Word Bearers, Chaos Repainted

Back in the day, when Adeptus Titanicus / Space Marine was released I decided that I'd paint my Chaos Marines red. Simple as. For no other reason than I was doing Blood Angels for 40K (Rouge Trader at the time) and I happened to have red paint handy. The loyalists were painted up black as I had a passion for Dark Angels. Obviously GW fluff changed over time so the Dark Angels stopped being of 'Native American' decent (as in the novel "Space Marine") and changed colour to Green and hailed from a Tutonic warrior society (as in the Heresy series of novels) but that's another story. From then on I have always used Word Bearers for chaos in 40K and Epic.

I like the GW fluff around this outfit of misguided fanatics. The notion that, but for a mere discrepancy in philosophy, they were and would have been one of the most loyal and fanatic Legions in the Emperors employ is awesome! Also, on a personal aesthetic level, I am not really into Chaos mutations and everything being covered in horns and spiky things and whole armies of Astartes, lured over to the dark side suddenly all becoming visibly possessed vessels of corruption and I am not really in to 'magic' or psychic warfare. So, in my minds eye, the Word Bearers seem to be - along with Alpha Legion - who we all now know are 'loyalists in mind' if not actions - the best suited of the Traitor Legions to my tastes. OK, they are a Chaos Undivided army so have plenty of scope for the inclusion of horns, mutations and spiky bits, but they don't have to be totally warped! Just a smidge warped.

I am sure that there are those who disagree on the above point. I am certainly not saying I am right but just that my personal taste is not for whole of armies mutated freaks blasting away with psychic powers backed up by blood crazed daemons and not my version of what the Word Bearers do or are on the table top. Although I do have some Khorne Bloodletters and my Dark Apostle is a bit possessed, but the actual marines are fairly un mutated and hornless! On with the post ..

With the release of the new version of WH40K a few months ago and the new Dark Vengeance release I am inspired to revisit my Word Bearers and look at giving them a lick of paint and a few new recruits from the fantastic miniatures coming out of Forge World of late in response to the growing demand on modelling the Horus Heresy. The fact that you can now get hold of multi-pose miniatures in Iron and Crusade Armour offers a vast scope in ensuring that Chaos forces, who abandoned the Imperium 10,000 years ago, no longer have to be seen in 'modern' armour so to speak.

The sorting out of stuff I have been doing has unearthed a lot of stuff I'd forgotten I had, such as old pattern Rhinos and Land Raiders, jet bikes and land speeders, dreadnoughts and so on - all this I think will be put to use as equipment for my Word Bearers. The vast amount of Space Wombles I found will also form the basis of a 30K Raven Guard, but thats another aside for a later day.

Over the next few months I shall be posting progress on this venture - I'd have been further forward that I am by now were it not for the flood, but I hope that once that has been sorted I'll have a brand new shiny purpose built painting and modelling studio to boot! I shall keep you, my reader, updated on progress.