Collecting the Army

The first models for my Chaos army consisted of boxed sets of Marauders, Chaos Warriors, Chaos Knights and chaos hounds. I have added quite a few miniatures since the beginning and started to experiment on conversions. With this Chaos army I originally started off collecting the units as followers of Tzeentch, but I found the winds of magic fickle. Since it originally started out as a Tzeentch army, I decided to have a couple of khorne units. This dictated the colour scheme for my miniatures toward blue and red, which worked out well. I kept the paint scheme and opted for Chaos Undivided with a touch of Khorne. This allowed me to choose from a wider variety of units. When playing Chaos army, I have found that Chosen Warriors and Knights are really effective in combat. I have yet to try an army with a large number of Marauders; these relatively cheap units can be quite well equipped and are reasonably good troops in combat.

I am fairly traditional in my painting and construction of miniatures. I enjoyed looking through the Chaos army book to get ideas and colour schemes for my army. From the start I have generally favoured a Chaos mortal army with some Beastman units. I believe that these are a great addition to any Chaos army.

All miniatures were undercoated black, and then lightly dry brushed with white. They were painted before the shields were glued in place. The shield was then painted.

Chaos Warriors and Knights

The Khorne Chaos Warriors and Knights were given a coat of Scorched Brown, followed by highlights of Blood Red, Blazing Orange and Skull White. I often mix my paints to build up the highlights. The cloaks were also undercoated Scorched Brown, Bleached Bone and finally Skull White. For weapons and other metallic parts Mithril Silver and Shining Gold was used, in each case Black and Brown was used respectively.

I almost always take the unit of Chosen Khorne Knights because it gives me a unit capable of nineteen strength five attacks as well as the horse attacks. This is usually devastating to the opposition, in some circumstances they can take out half an army. However, this only occurs if they make it to combat; magic and missiles can reduce well laid plans to dust.

Marauders and beastmen

Once again Scorched Brown was used as a base coat and then Dwarf Flesh followed by Elf Flesh as a highlight. The Marauders are quite useful for drawing out opposition units. One unit is equipped with hand weapons, light armour and shield, this gives them a save of 4+ in combat. I often use them on the flanks as a general support for my Warriors or Knights. The fur on my Beastmen has been painted Bleached Bone and then covered in Brown ink. These skirmishers are useful in slowing done oppositions units or harassing enemy flanks.

Hellcannon

The Hellcannon is one of the few miniatures that I painted prior to assembly. The main body of the cannon was put together and dry brushed with Beaten Copper. Then Jade Green was randomly applied in the grooves. It was further dry brushed with a mixture of Beaten Copper and Mithril Silver. Then it was lightly covered in Brown ink. This is a great choice when it works, but not so great when it wants to eat your army after the crew are killed in the first turn. My opponent had a great laugh watching me trying to run away from my own war machine!

Lords of Chaos

In my standard 2000 point army I tend to have only exalted and aspiring champions, three at most. My latest general is Asgeir ( Chaos Undivided exalted champion ), who is riding a Daemonic steed. The inspiration for this was the Storm of Chaos Champaign where an exotic beast has been claimed as part of the spoils of war and bent to the will of Chaos. I think the Carnosaur is a great miniature and I needed a Daemonic Steed to represent Chaos Undivided. Overall I was quite happy with the result. It took me three days to put the model together and a further three to paint the miniature. The other two aspiring champions of Chaos Dhaoserik - Chaos Undivided and Audkhar - Khorne are placed within units to offer further support.

Shaggoth

It took me a while to paint this miniature. A lot of the painting techniques I have already described were used on this miniature and some others ( too many to list ). I was quite happy with the overall effect. The Shaggoth is quite an expensive option in any army but it looks great and is imposing. It also draws a lot of fire which can be a good thing as it is quite hard to kill and has the added bonus of allowing other hard hitting expensive units to get into combat untouched. The funniest thing my Shaggoth has done was charge a large unit of Gnoblars where it only did one wound, lost combat, ran away and got run down. Oh, the shame.