# Doom Serpent Chaos Space marines



## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Okay folks. Those of you that have been following my Ork Plog will be aware that i also have a large chaos army. However my chaos army is painted sloppily to say the least. 

Now with me running low on ork models to work on i find my attention drifting back to the Doom Serpents that i have been collecting since the release of third edition. unfortunately that was also the last time that some of them saw a paintbrush.

For now i'll be working on the core section of the army which comprises of a large quantity of undivided troops, more than a company worth, but i also have a scattering of other squads from the various different factions.

I'll fill in the blanks with some background as we progress through the log but for now here is the flamer toting unit of Aspiring Champion Charin. 

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My favourite is probably the knife fighter, i just love the evil look in his eye i managed to get. 

Before anyone congratulates me on the painting on the banner, it's photoshopped and printed. I tried painting and drawing a few banners and they looked poo so i decided to use my PhShopping skills instead.

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Here are the 5 marines that will be painted up to fill the squad out. 

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This guy gives some example of what the units look like before i go back and touch in their colours.

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Well that's it for now, hopefully i can get the remaining members of Squad Charin, unit number 7 finished in the next week or so.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Good posing; individuality and unit coherence are balanced nicely.

I like your choice of palette; however the champion looks a little odd in a different green to the others.

The paint coverage looks a touch patchy in places; possibly more thinner layers would help.

Overall it looks like an interesting army.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Dave T Hobbit said:


> Good posing; individuality and unit coherence are balanced nicely.


Thanks for the feedback Dave. The models are more or less built from whatever i had laying around, some current ed plastics, some old second edition metals...i'm pretty sure one of these guys is an origional death company model. 



> I like your choice of palette; however the champion looks a little odd in a different green to the others.


The colours were because i loved Jade green....then they discontinued it as a colour so i had to buy all the pots in the three closest local stores to make sure i had colour for this army. 
With the Aspchamps i decided that i wanted a way of making them stand out from the rank and file (this was in 1998ish) so i painted them a much brighter green. If i were doing the army now i would probabley do something different, maybe sticking to jade green but giving them gold trim instead of the silver. In such a small squad it really does look weird but once the army is lined up it kinda helps distinguish the boundaries of the different units. I may or may not go back and repaint the champions. Currently the chaos lord is painted black with jade trim...maybe this would look better, more menacing. 



> The paint coverage looks a touch patchy in places; possibly more thinner layers would help.


The paint layers are pretty thin but you're right about the patchyness, when i origionally painted these guys my idea of shading was jade green and then a liberal black wash. Consequently in some places where i wasn't careful the black has pooled and attempts to highlight it look aweful. I might spend some time experimenting with different methods and see if i can come up with a good way of highlighting the Jade..maybe something with a white/hawk turquoise mix....


Well i've not painted anything for these guys lately, still playing with trying to get a good colour triangle on paper. I will however post some fluff to explain some of the units.
*The Battle of the wretched woods*

During the 13th black crusade of Abaddon the despoiler, the rag tag flottilla of ships which made up the Doom Serpent's fleet were ambushed by a much larger fleet of Black Legion Ships. Fire was never exchanged as it was painfully obvious to the warband that they could not hope to match the force of fire available to the legionairs and for reasons that would soon become clear the sons of horus didn't open fire on Kai Ma's forces. 
The legion's message was brief and offered an ultimatum that Lord Kai Ma could not refuse, "join the crusade or be destroyed". The doom serpents reluctantly agreed to join the Black crusade as did many other minor warbands that were given a similar choice. To add insult to injury Kai found his command seconded to an Iron Warriors Lord who would waste his Serpents as bait for traps within his fortress-line. 
Unable to force a confrontation without incurring the Wrath of the despoiler Kai held his tongue and marshalled his forces to minimise his own casualties. 

