Way back in 2007, I started putting together a Chaos Space Marine army for Epic, starting with a Ravager Titan. Strictly speaking, the Chaos Marines weren’t my very first epic army; I already had a small force of Imperial Marines comprised mostly of the models that came in the 3rd-edition Epic 40,000 box. Still, they were the first army I started painting for the 4th Edition, and the first that I actually played any great number of games with. However, about a year and a half later, when I left Southampton and stopped playing Epic on any regular basis, the army was still only about half painted.

I came back to the army in 2009, and over the course of a couple of months I filled in the gaps, touched up a few things, added some new units. By September, I had a 6,000-point army fully painted.

Then, in 2010, I returned to the army again. Although I kept going for a little while after this blog post, I stalled before I reached my intended total of 10,000 points and so the army remained unfinished.

When I returned to painting in 2014, I decided to focus on my other armies before I moved on to this one, and so it was not until last year that I finally got around to working on the Chaos Marines again. By this time the army list had been re-organised slightly, and in order to make the army legal again I would need to make some more additions. I also wanted to add some units so that I could also use the army with the Red Corsairs army list as well as the Black Legion.

With a painting schedule that was sporadic, and with large gaps where my attention shifted to other projects, painting up the remaining models has taken almost a year. But now, at last, the army is completely finished!

Although I’ve posted pictures of quite a lot of the army before, they’ve been of variable quality and I have re-organised things a little bit since, so rather than separating out the new stuff from the old, I’m just going to post shots of everything and note as I go when it was painted.

I’ll start with the army’s commanders. First, this Chaos Warlord, which was one of the first infantry units I painted for the army in 2007.

This Daemon Prince unit was added in 2010. It’s a Warmaster model, although I’ve added two terminator models to the base so that it counts as an infantry unit in Epic (the rules require 3-7 models to a base). I think that the Daemon Prince unit is actually supposed to represent something a bit smaller than this, but I think that the model looks good enough to get away with it.

Moving on to the core formations, I have four retinues of Chaos Space Marine infantry. Two of them were painted in 2009, the other two in 2010. Each has the option of either a Lord or a Sorcerer Lord to lead it and an optional Icon Bearer who can be swapped in or out as needed. There are also two Chaos Champions who can also be swapped in. Three of the retinues have Rhinos to transport them; those that do have a special custom Rhino for each character.

I also have three Armoured Companies. I initially painted a company of Land Raiders in 2007, then expanded it to 8 models in 2010. Last year I added a company of 8 Chaos Predators, which I put together using plastic Rhinos and some 3D-printed parts from Shapeways. I finally added a second company of 8 Land Raiders this year.

Also added this year were these two Chaos Vindicators. The models are the first-generation metal Vindicator models from back in the day, but with bulldozer blades added from Shapeways, as having a large armoured ram has become a defining feature of this unit in recent years.

Although this is not a Thousand Sons army, it is dedicated to the Chaos God Tzeentch, so I have included some allied Thousand Sons units, with dedicated Rhino transports. The sorcerer models here do not represent characters, just the Aspiring Sorcerers who lead squads of Rubric Marines according to the background. Although I painted a single stand (and the Rhinos) in 2007, the other three units were not completed until 2009.

Also available to be added to other formations are these Havoc units. I have enough to upgrade three formations. The first group were painted in 2009, the other two in 2010. The top-knots are painted black instead of red to make them easier to distinguish from regular Chaos Space Marines.

However, recent revisions to the army list have also allowed Havoc formations of four units, including a Chaos Lord character and with an option for an Icon Bearer, so last year I added some character stands:

Two of these Obliterator units were converted and painted in 2007, the third I added last year. They are based on Colossus-class Imperial Robots, with shoulder pads from Space Marine Terminators, weapons from various sources, and fleshy bits sculpted from putty.

These Chaos Terminators were painted in 2009.

These two formations of Chosen are painted in camouflage colours (except for the shoulder pads) to reflect their role as scouts. One was painted in 2009; I added a second in 2010.

When I came back to painting in 2014, I first intended that I would work on both this army and my Eldar in parallel, alternating between one and the other. This idea fell by the wayside, but I did get these dreadnoughts painted before I started to concentrate fully on the Eldar. These old models are a bit of an oddity. They are based on the Dreadnoughts from Space Crusade rather than anything that has ever appeared in the Warhammer 40,000 game, and as far as I know they were only ever available as part of a sprue that also featured an Ork Stompa, two Eldar Dreadnoughts, an Ork Dreadnought, two Space Marine Dreadnoughts (in a design that did not appear in 40k until Forge World released their Contemptor Dreadnought), two Space Marine Terminators, an Ork Shokk Attack Gun, a Mole Mortar and four Chaos Androids (also from Space Crusade). I can’t remember how many of these sprues came in a box.

When I first started putting the army together in 2007, not only were there no genuine Defiler models available but there were no particularly good proxies available, either. The best I could come up with were these Daemon Knights, based on Imperial Knights Paladin. I originally only made three, but I added a fourth in 2010.

Since then, Troublemaker Games have released these ‘Cybershadows Warcrabs’, which make perfect proxies for Defilers. Troublemaker Games are now defunct, but their range of 6mm models is available from Vanguard Miniatures. I painted both of these formations this year.

I painted the first of my Chaos Bike Companies back in 2007, but re-based them and tweaked the paint job in 2009. This year I added another two companies. These are just the old plastic Space Marine Bikes, painted to match the rest of the army.

Again, the Raptor Cult is just made up of Imperial Space Marine Assault troops, painted in Chaos colours.

Moving on to the support section, here’s the model that started it all, the Ravager Titan, based on Forge World’s Lucius Pattern Reaver. I originally converted and painted it back in February 2007, but I re-based it and re-painted some sections in 2010:

Dwarfing the Ravager is this Warplord Titan from 2010.

