Ahzek Ahriman - Ultimate Archivist

Abracadabra! Azhek Ahriman, First Captain and Chief Librarian of the XV Legion

The last member of the XV Legion from GW's "Burning of Prospero" box set is Ahzek Ahriman, First Captain, Chief Librarian and all-around spooky dude from the Thousand Sons. Last to cross the finish line on my painting desk, but not least!

A very powerful psyker and warrior, Ahriman is one of the most senior officers in the XV Legion - a repository or knowledge and history, as well as a powerful warrior. I see the Thousand Sons as basically archivists with power armour and big guns.  As such, he is the ultimate archivist! He is also at the forefront of the rather dark fate suffered by the Thousand Sons as they succumb to the risks that come from trying to master the powers of the warp... 

Check out the "groundwork" that Ahriman is using to brace himself...

You could paint the "terrain" to be from any Legion, I suppose, but only one Legion will fit the theme from "Burning of Prospero"...

This is a multi-part plastic model from GW.  It is a fantastic sculpt, but the small little bead-like threads on his cool staff are sure to break at some point, so I continue to be firm in my belief that there are no plastic figures which wouldn't be better as metal figures...

A brilliant sculpting job...the post, the animation, it's so well done.  You can feel him gathering the power to unleash some manner of terrible power from the warp...

Grumbling aside, as I said, the sculptors here did a really, really awesome job on Ahriman.  This looks SO much cooler than his (in my subjective opinion) lame and overwrought 40k equivalent (check it out to get an idea of how things turn out for the Thousand Sons). The pose is just great...you can feel him summoning some manner of dire power to land doom upon his enemies! They even provide a little piece of terrain for him to stand on the base...the wreckage of a Mark III power-armoured marine!

Ahriman poses with some other command models from his Legion

This was a real challenge to paint - in a good way!  There is a ton of detail on the figure that will really engage you to push your brush skills.  I tried my best with the chain of glyphs hanging in front of the tabard on his armour...I really wanted to make them appear to be glowing, as the studio painters at GW manage to do...but alas, I'm not a studio painter. I'm still really pleased with the figure overall, however, and I look forward to using this bad-ass in a game some time.

The XV Legion assembles...

The Host of Prospero so far...20 veteran tactical marines, five Tartaros pattern terminators, and one extremely-bad-ass archivist...

With Ahriman painted, the Thousand Sons contingent from my "Burning of Prospero" box set is now finished.  Not only can they defend their home on the GW board game, but this group could also provide the very bare bones of a Thousand Sons force in a game of 30k.  Archivists with big guns and armour! Pretty cool stuff...might have to add some more units to this bunch...

Tartaros Terminators for the Thousand Sons

When archivists get mad...Tartaros Terminators for the Thousand Sons

Another set of figures from GW's "Burning of Prospero" box set.  This is a Terminator Squad clad in "Tartaros Pattern" Terminator armour. They are painted in the colours of the XV Legion, the Thousand Sons, from GW's Horus Heresy setting.

Lovely poses on these plastic multi-part figure kits from GW

It seems like there were a lot of dueling notions regarding how best to equip the Terminators - the heaviest of the heavy infantry in the Space Marine Legions - back in the 30k era.  Players are spoiled for choice, with two patterns of armour to choose from (Tartaros or Cataphract) as well as numerous Legion-specialized Terminator units. There are Justaerin units in the Sons of Horus. The Alpha Legion has Lernaean units. The whacko World Eaters have the Red Butchers. The Iron Hands have some kind of crazy monstrosities. Maybe the most awesome, there are the Siege Tyrants of the Iron Warriors.

The Reaper Autocannon is a thing of absurd and magnificent beauty...I just love the look of those bonkers weapons

Another view of the insane Reaper Autocannon...what a nutter of a weapon, really captures the essence of 30k!

The Thousand Sons are in on the specialized-terminator fun too, with their "Sehkmet Cabal" units.

So much choice! I guess a lot of things needed terminating in the 30k era. Once the Horus Heresy got going, the terminating requirements grew to include other Legions!

