other words, OSL effects from the Marine on the base make it difficult for the eye to determine where the Chaos Space Marine ends and the base begins, I thought.

One of the reasons I'd originally started The Pyre a couple years back was to hone my skills at object source lighting and blending over large surfaces (as opposed to blending edge highlights.) While I'm quite capable at both those techniques now, it occurred to me that there's no reason not to continue the original point of the project and practice an area of the hobby I'm not as confident in. With that in mind, I decided to try a much more "modern" basing style. I've clung to the classic "sand, paint, highlight, patches of static grass" basing style for years, and while it's always a good look regardless of the model in question, and usually fits in with any table pretty seamlessly, it often lacks a dynamic feel to it. So I'm going to try my hand at more complex basing, which is something which for whatever reason, I've neglected in the past.

It's a bit hard to see in the picture, but the results of my first attempt at barbed wire on a small scale are on that base. I used this tutorial to do it, although I used 20-gauge wire instead of the recommended 34-gauge, since 20 was the finest I could find. I think it works, though. http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=107
 
#11 · (Edited)
So here are the four Marines who are done so far. The whole army's assembled and primed, but honestly, who wants to check out primed models? I also ordered a set of foam from KRMulticase (love their foam, by the way... it's my favorite stuff on the market since it does what I need it to do and it's overwhelmingly cost-effective), so I'll have a proper way to store the army instead of having the Chaos Space Marines loose in one of my bits drawers like they had been for a while...

One thing I've noticed is that for some reason, the camera isn't picking up the green lens on the helmets-- in the pictures, they look black. It's probably just because I'm taking pictures with a crappy old camera and a piss-poor lighting setup, though... nothing I couldn't fix if I sat down and made a light box, I suppose...

I also can't decide if I like the patches of dead grass or not. They help break up the complete grey of the base, but they're also sort of that odd yellow color which clashes a bit with the orangey yellow of the armor. I want a sort of wasteland/urban/protracted warzone feel to the bases. I might cut them off though and retexture those parts of the bases. What do you all think?





Also, I found this picture of a Predator while I was rummaging through my photobucket account. I painted it about two and a half years ago, I think... I'm probably going to repaint it in the same general color scheme... just make the molten effect better and probably finer.
 
#12 ·
I agree about the grass, it seems too close to the armor color.

Though it might be cool if you had slightly greener patches, scorched out around where their boots touch the ground.

The marines are looking striking, but I think you might need another accent color on them. From the photos orange, black, silver, and gold all read. I can't see the green eyes. I'm at a loss as to where to suggest another color, or what color to use.
 
#14 ·
I am gonna have to agree with Krueger. I love the way the marines are looking, but the grass just gets lost in the mix and doesn't provide any contrast. I think his idea of scorched green grass has a lot of merit though.
 
#16 · (Edited)
I might play around with the scorched grass-- that's a solid idea. I'll give it a go on the next Marine I paint. Thanks!

One way I'm considering adding some additional contrast is by adding some chewed up Space Marine bits to the bases. Half-buried helmets, shoulder pads, etc. A dark teal on those would add a lot of contrast and make the orange pop a bit more, I think... and it'd be a good alternative on some of the bases to the barbed wire.
 
#17 ·
I decided to take a little break from painting rank and file Chaos Space Marines. So I decided to start on my Sorcerer. He's about halfway done... I still have to do the backpack, several more layers of highlights in general, a bunch of details, the base, etc.

One thing I'm playing around with is getting a subtle glowing effect from the eyes. I want it to be very subtle--so I want him to look "normal" as far as the face goes until you look at it closely. I'm still doing highlights on the flesh tones in general, and fiddling around with the bluish glow... but you can see how it's going so far here.



 
#21 · (Edited)
I ended up giving Middenland Tufts a try for the basing accent. They're a mix of dead and scorched grass, so hopefully the touch of green in them will help them work a little better on the base than the odd patch of dead grass on its own.

Slight update. I've been playing around with the lighting around the Sorcerer's eyes a bit more, and this is what I've got at the moment. I can't decide if it's too dark or not.



Also, pretty much done with the Sorcerer. Need to finish up a couple highlights on the backpack, finish the book hanging from his belt, and clean up the grey edge highlights on the black areas.
 
#23 ·
Beautiful work mate, those yellows are well done! Your sorcerer looks super sweet, especially his face. Awesome effect on the eyes mate, it def grabs ya when you look at them!

+ Rep!

Regards,
DoE
 
#25 ·
I'm wishing I'd done a step-by-step for how I did the face. But for those of you who're curious...

I use Reaper Master Series paint (with a little GW thrown in--mostly just the washes.) However, I imagine there's something comparable to everything I used in GW's new range, and I know Vallejo makes nearly identical colors.

The basics of how I do the flesh tones can be found here: http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=52628
I also used a touch of Baal Red around the brow, cheeks, and lip to get a slightly warmer skin tone, and add some definition around the service studs. I applied a glaze of Baal Red around where the metal bit meets the skull (which isn't shown in any of the pictures, but those of you familiar with the particular Grey Knight head I used should know what I'm talking about.)

To start the blue shadow/glow, I thinned down some Seafoam Blue. It's a similar color to GW Hawk Turquoise and Skull White in maybe a 50/50 mix. I cut it with about 80% water, and applied a couple layers around where I wanted the "glow" to be. I then re-applied the final flesh tone highlight and feathered it into the blue.

I then used Ultramarine Highlight (which is remarkably similar to GW Ultramarines Blue with a touch of Space Wolves Grey added into it...imagine that...), and thinned it down to a nearly translucent point using an acrylic medium instead of water. I then focused that in the recesses, but feathered it up slightly onto the nose and cheeks.

It's ultimately a very similar process to painting stubble on a miniature, but uses blues instead of greys. I imagine the same basic idea could work with green or purple as well-- could potentially have some really cool effects on other psykers.
 
#26 ·
These look awesome. For the bases why don't you do a ring of fresh grass around the rim and have everything in the middle be scorched and melted. Might give a good impression that they are actually physically burning their surroundings with just their presence.
 
#27 ·
I'm about half done with the Predator's hull as far as highlights and whatnot go. I put the turret on it just for the sake of pictures. Last thing I'll do are the sponsons, but the hull still needs the molten effect cleaned up (and smaller, finer lines between the big brushstrokes), the grey defining the black areas needs to be cleaned up, and I need to weather the treads and the ram.



 
#28 ·
That tank is coming together nicely! I feel your pain in painting all the molten looking effects, highlight after highlight....however, it pays off in the end!

Keep up the good work!

Regards,
DoE
 
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