Epic Warp Ghost Chaos Space Marines

[Reddeth]

Hi all,

I've been meaning for some time to write up a bit of an army diary for my new chaos army. I find diaries are great for inspiration and also help the writer to make steady progress painting new units. Unfortunately I've left creating this diary for so long that the army is almost finished!

The army is themed on the warp ghosts chaos space marine chapter. The basic fluff is that they are recent converts to the chaos cause as of the start of Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade. The renegade chapter marine's are known for their ferocity. The new W40k chaos codex confuses things a little by naming a marine painted in warp ghosts colours as belonging to the Deathmongers chapter, whether this is a typo is anyones guess. Beyond these scant details nothing else is known, so With this in mind I pretty much had a blank slate as to what formations and models to include in the army.

The basic warp ghost paint scheme is a kind of greyish green with black trim on the armour and the odd detail in gold. I experimented painting a test stand in this scheme but it simply didn't work in epic scale, all the detail was lost when I painted on the black trim. I decided to simplify things and stick with a nice green scheme with white coloured highlights.

I've been playing epic since the space marine days and I'm lucky enough to have a few of the older models that are difficult to get hold of these days. I wasn't playing during the day's of the Epic 40K chaos release so I missed out on some really cool models. I've had to get round that with heavy use of conversions to cover some of the stuff that is no longer available and The chaos infantry box set re-release luckily made an EA Chaos army (using the black legion list) possible.

Anyhow, enough talk. Here is what I have painted thus far. I've added some comments for each unit re any conversions/suggestions for the aspiring chaos generals out there, starting with the infantry...

The two Retinues that form the heart of my army. One is led by the warlord, another by a sorceror lord:



These guys are current release chaos space marines with added rhino transports for both formations. I've used the old space marine era rhinos, added some spikey bits and the odd skull.

Chaos raptor formation and two forlorn hope formations:



The raptors are converted imperial jump infantry, with chainswords added from SM assault marines. The lord figure has a old eldar style back banner denoting the formations khornate worship (hard to see from this angle). The forlorn hope stands are simply the early style chaos space marines.

Chosen Terminator Formation:



I found I didn't have enough of the new chaos terminators to go around. Luckily I found a conversion suggestion on the net and used the older terminators to bulk up the numbers. I've also added some reaper autocannons (almost impossible to see in this pic) and some converted obliterators (old imperial robot bits mixed with green stuff and terminator shoulder pads).

Bike Company:



I wanted to use my old slanneshi cavalry and decided to dedicate my bike company to Slaanesh. I've updated the models by modifying the helmets to remove the tzeentch stylings and have also modified the bodies of the riding beasts to look less daemonic.

[CELS]

Awesome stuff, easily one of the best chaos armies I've seen for Epic. And in my opinion, this is the best colour any Chaos Space Marine army could have, really. It'd be great to get bigger close-ups!

[Reddeth]

Thanks CELS, I'm glad you like the colour scheme. I always wanted to do something a little different from the regular legions.

Continuing on with the show...

Lesser Daemon Pool:



The current edition lesser daemons which still paint up very nicely. I plan to add more lesser deamons shortly. I've got some greater daemons sitting around but they are very difficult to summon onto the battlefield in EA, thus they haven't seen my paint desk yet.

Armoured Company:



As great as the new epic landraiders look I simply had so many of the original edition versions lying around that I just had to use them. I've resisted converting these ones, they still look chaotic enough due to the Horus Heresy stylings.
The front rank predators are conversions using old rhino bodies, ork battlewagon turrets, ground zero tank turrets and twin lascannons made from spare whirlwind missile launchers.

Assault Company:



With only fan inspired creations to go by you can really let your imagination run wild with these war engines. The decimator is created primarily from some old epic W40K era landraiders while the death wheels largely follow the modelling guides available online.

Hellblade fighters and Helltalon bombers:



The models are from forge world. I'm not normally a fan of resin models but the detail on these things is amazing. I love the angular shape, it just looks so evil.

[Patriarch]

Damn good work there Reddeth. I particularly like the obliterators, nice to see the old robots get a use. I'm planning on using Ork Nobz as a basis for my oblits, but I may have to "borrow" your idea as well. Good mixing with the SM termies as well. The nice thing about chaos is that it isn't uniform so you can always mix in imperial units with the right paint job.

How wierd - your last post didn't show up on my browser!

[Chaos and Evil]

That's a darned cool looking army!

[Morning Wood]

Epic really has such a great sense of scale to it. Your painting is good too. Better than mine at least

[WallyTWest]

I love it.

[Reddeth]

Thanks again, now its time for the heavy artillery:

Ravager Titan:



A conversion of the standard reaver titan. The death storm guns have been created using ork shooterz. The most annoying part of the conversion was modifying the armour trim to make it chaotic. I created my own titan legion colour scheme, "The Warplords", using one of james Hetfield's guitars as inspiration. I particularly enjoyed putting the fangs on the battle head.

Chaos Objectives:





I'm a big believer in themed (and painted!) army objectives. The landing pad one, a forward refuelling base, is my blitz objective. I also have the summoning circle and the fuel refinery.

The Completed Army (so far):



When I put them all together I realised why it's taken my so long (almost 12 months) to paint them. The sight of them all together makes it all worthwhile! There are still a few things I am working on to add to the force, mainly upgrade options, etc.

[jdp]

Nice army! I particularly like the titans green flames very well done. Also your conversions are solid work especially considering we are down in 6mm land. I particularly like the helltalon being armed or refueled on the objective. The army looks very impressive ranked up. Keep up the good work.

[Reddeth]

Hello again, I'm happy to update with some more additions to the growing force (now well over 5000 points!)

Daemonettes:


Standard GW Daemonettes to fill out my daemonic horde patiently lurking in the warp..

Chaos Infantry Reinforcements:


Some additional Raptors and another Obliterator stand to bulk out my infantry. I went with the big gun look for these Obliterators, though it's hard to see with the poor light in this picture.

More Armour:


I've converted more rhinos so the whole army can be mechanised if needed. The front rank Rhinos are for my Forlorn Hope formations and have been given dozer blades. The rear rank Rhinos are for cult marines yet to be painted. I've also converted a couple pf landraiders to use as command tanks if needed.

Defilers:


It took me ages to come up with a conversion for these beasties that was managable with the bits I had on offer. I was recently lucky enough to receive some DRM Verger minatures that were just perfect for the Torso section, as long as you like the havoc launcher look. I have cut up some old bath tub sentinels to use for the legs, glued them to a W40K track section and then added a GZG turret to the torso with some added lascannons. The head is from the old GW minotaur which used to come in the old Chaos boxsets, while the battlecannon is from the SG Griffon Mortar. The finished Defilers look suitably chunky when sitting next the other chaos vehicles.

Next up I will finish off some cult marine upgrades and the last of the lesser daemons.