Another view of the Terminators

Getting back to this specific squad, I find the Tartaros pattern armour still looks ponderous, but is very sleek compared to the slab-looking baroque bulk of the Cataphract pattern armour (which looks super-cool too).  These are plastic figures, and the plastic kit for the Tartaros armour shows GW's designers at their best.  You get a wide variety of weapon options, but best of all, you can choose between the heavy flamer and the insane-looking reaper autocannon, because both are on the sprue! That is a real down-side of the plastic Cataphract models, which only include the heavy flamer option.

This guy aiming the combi-bolter is a favourite...

Prepared for persecution on Prospero...

Together with veteran tactical squads one and two, these Terminators will complete the Thousand Sons troops portion of the forces from the "Burning of Prospero" box set. Up next: Ahriman!

More Troops for Prospero

More defenders of Prospero - archivists with guns!

Here in the Canadian prairies we always like to say summer can be "brief".  Usually we mean three months or so. Little did I realize that it was apparently only going to last two weeks this year...even though "summer" officially arrived last week, we have been enduring a miserable extended period of way-below-normal daily temperatures, rain and generally sh*t conditions...seriously weather, just f*ck off.

Veteran sergeant sporting plasma pistol and that ubiquitous symbol of military officers everywhere - the power fist!

Anyway, it sure has cranked up the painting output at bit! Here is my second squad of troops from the XV Legion, the Thousand Sons.  This is another veteran tactical squad, clad in Mark III power armour.  They have a heavy bolter and a meltagun for support.  These are plastic models from GW's "Burning of Prospero" boxed game.

Meltagunner toward the right, surrounded by his fellow tactical squad troopers

These plastic Mk III figures are just great, a lot of fun to hobby around with and I have really enjoyed painting them up.

Another look at some of the troopers - decals come with the box kit, and are great

Heavy bolter, ready to rip things up on the left. Regular trooper on the right.

Is that lazy lighting in my photo? Or the flash of a shell being fired by the Space Wolves?

These fellows will join the first squad I completed a couple of weeks ago in the doomed defence of their home world from the assault of the Space Wolves and assorted elements of the Emperor's Censure Fleet.  Up next: some Tartaros Terminators.

Quiet Please! Sister of Silence

"No magic for you!" Sister Superior of the Silent Sisterhood, witch-hunting warriors of the 30k setting

 Another little 30k bit to post today.  This is a Sister Superior from the "Sisters of Silence", a kind of militant order of warrior women who fight in service of the Emperor in GW's 30k setting.  While they sport ornate armour, weapons and fancy swords, they are marked primarily for their abilities against psykers.  These warriors all share a genetic anomaly that makes them "psychic nulls" - they essentially shut down psyker powers.

With that kind of power, you can see how they would be a big asset to the Censure Fleet sent to bring the Thousand Sons to heel on the world of Prospero.  The warp-fueled powers of the XV Legion will falter with the Silent Sisters about on the battlefield, leaving them only conventional means to try and deal with the Space Wolves.

Capes look dramatic, but they make painting the figure a real pain in the ass

This is a multi-part plastic figure from GW's "Burning of Prospero" box set.  While the sculpt-work is lovely, even incredible, I must say I find the models to be frustrating overall.  It seems that GW likes to be increasingly bonkers with the organization of some of its plastic figure frames.  Where, say, the Space Marine model frames work nicely so you can mix-and-match parts, other frames, like these, are very specific and inflexible. This is really true with the cloaks. These figures basically need to be built with their cloaks attached, making the figure much more difficult to paint than it would be otherwise.

Scrolls and inspirational writings, anti-witch marks and other things seen on these figures hint at the overall setting changes that will be seen in the 40k setting

The other little quibble that gets me is the overall size of the figure.  While the Sisters are no doubt well-trained and equipped for battle, they are still "regular" humans, and should be sized and proportioned in that way in comparison to the hulking, genetically engineered Astrates.  While they are indeed a little more slender in some ways compared to the super-human Astrates figures, they still manage to take up the same amount of room as a Space Marine, and still need 32mm bases.  I hate scale creep...

While they look a little smaller than a Space Marine, the Sisterhood figures are still too large in my opinion...scale creep...

But, my blathering aside, you get the choice of arming the Sisters with swords, bolters or flamers.  And as I said, the sculpting really is remarkable. They should be fun to use in the "Prospero" game, and also be useful for different narratives in our general 30k gaming.

