Not All is Dust – A Thousand Sons blog

Quick update; haven’t gotten any more painting done since the last update but I have purchased some stuff to start a unit of Tzaangor.

My plan is to have a mix of the gnolls and snakemen, and over time I plan on adding a variety of beastmen to bring them up to a full 30 strong herd (well, possibly 34, so I’ll have the flexibility to break them down into two or three units).  Think the WoA stuff is a little bit too small but could be useful as placeholders in the meantime.

The three Ushabti I have I plan on converting to use as Tzaangor Enlightened.  I dislike how Tzaangor get discs from a fluff perspective (to me Discs are supposed to be a status symbol and I don’t feel like Tzaangors should really warrant such high status), so I’m taking advantage of the fact that the whole model has the Daemon keyword, not just the mount; my plan is to have the Ushabti levitating and dragging chains behind it with the fluff being that they’re Tzaangor that have been used to make daemonhosts.  Haven’t decided yet how I’m going to make them levitate though.

With the red and gold done I’ve moved on to the armour edging/filigree.  Progress is slow and so far I’ve only basecoated it on six Rubricae using Celestial Grey.

Just snapped some quick pics now the wash is dry; got a game shortly so thought I’d snap a group shot while I’m at it.

Did some more painting today; gave the Aspiring Sorcerers Stormcast Silver on their shoulder pads and used Sycorax Bronze for various details on the Rubricae (such as the helmet grills).

With those bits done everything got a was with Seraphim Sepia (pics snapped while it was still wet).  Waiting for this to dry, when it has I’ll probably go back over with another layer of sepia to engolden the metal parts more.  Plan after that is to move onto the white trim.

Finished the Wild Rider Ted layer on the remaining Rubricae and went over the lot with the Mephiston Red/WRR mix on the shoulder pads and the odd plate.

Started on some of the metallic parts using ScaleColor ‘Citrine Alchemy’.  Was a bit of a pain to use as like it was fairly runny even after vigorously shaking the bottle; could be because I bought it a year or two back and hadn’t opened it until now so it had settled.  Had to use a paper clip to stir the thicker paint on the bottom and dig some out.  Plan is to use silvers and brass on the other metallic parts before giving them and maybe the red with Gryphone Sepia.

After that I’ll be moving onto the armour trim which will be white-grey.

Quick update, got some painting done.  My plan is to focus on the Rubricae and leave the Scarab Occult until after they’re done (bar bases).

Finally sat down and started painting; not much to show so far though.  Undercoated two squads of Rubricae, two squads of Scarab Occult and an Exalted Sorcerer with Mephiston Red and have given the Rubricae their first wash of Agrax Earthshade.

Plan going forward is to wash the SO and ES, and touch up any areas the wash missed on the Rubricae, then go back over them all with Mephiston Red and work up/highlight with Evil Sons Scarlet and Wild Rider Red before moving onto the trim which will be light grey/white.

Some objective markers I made a few years back, still need to finish the bases on them.

Some Chaos Spawn made from kitbashing stuff from the bitz box.

Spawn 1 is a right hodgepodge of bits.  The torso is two of the trees from the 3rd ed 40k starter set believe it or not.  The head is a Fenrisisn Wolf (I kinda like the idea that he’s a captured Space Puppy that’s been mutated on purpose by Galen ?).  The left arm is from the plastic terminator lord while the right is the tree trunk from the aforementioned 3rd ed trees, a bear trap from Fantasy ogres and a horn from somewhere.  The legs are ogre arms and feet from Empire demigryphs.  Finally the tail and spinal spikes are old Dark Eldar bits.

Spawn 2 is the plastic Mines of Moria cave troll with its arms and head chopped off.  The new arms come from the old LotR metal ent and the new ‘head’ is procreate and beadtman horns.  Finally the tail is a bit of wire and what I believe is the tail tip from a Tomb Scorpion.  I’m slowly adding scales and the like with procreate across the shoulders.

Spawn 3 is the torso and arms from the old metal daemon prince.  Initially  I was going to use one of the prince’s backpack thingies topped with a crab claw (really old daemonette claw I think?), but I’ve decided to drop that and go with a massive torso mouth.  The right hand comes from a Dungeon Saga zombie troll.  I plan to have procreate cables/tendrils hanging from the underside of the torso.

Here’s the baseline of the army, the Rubricae. Some are made from the regular Rubricae while others from the mkIV marines from the Betrayal at Calth set. My plan is to sculpt details on them to Thousand Sons them up a bit. My plan is that in 40k they’ll all be Rubricae but in 30k the mkIV will be regular tactical marines and the Rubricae will be Veterans and/or other specialists.