After weeks of protracted trench warfare on Crinsar III the Snake lord saw an opening and decided to make his move. Using his spy network he gathered information and managed to discover the location of the shield generator that protected the enemy command centre from orbital fire. It was not far from the very edge of the shield itself, a deliberate move to make it harder to locate within the city. Then with all the guile of their namesake, the doom serpents leaked the information to a sycophantic lacky of the Iron Warrior's commander and waited. 
Warsmith Trelique wasted no time assembling his terminators around him and ordering a teleport close to the shield generator so that they might open the target up, teleport clear and bombard the enemy from orbit. The plan worked, with the iron warrios dropping like a thunderbolt on the defenders of the shield pylon and butchering them mercilessly, the pylon itself was ripped down with chainfist and melta and with exuberance Lord Trelique voxxed his vessel for teleportation. 
Here is where Kai's cunning really shows, for at this moment several things happened on the Iron warriors vessel, first a critical malfunction in the shipteleport matrix blasted several of it's maintenance personelle into the afterlife, then the brigde recieved a message incrypted on an iron warriors band and with an id tag identifying it as having come from the Telleportarium claiming that "Trelique was clear and to commence bombardment" 

The storm from space lasted for two days in which time many of the shipboard records dissapeared from the Iron Warriors vessel, no record that could be used to track or validate the falsified transmission was ever found and within two weeks the whole planet had fallen to the generalship of Lord Kai Ma, for the imperial high command, led by a captian of the Brazen claws marines had been informed of information which had been discovered within the city that could win them the war on this planet. The orbital strike decapitated both armies, but Kai Ma was ready for the ensuing chaos and pressed his advantage. At the close of the campaign on the planet several of the other forces rallied under his banner, many remaining as seperate entities but some completely amalgamating themselves with the doom serpents.

The most obvious of the latter are the former Iron Warriors of Squads Praxas, Charin, Nestor and Sarvi, all of which have kept their iron helmet's and small quantities of chevron markings to illustrate their former loyalties.


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## Lord of Rebirth (Jun 7, 2008)

They looks pretty good but the blatant Iron Warrior on the banner is confusing.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Lord of Rebirth said:


> They looks pretty good but the blatant Iron Warrior on the banner is confusing.


Yeah, several of my squads have iron warriors markings because they joined the Doom Serpents after the 13th black crusade as i mentioned in my piece of fluff.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

OKay as my poll to decide what i should do with my Doom Serpents has ended it seems that people feel i shoudl completely repaint the whole army in another paint scheme. That's kinda helped me to decide on my course of action and seeing so many lovely people voting for a change has decided the matter. now i just need to pick a new colour scheme, i've played around with B&C's csm painter and come up with the following schemes. I kinda like them all so i'll leave it completely up to you guys, whichever gets the most votes wins. 

I'd also like to know what your reasoning behind your choice is. If you decide to vote, none of the above it'd be nice to hear your own idea for a scheme. 

1)
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2)
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3)
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4)
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5)
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To add a little background the doom serpents are rumoured to have been founded from existing members of the Alpha legion and regularly pose as members of that cursed legion, they have also been known to masquerade as loyal servants of the throne. None of this however can be officially collaberated and most of the source information seems to have come from convicted heratics and miscreants.


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## scscofield (May 23, 2011)

I am partial to 4 myself, I like how clean and crisp it looks though so I am not sure if that would carry over to CSM so well


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

I am in favour of a combination of black and green; probably a brighter green such as (2) or (4).

I like the look of quartering on a model; however, I have always found it too much effort for squads so would go for halves instead.


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## arumichic (May 14, 2011)

I agree with going with either 2 or 4 and maybe the quartering for your "champion" or whatnot for the group. I might not be making sense since I'm super tired >.< So sorry if I don't.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Okay as an addition from what Dave said i'm uploading choice number 6 and 7. Thanks for the ffedback so far guys.

6)
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7)
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## scscofield (May 23, 2011)

6 is cool, I like it.


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

I'm torn between 2 and 4. I think right now 4 looks a little bland, mainly because of the somewhat pallid jade green you've used; IMHO it would pop better if you used a richer, deeper-hued green for it. Look at pics of the Emerald Tree Boa for the sort of colour I mean...


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

I agree with Svart that a more vibrant green is better against the black.

I lean toward (7) only with the shoulder trims in metal instead of opposing colours.


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## Meldon (Dec 21, 2010)

7) It have nice contrasting colours to it


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Okay i think this'll be the last selection if post, these are pretty much refined versions of things that have already been posted with modifications based on the comments of you guys here. 

