"Saturnine" Dreadnought for 30k Thousand Sons

"Saturnine" Dreadnought for the Thousand Sons. Big guns on a big dreadnought.

Well, at long last...a blog post! I have been utterly delinquent when it comes to posting on the Blog. I actually have been painting a fair bit through the summer, and have been meaning to share some photos, because that is fun! But...I just keep getting delayed on the whole "take photos and post" part of the process. Oh well. Let's try to get one post going, and we'll see if we can build on it...and for said post here we will highlight a new addition to the ranks of my XV Legion Astartes - a great big "Saturnine" Dreadnought. This is a 28mm multi-part plastic kit from GW's "Age of Darkness" range.

Big sucker...

"Saturnine"-type kit is the new "latest thing" for the Horus Heresy, central to the box set of the 3.0 edition of the rules released in the summer of 2025. Considering that the Black Library had 50 or 60 so novels covering the story of the Horus Heresy, as well as a 10-book series on the Siege of Terra itself, and that "Saturnine" kit is not mentioned the whole time, this amounted to quite the ret-con, even by GW standards! 

Low emissions...I think? 

The Saturnine-equipped chaps are pretty large. The Saturnine terminators are essentially "they're terminators, but bigger!", and the same thinking lies behind the Saturnine dreadnought - "it's a dreadnought, but bigger!". This thing is mounted on a 100mm round base and is much larger than the Contemptor and Leviathan dreadnought models found in the Space Marine Legion collections. 

"Heavy Plasma Bombard" on one arm.

It is still not as big as the Imperial Knight kits, but in terms assembling and painting, there are a lot of similarities to the approach. There is a significant amount of metal/machine, covered with armoured plates, and the best way to tackle the painting is via a sub-assembly process. This allows you to get a base of metal colours down on the interior components, get those washed and dry-brushed, before focusing on the external armoured covers. 

"Disintegrator cannon" - surely this is totally safe to use...

This is particularly important with the giant, turtle-style armour plates which dominate the top assembly on the model - they cover MOST of what is underneath, but NOT all, so it's worth taking some time to paint the plates separately. It's also a lot easier to apply the transfers to them before they are affixed to the main body.

Secondary weapons, mounted on the chest of the dreadnought. The pair at the top are "concussive resonators", while there are a pair of "photonic incinerators" on the bottom. These are designed to accommodate magnets, which is great.

The designers of this kit anticipated small magnets, which is great, and so magnetizing the weapons was easy. The kit comes with two different options for the (relatively) smaller short-range weapons mounted on the torso, and those are easily magnetized so you can swap them out. The main weapons on the "arms" can also have magnets fitted to them, allowing them to be changed out should I even acquire some of the other weapon options which have been released in the months following the introduction of these new kits.

Close up the the "sarcophagus" on the Saturnine dreadnought...

I've played very little of the 3.0 Horus Heresy rules, so I can't tell you how this thing performs in games. But I have come up against Saturnine Terminators, and find they are just broken, so I expect this thing would deliver similar results. I cannot remember what the main weapons are called, but they seem pretty devastating to infantry and to vehicles, while this version of the dreadnought armour is likely to be unbelievably resilient. These are among the game's newest models, after all, and as the "40k style" is sadly continuing to creep into 30k gaming, it's not shocking that these new kits would be powerful in the game. 

It's hard to spot, but you can see the alternate weapons mounted on the torso.

But I should be fair - these things are not solely a power gaming exercise. First, this is a very nice model kit, something GW can still do very well. And whatever I think of "Saturnine" stuff, it sure seems popular with gamers, and in a genuine way. Many players seem to have a soft spot for those distant images of the original goofy-looking "Saturnine" armour of the Rogue Trader times, and are pleased to have the chance to bring the updated kits to their 30k collections.

No doubt the Thousand Sons of my own collection are surely pleased to be enjoying the boost. They have the "Axehole 2.0" to lead them in battle. They have a Saturnine Terminator squad to bring further support. They also have a new Spartan APC to carry the troops into battle!  Watch for further reinforcements to come to this legion through the fall...anyway, that is all for now, hopefully I'll be back with another post before too long!

How to Make Some Simple Hills

I feel like you guys already would know all this stuff but I am so pleased with the new hills I made for the Little Bighorn game that I wanted to post a short tutorial. It is really easier than it seems.