I have only painted the one Sister of Silence figure so far as it is required for the first scenario of the "Burning of Prospero" box game.  You get five of them all together in the box, and I will paint the balance of the squad after I finish painting all of the Thousand Sons models. Hope to have more of that later this week...

Contempt(or) for Prospero

Let's hug!  A Contemptor class Dreadnought for the VI Legion in 30k

More random painting production from my 30k interest/obsession.  This is a plastic Contemptor Dreadnought painted in the colours of the VI Legion, the Space Wolves. This is a plastic model from the "Betrayal at Calth" box game, but given the Legion colours, it will instead be participating in some "Burning of Prospero" games instead :)

The "Burning of Prospero" game box does not come with any Dreadnoughts, but I got the notion from a White Dwarf article published around the same time they released the "Prospero" game. The article included stats and a scenario to include one of these bad-boys on the side of the Space Wolves. I really enjoyed painting the Space Wolves squad for the game, so I figured it would be fun to toss in a dreadnought for them as well.
 

Kheres-pattern cannon adheres to a core rule of any sci-fi genre - that rotary cannons are always, always cool!

It is armed with a Kheres-pattern assault cannon, a power fist and a little bolter.  Powered by the remnants of a mostly-fallen marine of the Vlka Fenryka, this machine will provide a nice all-around balance of fire support and extra heft for close assaults - the power fist being particularly useful for punching irritating opponents/structures directly in the face.

Power fist, all set to reach out and adjust some attitudes...

The only downside is the posing of the model itself.  GW can do so many things very, very well with plastic, but this kit is not really one of them.  It is set in such a way that basic alterations to the otherwise wooden posing require some modelling work - kinda dumb, and I don't see why that was necessary.   But whatever - it gets the job done!

Veteran Sergeant leads the way - "punch this thing next!"

I am enjoying the look of the grey and bronze on the Space Wolf stuff the more I see it...I had no notions of doing a VI Legion force of any size beyond the squad and character from the "Burning of Prospero" game, but who knows? Maybe I will return from the lake in the fall with a wide selection of loyalists in the grey armour of the VI Legion...

In the meantime, watch for more "Burning of Propsero" bits to appear shortly among some other ongoing 30k efforts...

Some Proponents of Prospero

For Propsero! Some troops from the XV Legion, the Thousand Sons

Summer is almost formally here, what with the Stanley Cup being handed out just last night (to the Pittsburgh Penguins again *vomit*).  As the weather improves I'm continuing with my slow, steady and somewhat random painting production.  The theme continues to be 30k.  In my previous posting I featured, of all things, a squad of Space Wolves, inspired by the story of "Prospero Burns".  Moving along with that theme, and the "Burning of Prospero" box set, I have some opponents for the Space Wolves.  This is a veteran squad and lone Terminator Sergeant from the XV Legion, the Thousand Sons, defenders of Propsero.

The writers at Forge World have tried their best to give each of the 18 Space Marine Legions involved in the Horus Heresy story their own unique "character", differences that go beyond different numerals or colours and symbols on the power armour. This is a tall order, given some limitations in the context that the main story puts in place, and doesn't always work, but in the case of the Thousand Sons, I think the writers, amplified by gifted story tellers like Dan Abnett, have done a great job.

Veteran Sergeant with plasma pistol and thunder hammer.  You know what they say...when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail...

Of the 18 Legions, the Thousand Sons stand out as the exception to the otherwise universal belief among the Imperial decision-making apparatus that arcane powers are not called for when you can just drive a Fellblade over something. Recall that in 30k the warp and its dangers were somewhat known, but avoided more on a basis that secularism was a central underpinning to the new Imperium, and a further perception that goofy superstition was not called for.  The depth of possible corruption and power the old gods of the ruinous path could bring to bear were not fully understood.  Needless to say, the Horus Heresy would put an end to that...

Support weapons - a heavy bolter on the right and plasma gun on the left

But where the magical powers of, say, the Word Bearers, are mostly about chasing favours from daemons, the magical aura of the Thousand Sons has a more scholarly and interesting vibe to it. They pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and seek to safeguard it forever.  In the context of the story of the Dark Age of Technology and the Unification Wars, it's really neat.  They thought the power of the warp, used properly, could be bent to the will of the Imperium, and made use of these skills in their prosecution of the Emperor's Great Crusade, at least until they were called out at the Council of Nikea.

