From GregB - Bavarian Solar Auxilia for 30k (65 points)

Solar Auxilia ready to take their place in the battle line! These are 28mm multi-part plastic figures from GW.

In GW's "Horus Heresy" setting, the terrifying Space Marine Legions are supported in their military conquest efforts by (naturally) some Auxiliaries - known as the "Solar Auxilia". These human soldiers are more "normal" - they are not genetically modified super-soldiers like the Space Marines, but are nonetheless well-trained, well-armed and well-equipped, ready to support the Space Marines on the flanks, or stand in their stead the best they can when the Space Marines cannot be present. These are multi-part plastic figures from GW's "Age of Darkness" figure range.

Fix bayonets!

While the "lore" of the Space Marine Legions contains many well-established notions, the concepts for their auxiliaries are way more wide-open. Each Legion is known for specific Auxiliary cohorts to support them, but really you can go crazy just making up your own stuff, which is fun. I have painted Solar Auxilia in earlier editions of the Painting Challenge, back when the figure range was limited to resin sculpts from the Forge World studio, but I wanted to do something a little different with these newer plastics...something different...why not some Space Bavarians???

Close of up some of the basic troops.

The "void armour" has the look of an undersea dive suit...I just love it. 

Lots of grenades and other bits to be found...and I also love the whacky bellows-type air/atmosphere system on the back...just awesome sculpts.

Challenge Participant Nick (MartinN) is always wowing us with his stunning brushwork, particularly when he tackles a Roman subject. Since the factions of GW's "Age of Darkness" ape the format and nomenclature of the Roman Legions of old, I hoped Nick might get a kick out of seeing these far-distant-future auxiliaries with their battle plate bearing Bavarian clue colours. 

Auxiliary with Vox Interlock (aka radio thing)

Bonkers vexillary, just to make everything whacky!

The new plastic Solar Auxilia range is...well, more than anything, I'm still shocked that GW went ahead with it! I was sure the Solar Auxilia would remain a fringe faction, trapped in Forge World's resign ghetto. How wrong I was! A substantial portion of the Solar Auxilia range is now available in plastic, which is great - even if GW continues to make baffling decisions, such as releasing the utterly pointless Arvus Lighter in plastic even as we await for other, more basic vehicles and figures to be available...

Love the officer sculpt! Such whacky character.

Why is that grenade yellow? I'm sure it's all about...safety...yes...safety....

GW also managed to trip over its own feet when it comes to the instructions for these figures...there are errors in the instructions, while some components on the plastic sprues are missing a number...working through these models for the first time can be a real pain in the @ss, with heavy resort to searches of online forums to see explanations from other hobbyists...as GW itself almost never admits it f*cked up, much less corrects it...

"Stand to!"

But hey, even I'm trying to keep the glass half-full, and I am loving all of the plastic Solar Auxilia models! In fact, I had "planned" to paint a lot more during AHPC XV. These Lasrifle sections can have as many as 20 soldiers...but my painting pace has been pretty slow during this edition of the Challenge, and unfortunately I won't be able to finish all 20 of the troops (or any of their supporting vehicles or commanders - oh well). But here are 13 of them...maybe a "lucky number" to kick off this collection, with the hopes of adding to them in future Challenge editions :) 

The under-strength lasrifle section so far...

For scoring purposes, we have 13 different 28mm foot figures...good enough for 65 points! I'm hoping to be able to get maybe one more submission...fingers crossed...but thanks for reading. And thanks to Nick for the inspiration! Watch for the ranks of this terrifying Bavarian Solar Auxiliary Cohort to grow in the future...

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Loving the Auxilia in their unmistakable cornflower blue Greg! They will look great next to your boys in Red from the XV Legio.  The contrasting colours you've used (and bright safety grenades) really make them pop!  I've been thinking about getting some of these lads to go with my Word Bearers but haven't pulled that trigger yet.  Good luck with this Dirty Dozen plus one on the tabletop!

