Here Come The Summer Sons - 30k Thousand Sons Marines

Reinforcement for the XV Legion Astrates, the "Thousand Sons"

More 30k? Why, of course - more 30k. Now that I have gone and opened up the 30k box from the move, and pulled out the many treasures inside, I am tempted to finish off the many previously-primed-but-not-yet-painted bits found therein. Here we have a veteran tactical squad for the XV Legion Astrates, the "Thousand Sons", wearing Mark IV power armour. With a single exception in the unit, they are painted in a different fashion from my previous units for this Legion - I have started to experiment more and more with GW's "Contrast" paint range, and these figures represent some early results.

Thousand Sons Armour: New Painting Approach

On the left, the painting approach from 2017. On the right, the new approach, using GW "Contrast" paints.

I first painted some XV Legion units back in 2017, for the GW boxed game "The Burning of Prospero" (which turned out, in fact, to be an excellent game, especially for quarantine times). The Thousand Sons' forces in that box game are not large in terms of overall model count - two 10-marine veteran tactical squads, a five-marine squad of terminator marines in Tartaros pattern armour, and a hero - Azhek Ahriman, to lead them. This small force will allow you to play the campaign included in "The Burning of Prospero" box set, and when you consider that all of these Space Marines would be psykers, and that Ahriman is a pretty powerful character, it gives you a nice little starting force to play Horus Heresy games in general.

Another comparison shot - 2017 on the left, and 2021 on the right.

I recall at the time seeing the Thousand Sons figures painted by the GW studio artists (as well as many others online), and one thing that stood out was the armour - a really, really cool metallic red. At the time in 2017, achieving something like that would have required an airbrush and use of glazes and other tricks, and that is beyond my skills. There was, however, a great GW tutorial suggesting how to paint the models using a nice mix of red paints - it did not get you that metallic finish, but it still looked really nice. I used that method to paint Ahriman and his colleagues, and I was pleased with the results. 

Some of the tactical marines in Mark IV armour.

Since 2017, I have built up my VI Legion forces a fair bit, and in that time it has been in my hobby mind to bolster the Thousand Sons as well (and yes, in general, I can never have enough Space Marines *shrug*). In or around the spring of 2019, I built and primed a squad of plastic Mark IV armoured marines as a step in this direction, and painted a single test model using the same techniques and colours as I has in 2017...but then my squirrel-hobby-brain went to some other interest, and this squad was placed in storage, waiting for a return of my 30k interests...

Another view of the tactical marines.

Special weapon troops...plasma gun and heavy bolter.

In the interim, GW released its new "Contrast" paints. You can find better evaluations from better painters elsewhere online, but while the breathless marketing exaggeration you see from some folks about these paints makes me laugh, they ARE a neat tool to add to your painting kit. I have been looking at different tutorials featuring these paints, and I came across this one from GW...a chance to get a metallic red without an airbrush? THAT is worth a shot! I pulled out this assembled-and-primed squad of Mark IV marines, and designated them for experimentation...

The Sergeant at mid-stage in the painting process...just covered mostly in "Retributor Armour", the figure feels like it is ruined, but...

No need to go over the specifics of the method in this post (the GW video provides a better explanation that I could regardless), but in general it involves use of the Contrast "Blood Angels Red" applied over a base of "Retributor Armour" (a very bright gold). I can say that at the half-way point in this painting process I was SURE I had ruined the figures - a just a Space Marine covered in gold paint...but in the end, it comes together nicely, and I really enjoy the results. 

Completed Sergeant with one of his troopers.

 

Rear view, showing the power packs and combat blades/swords.

So, what to do with the test model from 2019, the one painted using the previous non-Contrast approach? I considered re-painting the figure, but that seemed like bad luck or something...so I just left him as-is...he pretty-much-mostly blends in...besides, the ways of the Thousand Sons are mysterious, so perhaps this lone guy will contribute to some kind of numerology-omen or something...

Let the defence of Prospero begin!