Some of the regular grunts with bolt guns

The Thousand Sons are a Legion of archivists with big guns!  Where the other Legions (or Chapters of 40k) have some psyker ability in their Librarians, those are isolated and singular characters. Almost the entire Thousand Sons Legions have those abilities! Space Marines as sort of warrior-scholars are an interesting concept, and certainly stand apart from, say, the brutishness of the World Eaters, the brittle insecurities of the Emperor's Children or the laughably cartoonish evil of the Night Lords.  The Thousand Sons remind me of D&D players who were using the complicated rules for dual class characters, trying to combine the abilities of a mage with those of a warrior, without having to settle for the compromises of a paladin or a cleric.

A view of the back, showing the great detail the GW folks have achieved with these plastic Mk III power armour kits - they are a treat to paint

While they ultimately end up as parody Egyptian tomb drawings with guns (I'll concede that Terminator officer is pretty funky, though) in the 30k setting the XV seem like fun and offer many narrative gaming possibilities beyond the doomed defence of their home world.  Where other Legions will be relying on the brute power of their tanks and artillery (which, hey, is super cool too), a force of Thousand Sons, applying their arcane powers, will focus more on infantry and some interesting characters.  For example, if you can just open up warp gates, you probably won't need as many Rhino APCs...

Sergeant in Tartaros Terminator armour

Another lovely plastic kit from GW

As with the VI Legion fellows I posted a couple of weeks ago, I really, really enjoy painting the Mark III power armour, and the plastic Mark III sprues are just great. The Tartaros Terminators look really, really cool as well.   GW is killing it with these kits.

Ready for some gaming!

The composition of this initial force in this posting is based on the first scenario in the "Burning of Propsero" board game. It has this one veteran squad and the lone Terminator sergeant. The Space Wolves for that scenario have been painted, so I'm almost ready to give the little board game a try sometime this summer. In the interim, I'm going to keep dabbling away at some Propsero-themed 30k stuff.

Hope everyone has a great week!   

Why Has The Spring Been Cold? Well...

A squad of Space Wolves led by Geigor Fell-Hand...better check the temperature in Hell...

 *Cough* So, a rather unexpected little 30k project to share today - this is a veteran tactical squad from the Sixth Legion, the Vlka Fenryka, known more generally as the "Space Wolves".  If you are a random visitor to the Fawcett Avenue Blog (welcome if you are!) you will wonder why this might be a big deal.  Well, as fans of a genre, there are things we really, really like, and things we really, really hate, and for just about 15 years or more I have hated the Space Wolves.  In that context, this would be an unexpected addition to my 30k collection, and I await the fully-justified howls of derision and mockery from my gaming friends.

Why the hate at the Wolves? In the Rogue Trader era, they were actually pretty cool (although painting that neat wolf-style crest was just beyond my skills).  But GW has shown at different times that it is not able to keep certain themes within reason (see: Chaos), and the Space Wolves became a prime example of this over time.  It got annoying, but by the time of the Third Edition I found my crayons snapping at the proliferation of special little units and parody Nordic culture under the Space Wolf umbrella.  The theme kept getting more and more overdone...pelts everywhere, nobody wearing their helmets on their power armour, all sporting five-foot-long beards and "absjurd" names.  Certain fans of this specific genre made it worse, and every time you thought GW couldn't make it any dumber, the descent into self-parody continued...just see things like this or like this. Sigh.

And hey, if you love it, more power to you! We should all have different preferences, it helps keep the hobby interesting. But suffice to say it was not my thing at all :)

Mk III power armoured Marines, with one plasma gun visible at the front

As the Horus Heresy products and story really got going, I noted that the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons confronted each other on the XV Legion home world of Prospero, and even though I love the Horus Heresy story I immediately tuned out that part of it.  While I didn't have the same strong feelings regarding the Thousand Sons as I did regarding the Space Wolves, their reputation as great psykers and warlocks didn't really intrigue me - magic is just cheating, in the end. And while concepts of magic/sorcery are so important to so much fantasy and sci-fi writing, those stories are difficult to write well, as the magicians seem to be at once so powerful and, at key times, so useless suddenly that the suspension of disbelief can collapse the book/story/setting is no longer enjoyable for me.

