How to Paint Chaos Space Marines

Chaos Space Marines are corrupted, ancient, and gloriously grim, and that gives you huge freedom, because a bit of rust and battle-damage only makes them look better. This guide paints a dark, weathered warband in the mould of the Chaos Space Marines, with grimy metal armour and tarnished brass trim. The same steps adapt easily to any Legion colour, whether you want the black of the Black Legion, a deep red, or midnight blue.

What You'll Need

You will want a colour for the armour plates, a metallic and a brass for trim and weapons, a couple of shades for grime, a bone tone for horns and spikes, and a red for the eye lenses. A basecoat brush, a detail brush, and an old scruffy brush for weathering will see you through. Swapping ranges? The paint converter maps every colour below to Vallejo, Army Painter, and Scale75. Thin your paints as always.

1. Undercoat

Prime black; fittingly, Chaos Black is the traditional choice. Black gives these dark, brooding models their natural shadows and suits the grimy finish we are after. Spray or brush it on in thin, even coats and let it cure completely. If you are painting black-armoured traitors like the Black Legion, this undercoat already does most of the base work for you.

2. Basecoat

Lay down your main armour colour over the plates. For a black warband, leave the primer and simply tidy it with a dark grey; for a coloured Legion, apply your chosen tone, be it deep red or dark blue, in two thin coats. Then basecoat the trim, bolter, and backpack in a metallic like Leadbelcher, and the decorative edging in a brass such as Warplock Bronze. Keep the black showing in the recesses throughout.

3. Shade

Grime is your friend with Chaos. Wash the whole model with a brown shade like Agrax Earthshade, or Nuln Oil for a cooler, oilier look. Let it settle into every rivet, chain, and crevice; you actually want it to look a little dirty and uneven, because that sells the idea of ten-thousand-year-old armour that has never once been cleaned. Let it dry fully.

4. Layer

Rebuild the surfaces. Edge or lightly layer the armour with a slightly lighter version of your base colour so the plates read clearly again. Bring the brass trim back up with a brighter metal like Runelord Brass or Brass Scorpion on the raised edges. On black armour, a dark grey like Eshin Grey followed by Dawnstone on the edges reads perfectly as weathered black without looking flat.

5. Edge Highlight

Take a fine brush and run a crisp highlight along the sharpest armour edges: a light grey on black plates, or a brighter tint of your Legion colour. Highlight the brass and silver edges too. These thin bright lines define the shape of the armour and stop the grimy shading from muddying the whole model. Keep the lines thin and confident.

6. Weathering, Details and Base

Now the sinister details. Paint horns, spikes, and tusks in a bone colour, shaded and highlighted. Do the eye lenses in a glowing red, from a dark red base up to a bright near-white dot. Then weather freely: sponge or stipple chips of dark metal onto the edges, add rust with an orange-brown, and dab verdigris onto the brass. Base them on rubble or ash wastes to match their ruinous mood.

Final Tip

Chaos is the most forgiving faction to weather, so be bold; chips, rust, blood, and grime all add to the story rather than spoiling a clean finish. Pick one or two weathering tricks, apply them across the whole squad for consistency, and resist the urge to tidy everything up. A warband should look like it has been at war since the dawn of the Imperium, because it has.