My Daemons of Chaos collection is essentially a collection of 4 separate armies; one representing each of the patron dieties.  The Warriors of Chaos are not as specific to a single patron as the Daemons are, therefore, this collection isn't as diverse (although the model count is somewhat larger).  Never the less, as a player who cut his teeth on 3rd Edition Warhammer where Chaos warbands fought one another, I still maintain the ability to field armies dedicated to one patron.  This is done using the ranks of unmarked (common) Chaos Warriors to represent the core troops and using the warriors who are painted in the patron's color scheme to play the role of the Chosen.  This gives me the bandwidth to declare all units as marked or unmarked as I deem fit.

 

At the same time, in the event I wish to field a combined army, most of the warriors remain unmarked while only those sporting the color scheme of a specific patron will be marked.

 

419 models

286 painted (65%)

Largest legal force I can play with entirely painted models:  9,000 points

Estimated goal strength for the collection when completed:  14,000 points

 

 

What better model to lead off with than Archaon the Everchosen himself?  This model was actually picked up off EBay for a very respectable price as one of those "deals you can't refuse."  Considering he is not used that often, I didn't feel I was sacrificing anything in purchasing him.  Never the less, Archaon is also useful as a Chaos Lord on a Daemonic Mount.

 

This large model is an old, lead "Guardian Dragon" produced by Grenedier dating back to our Dungeons & Dragons days of the 1980's.  Rather than scrap such a unique model, I chose to draft it into service as my Chaos Dragon and propped the Ergrimm van Horstmann model on the back.  Because he represents a model with any Chaos mark, I chose not to give him his back banner.  Although the dragon could use some patching and new paint, it too doesn't get used often enough to justify the work at the present time.

 

This Lord of Khorne on a barded Chaos Steed is the work of Donny Furbush.  It is a 4th Edition model.  Although I have the later Edition Chaos Lord on a barded mount, this model has proven effective to date.  Usually my Khorne characters are mounted on Juggernauts, which appear on the Daemons of Chaos page.

 

These two images show my Lord of Nurgle.  Because this model comes on a larger base, it too can be used as a barded warhorse or Daemonic Mount. 

 

After waffling for years about the color scheme for my warriors of Slaanesh, I finally settled on this theme with black armor and pink (or purple) trim.  Too often I struggled with color schemes that seemed too close to Tzeentch, but discovered the black armor separated these models from the pink and blue worshipers of change.  So far, this is the only Slaanesh-marked model I have completed that uses this color scheme.

 

The newest (and largest) Disk Rider of Tzeentch gets to play the role of the Tzeentch Lord on a Disk. 

This model is an EBay purchase.

 

This model fills the role of Tzeentch Lord or Champion of Tzeentch on a Daemonic Mount (instead of a Disk).  The model is a 3rd Edition metal Chaos Champion mounted on a vintage metal Gorka Morka Digga steed.  (These made great Daemonic mounts, of which I have two).  The paint scheme on the Tzeentch Champion came from the days when this model was a character in a Chaos Warband (and wasn't always a Tzeentch follower).  The rider, older than the steed, was painted before I had the skill to add eyes to a helmed model.

 

For the sake of classification I usually count mounted Sorcerers as Lords (since the models on foot are so much more plentiful).  This sorcerer was kept with a basic black, Chaos design so that he could function as an unmarked Sorcerer, or carry the mark of Slaanesh or Nurgle.

 

One specific theme that I am working on (and haven't yet broken off to a different army collection) is an all-Marauder army based on one of the semi-civilized Kurgan tribes that range just outside the boundaries of the Old World.  These armies will be almost entirely made up of Marauder warriors, accompanied by some unique Barbarian and Chaos Thug models collected from ages past.  This is a Grenedier model (looks a lot like Conan the Barbarian) that I use in such scenarios as a Marauder Lord to lead these armies.  I use the rules for a Daemonic Steed to represent the big cat.

 

Aekold Helbrass was always a popular model in my collection.  If not functioning as the Special Character himself, he fills in nicely for a Tzeentch character on foot, a unit champion, or even a standard bearer on account of his back banner.  The banner itself is scanned from an old Chaos book.  I believe it was originally Ergrimm van Horstmann's back banner,

 

This Champion of Khorne model, from the 6th Edition, was painted by Joshua Lyons.  The pose is very similar to the Games Day Limited Edition model of that particular year.