As for the Arvus Lighter - nobody can understand that particular choice...

PS Interested in what colour paints you used, if you wouldn't mind sharing please?

- Paul

From GregB - XV Legion Master of Signals (5 points)

Master of Signals from the XV Legion Astartes, the Thousand Sons. 

Ah, the mad final dash to score a few more points during AHPC XV has arrived at last! And with this in mind, I present to you...er...a solitary 28mm figure. Kind of underwhelming - but we go with what we've got! This is a Legion Master of Signals, painted in the colours of the XV Legion Astartes, known as the Thousand Sons. This is a multi-part 28mm resin figure, available at one time from GW's Forge World studio.  

Handy bolt pistol, and communications bits...

Everyone hates dropped calls. Purging the galaxy in the name of The Emperor is already hard work, and the task doesn't get any easier when you can't communicate with your battle brothers. Enter the Legion Master of Signals, a specialist command figure who will help your Space Marines get the widest and fastest available 5G+ wireless data speeds even as they empty their bolt guns and flamers into to midst of whatever pack of fools took the fatally foolish decision to stand against the Sons of Magnus. 

There is a lot happening on this power pack! I accidentally cut off one of the cables during my prep work...but it is still fine overall. 

This is an old figure - circa 2014, somewhere around there. I loved it when it first came out. Not only do all of the assorted whacky antennae and communications bits look great, but this figure was, in fact, a quiet little tribute to GW's early Warhammer 40k period, the time of "Rogue Trader" - see "Communications Officer Orinoco".  I love this figure so much that I painted one for my Sons of Horus (obvs) and another for the Imperial Fists. Since I wanted to try and add to my XV Legion during AHPC XV, I thought it would be fun to paint another one for the Thousand Sons.

"Ahriman - can you hear me now?"

The Thousand Sons are known for their mastery of obscure lore and dangerous powers - standard communications doesn't really come to mind when you think of their story. After all, who needs wi-fi when you can just use telepathy to communicate with your buddies. That said, use of warp powers can have, um, lets call it "occasional side effects", so ensuring you have a full suite of standard communications is still really important, even if you are an armoured space wizard.

"Hey, cool! Horus 'liked' my last online post! Also we have jammed the enemy's comms!"

In playing the current edition of the 30k game, I have also found the Master of Signal is ridiculously useful to have around. The game offers all sorts of terrifying means to deploy - drop pod assaults, underground termite assaults, mass teleport assaults etc. The Master of Signals increases the chances that the other player's assault will get a bit jammed up in addition to other benefits. Useful to have around. 

So for scoring...well, it's pretty boring. Just a single 28mm foot figure, so that is good for five points. But wait, there's more! He also has TWO skullz on his armour (one on the vambrace, and the other on his chest plate) - so hopefully a bit more for my skullz tally! 

The brushes are still bending...here's hoping I can squeeze one or two more posts in before we wrap up!

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Fabulous work, Greg! As you can see from my post earlier today you are in good company with quixotic, single figure entries. As any stage producer would say, you gotta tease them with the small acts before you come in with the big closing number.

I love this guy, especially as he's a nod to those heady, wild-and-whacky days of Rogue Trader. The super saturated red and yellow of his armour is ace, and that pose is definitely on-point, 'If I get another busy signal I swear to Horus I'm going to call in a air strike on this f*&$er...' 

Well done dude!

- Curt

Wednesday From JamieM - The Horus Heresy’s Greatest Traitor and Mythos (62 points)

Something of a small and yet mixed bag today. First up are the Priory faction for "Mythos" by warcradle. One of my friends and I are like moths to a flame when obscure and virtually dead games with pretty miniatures are concerned and "Mythos" is that. Don’t think it was ever big, but it limps along and can be had very cheaply on eBay at times. I have the Priory faction who are nominally the good guys standing against the evil Cthulhu-type entities

These appear to be led by a wise fellow who has dragged along a chap with a flamethrower, an archaeologist lady, a mechanic, a cat and he’s summoned a massive golem! Feels like he’s ticked all of the boxes for fighting evil…..

