Painting Challenge Submission #2 - Thousand Sons Assault Squad for 30k

Assault Marines of the XV Legion Astartes - models from Forge World

To the surprise of (probably) nobody, my second submission to AHPC XIII returned to a familiar subject - the great galaxy-spanning civil war of GW's "Horus Heresy" setting, and the Space Marines who fight it! Here we have an assault squad - Marines wearing jump packs, and armed with pistols, the ubiquitous "chainswords" and assorted grenades. They are painted in the colours of the XV Legion Astartes, the Thousand Sons. These are resin models from GW's Forge World studio/subsidiary/whatever-the-hell-they-are-these-days.

Chainsaws, pistols, grenades...and SPOOOKY POWERS!

In the Horus Heresy setting, the Thousand Sons are known not only as fearsome warriors, but as acolytes with psychic abilities. The combination of Space Marine-type enhancements, armour and kit, together with SPOOOOKY POWERS make them potent (at least, in theory, and in the novels - the new "Age of Darkness" rules have neutered their abilities, but we only play for fun anyway, so who cares).

"You have overdue library fines outstanding!"

Each Space Marine Legion is meant to have a different "character", but the Thousand Sons are one of the few who manage this IMO. They gather up lost arcane knowledge and lore, have a home world renowned for huge libraries and a wondrous, magical capital city - Tizca. All of this gets torched in one of the opening gambits of the war, of course, and the Thousand Sons end up fighting for the rebellious Warmaster in the end, but still, it is notional setting that I quite enjoy, a contrast to the otherwise relentless grimdark that comes to define GW's "later" 40k setting.

An example of the custom torso here...I did kind of a sh*tty job on his pseudo-egyptian crest, but that's what happens when you rely on the overrated "Contrast" paints from GW...

I also love how the Thousand Sons look in the 30k setting, prior to all of the assorted loser Chaos-type mutations and other stupidity they would come to acquire by the time of 40k. The excellent range of custom decals, helmets, armour bits and shoulder pads which give them a unique and thematically whacky look on the table. This squad sports several of these upgrades, and I like how they turned out - even though I can't quite yet get that brass look on the metal, I'm getting closer...

"Let's boost off to that next library, shall we?"

The 30k-era Thousand Sons are often portrayed in a metallic red armour...this looks pretty cool, and I have experimented with different means by which I might achieve such a result, but in the end, it is beyond my reach, I think. To do it properly, you need to use an airbrush, and I'm not interested in that. The use of GW's Contrast Paints offers some ability to achieve it, but is not viable for use on vehicles or large models. The "rattlecan" method can get you there, but it calls for too much spraying, and I'm not set up well for that either. 

So back to more "traditional" red it will be! I'm still pleased with that "look" - there are some really inspirational painters online who are doing this too, and that helps keep me motivated. I was pleased with how this lot turned out in the end, and I'm such a pedant about it, I am even going back and repainting some of the metallic-red experimental figures I had worked on...you may see some more of them in the Challenge as we go :) 

Some of these figures had been started prior to the launch of AHPC XIII, but thankfully this factor seemed to count toward another "bonus point" aspect, so in all this netted me another 45 points towards my goal of 800 points. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more!