Heresy Era Sons of Horus - Forge Lord built!

Just a quick hit today - Though there's been some progress, there hasn't been much worth photographing on the painting side over the last couple days. However, as a bit of a reward for cranking away on the models I did do a little build time and put together another Cataphractii-armoured character for the force - A Forge Lord!

Every time I go to a convention I've tried to pick up a couple of the event-only models but haven't really used any of them for the Thousand Sons as they don't match the aesthetic. Now that I'm working on the Sons of Horus, they're all finally seeing the light of day! This one comes standard with a thunder hammer and a combi-volkite which is a frankly useless combi-weapon, so it was swapped out for a basic combi-bolter. The addition of a cyber-familiar and a couple mechadendrites and he makes a more than passable Forge Lord for the force! Rather like how he turned out, and am quite looking forward to getting some paint on him!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Techmarine Thothmes and Servo-automaton nearly complete!

Just a quick hit today - getting down to the wire on finishing off the army for the Nova Open coming up at the beginning of September so I'm in a mild panic mode. Always good for the painting output!

Nothing too fancy here, but got all the basic colors laid in and the bases mostly finished on Techmarine Thothmes and his creepy Servo-automata. Still some little things to do (screens on the various scanners, eye lenses in the helmet and so forth) but he's rather near the finish line!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Damocles Command Rhino and Techmarine, and some GenCon goodies!

Apologies for the radio silence of late, but I've been on vacation for the last week out in Indiana attending GenCon! A fantastic time was had, and there's a few pics below. First up however are some pics of a few models I'd been working on here and there over the days leading up to the trip and a little bit today.

 

AS is usually the case I keep fiddling with army lists for NOVA and had a thought to include a Damocles Command Rhino to the force, which would allow for more deep strike accuracy for the assault squads, and the occasions where I can pull off the roll on the Warlord Traits table where I can designate the terminators with deep strike. I knew I wanted to use the Warhammer World exclusive command rhino, and spent a little time cutting up a Deimos rhino kit from Forge World to give it that Heresy vibe.

As a unit to pop in the Damocles, I put together a Techmarine and a unit of Servo-Automata, pretty straightforward headswap for this guy, though I'm scheming on a more ornate Forge Lord for the near future!

While I was out at GenCon we mostly spent our time playing Shadowrun and enjoying delicious meals and probably a few too many cocktails. I was able to swing by the Forge World booth though, and to the great relief of my wallet there wasn't really much that I needed to buy to supplement the Thousand Sons - With the book's release imminent I'm sort of holding off on buying new kits until I can see the army list and new models. That said, I did pick up a couple of the Event Only models - The Traitor Terminator Librarian, and the Cataphractii Terminator Praetor with a Thunder Hammer and Combi-Volkite. The Librarian is a bit too World-Eater-y to use for the Thousand Sons, but he'll be squirreled away for a rainy day!

Heresy Era Imperial Fists - Army complete!

Made the big push over the past week to finish up the Xiphon and Sicaran Venators, with the weather being nice enough to be able to get the transfers, weathering and sealant in place. First up the pair of Venators:

 

Since they already had big Fist symbols on the sponson covers, I kept things fairly simple with some vehicle identifier symbols, and the legion number on the front glacis. I also went back in and brightened up the lightning on the barrels so it stands out a little better. I loved building and painting these tanks, and they will definitely find their way into future armies!

 

The Xiphon also got a bit more decorative trim, carrying the gold/bronze theme from the other models. Still of two minds about this model - it was a joy to build and paint, but something about it just doesn't resonate with me in the way the new Lightning model does. It just feels a little too 'modern era' 40k to me design-wise. For future projects I'll definitely be going back to the Lightning.

 

The resin base company I'd ordered from had a neat flying stand that matched the rest of the army, but rather than the standard clear stand it utilizes a ruined column to hold the flyer aloft. Sort of a neat idea, I thought!