 

This vintage Champion of Slaanesh is another Josh Lyons model.  This one dates back to the 3rd Edition and sports a paint scheme that is almost as old as the model itself (Josh was a superior painter to the rest of us back in the day).

 

While we're on the subject of Slaanesh, I chose to adopt these Dungeons & Dragons models into the Slaaneshi army as Sorcerers.  The model on the left is a Roper and on the right is the tell-tale Mindflayer (also called an Ithilid).  Both of these are old Grenedier lead models.  I like the prospect of keeping the Mind Flayer as a mutated Sorcerer (since they were potent Psionicists in D&D), but I think the Roper is destined for the new (as of 7th Edition) unit of Forsaken.

 

The one in the middle is of unidentified origin who accidentally fell into the role of a Slaanesh Sorcerer when he posed as the "Lord of Darkness" leading a Chaos Warband 15 years ago.  As inappropriate as the model seems to be now, he led that warband for many months.  Thus, his role became secured as a Slaaneshi sorcerer.

 

While we're on the topic of Sorcerers, here are a pair of unaligned Sorcerers.  The model on the left was an EBay pick-up used for the Lores of Death and Shadow while the one on the right is a 3rd Edition model painted by Josh Lyons for the Lore of Fire. 

 

The Sorcerer on the left is a 4th Edition model that has also been painted up for the Lores of Death and Shadow.  The model on the right is a 3rd Edition Chaos model used for any lore.  This model spent a significant amount of time as my brother's D&D Wizard "Snive," so it was only fitting to keep the paint scheme and just touch the model up to keep it current (primarily a skin tone wash and painting over where the old paint had chipped off).

 

Moving on to the Lore of Tzeentch, this model is a 6th Edition Champion that has been used as a champion (since replacing Aekold in that role).  My Tzeentch warrior models all have a blue wash painted over their armor.

 

The Sorcerer of Tzeentch on the left is the same model as the Fire Sorcerer Joshua Lyons painted earlier.  This one is done up in a green livery, painted by my youngest brother Jeremy for Dungeons & Dragons decades ago.  The model on the right is a Kenku model (also for D&D) made by Reaper.  The bird head made a great likeness to the Lord of Change bird motif.

 

In "The Lost & the Damned" (3rd Edition Chaos tome) they claimed that yellow was also a color of Tzeentch.  Therefore, I chose to paint these 2 3rd Edition models in the same colors shown in that book.  The model on the left had a nifty set of wings in those warband days (taken from a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch), but I have not found a justification to duplicate that mutation (particularly while there are plenty of Disk riders about).  Like many of my 3rd Edition models, these were painted relatively recently.  I chose to do this (including stripping & repainting old models) rather than leave them painted in a lack-luster scheme.  This is particularly true of the Chosen Warriors units.

 

My first Disk Riding Champion of Tzeentch was also repainted more recently using the same color scheme found in The Lost and the Damned (except for the flamer base, which I painted to match my own scheme).  The Disk itself sports a much older and less impressive paint job.   Most Tzeentch models were sprayed with a Satin spray to make them shine, which seemed approrpriate due to their innate magical properties of their armor.

 

 

Of course, the base of any Chaos Warriors army are the warriors themselves.  This first unit is armed with hand weapon and shield and contains models from Citadel/Games Workshop (3rd through 6th Edition), Reaper, Grenedier and RAFM.  the banner is a pre-made stick-on from a banner sheet purchased in Florence, Italy.

 

 Here are some examples from that unit.  With the exception of the musician, which is a 6th Edition plastic model, the others are all 3rd Edition metal models with 6th Edition shields.  They were all stripped and repainted for this unit.

 

Chaos Warriors with an additional hand weapon have always been hard to rank up until the plastic 6th Edition models came out (with their arms tucked in close to their sides).  Therefore, most of this unit is made up of 6th Edition plastic models, although there are some earlier metal ones.  In particular, the two in the front left are 3rd Edition metal models that had to be mounted diagonally on a common base to work.  Behind them is a 3rd Edition gladiator-looking model.  The banner is hand-painted.

 

This close up shows some examples from the above unit.  The two in the Center are 6th Edition plastic models.  The one on the right is a 5th Edition plastic model (they tended to take up a lot more space in a unit rank).  The model on the left is converted from my old Blood Bowl team.

 

The third unit of Chaos Warriors is armed with Great Weapons.  None of these models come from the 6th Edition plastic set (I don't think those models had a Great Weapons option).  Like the first batch, these are a mix of 3rd-5th Edition models, REaper and Grenedier models.