They are Legion veterans, so everyone gets a chainsword (or just about everyone)

In the case of the Thousand Sons, their Primarch, Magnus, is a great and powerful psyker, and has great gifts of foresight, among other things. A significant contingent of his Legion rank and file have these powers as well.  Yet they are taken by complete surprise when the Space Wolves attack them as punishment for their continued use of powers which had been explicitly banned by the Emperor. We are meant to understand this was because Magnus went into a kind of self-pitying funk - he "saw" the Sixth Legion fleet coming to attack, he just didn't warn his troops.  But was pyschic foresight really needed to know this might happen? I mean, the Master of Mankind has a BIG meeting to debate the issue of psyker powers, the outcome of which was a clear ban on their use.  The Thousand Sons flout the ban anyway.  Having seen first-hand how the Emperor handled dissent against his will throughout the many wars of the Great Crusade, did you really need magical foresight to know a smackdown was in the mix, when elementary deductive reasoning would get you there? Seriously the Thousand Sons, meant to be tragic victims, kinda seem like dopes.  Not as stupid as the Ultramarines, but still, come on.

Squad sergeant with plasma pistol and tickle gloves, and heavy bolter

Geigor Fell-Hand, wearing a helmet as he f***ing should

Anyway, all this to say the story where the Legion I couldn't stand got entangled with a Legion that probably had it coming to them didn't intrigue me one bit.  When GW announced a box game for Prospero, I was indifferent until I learned that plastic Mark III power armour would be part of it, at which point I made the purchase as I just love that particular armour variant. I still didn't think I would be interested in the actual battle or game.

My good friend Curt, who has enjoyed/endured many rants at the expense of the Space Wolves over the long years we have known each other, pointed out to me recently that Dan Abnett, my favourite GW author, had written the novel "Prospero Burns".  I was dismissive, skeptical that even Abnett's great talents could make that work, but Curt encouraged me to give it a try...

Another view of the unit Sergeant - love those whacky combs on the Horus Heresy era Marines

And wow, he was right! One of Abnett's best, it is just a fantastic story.  If you are a dope like me and think you already "know" the story, go get this book and read it right away.  Including the post-script! I don't want to give it away here, but Abnett shares some things I can totally relate to as a fan of the genre and how the Space Wolves fit in...anyway, the bottom line is that I was inspired to paint the figures from the Prospero box for their intended purpose - to actually play the game! 

The models seen here are multi-part plastic figures in Mark III power armour from GW's "Burning of Prospero" box game.

Another view of Geigor and his ornate getup

The models themselves are excellent.  There are a few frustrating things - for example, I just cannot see why it was necessary to make the back packs out of two different pieces, and you only have one heavy weapon option, the heavy bolter - but overall if you are a fan of Mark III power armour you will love these sets for your 30k collection.

The collection of stuff on top of the back pack is a bit silly - how does this guy wear this fighting in an urban area? But "silly" is part of what makes 30k fun...

The Space Wolves also get a special character in the game - "Geigor Fell-Hand".  While I enjoyed painting the Mark III Space Wolves, painting this guy was a chore.  On the one hand, the sculpt of the figure conveys an awesome, predatory sense of movement that suits the Vlka Fenryka very well. On the other hand, its numerous small details end up a bit soft in places, an example of a plastic figure which would have been so much better in metal.  But on the plus side, plastic is SO much easier to convert, so I was able to put a proper helmet on the figure, as I still generally can't stand Marines that are not wearing helmets, particularly ones clearly charging into battle.  Space is dangerous! War is dangerous! The Emperor made you armour that is expensive! Wear your damn helmet!

Power claws AND sword drawn, while the bolter hangs at his side...his priorities are clear...

"The Burning of Prospero" comes with 47 models in all.  That's 11 out of the way, and I'm now starting on the Thousand Sons (although I may do a Contemptor Dreadnought for the Wolves) and will do the fancy elite Custodians and Sisters of Silence last.  And hopefully we can get these models involved in some general 30k gaming later in the summer and into the fall!

I await your mockery...