There are still some kinks to work out - for example, I find the paint-on gloss to be too thick - if I want the armour to shine, I'm going to need to find a thinner gloss finish that the GW "Hardcoat". But overall, I am enjoying this new look, so watch this space for some more XV Legion characters and units to arrive over the coming summer. 

Thanks for visiting!

Another Squad for the Vylka Fenryka - 30k Space Wolves

Squad of VI Legion Space Marines in Mark III power armour - multi-part plastic models from GW.

I appear have tumbled down a 30k rabbit hole! Suddenly it seems so hard to get any more Prussians from 1870 painted, when instead I can paint yet more Space Marines for GW's Horus Heresy setting! This is a 10-man squad of Marines from the VI Legion, the "Space Wolves", clad in Mark III powered armour. These are multi-part plastic miniatures from GW.

The famous "shark-fin" style missile launcher - a shout-out to the early days of the plastic Space Marines from the Rogue Trader era.

The "Space Wolves" have been thoroughly ruined over the years, becoming insufferable. These days they are, I suspect, a form of self-parody or something. But here I am, painting some more for 30k - and I really enjoy it.

The sergeant has a comb on his helmet - and is carrying a scary plasma pistol and what I like to call a "tickle glove"...

These plastic Mark III marine kits are just great - really tremendous, I love building them, I love painting them. A great way to relax amid a stressful time.

With the exception of the sergeant and heavy weapon gunner, these veteran marine all carry their own chainsword because, as one does...

I find I really love the slab-grey look, contrasted with the dark bronze/gold metallics. The VI Legion marines look menacing, ready to make their stand in the name of the "Wolf King" and the "Allfather".

The fellow in the middle of the front rank in the photo is carrying a flamethrower...good for cooking dinner, AND the enemies of The Emperor.

I started painting Space Wolves when I opted to start with the contents of GWs "The Burning of Prospero" board game, and have been adding a few models to my small contingent of "The Rout" here and there in the years since. This squad is another modest set of reinforcements. This is a veteran tactical squad, with a couple of special weapons for support.

Decals on the shoulder pauldron come from the box game "The Burning of Prospero".

The power armour variants of the Horus Heresy are a great aspect of the hobby - I really like all of them, but I must say I find the Mark III version, with the mix of segments, rivets and plating, to be the coolest and grimmest-looking of the available options.

The plastic parts can fit any other plastic GW Space Marine kit out there, allowing for a number of easy possibilities to customize the figures. In the case of this submission the model with the "shark fin" style rocket launcher is using arms and a back pack from the Mark IV power armour set. Of course there is a large range of Legion-specific bits that work well with the models as well, available from Forge World.

Pattern of markings on the shoulder pauldron denote a "Great Company"...the higher level formation this squad is attached to.

Overall my collection of VI Legion marines for 30k is still pretty small - somehow the overwhelming majority of stuff I painted fights with the Warmaster :) This post sees my Vylka Fenryka collection grow to just 30 marines led by a single character and backed by a solitary Contemptor Dreadnought armour - enough for a very small game, but if I add a few vehicles and some characters, it will become more than enough for a larger game. Stay tuned for more on this soon!

A Game For Quarantine Times - "The Burning Of Prospero"

"The Burning of Prospero" - Miniature board game released by GW in 2016. Perfect for Quarantine!

With nearly one third of the world's population living under some manner of public health restriction or "lockdown", chances are you are not getting much gaming done! We certainly have not here in Winnipeg. Many folks have tried to use assorted video platforms for everything from completing courses and business meetings to keeping in touch with friends during this quarantine/lockdown period. So, we thought, why not gaming? We used "Zoom" for such a gaming attempt last week - playing GW's "The Burning of Prospero" - and I think it went quite well...it is, in fact, a perfect game for Quarantine Times - and in general, a really excellent game.

The forces laid out for the game's first scenario - "Shatter The Perimeter".

