Chaos revisited

So I've been thinking about starting a Chaos Space Marines army lately so I've been cruising a lot of blogs and sights that talk about the Chaos Space Marine codex. Surprise surprise (Well okay not really a surprise) there's a lot of talk about how bad the codex is. You get that with pretty much any codex out there and Codex Chaos Marines is no exception. For the most part I ignore it and read what, if anything, else the article has to say. Found some interesting lists and thoughts. Then I went to check my blog roll and I was checking out a post by Virtual Stranger over on the Grim Cheapness where he was talking about embarking on a new project to build a paper hammer knight titan and then to make it Chaosy... you know because Chaos gets crap extras. He had a link to a blog run by a friend of his that explained the point of Chaos getting crap. Out of mild curiosity I followed it and checked it out. It's the standard "This is why Chaos Space marines" suck start but he did something most other people I've seen haven't done: Made reasonable suggestions as to what to do in order to address the issues raised and then explained his reasoning for those points. And there wasn't anything terribly radical about his suggestions and they didn't revolve around "World Eaters should have this" or "I can't make an Emperor's Children army because of that" either which was a real surprise. Anyway, check it out. I won't re-post what he's already gone over.

What I will do is talk about what I did with the information he posted. I took his suggestions, grabbed a digital copy of the Chaos Codex, grabbed some additional art work, loaded them into Photoshop and went to work to craft a revamped army list using the information that Marcus the Blackheart posted. So I present to you the army list for revamped Codex: Chaos Space Marines! Right click and select "Save as" to download.

the revamped Codex: Chaos Space Marines.

Basically the pages in this file would replace the HQ, Elites and Troops section from the normal Chaos Space Marines codex.

The only thing from Marcus' suggestions that I changed was I created a new unit, Chaos Legionaries. Basically, these are Marines who have been around since the heresy but don't fall into the category of being Cult marines, or Chosen. They're still more or less what they were when they were part of their respective legion.

I haven't had the chance to start play testing the changes yet, but I'm gonna try once I get the Chaos Models to put on the table. In the mean time, if any of you want to give it a whirl and post your thoughts on the changes here, I whole-heartedly encourage you to do so. Rest assured I will read the comments and take them into consideration when and if I make any edits to the file.

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The Perfect Space Wolf insult

This is an idea I originally came up a couple years ago for a counts as Thousand Sons unit. The idea is pretty straight forward: Enemy marines that have been captured have been handed over to the Dark Mechanicum and converted into combat servitors. Then in agreement with their Chaos Marine allies, they lead units of these lobotomized marines into combat. The AP 3 bolters is explained by saying they are using Vengence rounds in the bolters while the 5+ invulnerable is explainable by saying they use some sort of force field when in combat.

I sold the original servitor-wolves a while back when I sold my last Chaos army. But I'm starting another one and the whole servitorized captured space wolves that count as thousand sons.... god I just love that irony, I'm putting models of the space wolves on the table that count as thousand sons all it really needs is for them to be lead by a Dark Angels Librarian (hmmm....).... anyway. Sorry ADHD kicking in there. I really love this idea so I'm revisiting it. Last time I got hung up on the counts as aspiring sorcerer model. Well I think I've got it hammered out:

The Adept of the Dark Mechanicum counts at an aspiring Sorcerer.

The mecha-axe is way bigger then I originally thought it would be, but after building the model and looking at it I've found I like it more like this. Gives this look of an over-burdened menial level worker. Like he pissed off his magos so he got assigned to lead the combat servitors into battle in agreement with whatever Chaos lord we're serving this week.

"But master, I am no warrior. I have no weapons." he pleads.

"Error! Condition: No weapons. Rectified." The Dark Magos tones in his digital logic influenced speak as he shoves the Atomic Glave at the menial.

"But... my lord... I can not wield such a weapon." The menial whines.

"Statement: Unable to wield weapon. Condition: True. Subject: Verehnass Omicron Psi 91168. Conclusion: Learn. Communication status: Terminated!" The Dark Magos replies coldly.

