# The Pyre



## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

I started this project a few months ago, originally as a "let's learn to do light sourcing and unconventional highlighting" thing, and never really intended to play the army. Now, however, I'm kind of at the point where I want to actually use the army, so I'm going to keep this thread to be a sort of motivation for working on it. Updates may be a little slow since I do a lot of commission work, and obviously, paying the bills comes first-- but this army -will- get done, or my name isn't The Son of Horus! 

Anywhoo, this is the army list. The original concept was to see how many flamers I could stuff into an army at 2000 points, and still have a viable army to play with in casual games. I'm not a competitive player, but I am a competitive painter, so at the end of the day, I'm more concerned with the aesthetic and winning the best painted-related stuff than I am about winning games-- although I do seem to be able to make the latter happen as well. 

HQ/
The Arsonist, Chaos Lord
--Dual lightning claws, combi-flamer, power armour, frag & krak grenades

The Pyromancer, Chaos Sorcerer
--Bolt Pistol, force weapon, Wind of Chaos, power armour, frag & krak grenades

ELITES/
The Arsonists of Karanor, Pyre Chosen Squad
--10-strong. The Aspiring Champion is armed with a power fist, boltgun, and bolt pistol. Four Chosen have flamethrowers. The rest of the squad is armed with boltguns, bolt pistols, and close combat weapons. One member of the squad has an Icon of Chaos Glory. 
---Rhino APC with extra armour

The Black Flame, Pyre Terminator Squad
--5-strong. The Aspiring Champion is armed with a power weapon and combi-flamer. One Terminator is armed with a combi-flamer and power weapon. Two Terminators are armed with combi-flamers and power fists. One Terminator is armed with a heavy flamer and a power weapon. The Aspiring Champion bears an Icon of Chaos Glory.


TROOPS/
The Purging Heat, Pyre Tactical Squad
--9-strong. The Arsonist leads this unit. The Aspiring Champion is armed with a combi-flamer, bolt pistol, and power fist. One model is armed with a flamethrower. One model bears an Icon of Chaos Glory. The rest of the squad is armed with bolt pistols, boltguns, and close combat weapons.
---Rhino APC with extra armour

The Despoiling Inferno, Pyre Tactical Squad
--9-strong. The Pyromancer leads this unit. The Aspiring Champion is armed with a combi-flamer, bolt pistol, and power fist. One model is armed with a flamethrower. One model bears an Icon of Chaos Glory. The rest of the squad is armed with bolt pistols, boltguns, and close combat weapons.
---Rhino APC with extra armour

The Burning Brethren, Pyre Tactical Squad
--10-strong. The Aspiring Champion is armed with a combi-flamer, bolt pistol, and power fist. Two models are armed with flamethrowers. One model bears an Icon of Chaos Glory. The rest of the squad is armed with boltguns, bolt pistols, and close combat weapons. 
---Rhino APC with extra armour


FAST ATTACK UNITS/
No selections

HEAVY SUPPORT UNITS/
The Pyre Predator Annihilator
--Twin-linked lascannon, lascannon sponsons

The Pyre Predator Annihilator
--Twin-linked lascannon, lascannon sponsons

The Pyre Predator Annihilator
--Twin-linked lascannon, lascannon sponsons



As new units get painted up, or I realise I don't have pictures of them (as is the case with the completed regular Chaos Space Marines...) I'll post 'em. Here are some pictures of completed models.

A Predator Annihilator









A Chaos Space Marine waiting to be based, standing with a Rhino









A Rhino









The Arsonist

























The Aspiring Champion of the Black Flame Terminator Squad


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## dark angel (Jun 11, 2008)

Very very nice work there mate:victory:


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

Thanks! 

For those of you who're curious, this is how I paint 'em.

I use Reaper Master Series paints, so I'll give an approximation of the GW color in parenthesis. 

I start with a black spray. Even though the models are bright, black lends itself well to the progression I use to get from a deep red to the very pale yellow.

I then do a basecoat of Bloodstained Red (which is maybe 75% Scab Red and 25% Scorched Brown), avoiding the trim on the armor and the weapons where possible. 