"The Burning of Prospero" was released by GW in 2016. The game is set amid the assault on the Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero by the combined might of the Space Wolves and The Emperor's Custodian Guard and Silent Sisters. The box comes with a variety of map tiles, 2D card scatter terrain and effect markers, rules, stats and cards. It also comes with some fantastic multi-part plastic miniatures! You got 30 Mark III Space Marines, five Tartaros-pattern Terminators, five Custodes, five Silent Sisters, and two characters - Azhek Ahriman of the Thousand Sons and Geigor Fell-Hand of the Space Wolves. The figures are all multi-part plastic, and are generally amazing sculpts and kits, all really, really, really nice.

GW has form here - their non-core offerings are often fantastic! The rules for 30k/40k are a calcified collection of endlessly competing circular special rules wrapped tightly in near-ancient IGOUGO rusty chains. GW, however, has shown time and again its ability to publish fantastic rules and games outside of its mainstream products. Their boxed games have a great tradition - I think of games like "Space Hulk" - that combined nice miniatures with card terrains and clever rules mechanisms to create fantastic wargaming experiences. There have been many others.

The Space Wolves ready to move out...

A deadly fire team from the Thousand Sons prepares to defend Prospero...

And yet, for my part, I was originally keen to get this box because it offered a relatively cheap means to acquire to acquire the plastic Mark III Space Marines. In the 30k setting there is a wide assortment of armour variants to choose from, and for my part I generally find the Mark III set looks the coolest...so I was glad to get the plastic marines. I was indifferent to the game itself, and I did not really look at the rules or the game in general. The Marines were allotted to the various existing parts of my collection, and I did not consider ever painting the Thousand Sons or the Space Wolves for the Horus Heresy.

The heavy bolter and the melta gun cover one flank of the advance...

Reading the novel "Prospero Burns" by Dan Abnett caused a total 180 on my thinking (it is a great novel - you should read it!). I painted up a few of the models, and then looked again at this boxed game, found that it might be fun, and suddenly was painting up all of the models for the game. I tried rules out a few times over the years, and found them to be quite fun. We did not play it with the group though - and I never really pushed to. I tend to prefer full, 3D terrain tables etc. and I am very fortunate to game with a group that offers so many choices in that regard.

Given the limitations of trying to game via Zoom, however, I thought "The Burning of Prospero" might just be ideal. Measuring "range" is easy, the board is not huge and would fit (mostly) in camera range for my iPad. The dice used are common among most participants in our group. I dug out the box and the rules, and we set things up to see if this would be workable...

The forces of the VI Legion fan out, preparing for heavy fighting...

And it was! My miniature gaming seldom involved the "board game" approach, and I had never really given this game its due. This is a fantastic game - this is why I think so...

First of all, the quality of the "terrain" panels is really, really top shelf. It is easy to set up on a kitchen table and, while we would all probably recognize/prefer 3D terrain as a superior wargaming experience (YMMV), the bits you get with "The Burning of Prospero" are top shelf - especially if using miniatures is something that is new or different for a gamer. After all, board games are huge, massive! They are just getting better and better all the time, so for board game players, this would be an interesting way to move toward miniature wargaming...

Confrontation in the corner...little did the Imperial side suspect how hard it would be to truly finish off this group of Thousand Sons...

Second - the rules are simple, but fun! There is more abstraction than in a regular game of 30k in the 7th or 8th edition, but subtle differences exist to provide an engaging tactical challenge for players. In particular, I love the use of different dice (note - NOT special, game specific dice). One of the (many) things that so impairs and limits 30k/40k is the fixation on using only the D6. Not so with this game!

In "The Burning of Prospero" players use D6s, D8s, D10s and D12s depending on the armour and weapons involved in a given situation. This is something I wish GW would explore more for 30k/40k rules generally. A further benefit - the combat phase is NOT IGOUGO, but it is still straightforward. I don't see why these concepts cannot jump to the full 30k/40k game.

Psychic powers for the Thousand Sons player...that regeneration power would sure come in handy...

