Desecrating Power Armor+Fluff+Color Scheme Help?

[KhornishGameHen]

Hello everyone! I really hope this was the right place to post this, but it seemed the most appropriate (my apologies if it is not, I'd be happy to move it somewhere that is better suited if there is one)!

I recently acquired a second-hand chaos army, and have been working at making them into a full-fledged battle-force. This however has led to three questions I am in need of answering, how to desecrate power armor, is my fluff up to snuff, and how can I achieve the paint-scheme style I desire?

Desecrating Power Armor:

The army so far is great, however many of the marines I received are normal tactical marines and not chaos. Other than adding some chaos-y bits/spikes/etc., what can I do to the power armor to make it look desecrated? I've heard this mentioned many times, but have never seen examples or guides. I attempted scratching/marking the Aquilas with a knife and it just looked ugly, and my one attempt to completely remove the Imperial symbols and smooth them over makes me question doing it again (it left a big empty space on the marine's chest, which when it was painted draws a lot of attention and looks it looks way too empty).

Does anyone have tips for desecrating the armor in a way which still leaves it appealing to look at?

Fluff:

I love 40K fluff, especially Chaos fluff, and have been devouring it since I got into the hobby in the last half a year or so, and due to this I really wanted to create my own Chaos Warband. I also fell in love with the White Scars background, so naturally I mixed the two things I liked into something new!

I created a Chaos Warband based around the story of Jagahtai Khan and his lost Warriors who went into the Webway to hunt the Dark Eldar, they went missing, so the fluff of my Warband is that they have now returned (the strange time-effects of the Webway mixed with Warp-antics corrupting them). Now that they have returned (with Jagahtai having split off from the main force and still remaining lost), they are disciples of Chaos Undivided and blame the Imperium for drawing them away from their homeworld when it was attacked in the first place. This initial hatred has warped further and further, leading them to worship what they now deem the most powerful forces in the universe, the Chaos gods. They view all of the Chaos Warbands like tribes and seek the unification of all Chaos together (despite the objections of some), being very evangelical and fanatical. They'll recruit just about anyone they can get their hands on, and accept all forms of Chaos worship which don't stand in their way.

To continue the tradition of the White Scars self mutilation, they now shove spikes into their armor to cause bleeding and incessant pain/scarring, which they believe hardens them and pleases the Gods. The most blessed of the marines have living spikes growing from their own bodies which accomplish this, and grow bigger the more blood they gorge on. The ultimately blessed (aside from Daemonhood of course) have their armor come alive and bleed with them, becoming a living carapace of reforming blood and gore. This bleeding stains their armor and marks the main bulk of the army. Cult Marines, such as Plague/Sound/etc. are not forced to do this, as it is said they honor the gods in their own ways.

Is this all ok Fluff-wise? I've been reading heavily into White Scars and the like and think I know what I'm doing, but I would hate to make an entire army based around this fluff only to find out I missed or forgot a detail which ruins the continuity of my army's backstory. I'm still new to 40K, and I just want to make sure I have my facts straight before diving head-first into a project.

Warband Symbol: http://i.gyazo.com/ec56f01251f829c8637d004090e2e60d.png
Warband Symbol (for banners/vehicles): http://i.gyazo.com/abd2523c696cd739cf662f7bb5388210.png

If anything seems wrong, could use some work, if something is lacking or doesn't make sense or the like, please tell me, critique is most definitely wanted!

Color Scheme:

Now... the fluff is the easy part, the hard part is the color-scheme... I like the idea of an altered version of the White Scar's colors (white, red, a little black and a little yellow), but to make it so the bleeding is a big part of the color-scheme. But I hear white is horrible to paint and work with... Am I getting way in over my head wanting to do an all white army, or is there a way around the difficulties white brings? How can one achieve the look of realistic bleeding?

I like the idea of the vehicles having living hulls perhaps, and bleeding when shot as well, being an alternate representation of Daemonic Possession.

Or would I be better going in a totally different painting direction? I like Iron Warriors style and wouldn't mind modifying it, but the steel coloration isn't always very eye catching and might not work well with the backstory for the Warband. I also tried creating a completely different style using red/purple/gold which was OK but not something I felt was really great (nor that fitting for the Warband once again).

Cultists, marines, vehicles and the like will all have this coloration, the only ones not receiving this would be cult marines.

Any suggestions in this department would be greatly appreciated, I love painting but the issue of a full out color-scheme is really causing me troubles and leading me to question this project altogether sadly. :(

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In conclusion, I apologize for the wall of text above! If you've actually read through the whole thing, thank you! If you plan on commenting, double thank you!

[Anggul]

I like your fluff, it sounds really cool.

With the newer paints white is definitely easier to pain than it used to be. Just be patient and do multiple very thin layers.

[Morgrim]

Clean smooth white can be hard, yes. However dirty white or greyish white isn't too bad, certainly no worse than something like vivid yellow. And I think that works better for your fluff anyway. A pale primer, a layer or two of a white/pale grey/bone foundation paint (depending on the colour scheme you're going for), a thin wash and a white drydrush gives a nice slightly gritty white that would suit and isn't too difficult or time consuming. It'd also make a solid base for the red and yellow tones.

