Magistus Amon, equerry to The Crimson King

So, I need a fitting leader for my force, I have Magnus but I take my time over Primarchs and Magnus is a biggie. So Amon comes out and solves my problem. Really love the model, would prefer it if I had some hidden ones to go with him, but t(e best comes to those who wait.

Great posing, painting the cape inside green wasn’t easy but I reckon I’ve got it to work

The outside of the cape, badly cast, bit of a nightmare

The only gripe I have is the outside of the cape was badly cast, I’ve heard this from others who have the model. My solution was to file and cut it down. Becase of this the paint didn’t lie as well as I would like. I wish like others I had used some modelling putty to fill the gaps and instead of sand it down, bring it up. 

Either way, top model to paint, shame about the cape!

Thousand Sons Storm Eagle

So, all those Sekhmet need a ride, after all the landraiders I didn’t fancy a Spartan and it seems a bit cliched, given the whole, “Primarch with a terminator tor bodyguard in a Spartan” plague you see in Heresy. So, Magnus can walk! There’s no space for him and ten Sekhmet in a storm eagle!

Again, lots of symbols and transfers 

With lots of black and gold to break up the red

So, really getting there now. The army has a lot in it, of the games I’ve played (maybe 8), I’ve lost one, which was to JBs iron warriors in zone mortalis. Seems the rota guns and veterans are the real cutting edge in the army.

Thousand Sons Landraiders

Here we go,  standard Legion rides. I don’t think you see enough landraiders in Heresy armies, it’s all Spartans. Maybe it’s due to cost or the small cost difference between a resin landraider and the awesome Spartan. So, the back ground says that Thousand Sons have lots of landraiders to ferry their tactical squads around, ever the diligent follower of any background, my Thousand Sons were always going to have landraiders.

First one, lots of symbols and gold lines, ala book VII

These were painted in similar fashion to everything else. Weathering was done with a metallic dark green to create contrast with the red, it’s not obvious to most but I see a difference and you are your own biggest critic!

Two together 

I have a third one all done but I’ll save that for a full army shot as I now have one hundred infantry along with support vehicles. Onwards and upwards, this army isn’t finished yet!

Castellax Achea Battle Automata- Magic Robots

Ok, I loved these when they came out, I first saw them at the Heresy Weekender and I knew one day, they would be mine...

Maybe not a babe....but they will be mine

So, setting down to paint them, well by now the red is a pretty robotic process, using the airbrush: 1. Airbrush Iron Hands Steel with some shading on lower recesses 2. Vallejo steel/GW runefang steel air as a highlight on raised surfaces 3. Three coats of thinned angron red (FW air) 4. One thinned coat of Tamiya clear red This leaves a finish a little darker than some, but it is nice and consistent. 

Four seems a good number.... to kick ass!

 These bad lads have had a few outings now and they're amazing, not much good at dealing with heaving armour (unless they get close and can smash) but they're top dogs against most legion infantry squads. I've found them to be a great combination as a flanking force in an army with Magistus Amon (more on him another time). The Etherfire cannon is a bit of an acquired taste, I use it as it's cool, but it often doesn't do much, I find the mauler bolter cannons and bolter with asphix shells absolutely murder infatry though. However, I always forget soulfire and it will not die!

Thousand Sons Rhinos- Ride Wit Me!

Hello again, time for some troop transports. I’ve made a start with some rhinos, why rhinos? Well I started doing Horus Heresy before there were any rules and just a few legion armour kits, these were one of the things I bought for my original matt red Thousand Sons. So, ever resourceful, I respected them and started with the Prosperan Ruby method I’ve used in everything else.

Two rides for two psychic ammo rota gun squads

The colour scheme is copied from Horus Heresy book VII for the keen eyed. I plan to use these as a ride for my rota gun support squads, or other more specialised units as my tactical marines will be in landraiders as that what the background says and I think the Heresy is all about the background.

Mad complex colour scheme ahoy!

Again transfers all over the show and gold lining around various panels as Thousand Sons bring the bling.

More Thousand Sons

Ok, more Thousand Sons it is then. A little more of the same this time, a second squad of veterans, this time with a heavy bolster. Same techniques as previous, but army is really bulking out now. Also, five Sekmet, adding my first actual thousand Sons unit to the army, quite nice to paint as they're pretty straightforward to paint with few fiddly bits. I added a chainfist to the squad as tank killing power is a bit low with their options beyond combi Meltas.

Heavy support

So, time to add some firepower and durability to the army. Missile launchers were an easy choice due to all the missile launchers on the mkIV spree. Again the white weapon casing problem was an issue here, but three coats of Ulthuan grey after an initial base coat of Celestra grey and they should be ok. Next up some terminators, I've been keeping ten of these plastic cataphractii from Betrayal at Calth with no real plan, so I thought why not? They could also be psykers, which is good. I realised that FW have shown Sekhmet terminators with white shoulder pads, so since these weren't Sekhmet I went for red shoulders with white transfer, that way the Sekhmet would stand out when I get round to them.

Building consistency

Lots more painting done, I've been working on the method for getting the same red every time and sorting out the white bolters so I now have more pics to show:

First up, two squads of ten veterans each. All done in mk IV with Achaean upgrades, pics are of one squad but second squad is identical. These guys perform really well all the time, they have a psychic power and also reroll wounds with their asphyx shells. Add to that a veteran ability and it's a really hard hitting squad, I've used Sniper majority of the time. I've used two different thousands Sons cult abilities, one for hammer of wrath and another to reroll Ines to hit when standing still. They die like any other marines but these squads are often stand out performers, one unit accounting for two units of terminators and some marines in a zone martalis game.

I'll have some more to post soon as I'm ahead of the game with painting, comments and criticism are welcome!

The white bolter conundrum

I've painted a lot of Thousand Sons now, I haven't posted many but believe it or not over eighty are done. The reason I haven't posted any is due to my decision to paint the bolter casings white. This has lead to a problem as the multiple clear layers of red have leeched into the white when the model is varnished.

I have been able to remedy this with subsequent coats of ulthuan grey and white but it means a redo of the casings essentially after the model is finished, a little frustrating to say the least.

I had a think about this and tried sealing the figures with varnish before painting the bolter casings, I tried his with both matt and gloss varnish with no success. It looks like the long way round is the only way, I will continue to post as the bolter casings are redone, for now here are a few more marines, I intend to have two squads of ten rotagun marines as the Thousand Sons seem to make best use of them and they look cool.

Beginnings

Hello, this is a blog of my most recent Heresy army the Thousand Sons. I've done a few other armies which might show up from time to time and I've charted their progress on Warseer and BolterandChainsword.

I've been waitin to do the Thousand Sons for a long time now and made a start before Inferno came out recently, my army selection will stay as close to the background as I can. The army has been done in Prosperan Ruby, which has taken a bit of doing! I'll explain my methods as we go, please ask any questions in the comments.

So first post, tactical marines will be the bulk of the army and will be in landraider as suggested in inferno.