Third - the way psychic powers are handled is fantastic. The use of these powers is key for the Thousand Sons side - psychic abilities are central to the nature and character of the Thousand Sons legion (it's their "thing"), and without them they would have little chance of prevailing against the onslaught of the coalition of The Emperor's executioners featured in the game. The powers are managed via card decks that become a "game within a game" - and are a lot of fun, as some powers drive the Imperial player crazy, and others fizzle, causing heartbreak to the Thousand Sons player. These "magic" type situations are difficult to manage for rules - it is easy to make the spells/power too strong or too weak, but the designers here have it just right, in my opinion.

The "enumeration phase" where the Thousand Sons attempt their psychic powers...the card decks are used to see if the powers are cast, and there is a lot of subtlety (and great fun) to be found - this is well done.

Last week a group got together via Zoom and we played the first scenario in the game, "Shatter The Perimeter". Geigor Fell-Hand and a Silent Sister Superior lead a veteran squad of Space Wovles against a squad of Thousand Sons, supported by a veteran Terminator sergeant. The goal of the Imperial side is to exit at least one model off of the board at either of two designated exit points. Success would represent the Imperial forces pushing further into the city of Tizca, the fantastical capital of Prospero.   

A "lone Wolf" makes his escape...

Over six rounds of play there was a furious battle that saw the Imperial side lose 90% of their troops - ouch! They gave as good as they got, however, and more so - their task made more difficult by the Thousand Sons' success with a particular psychic power that brought models back from the dead. There was one Thousand Sons legionnaire who was resurrected twice. Both sergeants also reappeared on the table after being cut down...and it is hard enough to knock out a Terminator once, never mind twice!

Geigor Fell-Hand and the Sister Superior make their escape at the right of the photo. Maybe we will be able to try the second scenario sometime soon...

In the end, it was a victory for the Imperial side - Fell-Hand was able to lead the Sister Superior and a single surviving Space Wolf off of the board and to victory. Further mayhem awaits in Tizca...

Gaming via Zoom will never replace the real thing. I miss my friends and the chance to get together, push miniatures around and roll dice very much. But this was great fun - many thanks to Dave V, Dallas, Mike F, John and Curt for joining the game. Also, it was great to discover how fun this GW game is - more than fit to follow in the tradition of classic games like "Space Hulk" - something we should play when we get the chance to gather again.

A 30k Break - A Few More Space Wolves...

Some VI Legion reinforcements as seen by the dim light of my cabin...

Since last December I have been surprisingly focused in terms of painting projects over the past year. I mean, like, relatively - I still have all sorts of different projects and half-started projects piled all over the place, but since I started on a 28mm Franco-Prussian War project back in the fall of 2017, and have been pretty much focused on painting figures for that period - some pretty good progress. During Curt's annual Painting Challenge there were short diversions into 15mm Cold War Gone Hot).  With a small exception this past May, my painting queue has lacked a favourite area of interest - 30k stuff!

Officer sporting a silly "Thunder Hammer" for smashing recalcitrant citizens of Prospero - and anything else that gets in the way...

My painting pace has been pretty slow this summer - finishing a unit of Prussian Dragoons in July, and not much else - but I have been really missing painting 30k stuff, none of which I had the foresight to bring to my cabin for painting.  Turns out there is an excellent little hobby store here in Sault Ste Marie, and they had some figures and...well, you know, have to support the local store, right? So I picked up some more plastic Legion Space Marines!

A lot of detail on the back packs and chain swords was lost thanks to the f**king matte varnish, but I managed to get most of the important detail back by reapplying the recess wash of good ol' Agrax Earthshade

What Legion to paint them? I had no decals with me, and no reasonable sources to get them, so the only real options (if I wanted to complete the figures) were the ones in the box. As the box was plastic Mark III Legion Marines, that meant either Space Wolves or Thousand Sons. Given that I only have 10 Space Wolves (from the Burning of Prospero Box), I thought I would go with some reinforcements the rowdy, nutty gang from the VI Legion. 