Once they were finished I can call the army complete! A good thing too with GenCon coming up and an inevitable paroxysm of spending at the Forge World booth means it's time to get 'em up on the auction block to help pay for it. First things first, pulling out all the models for a final family photo:

That's a lot of yellow! I think it's fair to say that I've gotten pretty weary of it, but am quite happy with the recipe - will definitely be using that method on yellows in the future. Snapped a few new closeups to detail what the army contains as well:

A bunch of characters of course, from left to right: Legion Champion, Sigismund, Forge Lord, Alexis Polux, Master of Signals, Cataphractii Praetor, Apothecary and another Praetor in Artificer armour.

The veteran squad and their transport rhino - the heavy bolters coupled with the Imperial Fists bolter discipline means they lay down a surprising amount of highly accurate fire!

Gotta have a whole mess of tactical marines, and I've set them up such that they can either be run as one big 20-man squad or as two 10-man squads with rhino transports.

I'm a huge fan of the Mk.IV assault marine models, so they were a must-add for the army. ...20 of 'em may have been overkill, but there's no denying they hit like an avalanche.

You can't have an Imperial Fists army without a mess of Terminators in my opinion. I'd intended to just do a single10-man squad, but I had enough leftover bodies to create a couple extra sergeants and heavy weapons to allow for running a pair of 5-6 man squads, or swap out the heavy weapons loadout to suit the mission at hand.

A pair of Contemptor dreadnoughts, the two Venators and the Xiphon round things out nicely, and give the army some much needed anti-air and anti-vehicle punch.

Like all of my armies, the models are all secured in Battlefoam trays for storage and transport, and have some room for future expansion. The army will be going up on eBay shortly - unfortunately due to the size and weight of the two boxes they'll be packed into, it would be ruinously expensive to ship them overseas (well over $250+) so I'm afraid it's going to be US only again. I wish that it wasn't the case, but to get any sort of delivery confirmation and tracking for overseas packages the prices are just ridiculous these days.

LINK TO AUCTION

Now to ponder the next project! I have more modern-era Adeptus Mechanicus to work on, but with  the recent arrival of the Horus Heresy Book V, it might just be time to turn my eyes back to the Prosperine Spireguard and look at updating that army a bit - tons of new options, and I have a decided urge to build and paint a Stormhammer...

Heresy Era Imperial Fists - Couple more characters built

Not a lot of hobby time the last few days, but I did manage to build the last couple characters for the Imperial fists - an Apothecary and a Forge Lord:

The apothecary is pretty much right out of the box, with a Fists shoulder pad. The techmarine on the other hand is a bit of a mutt - some leftover bits from the Iron Hands (all the cog-tooth decoration seemed appropriate), some metal bits from a rendered-down 40k techmarine, and a head and servo-skull from the depths of the Closet of Doom - no idea where they were from originally. Hoping to get these and the other characters primered over lunch today while it's nice out, and get some paint on 'em all over the weekend!

Iron Hands - Batch painting complete!

Whew! Twenty five guys done, and based on the notes I took while churning through 'em, the overall time spent was just a little shy of ten hours. Not too bad!

First up is the tac squad I'd shown previously, with the multi-melta being replaced by a missile launcher and a bit more dust and mud on the legs.

The second tac squad carries a plasma cannon and plasma gun, I figure with all the Gets Hot rolls, it just means they're more likely to get some extra bionics!

Next is a devastator squad with a couple extra heavy weapons to swap in and out as needed. Always handy!

A few extra characters were mixed in the assembly line as well, including a pair of techmarines and a librarian.

For what I thought would be a relatively simple paint scheme, there are 21 colors that go into it. How did that happen?

I'll be the first to admit this is not my best work, I was more focused on speed than technique - I will definitely be taking more time working through the heresy-era Iron Hands. That said, I figure even if the painting time doubles, I will still be able to finish up the upcoming army before January!