Chris Pridmore’s Rank and File Month 1

10 Chaos Space Marines – 255 points

Very happy with how these guys turned out, especially the Champion and the ancient Traitor Marine. The squad was also a great chance to try out the scheme that I'll be using for much of the rest of the army.

Also had time to paint a little something extra…

Great Unclean One - 275 points

Before I painted him, I rolled a few times on the Realms of Chaos name generator see what he’d be called. I rolled Doom + Ash (OK, but more of a title than a name I think), Blister + Spike (good solid daemon names) and finally Toad + Buttock (Hells yes!). Mashing them together as the book suggested, I’m proud to call this fella Blisterspike Toadbutt, the Ashen Doom. This gave me several ideas for the paintjob, and inspired a little story as well:

 "Following recent calamities, I have set my mind to a full study of the foul creature known as Blisterspike Toadbutt, so that loyal servants of the Throne may find a way to purge the Emperor's galaxy of this most blasphemous emanation. I have collected eye-witness testimonies from those fortunate enough to survive an encounter with the beast, and compiled these along with material drawn from my Ordo-sanctified collection of scry-glasses, wyrd-viewers, and sundry other instruments. May the Emperor’s Light guide me as I undertake this perilous research.

 Witnesses describe an aura of decay so intense that the very ground on which the creature walks is reduced to lifeless ash. From this phenomenon the daemon has gained its title, The Ashen Doom. My scrying has shown me the grumbling work-gangs of the lesser Plaguebearer strain which follow in their master’s wake, ploughing the corrupted ash into the soil to provide a rich loam for the Grandfather’s Garden. And oh, how green that garden grows! Oh my, how leafy, how verdant, how... [passage obscured by filth unknown]

Returning to the witness testimony, those who were able to see the back of the beast (much to their obvious relief) reported a curious patterning on the creature’s posterior. They describe its backside taking on a vibrant hue, akin to certain venomous amphibians. Isn’t that fun! I think it’s fun. Ha ha! But my apparatus has shown me far, far more than this colourful detail.

 I see a great throne, deep within the fecund garden. That can’t be right, can it? There is only one great Throne, on Holy Terra, and no such filth could ever sully it. But yet, I have seen it! On this mighty seat reclines a being far greater than Blisterspike, alike in form but incomparable in size and sheer pestilent majesty, and Blisterspike is merely a servant before it. And here, oh here, I see the meaning behind the creature’s name, and also the source of the revolting effluvium on its horned crest. It is clear, indisputably, that the service which Blisterspike provides to his liege-lord is a very simple one. Cradled gently in the hand of the Lord of All Plagues, Blisterspike’s horns are used to scratch the boils upon his master’s..."

  

Recovered by the Inquisition from the soiled writings of a nameless researcher, following his untimely and extremely untidy demise