After more than a year, it was fun to paint up some Mark III Legion Space Marines again! I find painting great figures is like connecting with old friends, and after the first couple models I was quickly back in the groove, cranking out another 10-man veteran squad for the VI Legion. I applied the decals, and as a final step, applied a matte varnish...

This photo shows some of the "frosting" damage from the f**king matte varnish - the decal has almost disappeared...and this figure wasn't even one of the worst ones...

...and F**K! They frosted up terribly, the worst I had encountered in a while.  I had done everything - made sure it was not humid, tested on something, then on just one figure, and both tests worked fine. So I sprayed the bunch and....F**K! Just F**K! This seems to happen to me once every summer. F**K. 

I considered chucking the lot of them in the bin, it was so bad, but I thought of my good friend Dallas and how he brings almost any damaged or wounded plastic figure back from the brink.  With this as inspiration, I set about doing repair/re-painting.

Is there a drawback to the plastic Mark III marine kits? Maybe that it only comes with one heavy weapon option - the heavy bolter.  Having said that, I do love the look of the thing...

It look a lot of re-work to make the figures manageable.  I had to free-hand the "wolf" logo on the shoulder pauldrons (which was possible only because the frosted decal underneath was a useful guide); nearly all of the shoulder plates were re-painted, and many back packs, bolters and chainswords were re-done. The recess wash was re-applied in many cases.  Pretty much the entire top half of the Sergeant was re-painted. While there is still a lot of lost detail and colour (particularly the chain sword grips and the silver/gunmetal on the bolters), the figures were back to a serviceable condition for the table, and decided to call them finished and move on.

Bring on the 30k mayhem!

The photos are, of course, not top-shelf, as the lighting in my cabin isn't really ideal (or even "good") for photography of miniatures, but thankfully the relatively dark photos help to cover up the damage done from the "frosting". 

No doubt the previous squad of Space Wolves in my collection will be glad to see their available forces increase by nearly 100%! Hopefully this group will see some Prospero-themed hijinks on the Fawcett Avenue gaming tables this fall. Will I suddenly expand this force further? Who knows? The Space Wolves have never been favourites of mine, but Dan Abnett has brought be around, and grey does look sharp on that Horus Heresy armour and kit...and further 30k distractions loom - particularly with the release of the new "Adeptus Titanicus" game...my copy of the game is waiting back in Winnipeg - I hope to have some Titans on this site before Thanksgiving, if not sooner!

Adeptus Custodes for 30k

The Talons of The Emperor! Adeptus Custodes for 30k battles

It's a Franco-Prussian...no...wait...oh yeah, for once, some more 30k stuff - first 30k figures in nearly eight months...  

This a group of five Adeptus Custodes - elite warriors who serve as the bodyguards of The Emperor in His Very Own Self!  And if you are going to work day-to-day around The Emperor, you better Look Like You Are Up For The Job! That means Big Armour, Guns Built Into Everything, and Lots of Capital Letters.  Because when you work for The Emperor, The Rules of Grammar Don't Apply...

Two Custodes models sporting "Guardian Spears" - big power weapons, with bolt guns built-in!

While I have been enjoying my plunge into the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, it has been quite a few months since I have painted any 30k figures of any size.  I knew I had these particular figures sitting primed and ready to go since the summer of 2017 - they have been looming over all of the primed Franco-Prussian infantry figures at my painting pile/desk for months.  I recently reached a little pause in my Franco-Prussian project, so I thought these guys would be good for taking a bit of a break to paint some 30k stuff again before resuming my 1870 efforts.

Details on the armour are off the charts...really quite ornate, pretty amazing for plastic figures

In the 30k story, the Custodes almost never leave the Emperor's side. But when the Emperor sent the Space Wolves to bring the Thousand Sons to heel as punishment for violating his ban on use of psychic powers, he decided to boost them with some support from a group of elite Imperial troops, including members of the Adeptus Custodes. Their presence in the punitive expedition was the ultimate symbol of the Emperor's wrath...when the Custodes showed up, Magnus and the gang in the 15th Legion surely realized they were being set up for one heck of a beating...

