From GregB - 30k Sons Of Horus Space Marines (50 Points)

Prepare for getting the sh*t kicked out of you compliance - Sons of Horus in MK III power armour from Forge World

After a lovely week off visiting the Desert Cities of Southern California, it's back to the hellish winter of the Canadian Prairies - but also back to the painting that helps me forget about it! This entry is another group of figures from GW's Forge World subsidiary (or division or whatever) - 10 Space Marines in Mark III armour from the Sons of Horus, the 16th Legion.  These figures are for GW's Horus Heresy setting, generally referred to as "Warhammer 30k".

Rivets galore!

Officer on right, communications trooper on the left

In contrast to the Mark IV armoured marines of my last entry, these Mark III troopers have a more menacing and proto-medieval feel to them.  The armour is covered with extra plates, is segmented in the back, and the helmet is darker and more ominous with a "face plate" that would not look out of place in the late middle ages. Many rivets are visible.  I quite enjoy how they look.

Horus' lads prepare to unleash a burst of fire

In hindsight I wish I had ordered more figures wearing this type of armour - I like its look a lot more than that Mark IV power armour (which is still very nice).  The Mark III seems more ominous - the joyless, faceless grim legions of the Emperor's Great Crusade, coming to wreck your shit bring you into "compliance".

Lots of segments in the armour - a very proto-medieval feel to the design

The squad has two special weapon troopers - one with a missile launcher, and the other with a melta gun (a short range, high energy weapon for knocking out armoured opponents, be they vehicles, infantry or otherwise).  The design of the missile launcher is lovely - an homage to the "shark fin" style of this weapon from the original RTB 01 Space Marine box.  The Forge World guys have done these little nods to the early history of the sculpts again and again throughout this figure range, something I definitely appreciate about it.

"Let's hug for Horus!"

The embossed shoulder plates are awesome...and terrible, in that once you start with them, you can't stop using them...

This group is meant to represent a veteran squad - in the 30k rules, squads to not typically carry any special weapons with them - there are whole other squads for that work, after all :) But as "veterans", they are able to add a couple of special weapons to the group, mimicking the more common 10-man squads of Warhammer 40k's more "current" iterations.

Bit of a view of the comms pack in this photo

The officer (with the wacky comb on his helmet) has a small standard mounted on his backpack, and is wearing a "power fist", a big augmented armoured glove that would have some kind of power field around it to assist in the smashing of his enemies, likely in the face.  He is accompanied by a communications trooper, who has a modified helmet and backpack.

Good ol' "Shark Fin" style missile launcher

"I can see his house from here..."

I used decals throughout where I could, with very mixed results - the bronze does not come off of the green very well.  I also tried to weather them up a bit - again, the results are mixed in my opinion.  My sponging approach, which works so well on larger vehicle models, is harder to apply consistently on these figures.

Marine with melta gun

Proudly loyal to humanity's last hope - Horus the Warmaster!

These 10 figures should net me 50 points.  Now to get back to the painting table - when you take a week off, you sure fall behind in the Challenge!


From Curt:

Greg, these guys rock. Like you, I really like the whole medieval esthetic of the Mk III armour with its segmented plates and slightly baroque detailing. Your green and brass motif works very nicely with this force, especially with leaving the faceplate as simple, flat steel. My favourite model of the group has to be the trooper with the old school rocket launcher - I have great memories of that initial boxed set and always loved the design of the old 'shark fin' launcher.

'This Hug for Humanity is brought to you by Horus - A Force for Change...'