GW character models: Rules question

[Milkflavour]

Hi,

I have a question about the characters in the GW range. First of all I am brand new to painting and I've bought a few models from GW purely for the painting side of the hobby and purely based on what I think looks cool. However, I know nothing about painting and even less about the gaming side of things.

Just in case I do decide to step into the gaming side of things I want to keep in mind , when making future purchases, that I may also want to use my models after I've painted them.

So, to the question: if I decide to make my own chapter (mainly because I want to make my own iconography, paint scheme and designs for the minis) but I purchase one of the named characters from an existing chapter because I like the sculpt, then would I be able to use the character as a unit in any future army (of my own invention) or will they be excluded because they are designated as a particular chapter already? As a silly example to illustrate the point; if I wished to invent a milkflavour chapter and had the Ragnar Blackmane model, but painted up in a distinctly milkflavour colour scheme with relevant iconography, would i be able to use him as say "Ragnar Milktash" instead or would he forever be Ragnar Blackmane, exclusive to space wolves?

I guess I'm just wondering how much room for imagination and creativity is there in the gaming side of the hobby?

Hope its OK to ask this question here.

Thanks

Milkflavour

[MAXXxxx]

the look and rules are separate.

As long as you stay within a certain codex and use their rules you can paint the models however you want.
In your example: Ragnar Blackmane and the milkflavours are a "space wolf descendant chapter" and thus you'd use the space wolf rules.

Of course there is a possibility of running into someone who nitpicks and would say it's not a legal army.

[Milkflavour]

Ahh I see. Thanks for the reply, that's really helpful.. so I would assume that mixing and matching would definitely be frowned upon and that if you were to pick a character from an existing chapter you would have to pick any future characters from the same chapter also. Thats a bit of a shame as there's great models for a few of the chapters and id really like to have them all

[Dragonsreach]

Ahh I see. Thanks for the reply, that's really helpful.. so I would assume that mixing and matching would definitely be frowned upon and that if you were to pick a character from an existing chapter you would have to pick any future characters from the same chapter also. Thats a bit of a shame as there's great models for a few of the chapters and id really like to have them all

Yes and a slight No.
If YOU Like the figure there’s nothing to stop you buying it and removing the iconography of XXX chapter and then using it as you want.
if you leave the iconography on and define it as your own chapter with all matching colours then it’s your army.
The nitpickers (rivet counters) might bitch but it’s your money not theirs.

[Milkflavour]

Oh, thanks for the additional information! I'm honestly just starting out painting so I think I'll just paint the stuff I love to start with, though I like the idea of maybe just somehow scrubbing the iconography off and maybe adding some other custom bits and pieces. Probably a bit out of my league at the moment though. Thanks again for the input