"I love mince pies, it is nice"

So, it's a new year and, on wargaming blogs, that tends to involve taking stock of the previous year's painting and looking forward to the next twelve months. Unfortunately, two weeks solid of cheap wine and Christmas food have left me incapable of saying anything deeper than "I love mince pies, it is nice", so here are some chaos marines instead.

These are the plastic models from the Shadowspear box - two sets of the guys fitted out for close assault, to be precise. I have painted them in the vaguely-Black-Legion scheme that I've used before, although these guys have a bit less metal and more gold than their shooty comrades. I did wonder about painting them as Khorne berserkers, but I didn't want them to be red and the berserker helmets look a bit silly to me, so here they are.

Again, I've gone for an unnatural blue colour for the skin, vaguely inspired by the funny men from Prometheus (I'm sure that's not what they were credited as, but you know what I mean). I did a few head swaps in the unit, and one of the champions got an executioner-type hooded helmet from an old Dark Angel, but otherwise, they're pretty standard.

I think GW have done a really good job on the new chaos marines. They're a bit bigger than before but not silly, and they look mean without being covered in spikes and (surprisingly) ridiculous amounts of skulls. I've now got 20 of these chaps painted, along with a dozen old school marines and six chosen chaps. That's a decent horde. I love them almost as much as mince pies.