Sehkmet Terminators for 30k Thousand Sons

Sehkmet Terminators for Heresy-era Thousand Sons.

Some more 30k work in this posting - here are some Sehkmet Terminators from the XV Legion Astrates, the "Thousand Sons" from GW's Horus Heresy setting. These 28mm figures combine the plastic Cataphractii Terminator kits from GW with bespoke bits from Forgeworld - torsos, arms and weapons sporting the specific themed imagery and inconography of the heresy-era Thousand Sons Space Marines.

White armour plates to pick out the officer in command of the "cabal."

Nearly every Space Marine legion in 30k has their own elite Terminator-armoured type formation (Justaerin, etc.), and Forge World has done either conversion sets (or complete sculpts, depending on the theme) for nearly all of them. My recent fiddling with some Thousand Sons inspired me to dig out my Sehkmet kit, put them together and paint them up. 

Combi-bolters, force weapons and an implacable aura on these fellows...

The backstory of the Thousand Sons is one of sorcery, psychic power and knowledge. As such the Legion featured a number of "cabals" within its ranks, and the Sehkmet was one of the most prominent ones. The Sehkmet terminators therefore combine the "terminator" elements that 30k/40k fans are all familiar with (i.e. even bigger power armour and even bigger guns) with pyschic powers and force blades. The only downside is they don't carry weapons like heavy flamers or reaper autocannons - but if you are a scary battle wizard, who needs that stuff, right?

Not so glamourous frm the back...whatever wizardry is going on inside the armour, these models retain the same machinery and power units in their Cataphractii plate.

While the sculpting is lovely, the Cataphractii models are pretty wooden in their poses - considering they are huge slabs of armour, this makes some sense, I guess...

These models are quite ornate, and were not the easiest to paint. Part of the challenge continues to be my struggles with the colour white (I guess I haven't painted Austrians in quite a while!), but the casting of the bespoke torsos, while quite neat, was also a challenge...the head and torso are all cast in one piece designed to fir the plastic Cataphractii kit, and so the helmet - often recessed in behind the huge slab-style shoulder plates - was not easy to get to with the brush. The khopesh-style blades are also a concern - the fit the "space Egypt" theme nicely, but they are resin, and resin blades are brittle things...I worry about transporting these, and worry about a mishap on the table...

I worry about those resin weapon blades...they are so thin...

All Space Marine players are familiar with the futility of Terminators within the actual game - generally they teleport/deep strike to the table, and are shot to pieces within the same turn. I'm not sure things will be different with these models should they ever get the opportunity to deploy to the gaming table, but the possibility of psychic power mayhem might increase their chances of survival and of making an impact.

The Praetor I painted earlier this summer joins the Sehkmet for this photo.

Thanks for reading - I hope everyone out there is having a good summer. I am counting down to my second vaccine dose, and then hoping to make a couple of trips to see some folks. Take care!

Anyway, it was fun to fiddle around with these figures, and continue to experiment with a different painting style. I'm not 100% sold on it, but I am happy enough with it to keep trying.