Spartan APC for 30k Thousand Sons

A Spartan carrier for the XV Legion Astartes.

Well, it's been more than a little bit since my painting flurry of the recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge concluded. My brushes have been busy, but other distractions have come up and dented my hobby time, so I have been delinquent in terms of getting stuff finished, and even more delinquent in terms of getting some posts up on the blog even when I have managed to complete something. Let's make a dent in that today...here we have a serious armored reinforcement for the Space Marines of the XV Legion Astartes - this is a Spartan, the big scary troop carrying tank of the Horus Heresy setting. This is a multi-part resin model from GW's Forge World studio.

A giant slab of armour, and tons of guns...just full-on 30k silliness!

Yes, you read that right...even though GW has had a multi-part plastic version of this model available for YEARS now, here I am, in the year 2026, still finishing off painting one of the old resin Forge World version of this kit. Needless to say, this thing has been in the "pending pile" for a LONG time - and sure, I have a nice assortment of excuses: moving several times sure didn't help, and the usual distractions of other periods, settings, scales and figures have all taken their right and proper place...but still, even for me, this is a monument to hobby delay/procrastination... 

A close-up of the beast! I added some extra light rocket launchers on the cupola, because why not?

I was going to "paint it during the Painting Challenge" (the justification for many a project!). I even got started on it January, painting the quad-lascannon sponson weapons (the part of this model I found the hardest to paint, because oddball hobby reasons). But I just couldn't get around to finishing the rest of this beast in time to include in my Painting Challenge production. 

One of the quad lascannon batteries on the sponsons. For whatever reason, I just can't stand painting those things...

In fact, I was more-than-half-tempted to even "leave it for the next Challenge", but that was a bridge too far, so I just buckled down and finally finished it in April. 

Why so slow? Well, I think we all have subjects or specific models that turn into a real drag, for whatever reason, and this was no exception. I have also found that I just have trouble finding the motivation to paint big 28mm-sized vehicles in recent times. Finally, I have to admit that the 3rd edition of the Horus Heresy rules have just not landed well with me. To put it simply, playing HH 3.0 just feels like work. I still love the story, the setting and the figures (or, nearly all of them), but these days I am just not motivated to play the game and this has materially slowed my motivation to paint more 28mm sized 30k figures. 

Lovely decals from the Forge World decal sheet help provide the necessary "crazy ancient Egypt" vibe for the tank.

But for all that, this beast is at last over the line! And I'm sure the Sons of Magnus will be pleased! I've been adding a number of units to my XV Legion collection in recent years, but when it comes to vehicles, well, they've been stiffed! Their motor pool to date consists of a single Rhino APC - useful, sure, but not exactly a sign of armored might! Well, that all changes now...

Ready to roll!

The Spartan is a bonkers AFV, just absolute peak Horus Heresy. It is armed to the teeth. It has the heaviest possible armour ratings you can have on a vehicle in the game. And it carries more than 20 marines on board - enough for a great big tactical squad, or a big terminator squad, AND some flunkies. Even Space Wizards like to ride in style, after all!

Khorne Bloodthirster!

Well here's another massive metal model from the before-times... a Bloodthirster of Khorne. This one is definitely a must-have for my 40K Khorne army.

                                                    

Assembling these metal models can be tricky due to parts fitment. Fortunately this one wasn't too bad, it was painted (badly) when I got it but stripped down a treat as they often do. The model was assembled with superglue but no pins (I hope I don't regret this later) and it needed a bit of greenstuff work on some of the joins.

The wings are massive pieces of metal aren't they!

Cheeky as always! That chain-thong looks fairly uncomfortable. Khorne cares not from where the chafing flows!

Colours used were the same as the Bloodletters. Skin is Khorne Red - Mephiston Red - Evil Sunz Scarlet, horns, nails and hooves Kantor Blue - Thunderhawk Blue, wings highlighted with Dark Rubber.

The Bloodthirster is a big boy, even when sat beside a metal Bloodletter, itself a decent sized model!

I'm glad I've gotten this one done for the game coming up. In the 5th Ed. Chaos Space Marines codex all of the greater daemons have the same stat line and cost 100 points. Of course they are summoned onto the battlefield and actually take the place of a unit champion or character model. But what would you rather have on the table, a Berzerker champion with a plasma pistol, or a Bloodthirster?? It will certainly be fun to find out in a few days. Might even get a couple Rhinos done before that too! 

Last Batch of Berzerkers

People who know me know two things about my hobbying: I enjoy rehab projects on models other people have tried to paint or started painting, and I love a good deal. This lot of Khorne Berzerkers checked both boxes. I picked them up very cheaply on eBay and they needed some work to get them into tabletop shape. You can see the "before" at the bottom of this post.

I bought a job lot of 13 models. One of them was the original plastic mono-pose Berzerker that I don't much care for, so he got left out of the revamp. Of course I also had to convert one into a standard bearer because reasons (well, summoned lesser daemons).

They turned out reasonably well I think, they certainly fit in well with the previous ones I painted. And as far as plastic Berzerkers for this army, I think I'm done. This makes enough models for five squads of eight, less two models - 38 in total. If I can dig up a couple metal Champions that would be great. 

Here's the before shot. The models were actually not bad, some of the painting was kinda sloppy though and I don't think the models were primed - there was actually some bare plastic showing through in a few spots. But this was pretty much all corrected and they're ready for the tabletop.

Next up I have to finish the Bloodthirster and maybe some Rhinos. There's also a Terminator squad and Havoc squad to get ready. We'll see if they get done before the game planned for early May.

In the meantime... SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE OF KHORNE!