Blog What color is the dark side?

Hi Everyone,
I need your help!

I got a AoS starter set, and decided to paint the Chaos Warriors. I have always liked the colorful armies more, i.e. Bretonnian, Marienburg-Empire, Lizardmen, and I tend to like the "Good" guys more. This is my first time painting a more opaque, dark and evil army so I would like to know if you have any suggestion, inspiration pictures, videos or something to share.

I would like to stay close to "realistic" painting (skin will not be orange with white dots) and if I could create a fluff around it even better. I enjoy painting so time, and resources are not an issue. I normally paint every and each single model like it was a character.

I am a 100% noob to the Chaos fluff, so be nice to me.

Questions:
1) Why do chaos army have the same armor color? Religion? Wouldn't chaos mean a diversity of colors? How could I fluff this in?

2) Could there be a way to turn the fluff and make them have a nicer motive? Like vampire, sure they drink your blood but because they HAVE to

I encourage you to post pictures, videos or other media to help me out.

Looking forward,
Juan

 

Each of the chaos gods have their own color scheme.

 

So then you have the Khorne bllodbound mortals I assume. The normal colours for Khorne are a matte red, but that doesn't mean you can't change that up. Could go a classic car style candy apple red. Or paint them however you like and give a reason for it. Maybe the armour is all cobbled from fallen Stormcast which is why you went with blue and gold.

For the fluff, you could make them sympathetic and the heroes of their own story.

Maybe during a long harsh winter, crops would not grow, the livestock began to die, the small farming community turned to Khorne, fearing Sigmar had abandonned them. Khorne took their souls, and told them the secret to how they would live on. The feverish hunger seemed to grip their stomachs tighter. They snuck into an neighbouring town, and in the night slaughtered and ate most of the people. A few of the strong surviving townsfolk were able to escape. They hid in a small forest of trees. The slaughter priest called out
"Sigmar is dead. The long winter is a sure sign of that. If we the farmers are hungry then you townsfolk who rely on us must be starving. Join us, be strong again."
As the remaining townsfolk emerged from the trees clutching whatever weapons they could find, fresh "meat" was thrown their way. They ate, the dark gods gifts were granted as their veins flowed their muscles grew. They vowed to spread the word to save others from starvation and to give them the strength to survive the harsh times. The plowshares were beaten into massive axes. The dead god should be forgotten, the word of the new god must be spread.

Or something like that.

 

I would take "chaos" in the sense of "void", not in the sense of "too complicated to make sense of". So less about diversity, more about the undoing of all things. Because each of the Chaos Gods have their particular way of undoing the order of the world, and because even Chaos-obsessed humans still need some kind of order, you end up with these surprisingly orderly groups that use a similar color, fight as units, and have a chain of command. That said, I think a group of Chaos warriors that look totally ramshackle would really suit the idea of people who seek the destruction of the world. And I'm totally with Bowser on the fluff - there are all kinds of reasons that people turn to evil ways. It's sort of the nature of the tragic hero to be rejected and identified with at the same time.

 

Seems like I need to read a little more fluff to understand. I got my hands on a 8th army book, and I read Gotrek & Felix, but I need a few more details. I would like to give AoS a full chance, so I will try to create fluff based on the existing one or 9th age. I will also stay open to just create full of a independent army/tribe and call it RealTribe. I do like where Bowser is going, and hope to read some input when I do mine (grab a chair or bed).

I do like Black and Gold (Geaux Saints!!!) and black mixes well with a lot of colors. I heard its hard to highlight, what do you think?

Thanks for your comments, but I have to warn you I am a slow (aspiring) painter/writer.

 

I look forward to seeing what you come up with!