"Sentinel blade" - still has a gun built into to it too! Two of them, in fact...

Since the Custodes were part of the fighting on Prospero, GW included these models came as part of "The Burning of Prospero" box game released in 2016.  They are plastic multi-part figures, with options to arm them either with "Sentinel Blades" (big Sword) or "Guardian Spears" (big pole arms).  You can also create an officer, a Shield Captain (I think) and a standard bearer.  The Custodes join the Space Wolves and the Sisters of Silence as the "Loyalist" faction in the board game.

Custodes officer - "Shield Captain", I think...anyway, I gave him a white crest on his helmet - my notion of a rank differentiation

Gotta rock the nice cloak if you are an officer, right?

These figures are really something else. The armour is incredibly ornate, with all sorts of Imperium-themed iconography.  They are quite large figures, a little bigger even than the current Terminator models, and certainly look the part of warriors who would work directly with The Emperor.  In the stories they dispatch Legion Space Marines - the toughest warriors humanity is said to muster - with relative ease.  The Custodes are a cut above even the legendary Space Marines!  As the Emperor's guards, they have access to flashy armour and advanced technology and weapons from "old night".  These figures really look the part.

It is interesting to look back to the era of "Rogue Trader" and compare the original images we see of the Custodes in the pages of that venerable rule book to these current plastic models.  The new plastics certainly match the scale creep, I suppose!

Original Custodes on the left and right of the photo, as seen in the original "Rogue Trader" rule book.  The new plastic figures certainly look a bit...bulkier...

The weapons on these current figures in particular are whacky in a charming and bizarre 30k way.  Who would turn a halberd into a power weapon, and then integrate a bolt gun into it? Why, the Emperor, of course! Even the big swords have firearms built into them.  It's all very silly, but very fun.  I love the "Guardian Spear" in particular - just looks bonkers. 

I started painting the models from the Prospero Box last summer.  There are 47 figures in the box, and once I got started on them in June of last year I managed to power through 42 of them - finishing the Wolves, the Thousand Sons, and the Silent Sisters. These five Custodes models last in the line.  I had just finished the Sister of Silence last July, when Jamie M chimed in with this quip in the comments:

Damn you Jamie! Those clever Brits...

Of course Jaimie was having some fun, but it rang a little true...I just couldn't bring myself to dive into painting the Custodes at the time.  I figured I would "take a break", paint other stuff, and come back to them, but just didn't for whatever reason.  The "break" went on and on, extending to months... Jaimie's snarky comment was always in the back of my head. When I decided it was time to get back to a bit of 30k, I knew which figures I would tackle first!

The standard-bearer is totally over-the-top, a great figure

All sorts of fun details on the figure...very shiny! 

The sign of the Aquila...the battle standard of the Emperor's own bodyguards...

The painting was pretty simple - 90% of model comes down to the armour, and as you can see, my paint scheme is not very original, generally resembling all of the other ones out there.  But hey - to me, it makes sense that these guys would be covered in gold from head-to-toe - after all, they work with The Emperor!  I used GW "Retributor Armour" as the base, followed with a wash of "Reikland Flesh Shade", a further targeted pin-wash of "Agrax Earth Shade", and a final specialized target wash of "Nuln Oil".  It was then dry-brushed with "Auric Armour Gold" and then - very lightly - with "Stormhost Silver".  Hopefully I can remember that in the event I try to paint more of these in the future...

The Propsero board game itself is excellent.  The rules are simple and fun.  The Thousand Sons have powerful psychic abilities, which the Loyalist player can counter with careful use of the Silent Sisters (and a little luck).  As is often the case, the combat system contains within it an approach that is more fun, flexible and innovative than GW ever seems willing to try on its mainline rules.  The game uses D6, D8 and D10s in a fashion that I believe evokes classic systems like "Stargrunt", and works very well.  The board sections are high quality and very well done, making a game easy and fun to set up on a kitchen table.