The three designs that people seem to like the most are 2, 4 and 7. 
2 because of the high contract, 4 because of the layout and 7 because it's high contrast with a halved scheme. 

Having looked over the various suggestions i've refined it down to these two designs, i'll probabley paint tester models for each of them and decide after that. In both i've switched out the silver for the gold that i used in number 4 as i feel it gives a better contrast against the green. 

So now we're down to these 2.
A) 
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B)
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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

I'm voting for *A*


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## Meldon (Dec 21, 2010)

Even more A now that you have done all the trim in metall


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

I prefer (A).


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

wow so far it's unanimous. Thanks for all the input folks it's really helped.


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## Masked Jackal (Dec 16, 2009)

A) Half color schemes are awesome.


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## arumichic (May 14, 2011)

I also go with A. Looks good.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

okay i did a little work on my first test mini today and i'm pretty happy with the progress so far, i need to highlight the black side, work on the eyes and a little on the gem on his chest, also some of the areas of black need a little tidying but on the whole i'm pretty happy. Thoughts? 


















































Hmm with these pictures i've also just noticed the shading on his tail armour is a bit messy.

Any ideas on how i should do his right arm? He has no armour there and i'm not sure on a skin tone that will complement the colours around it, maybe give it a really pale hue as if it doesn't see much sunlight but that will directly contrast the black. If i mix a little green in it might blend it a little though. I'm also not sure about where to go with his bolter, i'm thinking silver with deep red casing but then i've got quite a large pallet and i'm already using the red for a spot colour and the eyes.


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## alasdair (Jun 11, 2009)

I like it. The shading on the green is very aesthetically pleasing.

For the army you could do it a very pale skin colour, and then continue the spot colour of red (eyes and chest gem) onto the axe and dripping onto the arm.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Good work on centring the division.

Your metallics look a little patchy on the details; possible more, thinner coats would help.

I would try a red casing on the bolt pistol; too many extra colours can look odd with a halved scheme.

I agree that a pale skin tone would look good.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

minor update, that's all i seem to do lately.

I've not had a great deal of time for painting in the last week. I've been working on a story i need to get handed in so most of my time has been taken up with typing. 
I have however cleared out my gamign room and rearranged some of my shelves, because of this i've managed to piece together the rest of the lads that will make up the rest of the squad for my tester marine. 

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None are complete with most needing some sort of conversion work before they are done. The Squad champion will undergo a head swap, icon alteration to the icons on his chest and stomach and a posible modification of the psychic hood...those skulls irritate me. he also needs some repair green stuffing done to areas where his origional arms were lopped off. 

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The rest all need a variety of changes, from reposing to weapon swaps. I'll need 2 more members for this squad and i intend to kit them both out with plasma guns. Currently all my plasma is painted and needs stripping.

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Speaking of stripping, the rest of my doom Serpent army is now in here. 

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This is a giant pot of detol that i threw all of my old school serpents into...otherwise i might have been tempted to continue playing with horribley painted models. Now i have no choice. I do feel a little sick knowing i'm now going to have to repaint more than 100minis. 

As an aside does anyone have any ideas on what i could use as a logo for this army? previously i used alpha legion markings but i think now that they warrent something a little different.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Finished my test mini apart from the backpack. 
I'm not sure i'm happy with the colours on the extra weapon and arm. It seems very washy and i'm not sure wether it takes away from the rest of the model. I'll paint up a backpack and get it on first, then decide what to do about the arm. Several of the models have bare flesh showing through and i really need to get it right.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Tidy painting there.

I think the bare arm is a little too green; it looks like dead rather than pale flesh.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Dave T Hobbit said:


> Tidy painting there.
> 
> I think the bare arm is a little too green; it looks like dead rather than pale flesh.


Yeah, i think i'll try adding a bleached bone and skull white highlight to it. Try and leave the shading green but bring the rest out a little. I'll prolly do some work on the wristband thing he's wearing, i'm not happy with the final effect. Maybe a brown wash and bleached bone highlight.