Materials:

• 2x8 sheet of 1" styrofoam, Home Depot/Rona, cost ~$10
• Sharpie. You have one of these already
• USB Hot Wire Foam Cutter. I use the FloraCraft CleanKut. Got it at Michael's, $30
• Sand
• Paint. If you can, grab a pint pot of mistinted paint at the paint counter. Otherwise, have some latex paint mixed up in a ground colour. Don't use craft or model paint, you will need too much of it
• Sanding sponges - medium texture. ~$8 for three. Get washable/reusable ones. You will be doing a lot of sanding
• White school glue

First, draw out the shapes of your hills on the styrofoam with your Sharpie. Next, cut out the shapes with your hot wire foam cutter - but angle the wire outwards from your lines as much as you can manage, like 45 degrees. This will give you a start to the "slope" on the hillsides. Cut slowly and let the cutter do the work while you inhale the fragrant fumes of atomized styrofoam. If you're using a USB cutter and it's not working well, try a different plugin adapter as some are more powerful than others.

Once you've got the shape cut out it's time to start sanding. You want to round off the edge contour between the hillside and hilltop to make it natural-looking, and smooth out the hillside itself. When the sponge starts to get less effective, switch to a new one. The styrofoam dust will clog up the sponges but you can wash them.

When you have the hill contoured in a pleasing way it's time to start painting. On mine I laid down a basecoat of the latex ground-coloured paint. Then I brushed over white glue thinned with water and lightly sprinkled the sand over top. After the glue has dried (it can take a long time if it's thinned) put another coat of thinned glue over top. Then paint again, or not, and drybrush, or not, and apply flock or static grass, or not, all according to your taste.

Lastly, have a game with your fantastic new hills!

Here are the hills cut out of styrofoam and shaped.

Hills after basecoat of paint with sand applied over thinned white glue.

More thinned white glue gets put over top to seal down the sand.

Hills laid out on the Little Bighorn terrain.

Hills after painting over the sand, with flock and static grass applied.

Finished hill.

Ready for the last stand on Custer Hill.

Hills laid out on the finalized terrain.

The battle is on Sunday - hoka hey!

All Done. Teepees and Dead Horses

OK so this is the end of the Little Bighorn project (for now)... some set dressing for the game. Above we have some teepees for the village. The pattern is a free download from firstpalette. They are big though, but I discovered that printing them two to a page (on 8 1/2" x 11" letter paper) makes a perfect size teepee for 28mm gaming. The "poles" are coffee stirsticks cut in half, then in half lengthwise, and taped to the inside of the teepee walls. A good project for an evening. They didn't need to be super-detailed since they will be placed on the very edge of the battlefield anyway.

The other thing the battle had a lot of was dead horses, survivors of the Reno fight talk about piling up dead horses as breastworks and the people who saw the Custer battlefield afterwards mention dead horses (and later, piles of horse bones) everywhere. So I thought I would get some horses 3D printed (thanks Byron!) and paint them, just as some cover for the troopers.

Here's what I imagine they'll look like on the battlefield, more or less.

So that's about it for painting before we have the Big Game. Don't get me wrong - I still have lots of unpainted models for this project, likely more than I will ever get painted. But this will be enough to do the battle I've planned for my birthday, and to commemorate the 150th anniversary of one of history's most famous "last stands". 

Next up - battle report. Hoka hey!

Nearly there! More Plains Warriors and Crow Scouts

Last night I finished off nine more Plains warriors and three Crow scouts for the other team. The warriors are from Foundry and the scouts are the very nice Brigade Games models sculpted by friend of the Conscripts Paul Hicks.

 

Here is Crazy Horse his own self, flanked by two warriors, Fish Arrow and Holds Fire. I have a mounted Crazy Horse too.

Lean Wolf, Bear Licks With Tongue, Lazy Boy.

Little Crow, Running Rabbit, One Shirt.

Crow scouts with trapdoor Springfields. Really nice models, these.

Here are all the models I've painted for the game so far, approximately fifty foot and mounted on each side, which is about what I'd set as a goal. This should make a pretty good game of Legends of the Old West even if not all of the 7th Cavalry get put on the table - there are several specific "characters" including Reno, Benteen and deRudio who I've painted, but who won't appear in the Last Stand game. The model painting is almost done now, I just have to paint some dead horses (depressing, I know, but they were everywhere on the battlefield and will be useful cover for dismounted troopers). I also will be making a few teepees for the village on the nearside of the river, at the edge of the table.