Ready to stand by the side of The Emperor!!

I hope we can try the Prospero board game for kicks - certainly these models were not assembled to match a particular type of unit, but rather have some variety in the Prospero board game. But as we are fortunate to be able to play on our own tables with terrain etc. I do hope to try some "Burning of Prospero"-themed 30k games as well.  I think these Custodes figures will also come in handy for "Siege of Terra" games, perhaps joining some of Mike F's incredible Imperial Fists, making a last stand near that awesome collapsed wall he made...  

Silent Sisters Finished

Sisters of Silence, ready to adjust a few attitudes on Propsero

Our gaming group is (mostly) pretty excited about the 8th edition of Warhammer 40k, but my 30k painting continues after a short diversion last week.  Here is another group of figures completed from GW's "Burning of Prospero" box game - this is the "Sisters of Silence" unit, part of the loyalist force contingent in the box game.  I had already painted the Sister Superior a couple of weeks ago, and I  finished the balance of the unit over the recent long weekend.

The cloaks on the figures are very nice, very ornate - and are a pain in the ass to paint!

In the background of the 30k setting the Sisters of Silence are a specialized order of militant anti-psyker witch-hunters, with an innate physical/genetic trait that impairs the use of psyker powers. Obviously the warp-talented troops of the Thousand Sons would hate that! These figures are pretty important for the Space Wolf player in the "Burning of Prospero" game, as the Sisters hold out hope of resistance while the warlocks of the XV Legion rain all manner of terrifying psyker powers down upon your lone infantry squad...

Another view of the cloaks...lots of variety, each one is unique, and the most elaborate one (with the scrolls) belongs, as you might expect, to the Sister Superior

The Sisters can be armed with swords, bolt guns or flamers. I didn't care for the idea of the swords over the whole unit, so I left it with the Sister Superior.  I opted to model them as a small squad, with the Sister Superior wielding the sword, another sister armed with the flamer, and the balance equipped with bolt guns.  The variety will add some flavour for games of "Prospero" as well as 30k. 

I have already mentioned the scale creep on these figures, but otherwise the sculpting of these miniatures is quite incredible, even if the cloaks make them much harder to paint than they otherwise would/should be, with both the back of the leg armour and the inset of the cloaks being close-to-impossible to paint properly.  The armour is very, very ornate and there are a lot of small details that skilled brush-masters out there can go totally nuts with!

Flamer on the left, and one of the bolt-gun-armed Sisters on the right...ready to purge some witches

For my part, I opted for mostly washes dry-brushing to get the job done, with some targeted highlighting here and there.  I think the figures turned out fine, although one challenge I encountered was the softening of the detail on the plastic due to the paint-on primer. I hate priming so, so much...but it also reminds me of how much I miss proper metal figures. Sigh.

The Sisters of Silence can be used in standard 30k and 40k games as well, fielding large squads mounted in Rhino APCs etc.  These figures don't really interest me as a large force - I see them much more as a specialized sort of group for narrative games of 30k and 40k, so that is likely the only use they will find outside of the occasional games of  "Burning of Propsero".

Armour, cloaks and faith in the Emperor...let those who dabble in the forbidden arts tremble! Or at least prepare to pay a really big fine...

"Burning of Prospero" comes with a total of 47 miniatures, and I have now managed to finish 42 of them so far - not bad! I have saved the most challenging ones to paint for last - the Custodian Guard, the Emperor's own bodyguard troops! A unit of Custodians made the trip to Prospero along with the Space Wolves, and while they were relatively few in number they certainly packed quite the punch. The game comes with five Custodian models, more multi-part plastic figures. The figures are extremely ornate and look to be pretty difficult to paint...hope I will be able to share some painted examples soon...