Painting Challenge Submission #9 - Thousand Sons Tactical Marines for 30k

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

For my ninth AHPC submission my brushes returned to a familiar setting, GW's "Horus Heresy". 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, embellished with some Legion-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. I enjoy painting units of these figures, and really, the only limiting factor will be my ability to display and store them, which is an issue now that I live in Toronto...but those are issues for another day.

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. Also, as JamieM noted on the Challenge blog, some are stoically violent :)

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.

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

This big 20-man slug of tactical marines will fit nicely in with my previously small (and rather elite-focused) XV Legion Astartes collection. I hope to add more through the summer, so we'll see how that goes!