Clan of the Blue Serpent (Anthony B) (200pts)

Many turn to chaos as an easy road to power. Few travel along that road very far, for the perils of insanity, mutation or death in the name of their god often claim their lives before long. Meanwhile  the chaos gods laugh at the weakness of man and the inevitability of his demise. The Clan of the Blue Serpent hail from the depths of the Chaos Wastes. They are diverse in heritage, but are united by their worship of one of the lesser chaos deities - the Serpent god. Myth has it that the Great Blue Serpent has laid dormant beneath the surface of the earth since the beginning of time. It will only awaken when sufficient sacrifices have been made in the name of death and destruction, and at such a time it will engulf and consume the world in its entirety. The Clan members now number in their thousands, and have made it their life's sacred mission to slay in the name of their deity. There can be no greater glory than dying in the name of their almighty god before the world is consumed at the end of time.       

Well, here is a mandatory shot of the thugs pre-paint. 

The Citadel chaos thugs range is very diverse in miniature design, so the color scheme would have to tie these very different models together while also emphasizing their individual details. I chose to go for the classic Norse-themed look (fair hair and blue eyes) with blue skin tattoos and serpent shields to tie them together. That being said, thugs are (by definition) not uniform and come from different backgrounds. Therefore, I decided to include some black-skinned individuals since I have never painted them before and I thought that they would emphasize the contrast of the unit.

I got an early head-start on these guys in the last week of November, since I knew that 20 models in December would be a stretch (my family was coming to town for the holidays). I also wanted to have time in December to get back to painting some of my growing army of 4th edition greenskins. Thankfully, I had some free time in the beginning of December to knock them out.  So here they are, 20 third edition Chaos Thugs (8pts) with shields (+1pt) and additional hand-weapon (+1pt) for a total of 200 points even. With my 375pts from my first month, my total thus far in the challenge is 575pts. I may go back to last month's pledge and add freehand Blue Serpent designs to the shields. Best of luck to my fellow challengers for their December pledges, and happy holidays