Very WIP update

Hobby's been on the back-burner for some time now, and in the chances I had to get some progress made, I ended up splitting it between multiple projects...I guess because I have poor attentiveness?

Anyway, here's what's sitting on my table:

• An unfinished "disc-speeder" kitbash made from some Necron and Age of Sigmar kits
• The Lotus, I keep fiddling with it but not making major improvements, to be honest
• Penthu, as I was trying out edge-highlighting gold
• 5 unfinished Breachers, who turned out to be a bit more complicated than had been hoping.

What I'm really struggling with, is naming the disc-speeder.  They appear in A Thousand Sons, but aren't given a proper name.  I'm intending to make three, to act as Skyhunter Support Jetbikes.  I've got a couple of ideas for their class name, but can't settle on one.  Suggestions gratefully received!

I ate the Lotus

Well, not quite.

 

I have been a little sleepy with my hobby lately, however.  I got the kitbashed fighter up to the above condition, then put it aside for fear of ruining it further with bad edgework.  I've put a lot of transfers on most of the guys I've shown so far, but not doubt they'll show up in more photos down the line.

 

After that, I got about halfway through assembly and layering an Ammitara squad, before falling off.  I've decided to make another stupid kitbash nobody else will like, and have been planning some unholy fusion of more Necron vehicles and some AoS chariots.

Isidorus

Hello, Isidorus

Aside from Sanakht, Isidorus was the character I most wanted to make.  Which may strike you as odd considering he's just a Rubric Marine.  But, if you've read John French's Ahriman novels, you will be aware of how thematically important his existence is, and that several scenes with him pay off tremendously.

Originally I thought a clever idea would just to nominate one standard bolter-marine in one of my Veteran squads to be Isidorus, perhaps giving him a slightly fancier tabard or hanging some stuff off his shoulder guard.  Him being a typical line marine does kind of appeal in terms of his role in the narrative. 

However, once I'd decided to convert the Severin Loth model into Ahriman, the notion of creating a command squad out of Loth's honour guard appealed.  The minimum spec for a command squad is one standard bearer and two marines.  A named Thousand Sons standard bearer exists in the fiction, so that's that guy sorted.  For the other two marines...well, there was Isidorus and Mabius Ro.

These two show up as Rubrics accompanying Tolbek in Ahriman: Exile, and are mentioned as being together repeatedly thereafter.  Looking at the loadout options for a command squad, it seemed that I could add another marine to the default if I wanted, so the notion of creating Tolbek, Mabius Ro and Isidorus as this grouping took hold.

Despite just being a Rubricae, I wanted my Heresy-era Isidorus to be cool, and while I still thought about just giving him a bolter, there were a lot of cooler weapon options available to him, and I gave in.  Hence the big axe and volkite charger.  I think that'll be the only volkite in my army, so I guess him being a rifleman will make him unique in a sort of way.  

Obviously, using so much of the Loth honour guard kit means that he doesn't really look too Thousand Sons-y, so I gave him my favourite upgrade head and added some detailing to his axe that I sliced off  Rubric weapons.  As usual, transfers and detailing will follow.

Look what just got finally confirmed for going on sale

I wants it.

That Thousand Sons Praetor must be mine.  And I even know who he's going to be.  Looks like Mordant Hex will soon be joining Ahriman's Circle.

Primus Medicae Consul Penthu Daast

Who?  No, really this time 

Yeah, he's about as minor a character as you can get, featuring in one chapter of Crimson King and a colour plate in Inferno.  I didn't even remember he was in Inferno until after I'd already started on his model.

So, you may have noticed I haven't posted my Ahriman yet.  This is because I didn't start on him until very recently, and while the original reason was that I was scared of mucking him up, I quickly came to realise that I didn't like his model.  Yeah, the guy who's model I'd waited years on, and I ended up thinking it was bleh.  I'll moan more about that later, no doubt, but for the moment just know that I wanted to make him more like how I saw Ahriman.  So I ordered the Sevrin Loth + Honour Guard kit for all those juicy conversion pieces.  This of course would allow me to make the game unit 'Ahriman's Coven', ie his Brotherhood of Psykers command squad. I already knew who had to be on this squad - Isodorus and Mabius Ro - but when looking over the bits, the idea of making an Apothecary really appealed.  I remembered that a named Apothecary had just shown up in Crimson King, so he would be the one donating his name to my miniature.  Welcome aboard, Penthu.

Putting him together
 

I'm still trying to use up all these Mark III plastics I have, so that's where his legs came from. While there's a plastic Apothecary torso in the honour guard kit, I wanted to use the resin ones on everyone i built from it, and I loved the 'smock' look of this tabard cloth.  Now, I'm unsure how Penthu will actually be used in my army.  I guess he'll either be a Primus Medicae or a simple Apothecary depending on how other Force Org choices are made.  So I wanted him to have wargear that reflected both.  This is a bit awkward as Primus Medicae's need to have a needle pistol, which Apothecaries can't upgrade to.  So his gun had to kind of look like both a needler and a bolt pistol?  This stumped me until I was looking through my new Tempestus Scions sprues (more on why I have those later) and saw the officer pistol with the chain-bayonet.  Perfect!  Space Marine Apothecaries always have chain weapons for battlefield surgery and the pistol looks both chunky and slim enough in places that I hope no-one will be upset with me if I want to say it's either a needler or a bolter.