Fairly simple paint jobs and it remains to be seen whether the game will see table time with so many other games fighting for it. Heck, they’re nice miniatures either way and were fun to paint. Oh, and one of the ladies will be my fee to move to the “Traitor” area of hell……

……Because I’ve also painted this fella, Lorgar Aurelian...

He’s from GW’s Horus Heresy setting and is one of the primarchs, who are super human beings who lead the legions. Lorgar leads the Wordbearers, religious nut jobs who built massive cathedrals to the Emperor (back when he claimed he wasn’t a god) when they took worlds over instead of moving on to pacify the next world. The Emperor slapped them down for this very publicly and used the Ultramarines to do it, which mortified the entire legion (The Ultramrines? Ugh. I would be embarrassed too - GB).

Lorgar responded to this like any teenager would and sought out the chaos gods to worship instead. He then introduced them to Horus and some of his other primarch friends and the Horus heresy began!

Lorgar is therefore a huge traitor (even though the Emperor was also a bit of a git) as he set in motion a war that killed billions and set humanity back and got what would become the 40K universe going. Ironically, it set up a universe where the Emperor really is now seen as a god. So perhaps he’d feel it was all worth it?

Anyway, 5 x 28mm figure, one 54mm figure, one 40mm figure and a Traitor bonus for 62 points by my maths.

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This is lovely Jamie! And with all due respect to "Mythos" - and your commitment to obscure-adjacent games (which I share and respect), I can say "thank god" for some 30k at last! And that is a sentiment I think Lorgar would appreciate!

The Primarch models are a real hoot, and it is so nice to see the arch-criminal of the Horus Heresy rendered here and ready to lead his legion into some manner of "faithful endeavor". Progress demands sacrifice, after all, and Lorgar his chaps can help out with both! While Erebus is still the biggest @sshole in the story, at the end of the day, Lorgar is THE bad guy. You've done fine work here - the cape, the mace, and even the "such-a-shame-that-billions-must-die-in-order-to-show-the-obvious-truth" expression on his face.

And full marks to the "Mythos" team. But why assume the "Cthulhu types" are evil? Why, Lorgar could help you understand that inter-dimensional diversity can be your organization's new "greatest strength"...

62 points it is! We can all celebrate in our next visit to Monarchia. Right....?

GregB 

From GregB - Legion Cataphractii Command Squad for 30k Thousand Sons (15 points)

Legion Terminator command squad for the XV Legion Astartes. 

Sadly not too much to share painting-wise this week - but at least the figures are rather large chaps! We have a Legion Command Squad wearing terrifying Cataphractii terminator plate and resplendent in the colours of the XV Legion Astartes, the Thousand Sons. These are multi-part plastic 28mm figures from GW's "Age of Darkness" range for gaming the Horus Heresy setting. 

View showing the not-quite-net-zero-compliant power systems of the armour.

Since it is AHPC XV, I am making an effort to get my XV Legion collection to the next level in terms of size/capability. This command squad will help in that regard, bulking out the command element on the table. They accompany their boss (usually a Praetor or Centurion) to battle. I try to have a command squad like this for each Space Marine Legion I collect, because they all feature a silly banner, and I just love the large, silly banners in the Horus Heresy. They really capture the blend of dark-age-war-approach with high-tech-weapons that is a cornerstone of the delightful absurdity that is 30k!

Banner bearer, ready to inspire his brother Marines.

Closer look at the banner bearer.

The Legion Command squads are supposed to wear similar armour to the commander they accompany. As my Thousand Sons have gone to battle so far under the leadership of a Praetor in Cataphractii Terminator armour, his command flunkies would need to have the same kit. I have plenty of plastic Terminators sitting around in the shelves, and the banner was an easy swap in from the standard Space Marine command accessory sprue. The excellent Thousand Sons decal sheet from Forge World had a handy large-sized transfer that fit the big silly banner perfectly, and I'm pleased with how it all turned out.