Anyway, the model itself is based on the Cairn Wraith model, though it's been rather extensively modified. The only parts from the model I actually used were the cloak and skull face. Everything else was added. I stuck a big wad of Green stuff into the empty cavity to give me a body to work with. Then I took a pair of mechanical legs from Anvil Industries Bionic Legs set and cut the legs from the groin and use wire to mount the legs into the green stuff. I had to cut and chop down the length of the cloak on the model to allow it to accommodate the fact that it's not going to be floating any more. Once the legs where mounted I went to work on the mecha-dendrites. I used a set of Servo Skulls from Forge World  and added the small tools to the end of the tubing I got from Dragon Forge Design. Bending the tubing proved to be a new exercise for me. I used a series of pen bodies, and tool handles of various sizes to provide a form to bend the cables around that way it would 'coil' as opposed to bend. For the left hand... er.... thing, I decided to go with something a bit different and took a small section of medium sized tubing, drilled out a hole in the center of the tubing and glued in a set of three segments of small wire. My intent was to make it look like the adepts hand disassembled and this data connection/micro manipulator/whatever extended out of his wrist. Not sure I succeeded or not.

The weapon was a whole different ball game. I got the axe it self from Max Mini's Steam Punk weapons line, cut down the length of the shaft to better accommodate the size of the model and went to work on the head (jesus that sounds like a lead in for a bad porno). The Emitter Matrix is made from a cut down section of a Necron sniper rifle and then attached to the back of the axe head.

Wow, I just listed off parts that I got from 5 separate companies. I gotta say that kinda surprises me. Anyway, I'm gonna try and base it later today.

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Well here I am

Greetings once again all. So some good news/bad news time. Since I prefer the approach of "Bad news first that way the good news sounds that much better" I'm gonna start with with that.

I lost my regular job, yeah the one where I made about $2k a month.

I wasn't fired, the company went through a re-org to stream line a lot of things and my position was one of the ones that got eliminated. Because of my pay rate at the time I wasn't able to take any of the job openings at the time with out a major pay cut and the company was obligated to offer me the same pay rate I was presently getting. So why pay a guy $2k a month to do a job when we can pay someone else $1250 a month to do the exact same job? Yeah, I can't say I fault them. Given the situation I would likely have made the exact same choice. So since I was laid off, as opposed to terminated, I got a pretty nice severance package so I'm not exactly hurting in the money department right now. But I am without regular income. I still have my side jobs and free lance work so I have money coming in, but yeah.

So what's the good news? Got more time for my hobby stuff. Which is kind of a good thing actually because I'm coming down to the wire on getting ready for the Apocalypse game. I've been working with a friend to get the large scale terrain materials completed but her schedule and mine hadn't been syncing up terribly well previously do to school and work between the two of us. But with my schedule freeing up the way it has been it makes it easier to sync up now. I've still got a fair amount of work to do on the terrain. The war wall needs to be finished being built and then painted, the orbital defense laser needs to be built and painted, the orbital lander like wise needs to be built and painted. The annoying problem with these projects is that there are sections where all you can do is wait for the glue to dry. And by large sections I mean like 1-2 days. So yeah... makes it interesting.

Now, has you all know I have an incredibly bad case of ADHD when it comes to projects so yes I will be working on the stuff for the apoc ga... SQUIRREL!

Sorry what was I saying? Oh right, what I'm working on.

Well a while back I did a HelBrute conversion with a Twin-linked Lascannon. You'll remember that this was back when all we really had was the HelBrute from the Dark Vengeance set. And then later I rebuilt another Helbrute to have two power fists. Well I've been working on painting them. Oh and the standard HelBrute from the DV kit as well. I mostly finished the Dark Vengeance Helbrute already, minus the tentacles on the side that is.

The Dark Vengeance HelBrute in Crimson Slaughter Colors

I need to get a good base color for purple on the tentacle. Surprise surprise I don't have one. But with that one largely done I was ready to start on the other two:

The three Crimson Slaughter HelBrutes!

The other two helbrutes are only base colored so far but I am working on them in spurts.

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