About now was when I went flicking through Inferno to see how Apothecary shoulders should be painted.  And so it was that I got the pleasant surprise of finding Penthu in there, which is where I guess Graham got the idea to take him from?  Or vice-versa.  As my model was missing shoulder-pads and head at this point, it was really easy for me to just copy the image for those.  I decided to use the Achaen shoulders on mine to keep him a bit fancy and a little different, but painted the same way, and gave him a cloak as I like my officers to have those.  He's also sporting a transfer on his right knee to match the one in the drawing as I just wanted to try it out.

WIP - Lotus Fighter

Let it rain

While all my photographs are technically Work In Progress, everything I've posted so far has been tabletop ready. I'm working up to trying paint techniques I consider 'big boy' stuff (and everyone else probably thinks of as easy).  However, I've been working on this thing all week and, as it's now approaching assembly, thought I'd document an earlier stage than I have typically been showing.

In A Thousand Sons, Graham McNeil briefly (like, in one line) mentions "Lotus fighters" and "Apis bombers" are supporting a Thousand Sons campaign on a world where airpower is required.  While they aren't explicitly said to be Legion craft, the names imply - at least to me - that they were Prosperine in nature.  I noted them down as Legion craft in the back of my head at the time and moved on.

Later, the Thousand Sons are mentioned as having two patterns of Stormbird unique to their legion, the Khonsu and the Apophis (the latter being so big it was nicknamed 'Sunkiller' because it blotted out the sun), and so I took this unusual emphasis on unique craft as an indicator that the Legion had an airwing of either some size, or one of specialised nature.

Eventually, in Inferno, it is indeed stated that the Thousand Sons have a cadre of skilled pilots, who take to the skies to defend Tizca...in Xiphons.  Well, gotta mention the Forgeworld toys, I guess.

I had been toying with the idea of getting a Xiphon or a Lightning, as both models look amazing.  However, as my force is heavy on both custom looks and drawing from Black Library fluff, I settled on the idea of making a Lotus, and eventually an Apis as well.  This is my attempt at the fighter, and as you can see, it's basically a Stormtalon with Necron Scythe wings on backwards.  People I've showed it too aren't super-keen, but I'm digging it and I guess that's what matters.

It's sporting lascannons in the nose, and I'm going to say the ports in the wings contain missiles, so I guess I can use it as a 'counts-as' Xiphon or Lightning if opponents let me?  We'll see how that goes, I guess.

I have the larger engine variants from the Stormtalon built, painted and ready to stick onto the sides, and I tentatively hit it with an attempt at edge highlights and scuffing similar to the Rhino.  I'm going to work on it while alternating with an Ammitara squad, so it might be a few entries before it turns up again.

Updated Legion Rhino and new Ctesias information

An improvement?

I decided to try some edge highlighting and scuffing on my Rhino.  I'm not up to trying proper weathering yet, but figured some silver on the edges could easily be painted over if I screwed it up.  I don't think that happened, but you can definitely see my low skill level.  However, considering this is the first time I've tried this, I think it came out okay.  I'll keep it and hopefully get better going forward.

I've ordered some micro set and micro sol, so later on in the week I think I'll test it out on the Rhino. Next time you see it, it should be sporting some transfers.

Ctesias and the Aquilae

In my entry about my version of Ctesias, the summoner who I'm running as a Librarian, I mentioned that I didn't know what cult arcana to give him, and that I had recently contacted his creator, John French, to ask what arcana he thought Ctesias would have. I've been fortunate to get a reply, which is that Mr French reckons Ctesias would have possibly been in the Aquilae cult, and when it was disbanded, transferred to the Corvidae temple.

I hope it would be obvious from this entire project and the things I've previously typed, but I value John French's creations and impact upon my conception of the Thousand Sons tremendously.  This answer was fantastic.

The Aquilae are only mentioned in Inferno, where they are referred to as "the denied sixth cult".  They were concerned with researching the nature of the Warp itself, but were closed down by Magnus personally.  Presumably, because they were delving too far and were in danger of gaining an understanding of what, in 40K terms, we consider daemonic.  This is a fascinating bit of fluff, and Ctesias - who ends up being a guy who pacts with, binds and summons daemons - being one of them is perfect.

It also pleases me because it means the spread bird motif I picked for his shoulder guard now can have another explanation beyond my 'white birds are common in Egyptian imagery' thing.  I don't have an updated photo of him, so I'll just repost this one so you can see what I did.  Him being once of the Aquilae, or eagle cult, makes this choice, in retrospect, even better.
This also means that he'll be Corvidae in my list, which is fine.  The cult discipline doesn't really matter a great deal in gameplay terms for my plan with him, it was just a niggle that I needed to get 'right'.  He'll still attempt to cast Sanctic Daemonology without getting gibbed by something from the Warp that he's previously annoyed.