Hoka hey!

Nearing the End! Mounted Seventh Cavalry Troopers and More Plains Warriors

OK! So we're about a month away from The Big Birthday Game and the models are progressing nicely. The latest I've gotten done are eight mounted Seventh Cavalry troopers and eight more Plains warriors. First the cavalry - they are Wargames Foundry models (naturally) and are pretty great in every way. The horses are noticeably larger than the Plains ponies ridden by the warriors, which necessitated slightly bigger bases, but that's the way they were in real life and it's fine by me.

   

Custer organized the Seventh in a particular way - each company was mounted on the same colour horses, except for one company, and the buglers who were on greys. Company A had coal black mounts, Company E had greys, Companies B, D, F, I and L had bays, H had blood bays, G and K had sorrels, and C had light sorrels. Company M had mixed colour horses. These were all identified with brands. The excellent Foundry horses have a "US" incised brand on the front upper leg and I put company brands on the rear left "thighs". The pattern was company letter over "7 C" for the Seventh Cavalry. I did these with a black technical pen.

  

The castings are good - horse is one piece and the trooper, saddle and gear cast together as a separate piece. This makes for easy painting although there is a lot of gear. You can see the light blue overcoat rolled in front of the trooper here. There's also a nosebag, feed sack, saddlebag, pistol holster, lariat, and canteen.

I've painted the greys as E Company of course, the bays (reddish brown with black points - mane, tail and socks) as C Company, and the sorrels (reddish brown with light coloured points) as C Company.

Bugler here on a grey.

Trooper of Company C in his red fireman's shirt.

With the mounted troopers out of the way I also got some more dismounted Plains warriors done. These are the Foundry Dog Soldiers.

Goes Through the Camp, Touch the Sky (he is a big fella), Voice Like Thunder.

Yellow Thunder, Walking Rain.

Three Fingers, Pawnee Killer, Plenty Coups. All painted in the traditional style, although I did punch up the blue with another highlight of Hoeth Blue and the red with some Evil Sunz Scarlet.

Here are the forces as of this update. I have nine more Plains warriors to go and maybe three more Crow scouts if there's time. I also want to make some teepees for background colour on the battlefield. 

So till then... hoka hey!

Legions Imperialis Whirlwind and Support Marines

A few more bits for Legions Imperialis!

Summer is winding down, and it's time to finally organize a few blog posts showing some of the stuff I have painted. Here are few more bits for Legions Imperialis (aka "Epic 30k") - some more Whirlwind multiple rocket launchers and another group of tactical support marines. The painting is divided between the XV Legion Astartes (the Thousand Sons) and the Warmaster's own XVI Legion Astartes (the Sons of Horus). These are all plastic kits/figures from GW. 

A more classic-looking "pepperbox" style launcher on these vehicles.

View of rear details and decals on the hatches.

For an old Horus Heresy grognard like me it is great to have the Whirlwinds joining the collection. After all, in the original "Space Marine" game the Whirlwind was one of the core vehicle selections for your forces, and in general it has been a classic support weapon for the Space Marines over the years. These Horus Heresy Whirlwinds are built on the "Deimos" pattern Rhino APC hull, which is itself an homage to the classic original Rhino models. So these are just great all around.

More firepower for the Warmaster!

The Whirlwinds come eight models to a box, and you have options for two different types of launchers - one meant to fire ordnance that targets vehicles (the "Scorpius" variant), and the other holding ordnance that is more "anti-personnel" in nature (the more classic-looking pepperbox launcher). It's great that you get both - in fact, you get eight versions of each variant, so you if the variability matters to you, well, you're all set!

Little less flash on the rear doors here...couldn't spare the decals!

I painted the first four vehicles from the pack back during the most recent edition of Curt's Painting Challenge - so here we see at last the remaining four models from the box. I'll want to paint more of these vehicles for the Loyalist side of the ledger, but that will come later...somehow the poor Loyalists always have to wait :) 

Little chaps with snappy energy weapons.

You can see some of the detail on the back...maybe...?

The infantry are "tactical support" Marines - i.e. guys with shorter-ranged, heavy/special weapons. Two more bases hardly moves the needle in this collection, but it does at least help to bulk-up the available infantry detachment for my Thousand Sons forces in this scale.

So not a whole lot to share in this post, but there will be more to share shortly, as I try and get back into the blogging routine! Thanks for reading.