I love this pose. "Hey, over there - someone shoot that guy!"

The Cataphractii Terminator armour is one of those systems that reads as terrifying in the lore and the stories but never matches up to that sort of experience when you actually deploy them on the table in the game. In a game system where "points" are used to create balance, the Terminators cost far too many points relative to what they manage to achieve in a given game. That said, they look super cool - the Cataphractii armour variant in particular is just delightful in its air of slab-sided menace. 

Another dramatic pose - figured a drama-adjacent sort like this fellow should be in the command squad...

The big, dramatic banner provides some morale and associated buffs for fellow Thousand Sons Space Marines on the table. The chap carrying it has a nice big power sword to smack people with, while the other two - "chosen" - act as general bodyguards, with combi-bolters to and power fists to deal with matters arising on the battlefields of the grim and dark far future.

Some great waterslide transfers do the heavy-lifting on the big, silly banner...

An additional advantage for these sorts of units in the Thousand Sons is that nearly all of the members of the Legion have spooky psychic powers, which they use despite the serious risks involved in messing with the warp with no problems at all everything always works out just fine...it provides these chaps with an extra edge in the battle, particularly in the company of their scary boss. Terminators can already be a handful, but Terminators with spooky powers? Whatever happens on the table, rest assured it will be dramatic!

A photo with the boss! The Praetor was not painted as part of the Painting Challenge, but still fun to pose him with his brand-new set of command flunkies!

Scoring-wise, we have three 28mm infantry models. Chunky models perhaps, but 28mm infantry all the same, and so we have 15 points! That's it for this week...I'm hoping, as all Challengers hope, to be making a last big splash prior to the end of AHPC XV...but real life may not agree, so we'll see. But thanks for reading, and keep those brushes going!

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From GregB - 30k Sicaran Battle Tank (30 Points)

Space Marine "Sicaran" tank for the Horus Heresy - 28mm multi-part resin model from Forge World. 

Greetings all! Not too much to share this week. Here we have a Sicaran tank from GW's Horus Heresy range. These days one can acquire this model in beautiful, multi-part plastic, but this is NOT that kit. It is, rather, an old veteran of Forge World's resin 30k range. It is painted in the colours of the XVI Legion Astartes, the Warmaster's own Sons of Horus.

Lovely lines AND lots of guns - perfect for Space Marines looking for that "sporting ride" in war time...

Space Marines have soooooo many tanks they can use to crush their enemies. There is a kind of spectrum in their designs, ranging from compact and brutal-looking, up toward medium-sized and brutal-looking, and on from their toward really-really-large and brutal-looking. Sure, some the speeders and jet bikes are sleek-looking things, but when it comes to tanks and troop carriers, the Space Marines want everything to look like it is coming to crush you - because, well, that is what is going to happen.

Auto cannons that are widely feared on Age of Darkness gaming tables.

But the Sicaran design stands somewhat apart...like the designers' brief said something along the lines of "killer Space Marine tank, but, you know, with a 'BMW' vibe...make it more of a sports-car-tank." And so, out with the troop compartment! Let's lower that silhouette a touch! And maybe not quite SO much slab-style armour? Guns, well, OBVIOUSLY, but, you know, a cool turret with rapid-firing auto cannons!

The Space Marines are not very "hip", but to the extent any hipsters survive the genetic conditioning process necessary to create Space Marines in the year 30,000 I'm sure they will all want to crew the Sicaran tank squadrons. These tanks race around the battlefield, they look cool doing it, and the weapons they bring to bear are effective against a wide assortment of targets, from protestors to xenos troublemakers to deluded "loyalist" Space Marines. While the standard turret mounting the auto cannons as seen here is the general favorite, there are all sorts of whacky alternate turret weapon mounts available too for hipster crews that wish to slay in a more unique, if still stylish, fashion.