 

Oops!  My mistake:  The Standard Bearer is a 6th Edition plastic model with the Chaos symbol painted on.  Next to him is a Reaper "Black Legionaires" model followed by a 3rd Edition metal GW warrior.  (Although he has been touched up, some of the original D&D paint scheme that my brother Jeremy put on remains.  I left the tell-tale purple markings on the side of his helmet).  The last model is one of several from (I believe) the Alternative Armies range called "Warrior Paladins" or something like that.  Although not as Chaos-looking as the Reaper Black Legionaires, they blend in well with the unit on account of their size and mass.

 

The last completed "unmarked" unit are these Chaos Warriors with Halberds.  Most of them are plastic models from the Battle Masters set, although the two front/center are from Reaper.  The next one over is a 3rd Edition Citadel model followed by the unit champion (wearing the cape) who is an old Grenedier model.  The Standard Bearer is a converted Blood Bowl model with a banner that came from the Chaos Banner sheet I picked up in Florence, Italy.

 

Moving on to the marauders, this first batch is from the 6th Edition plastic boxed set.  The banner is painted over a decal.

 

The second unit of hand weapon & shield marauders was originally the Bearmen of Urslo Dogs of War unit.  At the time, these 4th Edition metal models were the only ones armed with light armor and shield (all other 4th edition marauders wielded flails and wore no armor).  Recently, the Bear shields were replaced with shields from the 6th Edition box and they were remounted on standard 25mm bases (from the earlier 20mm bases) to blend them in with the rest of the army.  In addition, more plastic marauders were added to increase the size of the unit from it's original number of 12.

 

This close-up of the command group shows the original Bearmen of Urslo models (musician & standard bearer).  I replaced Boris Bearstruck with an old Chaos Thug (2nd Edition) painted by Pete Underwood to be the unit Champion.

 

This unit of 4th Edition Chaos Marauders with flails is still on the original 20mm bases (and needs to be remounted).  Most of these models are metal, but I also added on to this unit with plastic marauders from the 6th Edition box to bring it up to a strength of 20.  Like the others, this banner came from that Chaos Banner sheet.

 

As you would expect my Chaos Hounds are also a diverse bunch based on whatever cool models I discovered along the way.  This first batch is made up mostly of models from a Wizards of the Coast series (they sold them in individual boxes with a data card).  The green beastie on the near end is an old Grenedier model.

 

This second group has another Grenedier beastie on the end.  The rest are Kroot Hounds that I chose to keep from my long-since sold off Tau army from Warhammer 40K. 

 

This third bacth mostly consists of 2-headed hounds from Ral Partha that date back to Dungeons & Dragons days.  There are also a pair of hounds from Grendel (that used to have hobogblin riders) and a War Dog from my Mordheim Witch Hunters' warband.  The War Dog and Grendel hounds are slated to be moved to a dog pack as part of my Kislevite Army.

 

I think I mention in every Showcase that sports Fast Cavalry how much I hate painting basic horses.  In particular, I dislike how time consuming it is to do the harness straps on all of them.  With this in mind, this first batch of mounted Marauders came from EBay (with the exception of the one on the far right).

 

Likewise, this second batch is also an EBay acquisition.  For a time, I considered making an army entirely of mounted marauders (representing the horse tribes of the East) before tapping my historical Mongol/Hun army for the assignment.  Thus, I was eager to pick up all ready painted mounted marauders where ever I could find them.

 

I can claim that the most difficult unit was not purchased off EBay.  These models were converted using flails from the 6th Edition plastic marauders box.  However, the models themselves were painted by Josh Lyons.  (Yes, I managed to avoid painted all but one of my collection so far.  I still have 2 units to go.  Not sure if I will break down and finally do one of my own)

 

 

As I mentioned earlier, I am currently using my warrior units that sport the paint scheme (mark) of their patron God as Chosen Warriors.  These Warriors of Khorne are 5th Edition plastic models painted by Donny Furbush.  It includes a single metal model with great weapon, who functioned as the unit champion before I added the red & gray model with shield (a 3rd Edition metal model).  On the far right is another converted model from my Blood Bowl team.

