Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Something old, something new!

Busy week out in Real Life(tm), but I did get a package in the mail containing a blast from the past!

Back in the Tempus Fugitives era when I first got into the Heresy, my first iteration of the Thousand Sons force included my favorite of the superheavy tanks - The Falchion Eye of Magnus. Custom built by the inestimable Tom McBride (of Blood and Skulls) and somewhat hamfistedly painted by me, it was one of my biggest source of sellers remorse that I'd let it go. Turns out the guy that it was sold to was planning on selling off his force, so I jumped at the chance to buy it back! It's a little the worse for wear (it was built and sold back in 2012) so I had to do a bit of repair work, and plan on updating the paint scheme a little to match up with the current forces. ...Which means among other things I've got about 8,000 rivets to paint. Oof!

On the other side of the coin ,over the last several evenings I have squeezed in a few abbreviated painting sessions and finally this evening got the gold trim laid in on all of the veterans. This was a long, tedious process but now that it's done the rest of the scheme should zoom right along!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Shadowsword painting continues

Barely hanging on to the slender thread of sanity at this point - over 600 rivets later, and the Shadowsword is almost ready for weathering!

Added in the usual occult symbols and XV numeration - The 15th Prosperine Assault Infantry number ties in nicely with the XV legion markings on the Thousand Sons (thereby making it suitable for use in either detachment as needed). Little cleanup required yet, but most of the truly sloppy bits might just get covered up with some weathering!

Quite happy with the Blood and Skulls Industries add-ons, really gives the model some personality. I cannot recommend Tom McBride's add-on kits enough! Supposed to have a couple warm days coming up early next week, hoping to get it finished and sealed soon!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Breacher Squad painted, and Shadowsword in progress

Rather productive of late, as my main entertainment center/general distraction has been in the shop. That means quite a bit of brush time! Trying to update the blog from my phone is proving to be thoroughly aggravating, so the next few posts are likely to be a little brief. First up, the Breacher Siege Squad got a lick of paint:

Pretty straightforward, but I'm not entirely happy with the gradient on the green gems now that I'm reviewing the pics. Definitely need to add a few more intermediate tones to them!

I've been slogging along on the Shadowsword for the Spireguard as well, got all the basic colors laid in, now it's time to start the interminable rivet painting step... Oof!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Spireguard Shadowsword build complete!

Couple little packages in the mail when I got home from work today, the missing leg piece for the Reaver (pics of that to come), and the targeters for the Shadowsword. As I didn't have much hobby time this evening, I settled on clipping out and gluing on those rather than dive into the major construction project that the Reaver will undoubtedly be!

Building out the targeters took all of ten minutes, not super exciting but good to get a little bit of hobby time in. They could stand to be just a little bigger perhaps, but overall I'm quite happy with how they turned out!

They're predicting another 50F day tomorrow which is on the bottom end of what I consider viable primering temperature, fingers crossed as they're saying it's going to be a winter wonderland for the week following Christmas - hope to get the builds from the last few posts primered so I'll have some stuff to paint over the holiday break while it's chilly!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Spireguard Shadowsword build continues

The last week and a half has been pretty rough, so not a whole lot of hobby time or mojo unfortunately. I did get a package in the mail yesterday which included the alternate sponsons from Blood and Skulls Industry, and after a soak and scrub overnight I snuck in a half hour after work to get them assembled and fitted:

 

Still need to figure out what to do for the targeters to sit on the sponson tops though - eying some various bits on ebay, but nothing has jumped out at me yet. Suggestions welcome!

With the passing of my usual 40k opponent and sorting through all of his hobby stuff, I've been reassessing how much hobby stuff of my own I don't REALLY need. With my general focus on Heresy-era gaming, I've decided to part ways with the most recent rendition of the Mordian 7th regiment, along with a number of other historical treasures dredged up from the depths of the Closet of Doom. Expect to see a bunch of hopefully interesting stuff going up on eBay over the next few months as I try to thin out the shelves somewhat. It was a bit of a struggle to put the 7th up on the block, but they haven't fired a shot in anger in over 3 years, and I can't justify building a new version until the old one's gone, right? Haha!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Spireguard Shadowsword

My copy of Conquest arrived a little while ago and I've finally had a chance to sit down and give it a proper read. The Solar Auxilia list is very interesting - while not the 'generic Imperial Army' list I'd hoped it would be, it's nonetheless a very solid and thematic army. With some squinting the Spireguard will function well under its auspices for now! That said, I've been itching to jump back into the army and thought I'd treat myself to some build time since I'd finished the Ursarax recently. Something... Big.

The Shadowsword has always been my favorite superheavy, so it was a no-brainer that the army would get one eventually. The model itself is one of the numerous un-finished projects that Dave left behind and bequeathed to me - he'd planned on doing an Iron Warriors army, and this was to be the basis for Tormentor, Perturabo's personal transport/superweapon. Sadly he never got a chance to build it, but I wanted to ensure it was put to good use in some fashion!

The power turbines, treads, and engine exhausts are all from the inestimable talents of Tom McBride of Blood and Skulls Industries, and also make for a nice nod to the previous Thousand Sons Shadowsword/proto-Falchion that Tom had built for me several years back.

Was poking around on his ebay page and ran across these alternate side sponsons that he'd made when I wasn't looking. Instantly ordered and am awaiting their arrival, seems like they'll be perfect for Heresy-ing up the model a little further! I just need to come up with some good targeters to go on the top in lieu of the Lascannons and we'll be ready to go!