Horus for hope!

As noted above this an old resin model from Forge World, and this is a re-paint, part of an ongoing campaign to bring a consistent look to the green armour for all of the Sons of Horus troops and vehicles in my collection. Such conformity stills my inner hobby OCD brain monkey...for a time, at least, until I must turn to the next batch of troops and vehicles who require a similar update.

Scoring-wise, we have a single 28mm vehicle, which should be good for 20 points. That's all for this week - thanks for reading! 

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Another great addition to your Legion Greg, I'm sure the additional ranged firepower will come in quite handy.

I know (from looking down the barrels of Reilly's Sicarian) that this is quiet a beast of a model so I'm awarding an additional 10 points for its sheer mass!

- Paul

From GregB - Thousand Sons Automata & Apothecary (65 points)

"No need to worry - they're with me..."

For my first submission today we have some more kit from GW's "Horus Heresy" setting. There are three Castellax-Achea Automata and an Apothecary, all wearing the colours of the XV Legion Astartes, the Thousand Sons. These are all multi-part resin models from GW/Forge World. 

Castellax-Achea Automata

Achean-Force claws, Mauler-pattern Bolt Cannon...ready for all kinds of automated fun!

GW's Space Marines are so conditioned for battle in the name of The Emperor that they come across as if they are nearly soulless killing machines. Note that descriptor - "nearly". The individual Space Marines is still a human, in a sense. But don't worry. When all-the-way-soulless-killing is called for, the Space Marines send in the Automata.

Designed and built by the various Mechanicum Forge Worlds, Automata come in all manner of shapes and sizes. Automata attached to the various Space Marine Legions are employed by their commanders either to augment otherwise limited numbers of troops or for use in combat situations considered too extreme even for the fabled Space Marines themselves. 

View of the guts on the reverse side of the armoured plates...and a glowing little crystal to help with warp-energy control...I'm sure that won't cause any problems...

The Thousand Sons applied their own little twist to the whole Automata phenomenon. Their Primarch, Magnus the Red, pitched some Mechanicum types on Automata systems that made use of psychic energy. Usually the Mechanicum Forge Lord types reject any idea which they didn't devise themselves as heretical, but in this case Magnus found a particular - and apparently isolated - Forge World that heard him out and said "hey, sounds great, we'll work that up for up for you." Behold the Castellax-Achea pattern Automata.

"WHO WANTS A HUG?"

These are essentially killer robots, with the advantage that they can be guided by their controllers using psychic means rather than more standard communications protocols. What could possible go wrong? With Automata like these around, the Thousand Sons can spend a bit of extra time reading forbidden books while the robots handle some of the tedious fighting for them.

Apothecary

Apothecary in Mk VI power armour - with handy chain sword. Of course.

Not a whole lot to say about this fellow. The Apothecaries are Legion specialists charged with ensuring the physical health of their battle brothers. In practice, this seems to work out to about 20% healing/80% recovering critical bits from seriously wounded brethren for use in creating future replacement Space Marines. 

All the tools of the trade mounted on his left arm, with lamps and sensors on the power unit on the back.

I love the "beakie" Space Marines, and when GW released a new Horus Heresy Apothecary figure wearing the Mark VI "beakie" power armour I naturally over-supplied on the models. Since I was doing some Thousand Sons Automata, I thought I might as well get this fellow painted while I was at it. 

Safety fluids galore!

The Apothecaries are great fun to employ in 30k games, almost invariably driving your opponent bonkers by sparing Space Marines who otherwise would have been obliterated. You can deploy a little pack of them to roam among your detachments and I have found them to be fun and useful in all sorts of ways. This is a second Apothecary for my Thousand Sons - so now the medical experts can do consults.  