Apparently the blood technical paint works quite well but I haven't used it. A little around the base of any major spikes and dragged down with the tip of a toothpick would probably do the trick, but try it on a test model first.

[Charistoph]

Clean smooth white can be hard, yes. However dirty white or greyish white isn't too bad, certainly no worse than something like vivid yellow. And I think that works better for your fluff anyway. A pale primer, a layer or two of a white/pale grey/bone foundation paint (depending on the colour scheme you're going for), a thin wash and a white drydrush gives a nice slightly gritty white that would suit and isn't too difficult or time consuming. It'd also make a solid base for the red and yellow tones.

Apparently the blood technical paint works quite well but I haven't used it. A little around the base of any major spikes and dragged down with the tip of a toothpick would probably do the trick, but try it on a test model first.

Also don't forget the effectiveness of a red wash around the technical paint to indicate where blood splashed before and just hasn't been buff out, yet.

[KhornishGameHen]

I like your fluff, it sounds really cool.

With the newer paints white is definitely easier to pain than it used to be. Just be patient and do multiple very thin layers.

Thanks! Glad to hear the fluff seems to check out!

Good to know the newer whites handle a bit better, I keep hearing from people how horrible they are, but maybe this isn't the case as much anymore.


Clean smooth white can be hard, yes. However dirty white or greyish white isn't too bad, certainly no worse than something like vivid yellow. And I think that works better for your fluff anyway. A pale primer, a layer or two of a white/pale grey/bone foundation paint (depending on the colour scheme you're going for), a thin wash and a white drydrush gives a nice slightly gritty white that would suit and isn't too difficult or time consuming. It'd also make a solid base for the red and yellow tones.

Apparently the blood technical paint works quite well but I haven't used it. A little around the base of any major spikes and dragged down with the tip of a toothpick would probably do the trick, but try it on a test model first.

Hmm, I'll have to make sure to practice priming with white to help with the layering, I've been priming grey, but that might cause me trouble if I start painting with white. I like the idea of using a dirtier white, so I'll definitely give that a try! I'll make sure to look into the technical paint as well, I haven't really tested that out yet.

Thank you for all the advice, it is very appreciated! :)


Also don't forget the effectiveness of a red wash around the technical paint to indicate where blood splashed before and just hasn't been buff out, yet.

Ohh, also a great idea! Thank you as well!

[IeuanBrown]

I love your fluff, i think its really interesting and really adds to the army. I originally started out with chaos about 8 years ago and it's still one of my favourite races (recently started tyranids) i think you should really go with an of white colour/ light grey, to make the armour look worn and distressed. I especially like the ideas of the living spikes, and the new 'Blood for the Blood God' paint is extremely good and with a wash of carroburg crimson around the area would look great. However maybe you should make the spikes more rotting or decaying by using the new 'Nurgles Rot' paint even though your doesn't solely worship nurgle it would add to the perception of the spikes being alive. For the cultists i would go for a contrasting colour to the main CSM army like maybe a red even a yellow.

[Path Walker]

Priming Grey is actually a really good idea when you want a dirty white model, you can build up from a grey to a white nicely, then weather and add blood around spikes.

I'd recomened keeping the blood effects subtle, too much can start to look cartoonish.

[KhornishGameHen]

I love your fluff, i think its really interesting and really adds to the army. I originally started out with chaos about 8 years ago and it's still one of my favourite races (recently started tyranids) i think you should really go with an of white colour/ light grey, to make the armour look worn and distressed. I especially like the ideas of the living spikes, and the new 'Blood for the Blood God' paint is extremely good and with a wash of carroburg crimson around the area would look great. However maybe you should make the spikes more rotting or decaying by using the new 'Nurgles Rot' paint even though your doesn't solely worship nurgle it would add to the perception of the spikes being alive. For the cultists i would go for a contrasting colour to the main CSM army like maybe a red even a yellow.


Thank you! That is a really big thing for me is getting the army to feel right and have as much of a fluff focus as anything else! I love Chaos as well (haven't been winning much with them, but I'm also very new to playing the game, haha!), so creating a full army to use for Chaos is a big goal of mine. I hope to eventually create an allied attachment of Daemons which will work with this army as well

The Blood For the Blood God paint is definitely something I have to try out, I've been slacking on my first project (painting my brother's Space Hulk set), so my chaos army (I think I might be naming them "Blood Horde", but that is a working name for now) is languishing sadly.

Ohh, I really like that idea, it would give contrast to the other colors and make the spikes stand out much more! Thank you for that!

Hmm, cultists will need some experimenting, but I like where you are going with the idea!


Priming Grey is actually a really good idea when you want a dirty white model, you can build up from a grey to a white nicely, then weather and add blood around spikes.

I'd recomened keeping the blood effects subtle, too much can start to look cartoonish.

Glad to hear since I've had great results using grey so far! I can see how multiple types of white could blend over a grey to create a dirty look, but I'll have to give it an actual test soon to see how it goes!

I hear you there, my first experience with blood effects was while painting Khorne Berzerkers, putting blood splatter on their chainswords, and I had to be very minimalist to make it look realistic