Epic 40K Chaos (Tzeentch) Army - Part1

Introduction

This is my Chaos Epic project which began with a casual conversation followed by a gift of some standard Space Marines and vehicles. I missed Epic when it was originally released and now 20 years later here I am. Most of my 40K knowledge is from Rogue Trader days where Traitor marines were just Epic figures painted differently. Although there's nothing wrong with standard loyalist Marines, I decided to have some fun and convert them to a traitor marine army. Next I chose a god and I went with Tzeentch mostly because I like a bright colour schemes in 6mm and the Thousand Sons meet that criteria!

Tracking down some of the original Chaos models can get expensive so I looked alternate figures from companies such as Vanguard. Before settling on a chaos god I did a test paint of a couple of Rhinos. I was trying out a couple of different schemes – one Emperors Children (Slannesh) and Thousand Sons (Tzeentch). I’m not worried about mixing different chaos legions and gods but Tzeentch eventually was chosen.
The colour scheme I used was mostly a Blue and Yellow combo along with Gold and Red and all Vallejo colours. I used different colour combos for each platoon since the vehicles are chaos and not as uniform as the loyal marine chapters (well thats my take on it all).

Click on the thumbnails to see the full sized image

Magnus the Red - Primarch

I was given this figure by a friend and to be honest, I didn't know what to make of it. It is an unusual figure and it looks like a reject from their Warhammer fantasy range. The pose is bad and he looks like he is constipated. Anyway, since he is called Magnus the Red, I decided to paint him red rather than most pictures I have seen where he is blue with a rainbow of colours. I painted the wings a purple through to blue shade since blue is Tzeentch colours. Although I was not a fan of the figure it was quite enjoyable to paint and it came up better than expected, and there is a certain character to him. I based the figure on a 40mm base and added debris and Chaos cultists to the base (which helps give some perspective to Epic scale).

Greater Demon

This figure is a 28mm Reaper miniatures fantasy Imp I believe. It was left over from so fantasy figures and I decided to repurpose it as a Greater Demon of Tzeentch, as I didn't want to try and track down an actual Epic model. Hopefully in the future I can replace it with something that looks closer to the original. The model its self is a nice model and paints up very well and I went with generic colours instead of trying to paint it in Keeper of Secrets colours.

Landraiders

This was the first batch of Landraiders I painted so I went for a mixed colour scheme without any converting. The Thousand Sons had red armour before they broke away and blue afterwards, so I went with a red and blue combo on these vehicles with gold highlights. I wanted them to be very colourful (as thats what I remember Epic being). They were painted with a few layers and then washed with black and brown inks.

Rhino

I used the same Red and Blue scheme as the Landraider and painted the big skull gold. The skull was from a Warhammer skeleton shield and looks pretty over the top but I like it. There's no mistaking them for loyalists with the massive skulls.

Defilers

The first batch of Defiler proxies I got from Vanguard. They are Defeat in Detail Cybershadow Warcrabs. Beautiful models and fun to paint. Quite big as well as they just fit on a 50mm round base with some bending of the legs.

More Defilers

My other unit of Defilers. With Crimson highlights which looks nicer I think. The crimson is a Reaper paints colour ands seems to stand out more than the Vallejo yellow (perhaps they have better pigments)

Death Wheel WIP

When I heard about these models I thought it would be a good subject to scratch build. I was going to make only one Death Wheel but then I thought why not make 2 as it would not be much more effort. The hardest part was finding enough spare model bits to make two identical models. For each Deathwheel I used 2 40mm round bases and parts from some 1/72 models, and other GW fantasy and 40K bits and pieces. All the spiky pieces are offcuts from fantasy figures (using skaven swords) and lots of rivets made from nail beads.

Death Wheel #1

This is the first Deathwheel I completed. I’m very happy with the results, the only part I don't like is the blades are too big but it looks kind of crazy (or chaotic)

Death Wheel #2

This is the second Death wheel with slightly shorter spikes which I prefer. Both are cool and are great fun to use in a game. Also very tough being super heavy tanks

More Rhinos

For this unit I went with a yellow and blue scheme. There is about 4 layers of yellow and blue paint and they were time consuming to paint but look great. I added spikes and skulls etc to the rhinos after going through all my spare WHFB and 40K spare parts.

Yet more Rhinos

Another variation on the yellow and blue colour scheme. The spikes are from some 40K Dark Eldar and I had a bunch of spare parts left over, apart from that they are pretty standar Rhinos.

Landraider conversions

These are some more ambitious conversions I worked on for this army. For the first Landraider I replaced some of the weapon sponsons with 28mm fantasy skeleton arms and then glued the lasercannons into the hands and added a few skeleton bits to the hull. The second Landraider I sculpted a chaos body onto the Landraider and adding 28mm zombie arms to look like a possessed landraider. The sculpting is a bit crappy but it looks effective at a distance! The head is from a GW Warg of all things! On the third Landraider I used a 40K Dark eldar head upside down and sculpted a worm like body over the LR hull. I think this is my favourite conversion and it looks kind of gross. They were painted with a dark pinkish-red base colour and then highlighted to a ivory colour. While these aren't the best conversions you will see on the interweb, it makes an interesting Chaos unit.

More Landraiders

My last unit of Landraiders in a blue/yellow colour scheme. These have had some extra details added in the front - one had a spiky 40K orc pad glued onto the hull while the other 2 have got large rollers made from plastic sprue and some green stuff putty.

Vindicators

The 40K equivalent of and WW2 Sturmtiger or Brumbar. I picked up one of the old metal Vindicators and decided to have a go at converting some standard rhinos to make a 3 vehicle unit. I carved off the bolters, and the front hatches. Then I added a piece of plasticard and barrel made from brass tube and filled it with green stuff. All 3 Vindicators got extra spikes and a blob of green stuff here and there to fill the gaps around the gun.

Whirlwind launchers

This is the same as the Vindicators above, where I got a metal version and decided to convert 2 other Rhinos to make up a unit. The launcher was made from laminating layers of plastic together followed by lots of putty and sanding. Then I added details to the launcher made from different shaped plastic pieces and the missile tubes made from thin slithers of plastic sprue (I cut lots and picked the best ones).

Hunter AA vehicle

Another plastic Rhino conversion. For the Hunter AA vehicle I added a new hatch from a Vanguard miniatures Centurion tank and some stabilisers to the side of the vehicle. I trimmed the side hatch and added a cut down pistol from a Dark Eldar figure. The missile launcher was made from pieces of sprue, some spare parts from 40K Eldar and whatever I could find in my bitz box.