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## arumichic (May 14, 2011)

The blood effect needs to be a lot more transparent than it is ATM. I vote for using Tamiya's clear red. Think it will help you a lot more than trying to make blood effects with blood red as blood red is not the real color of blood. Other than that, doing well. 
Hope this helps!~


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

arumichic said:


> The blood effect needs to be a lot more transparent than it is ATM. I vote for using Tamiya's clear red. Think it will help you a lot more than trying to make blood effects with blood red as blood red is not the real color of blood. Other than that, doing well.
> Hope this helps!~


I didn't use blood red at all , i used watered down red gore with a 1/2 mix of devlan mud to brown it out a little. I might try adding some more brown to give it a more dried on look. It's too late for me to thin it out any more now.


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## arumichic (May 14, 2011)

GrimzagGorwazza said:


> I didn't use blood red at all , i used watered down red gore with a 1/2 mix of devlan mud to brown it out a little. I might try adding some more brown to give it a more dried on look. It's too late for me to thin it out any more now.


I didn't mean to necessarily thin your paint out more, it's just that the blood looks flat on the models. Maybe even try putting some ardcoat on top of the blood to make it look a bit shiny. Adding brown might work to make it look a bit more dried so it won't have to actually look shiny. I was also talking more about the consistency of the blood more than the color...
Tamiya red works really well for both the consistency and color, though adding brown to that also helps with the color too.
Sorry if I'm not being clear, but hope this helps!


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

> Maybe even try putting some ardcoat on top of the blood to make it look a bit shiny. Adding brown might work to make it look a bit more dried so it won't have to actually look shiny.


 Hmm i have some old citadel red wash here somewhere, a mix with that in will give a semi gloss finish. I don't have any ard coat and i'd rather not mix the two brands of paint, i've been using citadel for too long to switch across now. Still thank you for you insight, i'll have a play around with the next one to see what i get. 


Okay folks with almost a month since i updated this log i have some new information. Now, seeing as i'm repainting all my marines and there are over 100 of them i decided i should come up with a structured way of doing it so that i don't get overwhelmed. What i've decided is that i will write a 500 point list and then build and paint models to the list. Then i will work on one of my side projects before i add another 500points to the army. This way i work through the chaos marines in solid chunks and have a chance to have a break and do something different between updates. 

Without further ado here is my first 500points list, note that these squads will be explanded on in later updates, though i am trying to make sure each 500point update leaves me with a legal army and legal units. 

First Installment
HQ: Sorcerer Macachan
-Doom Bolts

Troops 1 : Squad Peridus
-8 csm
- 1 plasma Gun
- 1 asp champion with power sword and plasma pistol
- Icon of chaos glory

Troops 2: Squad Praxas
-8 csm
- 1 melta gun
- 1 asp champion with power fist and combi melta
- Icon of chaos glory

First instalment = 490 points 

10points free for next installment



Unfortunately i don't have any pictures to show you but i have been making some progress, currently only the icon bearers, plasma gunner and champions are not completely modelled. The rest have already been basecoated and i am slowly building up thier colours. 

I'm still trying to decide on how to do squad markings and an army symbol. Their storyline has always been that they are suspected to be an offshoot of the Alpha legion but it has never been confirmed. Maybe i'll come up with some type of alpha logo as an army badge.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

Guess what? I've finished my first set of 5 marines in the new scheme.

i'm more or less happy with them, seriously considering getting some transfers made up for the squad markings but for now they are as good as i can get them. 


When i was trying to come up with a way of numbering the squads without actually putting numbers on their pads i kinda hit upon a nice theme. initially i started looking through ancient cultures trying to work out a way of writing numbers that wasn't obvious. First i looked up norse runes but they seem to have gotten by by writing out the whole word instead of just having numbers. I had no interest in trying to work out egyption hyroglyphs and i couldn't find any information on celtic numerics. In the end i stumpled across the Aztec method of writing numbers. a dot =1 and a line =5. in this way 8 became ...
I was pretty happy with that and started looking for a chapter badge for the doom serpents, in the end i again found an interesting snake in an Aztec design.










So it seems i've settled on an Aztec theme for my marines, i;ll try and do a better job with the snake emblem, like i said maybe i can get some printed up, but for now i have a nice basis to work from. 

Without further ado here are the first 5 members of squad Praxas.
front








left face








right face









a closer look at how my new blood effect looks. 









Hopefully i'll have another update soon.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Seems as if you have the crisp delineation between the colours down pat.

I like the skin tone, although it does look a little flat.


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