Chaos Makes us Mighty!

If you read that title in a Dawn of War PC game voice then kudos, have an internet cookie.

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later, I've slipped and fallen to Chaos. If you saw my Instagram post a few days ago you'll know I've been trawling through old back issues of White Dwarf, feeding my enthusiasm for the hobby with the classics!

For ages I've been super excited to "get back to 40K" but not really the current era, both in terms of lore and the edition of the rules. If I dig into what I truly love about 40k its always back to 3rd/4th edition and the artwork, miniature photography and lore of the time.

This Nostalgia journey has led me all over the hobby timeline and got me thinking about how best to get this mixed Gods Chaos idea out of my head and onto the hobby desk. White Dwarf regularly featured incredible Chaos armies by hobby luminaries like Fred Reed and Brian Best and they never failed to inspire, just not QUITE enough to lure me away from my beloved Imperial Guard though.

However the Chaos Gods are patient, and I am easily distracted.

We've been extraordinarily fortunate with the GW Chaos releases for 40K in recent years. The Night Lords Kill team, the World Eaters, the Emperors Children and (for me at least) the PEAK of Chaos Space Marine fashion, the Red Corsairs (but more on them in a later project)

Now I'm not saying I'm going to paint some huge and sprawling army of all the different Chaos sub factions. But I am absolutely going to start having a play with all of the fantastic miniatures available and see what cool pieces I can come up with. I want to make each miniature I bring to life have its own character. Not some faceless mook, but a named individual with a back story and its own personalised details (even if they really are just some lowly mook!)

So as I was trawling through my White Dwarfs I found Issue 289 (the one with Aragorn in Return of the King with all the fire on the cover) and the SUPERB Slaaneshi army by Johan Kolkjaer, "The Children of Lishtaar"

I remember this at the time and always loved the warm, peachy tones of the armour, the black panels the exceptional individuality of every miniature, and the inherent Chaotic unpleasantness of the sculpts. What a great place to start and reference when building a few of Fulgrim's finest.... or worst? which is best for a Chaos devotee?

To that end here we are! the first 3 to join my merry warband, little bit of clean up and gap fill left to do but nothing fancy. Not named them yet either but that will come. A few little kit-bashed bits swapped across the various kits, but the out the box models are so good they didnt really need much to get them where I wanted. I wanted them to remain sleek and finessed, but with a few personal embellishments and details to catch the eye and help create the narrative.

I'll start painting these in the next week or so and update you on their progress. Please do comment any feedback, suggestions, colour scheme ideas, crisp recommendations or questions about these, just no Slaaneshi themed pics please, or we'll send out the Inquisitors.

Ben