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