From GregB: Space Marine Assault Troops (25 points)

Assault Marines of the XV Legion Astartes - models from Forge World

To the surprise of (probably) nobody, my second submission to AHPC XIII touches on a familiar subject - the great galaxy-spanning civil war of GW's "Horus Heresy" setting, and the Space Marines who fight it! Here we have an assault squad - Marines wearing jump packs, and armed with pistols, the ubiquitous "chainswords" and assorted grenades. They are painted in the colours of the XV Legion Astartes, the Thousand Sons. These are resin models from GW's Forge World studio/subsidiary/whatever-the-hell-they-are-these-days.

Chainsaws, pistols, grenades...and SPOOOKY POWERS!

In the Horus Heresy setting, the Thousand Sons are known not only as fearsome warriors, but as acolytes with psychic abilities. The combination of Space Marine-type enhancements, armour and kit, together with SPOOOOKY POWERS make them potent (at least, in theory, and in the novels - the new "Age of Darkness" rules have neutered their abilities, but we only play for fun anyway, so who cares).

"You have overdue library fines outstanding!"

Each Space Marine Legion is meant to have a different "character", but the Thousand Sons are one of the few who manage this. They gather up lost arcane knowledge and lore, have a home world renowned for huge libraries and a wondrous, magical capital city - Tizca. All of this gets torched in one of the opening gambits of the war, of course, and the Thousand Sons end up fighting for the rebellious Warmaster in the end, but still, it is notional setting that I quite enjoy, a contrast to the otherwise relentless grimdark that comes to define GW's "later" 40k setting.

An example of the custom torso here...I did kind of a sh*tty job on his pseudo-egyptian crest, but that's what happens when you rely on the overrated "Contrast" paints from GW...

I also love how the Thousand Sons look in the 30k setting, prior to all of the assorted loser Chaos-type mutations and other stupidity...GW has an excellent range of custom decals, helmets, armour bits and shoulder pads which give them a unique and thematically whacky look on the table. This squad sports several of these upgrades, and I like how they turned out - even though I can't quite yet get that brass look on the metal, I'm getting closer...

"Let's boost off to that next library, shall we?"

The 30k-era Thousand Sons are often portrayed in a metallic red armour...this looks pretty cool, and I have experimented with different means by which I might achieve such a result, but in the end, those methods either call for an airbrush, too much rattlecan work, or both - those are huge deterrents for me, so I have opted to stick with matte reds for these fellows from now on, such as seen here. And I'm such a pedant about it, I am even going back and repainting some of the metallic-red experimental figures I had worked on...you may see some more of them in the Challenge as we go :) 

There are 10 different 28mm figures here, but this squad was under way prior to the start of the Challenge, so only five of these fellows will count, adding 25 points to my tally. Thanks for reading!

____________________________

Lovely work on these sons of 'Magnus the Rediculous'. Like you, I love the 30K setting, with it's over-the-top setting and a sweeping story which underlines a daddy complex writ large. What are we at now? 726 books, or something? It's completely silly, but hugely fun. These Assault Marines look terrific and even better without all the silly mutations, and the sand-in-your-pink-parts blue power armour.

As this finishes off a partially painted squad, I'm going to give you an extra 20 points for the 'Under Construction' theme (as I know Greg, you wait, poised on your abacus with bated breath, for these extra points). ;)

- Curt