Orbdrop: Aaaaaaaah!

I've been thinking lots about how to field Thousand Sons in battle, and have thus far used the Space Marine Codex, but they lacked the flavour of the Sons, so I've been thinking of using the Chaos Space Marines Codex instead.

So the first step I have taken is to work my way through the Collected Visions of the Horus Heresy and extract all the named Thousand Sons units in the book and then work out their equivalent units from the Chaos Space Marine Codex. Here is what I have come up with - comments welcome!

HQ/Heroes

• Ahriman – Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons
• Brother Amsu – Thousand Sons Standard Bearer (Chaos Lord)
• Rehahti (Daemon Prince)

• Phosis T'kar
• Uthizarr
• Hathor Maat
• Onouris Neith

Scout Squad (Chosen Space Marines)*

• Prahotpe

The Sects (Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marines)

• Ankhet
• Meketre

Command Squad (Chosen Space Marines)

• Apophis

Tactical Squads (Chaos Space Marines)

• Jafari
• Khalmekt
• Tolbek
• Hesyr
• Pa-Siamun
• Lekmeht

Assault Squads (Chaos Raptors or Khorne Berzerkers)

• Menkaura
• Mekahta
• Besenmut
• Amunis

Heavy Support Squad (Chaos Havocs)

• Hasani
• Sobek
• Amensos
• Nebmaetre
• Sainheret
• Khalid

Despoiler Squad (Possessed Chaos Space Marines) **

• Chaggrat

Terminators Squads (Chaos Terminators)

• Sekhmet
• Phosis

Guardians of the Great Library (Obliterator Cult) ***

• Ankhu Anen

Dreadnought (Chaos Dreadnought)

• Kargori
• Khnum
• Khontackht
• Seraphis

Landspeeder (Chaos Biker)

• Qaa

Rhino (Chaos Rhino)

• Ju-Amun

Missing are names for Predators, Land Raiders, Despoilers etc but I will find appropriate ancient Egyptian names for them.

* I've listed the Scouts as Chosen Chaos Space Marines because there is no exact equivalent but Chosen CSMs can Infiltrate which is something they share with scouts.
** I've included Possessed Chaos Space Marines as Chaggarats as they are listed in the Collected Visions as "Despoilers" and frankly look pretty heretical to me. If you want to play a clean pre-Heresy force field them as Chosen Chaos Space Marines instead.
*** The Obliterator Cult / Ankhu Anen as listed here are also quiet Chaotic, so if you want to keep em clean I recommend fielding them as Terminators.

I've finished the first squad of my Thousand Sons. It has been an interesting learning process. Things I have learned:

1. Painting works best when it is White undercoat; Baal Red Wash all over; Blood Red; Baal Red Wash darklights; Blazing Orange highlights. Symbols painted in Burnished Gold. I initially used an undercoat of Mechrite Red Foundation immediately after the White undercoat but it made them too dark.
2. Always add a contrasting colour if you can. I was a bit stuck as the pictures in the Collected Visions limited my palette, but where I could I gave the marines Enchanted Blue & Gold shoulder pads.
3. In future I am thinking of using more Blazing Orange than just Blood Red - turns out you can give the impression of red without using too much red :)
4. Dragon Forge bases are awesome and the Steam Knight helmets from MaxMini were perfect - I can't recommend them enough. Just those helmets with no other major customisation made a huge difference.
5. I want to do more drilling and pinning - it is the best way to get clean edges.

So my new bases from Dragon Forge arrived and I am really, really happy with them. Also in the post were the various bits of Egyptian-style paraphernalia I ordered from Crocodile Games. The casting on both the Dragon Forge resins and the Crocodile Games metals was excellent and I think both will add a lot to the finished pieces.

Crocodile Games sent me a free figure to preview their upcoming range and it was a beaut :)

Here you can see the work in progress. The attempted halberd/boltgun centre top row didn't really work and I removed it and replaced it with a standard bolter. However I really like his backpack banner and the one one on ancient power armour marine (second from left bottom row),

I've also replaced the skull helmet (second from left, top row) with another Steam Knight helmet from Minimax as the skull wasn't Egytianesque for me.

You can see the lovely Egyptian banner from Crocodile Games second from the right, top row which will look ace when finished and I replaced the power sword on the mini second from right, bottom row, with a giant kopesh which looks much more Thousand Sons.

I've started all the bases, but the two most complete are the one far left and center on the bottom row.

Really really enjoying painting the bases - lots of lovely detail to use.

I just stumbled over a great post by Ron on From the Warp entitled "A Painting Quiz: Putting it all together" where he writes a very well thought out piece on how to get the viewer's eye to fill in the missing details on your model and save yourself a lot of unnecessary painting in the meantime.

I've just joined the truly excellent "From The Warp" Blogger Group as they say themselves "With almost 575 members, you can find the latest from each member below. From modeling to painting and even rumors, it's all there."

From my perspective I have found some really awesome blogs through there, so if you are a Warhammer 40k fan I cannot recommend checking it out enough. Also Ron, who runs it, is really friendly. I look forward to collaborating and contributing :)

http://www.fromthewarp.blogspot.com/

So my Thousand Sons are coming along well. My order of Steam Knight helmets, Skull Priest helmet/shoulder pad/hammer set, and big guns arrived from MaxMini and I have to say - I love them! Top notch with a really beautiful level of detail on the resin mouldings.

Which means I have got my production line all set up... check them out :)

Almost finished:






Need painting:






Assembled:

Having been sucked in by the loveliness that is the Collected Visions of the Horus Heresy, I decided (possibly rashly) to make myself a force of pre-Heresy Thousand Sons.

Before making any pre-Heresy space marines I cannot recommend reading the following two sites enough:

• My War Game - Pre-Heresy Model and Painting Resource
• Not Done Yet - Mini Pre-Heresy Guide

To get the basics I started with a box of Chaos Space Marines from Wayland Games, and chose the bits that most resembled Mark IV and Mark V armour.

You can see my first test painted miniature and the pre-painted models of the rest of my first squad here.

I've promised some piccies of my modelling work - very early stage stuff for me, and I finally got near the pieces in daylight so was able to grab a few photos.

I've uploaded some piccies of my Warhammer 40k terrain and scenery so far along with my current Imperial Guard who have modded Cadian armour but I went for a Mordian colour scheme :)

See the full set of pictures in a handy slideshow here