The armour details did not leave a lot of room for Legion symbols, but I managed to get to pseudo-heiroglyph symbols on the leg greave.

For scoring, these models are much heftier than the standard 28mm Space Marines, but still not as big as the Dreadnoughts (which have counted as "vehicles"), so I'll propose to count the Automata as 54mm foot figures. 

3 x 54mm infantry = 30 points

1 x 28mm infantry = 5 points

Total= 35 points

Bonus - the Apothecary has four skullz!!

Thanks for reading - I have one more post still to come for today - stay tuned for that!

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Fab additions to your Legion Greg! The Automata are excellent - such a thematic element to break up all those Astartes. I've been meaning to add some to my World Eaters, where their high casualty rates mean that their Legion relies on some less berserk (ie reliable) firepower. 

The Apothecary is a lovely addition too. True, they seem to spend more time in the fiction harvesting organs in a non-consensual kind of way from their enemies, but then again all bleeding stopes eventually. One way or another.

Given the intricacies of the Automata, I've counted them as vehicles. Great entry!

- Paul

From GregB - Space Marine APC and Librarian (25 Points)

Thousand Sons Librarian Consul and Deimos-Pattern Rhino APC - models from GW.

For my third submission I'll be sticking to GW's "Horus Heresy" setting as I continue to try and clear off some projects which have been sitting in the "pending pile" for weeks - or even months - leading up to the start of AHPC XV. Here we have a Rhino APC and a Librarian Consul, both painted in the colours of the XV Legion Astartes, the Thousand Sons. The vehicle is a multi-part plastic kit, and the foot figure is a multi-part resin kit - both are from GW.

It's not a fancy ride by the standards of the Space Marine Legions, but it is still the first vehicle for the Thousand Sons in my collection!

Some esoteric markings on the door...probably safety instructions, and nothing to do with using spooky powers or anything like that...

The Rhino is the classic APC of GW's Space Marine forces, and this plastic "Deimos pattern" of the vehicle is very much a loving homage to the original plastic Rhino model kits of GW's much earlier days. I had built this model back in the summer, determined to paint it promptly but...of course I did not, and it sat there on the shelf for months. 

View showing the iconography of the Thousand Sons on the vehicle. I was pretty sparing with the markings (I find the Thousand Sons tanks in the GW/Forge World books to be a touch too whacky/busy for my liking and prefer to keep it simple).

My collection of Horus-Heresy-era Thousand Sons has, up to this point, comprised solely of infantry models. This is mostly because it grew out of the infantry-focused box game "The Burning of Prospero" (which I highly recommend) so I would add infantry and characters, but never got around to painting any vehicles for them. No doubt my Sons of Prospero will be pleased to have the opportunity to at last catch a ride on the table!

Love the post of this sculpt...he is about to unleash some warp fun on you!

The character figure is a "Librarian Consul" from the updated "Age of Darkness" range. This figure was intended to be generic in that he has no specific markings for any of the particular factions in the setting so you could paint him up for any Legion. In the 30k setting, "Librarians" are not mere civil servants checking books in and out - they are powerful adepts skilled in manipulating the dangerous energies of the warp. This fellow has the trappings associated with Space Marine Librarians...fancy armour, fancy cloak, a helmet with some slight extra fluff, and esoteric bits like old keys, a spooky old hard-cover leather-bound book, and, naturally, a couple skulls...because they...help...or something.

Big, pimped-out cloak? Check! But I really love the spell book chained on to the power pack unit (which has some further embellishments of its own as well - like I said, awesome sculpt). 

I love the figure - he has a "beakie" helmet, awesome! - and had already painted one of these fellows for my Loyalist Imperial Fists. Given that the Thousand Sons are noted for their preponderance of psychic-power practitioners (what could go wrong with that?), I thought I would paint this second figure to join them (and take his place with the other, legion-specific psyker model for the XV Legion). 

"I foresee...getting a ride for once! About damn time!"