 

My Nurgle Warriors are still in progress with only a hand-full of old models to represent the coming unit.  The model on the far left is a Grenedier model, the Shambling Mound on the right is also from my Grenedier Dungeons & Dragons collection.  I originally thought of him as a spawn, but he was a bit small.  With the 7th Edition book, he'd make a good Forsaken model (along with some of the other shambling beasties scattered about this list in other roles).  The 3 models in the middle are all 3rd Edition metal models.  The one on the left makes an appearance as a Nurgle Sorcerer in the current Warriors of Chaos book while the Thug on the right has avoided being sent back into the ranks of Marauders (so far).

 

At the moment, my Tzeentch Warriors are the pride of my collection as they are mostly old 3rd Edition models that have been repainted recently.  (In other words, my painting skills finally caught up to the quality of these great sculpts!)  Never the less, there are still a hand-full of other models by RAFM, Reaper, Grenedier and Alternative Armies in this unit.

 

This close up shows two of the vintage models.  The one on the right is a 40K conversion who used to have a laspistol in his extra hand.  I replaced the pistol with a 5th Edition plastic shield.

 

Here are two more models from the original 3rd Edition Tzeentch Champions collection.  I happened upon a lot of these models because my brother Jeremy found the beefy Chaos Warriors to make great Dungeons & Dragons fighters.  Then, of course, the 3rd Edition Chaos Warbands was really where I got into Warhammer in the early days and these warbands called for such diverse and unique character models.  At the time I was seeking to own all of the individual models.

 

This Standard Bearer of Tzeentch is a RAFM model who has since replaced Aekold as the standard bearer for the unit.  Although he is slightly under-sized, he spends all of his time hiding behind the Seeing Eye of Tzeentch banner anyway (which comes from that Chaos Banners sheet).

 

The only completed Chariot in the collection at the moment is this chariot of Khorne built by Donny Furbush.  It is converted from a RAFM chariot by adding a pair of Games Workshop barded warhorses and one of the 5th Edition plastic Warriors of Khorne from the previous unit.  Currently, there are a pair of Confrontation/Chronopia chariots waiting in the wings to usurp this model from its current role on the battlefield (it's never convenient having a chariot subject to frenzy as it has a tendency to get into places where it shouldn't go).

 

Chaos Ogres have only recently appeared in my Warriors of Chaos army (always being part of the Beastmen army before).  Of course, none of these models are Games Workshop models, since Chaos Ogres seemed to be a good place for retired Giants from the old Dungeons & Dragons days.  The female Ogre on the left and the Cyclops on the right come from unidentified sources.  The larger model (with shield) is a Frost Giant while many vintage D&D players may recognize the old Ral Partha Fire Giant (from that Fire Giant D&D module).  Of course, these are now all Ogre-sized models.

 

After acquiring my River Trolls from Tim Murray, I found myself holding these cool trolls made by Harlequin/Black Tree Design.  Although they were obviously aquatic, I decided to paint them with a little more bright colors and declared them "chaos trolls" since Troll Country on the map tends to be in the north (thus, the polar coloring).

 

My Chaos Knights come from 3 primary sources.  This group is my unmarked unit, primarily consisting of 4th Edition models (back when they had lances).  The model on the far right is a plastic Battle Masters model.

 

 

Above are close-ups of two of the models showing some of the detail I put into these knights.  The scroll work and insignia on the barding and champion's shield are all freehand.  The shield on the left and the skull on the barding are decals.

 

I had my reservations about painting my Knights of Khorne with red armor and barding as I was afraid it would look toy-like.  However, the results ended up being very satisfactory on account of 2 minor details I tended to:  First, as several of the models chipped while I was handling them, I chose to leave the chips off and detailed these chips to look like battle damage (like the red paint had been chipped off in battle).  Secondly, I coated them in a varnish coat to give them that "my armor is painted" look.  I learned these techniques after a brief period working on Space Marines (where I developed this technique).  These, of course, are the all-metal 6th Edition models.

 

My Knights of Nurgle have been modified using weapons from the Undead Zombie sprue.  These are also 5th Edition models.

 

The oldest of my marked knights are these Knights of Tzeentch.  The two on the right are Battle Masters models, the standard bearer is from the 4th Edition while the models on the left are Grenedier models.  The banner was scanned from my Lost & the Damned Chaos book.

 

This profile shot shows some of the hand painted detail I put on these knights.  The color scheme and scrawl work was inspired by artwork on the cover of an old Dragon magazine.  Only the shield is a decal.