And completing the set of Chaos Titans are these two Ferals, again from 2010 and based on Forge World’s Warhounds:

The Chaos army also has some other War Engines available to it. I converted this squadron of Death Wheels in 2010, although I completely ripped off the design from someone else.

These Decimators were converted in 2007, but I only painted two of them at the time. I added a third and touched up the paint on the other two in 2009.

For air support, I have these Hell Talon fighter-bombers, painted in 2009, and Hellblade fighters, which I added in 2010.

I also have a variety of Daemons in support. Firstly, this Lord of Change, which I painted in 2009, but made some minor adjustments to in 2010.

I also have these 16 Flamers of Tzeentch. Half were painted in 2009, the other half I added in 2010.

These six Screamers were the last thing I painted for this army in 2010 before drifting off to focus on other things. They count as Daemonic Beasts in the army list. Like the Daemon Prince, they were originally for Warmaster, but aren’t so large as to look wrong in Epic.

Also in 2009 I made these three custom objective markers to go with the army:

This is almost everything, and under the Black Legion army list it adds up to a total of 12,465 points. But I was also keen to try out the Red Corsairs list, which includes a few units that aren’t available to the Black Legion, so I added a few additional units to the army. Even though they don’t appear in the Black Legion army list, they can mostly be used to represent units that do if necessary.

In the Red Corsairs list, in addition to being taken as an upgrade to Retinues, Thousand Sons can also be taken as a 6-unit formation, with a Chaos Lord or Sorcerer Lord character. So back in 2010 I added these additional units. Although I intend to use him to represent a Sorcerer Lord, I have used the Chaos Lord model here to distinguish him from the Aspiring Sorcerers in the other units.

All the other units I painted in the last couple of months. Firstly, these four Chaos Hunters for anti-air support. As with the Predators, they’re made using plastic Rhinos with extra parts from Shapeways. If I want to use them in the Black Legion army list, they can proxy as a company of four Chaos Predators.

Sometimes what you really need is a small castle full of wizards, built on the back of a giant flying mushroom. Hence these Silver Towers. These are a bit trickier to find an equivalent for in the Black Legion list, but they could probably pass as Defilers at a push.

Last of all is this Thunderhawk Gunship, with modified rear undercarriage. This is the most difficult model to find a proxy for in the Black Legion list. The only other large aircraft in the list is the Harbinger Bomber, which is also the only unit for which I have no model (they’re pretty rare and very expensive). Accordingly, that is what I’ll count it as in the list.

With these additions, the army comes to a whopping 13,340 points, making it my largest army in total.

Using the current Black Legion list from the NetEA Tournament pack:

Retinue (Chaos Lord) Chaos Warlord Icon Bearer 3 Dreadnoughts 3 Obliterators	275   50 25 150 225
Retinue (Chaos Sorcerer Lord) Chaos Champion Icon Bearer Havocs 6 Rhinos	275   50 25 150 60
Retinue (Chaos Lord) Chaos Champion Icon Bearer Havocs 6 Rhinos	275   50 25 150 60
Retinue (Chaos Sorcerer Lord) Icon Bearer Cult Marines (Thousand Sons) 6 Rhinos	275   25 150 60
Armoured Company 8 Chaos Land Raiders	600
Armoured Company 8 Chaos Land Raiders	600
Armoured Company 8 Chaos Predators 2 Chaos Vindicators	400 70
Chaos Hunters (Counts as Armoured Company 4 Chaos Predators)	200
Chaos Terminators (6 units) Daemon Prince Chaos Champion Icon Bearer 2 Dreadnoughts	395   50 25 100
Chaos Terminators (6 units) (Chaos Lord) Chaos Champion Icon Bearer 3 Dreadnoughts	395 50 50 25 150
Chosen 2 Rhinos	125 20
Chosen 2 Rhinos	125 20
Bike Company (Chaos Lord) Icon Bearer	300   25
Bike Company (Chaos Lord)	300
Bike Company (Chaos Lord)	300
Defiler Assault Pack	275
Defiler Assault Pack	275
Defiler Assault Pack	275
Silver Towers (Count as Defiler Assault Pack)	275
Raptor Cult (8 units) (Chaos Lord)	315
Havocs (Chaos Sorcerer Lord) Icon Bearer 2 Rhinos	225   25 20
Havocs (Chaos Sorcerer Lord) Icon Bearer 2 Rhinos	225   25 20
Warplord Titan	800
Ravager Titan	600
Feral Titan	275
Feral Titan	275
Decimators 3 Decimators	675
Death Wheel Squadron 3 Death Wheels	825
Three Hellblade Fighters	200
Two Hell Talon Fighter-Bombers	225
Chaos Thunderhawk (Counts as Harbinger Bomber)	400
Daemon Pool 22 Lesser Daemons 1 Greater Daemon	330 50
Total	13,340

So that’s it. After nine years, my Chaos army is finally complete. With my AMTL and Eldar armies also entirely finished, this is now the first time since 2007 that I haven’t had an Epic army on the go.

This leaves the question of what to paint next. I have models for Space Marine, Ork and Imperial guard armies for Epic, and I don’t really know which to do first. I think the Marines would be the quickest and easiest to paint, and thus the ones that I’d be most likely to get finished. I already have a 3000-point army planned out as a starting point. So those are tempting. On the other hand, Orks are the most different from what I’ve done before, so might be the most interesting.

Fortunately, I don’t have to decide immediately. I don’t plan on painting any more Epic models straight away. Instead, I’m going to paint a few 30mm miniatures first. They will be the first 28/30mm figures I’ve painted since 2010.