Pink is the New Black: The Build, Part 1

The build on my new Chaos Marine list has begun, and it's been full of ups and downs. Fortunately, I already owned the models to make up the majority of the army, so my number of purchases was small. A couple of Rhinos, a box of Noise Marines, and a fourth Obliterator, and I had everything I needed to get started. Eventually, I'll need to get two additional Rhinos that will be specific to this army, but for now I'll just borrow the two I use in my Khorne army.

Here's a breakdown on how things have been going:

• Chaos Sorcerer: Already owned it. Already assembled. Just need to prime it. The easiest part of the army, hands down.
• Possessed Marines: My list called for 6 possessed marines, but the kit only had parts for making 5. Fortunately, it's a kit that allows for a fair amount of customization, so while there may only be 5 torsos and 5 sets of legs, there were heads, backpacks, and arms for six or seven possessed. I threw a standard CSM torso and pair of legs into the mix, along with a tentacle arm from the Chaos Mutations sprue, and everything came together. However, all the strange arms with their claws and blades added a new complication. This squad needs to carry around an icon of Slaanesh, and no one has any useful hands with which to carry one around. My solution was similar to one I used for my Raptors, and was inspired by a picture from (I believe) the 5th Edition rulebook. In that book, there's a picture of a Chaos Marine with one of the vehicle sprue Slaanesh icons mounted on a spike coming up from his backpack. I took one of the backpacks, snipped a spot in the middle flat, and mounted a vehicle trophy-spike on it. I filed one side flat and glued the vehicle icon in place.

I want to take a quick moment aside and talk about Chaos icons. I don't like them in 5th Edition. Back in the days of 4th Edition, they may have been a bit easier to use effectively, but with the way wound allocation works in 5th Edition the icon bearers risk being picked off any time there's a volley of fire or flurry of blows. They're also not cost-effective for smaller units. You don't often see blobs of 11 to 20 Chaos Marines on the table; you're far more likely to see squads of 10 or less inside Rhinos. For large squads, the icon is very cost-efficient, as it's got a flat cost regardless of how many models it actually effects. Personally, I'd rather have the option of forgoing the icon and just buying marks for each model at a per-model cost, or even a per-unit cost. It would simplify things, both from a gameplay perspective and from a modeling perspective.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the list.

• Noise Marines: I like the weapons for this unit. I don't like how they're packaged. With the other three cult units - Khorne Berzerkers, Plague Marines, and Thousand Sons - when you buy a box of them you get exactly what you'd expect: a box full of one of those three units. Noise Marines, on the other hand... well, for starters, there is no "Noise Marines" box. There's an "Emperor's Children Noise Marines" box. This is a misnomer on two counts. First, there's nothing besides the Emperor's Children icons on the decal sheet (which are included in every Chaos box) that would mark these as being Emperor's Children marines. Secondly, only three of the eight models in the box actually have sonic weapons. There's one Doom Siren, one Sonic Blaster, and one Blast Master. I can't exactly make a full unit of Noise Marines with that. (To be fair, the image that GW uses for the product is accurate for what's included within.) I've had to order an extra pack of sonic weapon bits to make my unit of 6. I'll have enough sonic blasters that I can probably fill out the other 5 models in the box with sonic blasters; I'm just annoyed that it's costing me an extra $20 to do it.

  All of that said, these models came together relatively easily, and having the standard plastic CSM sprues with it makes these guys easy to customize.

• Chaos Space Marines: I was working on these late last night, and I have five of them about 2/3rds completed. They're lacking heads, backpacks, and pauldrons, but they have bolters in hand and are just about ready to go. It took me a bit to get used to working with the two separate arms and getting them to line up right with the bolters, but I think I've got it down now. I haven't decided if this is going to be the plasma or melta squad yet, so I still have to pick which special weapons to throw onto the assembly line. I'll also have to get the icon bearer and the aspiring champ built, but they should come together pretty quickly.

By Sunday night, I'm hoping to have all the non-metal infantry together, including the noise marines (assuming I get the bits pack in time). If I can get a Rhino put together as well, I'll be pretty happy. I imagine the Obliterators will be an adventure in pinning, but I have everything I need to get them together, so it's just a matter of getting it done. I also need to figure out what I want to do for the possessed Rhino. I've been inspired by this Rhino I found on CoolMiniOrNot.com, so I'd need to pick up a box of Daemonettes to cut up and embed into the vehicle. I do wish that the new Daemonettes looked at all like the previous version, but I guess we can't have everything.