 

Rare Units

 

So many spawn- so little time!  Coming from the days when your favorite Chaos Champion could be reduced to a Spawn at the whim of a patron God, I found that I had a lot of spawn models to use (several with each mark, just in case more than one champion was reduced to spawndom at any given time).  Chaos Spawn are also the best place to use those models that are hard to classify elsewhere.  For example, this vintage Screamer Carnifex from my old Tyranid army.  This model was originally done by my brother Duncan and rather than sell it with the rest of my tyranid army for pennies on the dollar, I chose to keep it as a Spawn (or D&D Umber Hulk) in the event I only had one spawn model in play (since he dwarfs the other models).

 

This collection of Dungeons & Dragons monsters by Grenedier were the first to join the ranks of my spawn.  From left, they are the Bullette, Rust Monster, Xorn and Umber Hulk.  These models are a little too big to place into the new Forsaken unit.

 

Scyla Anfingrimm makes another appearance in the 7th Edition Warriors of Chaos book.  He's gone through several variations over the years, but this one is the original dating back to the 4th Edition.  Because of his size and the base of the model it is most often used as the "Hound of Vengeance" upgrade for my Flesh Hounds of Khorne unit in the Daemons army.  However, his coloring is very different from the rest of the Flesh Hounds, which forces me to decide what I want to do with him in the future.  If he is to remain Scyla, he needs to be mounted on a larger "Spawn" base.

 

My Bloodbeasts of Khorne (Spawn with the mark of Khorne) are old Grenedier models from some space game (I forget the name).  For a while they functioned as Flesh Hounds since I hated the original Flesh Hound models.  But, when the need for larger units became apparent and these models were no longer available, they were declared "spawn" and banished to the Rare Unit section of the army list.

 

These two Nurgle Spawn are also inductees from the old Grenedier D&D days.  I think the model on the right is a late-model Shambling Mound while the one on the left is, maybe, a Mushroom Man.  These were both repainted recently on account of the old paint wearing off and making them look like mere globs of painted lead on the table.

 

Fiends of Slaanesh still fill the role of my Slaanesh Spawn, although all of the models appear in the Daemons of Chaos section (this picture was lifted from that page).  These are 3rd & 4th Edition conversions.

 

My Spawn of Tzeentch, (also known as Firewyrms of Tzeentch) are actually from Grendel's Kryomek range.  They were all practice models for painting students I had many years ago and, due to their brilliant colors, I chose to press them into service for the Lord of Change.  But, then again, what else would you use models like this for?

 

Although I still struggle with the purpose behind using the Hell Cannon in a Chaos army, I cannot deny my partiality to the model.  Of course, this model originated with the Storm of Chaos supplement in the 6th Edition and it became one of my favorite models in my collection.  It is also a good demonstration of the new Chaos Dwarf style.

 

This view shows the full crew and display base that I built for the model (using the template for the LOTR Mumak).  This is one of the few models that I painted before assembly on account of so many parts and components.

 

Not one to allow Games Workshop's Army Book rollover to render my collection obsolete, these are my Flayerkin (also from the Storm of Chaos period).  These models are conversions using Zombie bodies with claws from the Necron Flayer models (40K) and pieces of jeweler chain to connect them.  I still use them as a Rare Unit choice any time the Chaos army has to conduct a siege (as they were created to deal with the walls of enemy fortresses).

 

This close up shows how I have some of the models connected with the chain.  The chain is glued into one model and then looped over a pin in the other model.  This enables me to spread them out in skirmish formation on the table, yet I can still remove single models as casualties and store them in a foam Army Transport tray.

 

This War Mammoth is a heavy model made of lead by Grenedier.  It wa painted by my brother Duncan while I painted the crew.  It will be a Dogs of War unit (using Lizardman Stegadon rules) for Chaos Marauder armies, but in the meantime it is a fitting model to fill in for a Chaos Giant (many of the rules for the Forge World Mammoth are similar to those of the Giant).  This model isn't big enough to use those particular rules, which is why I intend on giving it the profile of a smaller model.

 

 

Chaos Thugs were a staple in the Chaos Army back in 3rd Edition when it all began for me.  At the time, they were the only missile-firing troops in the army.  Thus, we collected many of them.  They've collected dust for many years until I decided to go with a Marauder themed "Kurgan" army, at which time I will bring them back into the fold (probably as a Rare "Dogs of War" unit type).  Most of these models are by Grenedier.

 

This close-up of the command group shows a pair of the original Chaos Thugs painted by Pete Underwood.  They are joined by a Grenedier barbarian with bow painted by my brother Duncan from our 3rd Edition days.