Here’s the baseline of the army, the Rubricae. Some are made from the regular Rubricae while others from the mkIV marines from the Betrayal at Calth set. My plan is to sculpt details on them to Thousand Sons them up a bit. My plan is that in 40k they’ll all be Rubricae but in 30k the mkIV will be regular tactical marines and the Rubricae will be Veterans and/or other specialists.

As I type this my local club has plans for a small 30pp 40k tourney in a couple of months, and to fit an army into that I decided to field a Helbrute. Unfortunately I don’t own any regular dreads/brutes and Utu (see his personal entry) is far to fancy to be one, so instead of buying one, I’ve decided to scratchbuild my own.

The core is made of balsa wood, cut to size and then glued together.  Once glued together the sides were filed to smooth them down and then have been armoured up with plasticard.

On the sarcophagus I’m sculpting an Egyptian style death mask and I’m using procreate to add edging to the armoured plates.  On the armour to either side of the sarcophagus I’ve glued shields which come from Wargods of Aegyptus I believe.

The weapons are a (in game terms) a thunder hammer and a power scourge, but which I’ve modelled as  a crook and flail to fit the Egyptian theme.  These started as Utu’s unused arms.  To make the flail I used some plastic tubing from a q-tip and the ‘dragon head’ vent from a metal sorcerer’s backpack to make the shaft. In the dragon’s mouth I glued lengths of plug chain that was in my bitz box and to the other end of the chains I’ve attached Tomb Kings Skeletons’ skulls.  The crook on the other hand (heh) was made from the key of a corned beef tin that I hacked up.

The power plant is kitbashed out of the cart from one of the WHFB starter sets (Battle for Skull Pass?  The one with dwarfs vs night goblins).

The legs use the feet from the dread legs used in Utu and the shin plates are the forearm armour from the dreadknight arms used in Utu (hmm this guy seems to be getting a lot of Utu’s handmedowns doesn’t he?).  The knee joints are made from the wheels of the cart used to make the power plant and the bits at the back of the shin are (again) from Utu, this time the barrels of the contemptor assault cannon.  I have yet to build the rest of the legs or the pelvis.

Last (for now) the waist is made from one and a half Uruk-hai bombs from LotR.

Next up, an Osirion-patter dreadnought.  Unfortunately the Osirion pattern has no rules in 40k, so he’ll likely be fielded as a daemon prince.

Utu A’an

Raptora dreadnought

Pre-Heresy: Legion Archon, Settler of Disputes and Keeper of the Emperor’s Edicts

Post-Heresy: Avenger of Prospero, Righter of Wrongs

Converdionwise he started out as a regular plastic contemptor, however I didn’t want to have the regular boring arms; in line with the fluff I have for him I want him to be wielding a large khopesh force weapon, and that required different arms, which have been taken from the dreadknight.  I also took the legs from a regular dread  to give him a little extra height to help make him more impressive.

At this point I noticed the torso looks undersized in comparison so I’m working on bulking that up a bit.

To keep in him in line with the other psykers and the Forge World Osirion I’m planning on giving him a crown, and currently I’m thinking of using a Tomb Kings’ shield as a base.

The winged chest plate is from the bitz box, no idea of its origin.

Here’s the other Exalted Sorcerer, Heron Ahmose.

Heron Ahmose

Pyrae Techmarine

Pre-Heresy: Commander of the 5th Circle of the 4th Fellowship, Magister Lemmata,  

Post-Heresy: Exalted Sorcerer of Tzeentch, First Faeroe of Xandria, Warpsmith Exemplaris

Conversionwise, like Galen he started off with parts from a Rubricae, however I used the torso back from a Scarab Occult to make him look slightly bulkier and as the basis of his servo-harness (unfortunately Thousand Sons can’t take Warpsmiths so it’s purely aesthetic).  Similarly to give the impression of extensive bionics I used the arms from the Scarab Occult set, making the right hand out of paper clips.

The servo harness consists of a servoarm made from sprue and paper clips, an arm from one of the AM servitors and mechatendrils made from procreate.  The sprue arm I like to think is tipped with a tool for cutting and welding while the one taken from the servitor is a regular manipulator arm.

Here’s one of my Exalted Sorcerers with some fluff on him:

Galen Nehebkau

Pavoni Apothecary

Pre-Heresy: Apothecary of the 5th Circle of the 4th Fellowship, Master of the Two-Headed Serpent,

Post-Heresy: Exalted Sorcerer of Tzeentch, Faeroe of the City-state of Me’henopolis of Xandria, Warden of the Helix

Conversionwise:

He started out as a regular Rubricae legs, torso and arms.  The head is from a plastic Space Marine Scout if I recall, the helmet and the crown/psychic hood are from the Scarab Occult set and the force staff is from a Tomb King.  The nathecium is made from scraps from the bitz box including bits from BFG.

The robes are sculpted from procreate as are the cables at the back of the hood.