Next, I do a layer of Carnage Red (Something about it eludes mixing GW colors, and I don't know why-- Blood Red is close enough, from GW, though). This is a bit of a jump from the very dark red, and I don't worry too much about if it covers evenly or not, although it generally seems to. Ultimately, it just keys the oranges a little better and helps with the blending. I tend to still leave a very thin line of the basecoat showing around the recesses contacting the trim, though.

Next, I mix up 50/50 Carnage Red and Magma Red (which is a very bright red, and I know there's no GW equivalent-- it's brighter than Blood Red, but if you mix orange into GW Blood Red, you get something else entirely, and if you mix in white or bone, you get pink...so who knows?), and layer that on. I then blend the edge of the join with the previous layer.

Now, I take pure Magma Red and do a layer of that, leaving the previous stages showing in the recesses. This is part of where the 'glow' comes from. I go over it a couple times to make sure that this is almost a new basecoat, so that the flat, rounded, undetailed surfaces have a glow to them.

Then, I start with Lava Orange, which is very similar to GW's Orange, whose name escapes me at the moment. I make sure to feather the edges of this layer, so the progression used to do the recesses transitions smoothly into this stage of layers.

I follow that step by doing a layer of Explosion Orange (Firey Orange), again feathering into the previous layer to blend the highlights. I then follow that with a 50/50 mix of Marigold Yellow (50/50 Firey Orange and Sunburst Yellow) and Explosion Orange, and do a final layer with that. The biggest part of getting the glowing effect is to blend each stage, but do it in a sort of ragged way so that it has an almost organic feel to it. A consistent line of blending creates a nice gradient, but it looks painted, rather than natural, if that makes sense.

I then take straight Marigold Yellow and pick out where the natural light would hit the model-- raised parts of the helmet, shoulder pads, etc. I tend to treat the natural light source as coming from over the right shoulder of the model when I paint (pretty much anything, really) since that's where the lamp I use to paint with tends to hang. 

I then go in and clean up the inevitable mess that the banding and trim on the armor has become in the process of doing the orange. I basecoat it again with black, and then use Cloudy Grey (75/25 Codex Grey/Adeptus Battlegrey) for an edge highlight. The most raised areas get another edge highlight of Misty Grey (which is comparable in color to Astronomician Grey, but it's not a foundation paint, and doesn't have that bold property to it, so it's much more subtle.)

I pick out any skulls, piping, and other odd details in boltgun metal (one of the few GW paints that I actually do use), and then wash it with black. Then, I highlight it with Polished Steel (Mithril Silver). 

I tend to find actual gold looks garish on models, so I tend to do gold more like brass instead unless I want it to look exessively polished. For the few gold bitz on the model, I'll start with Ancient Bronze (Brazen Brass) and wash it with GW's old Chestnut Ink (I bought a case of it before it was discontinued, and a pot of it lasts about five years when used only for this sort of thing, so I should be good for a while.) I then highlight it with mithril silver. 

I pick out the helmet lens with a green of some sort (I vary it, because I find it ultimately comes out looking the same no matter what I do, and that way I don't run out of any one of the mid-tone greens I use as quickly), and then mix a bit of black in to shade it, and dot the back corner of each lens with white. Piping that I do in green has a pretty similar approach, although I'll highlight it with Jade Green (50/50 Goblin Green/White) instead of just dotting it with white.


And, some finished squaddies.
The Purging Heat, Pyre Tactical Squad


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## wombat_tree (Nov 30, 2008)

Looking great! Although maybe you could use a little white to really heat it up and perhaps some sort of lava crack effects on the veichles, or even converting a rocky like surface onto your veichles/troops to make it look really lavery (is that even a word? )? +rep


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## Masstadon (Jan 18, 2009)

I must know how you made the commanders burning chalice thing...because im starting a pre-heresy word bearers legion and i need to do alot of those heh xD


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## Varakir (Sep 2, 2009)

due in course to my pyromaniacal tendancies, i am rather bias, but these are wicked.

The arsonist really stands out for me, looking forward to the sorceror.


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