For scoring we have a single 28mm vehicle and a single 28mm foot figure, so that should amount to 25 points. And a few more skulls...hey, I'll take em! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more soon - I hope!

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Lovely work on these two models dude. As an archivist I can't help myself in shaking my head at GW's decision to call the Space Marian psykers 'Librarians', like WTAF? I have yet to meet a librarian who can hoist a stack of books without quivering in near collapse much less wear power armour and haul around huge melee weapons. 'Don't make me release the awesome power of the Dewey Decimal System on you!' *eyeroll* Anyway, my peccadilloes aside, your Librarian is a wonderfully painted example of the breed. Like you I really enjoy all the details of the sculpt, very characterful and dynamic. And what Marine wouldn't appreciate resting their armoured-shod feet with a ride in a Rhino such as this. The Dodge Caravan of the 30th millennia. Great work dude!

- Curt

From GregB - Thousand Sons Tactical Squad (100 points)

Thousand Sons Space Marines of the XV Legion Astartes. 28mm figures from GW.

For this week's submission I am back to a familiar setting, GW's "Horus Heresy" setting. This is a tactical squad of Space Marines belonging to the XV Legion Astartes, known as the "Thousand Sons". These Marines are wearing Mark VI power armour, known by fans of the setting as "beakie" armour for the pointed faceplate on the helmets. These are multi-part plastic 28mm, with some themed resin helmets and shoulder plates. 

A couple of the individual Marines.

View of the power packs.

I have painted a great number of these models since GW released them a couple of years ago, and I can't seem to ever get tired of them. I have always loved the classic "beakie" Space Marine armour pattern, and I have also been a huge fan of the Horus Heresy for a long, long time. So when GW finally brought these classic models back specifically for the Horus Heresy setting I was super-duper hooked, and have accumulated a rather, um, shall we say "significant" stockpile of these figures.

I love these particular poses.

Nice view of the embossed Legion symbol on the custom shoulder pads. Love these things - plus it saves on the decals a bit.

The Thousand Sons Legion is great fun, combining all of the violent combat potential of the Space Marines with an assortment of spooky psychic powers. They pursue and accumulate knowledge, as opposed to the other Space Marines who otherwise struggle to stand out from one another via varying degrees to which they are either violent, stoic, or violently stoic. 

Officer on the left, with a power sword (sporting a SKULL in the hilt!).

Of course, in GW's universe of the future, learning and knowing things doesn't tend to work out well for you in the end, and so it is for the Thousand Sons. By the "time" of Warhammer 40k, the remnant Thousand Sons are basically Flanderized parodies of their former selves. 

A sort of "must-have" for these big tactical squads - a vox operator and vexillary.

But during the "Age of Darkness", the Thousand Sons are wearing cool armour, with fun Egyptian-themed accents and all sorts of symbols etc. The custom enhancements are part of that, and I love how they look on the Marines.

The Heresy-era Thousand Sons are often seen sporting an awesome, metallic candy-red on their powered armour and vehicles. I love how that looks, but to do it properly, you need to use an airbrush, especially on vehicles. I had experimented with different possible approaches, but in the end have settled for a nice, basic red with white and gold accents, relying on the custom symbols to help them stand out from the other Space Marines who also use red (such as the Blood Angels). 

Vox operator (with a skull, because obviously) and vexillary at the front of the squad.

So for scoring, we have 20 infantry models in 28mm scale, which comes to 100 points. That's all for this week - thanks for reading! We also get THREE SKULLS. Not much, but I'll take it.

For a moment I was at a loss whether I was being buttered up or insulted, but having looked up "Flanderized" my mind is completely at rest now. Which is just as well, because now I can enjoy the lovely work you are presenting to us today, Greg. A great assembly of beaky Space Marines, I think they look splendid in their red armour suits and your painting is meticulous and crisp as ever. A great addition  to your large collection, and 100 well earned points!

Martijn