From SanderS: "I am Gregarius Part III!" (20 points)

 Hoi,

As I have been promissing for a while now, I finally got round painting something 30K related! 40K has been a game I have played very avidly in the past, but what with all the changes in rules have kinda lost track off it. I am not actively playing 40K at the moment, but I still love the Lore and figures so while not fighting on the tabletop, I do actively collect and paint several armies. A few years ago I also got enamoured by the new Horus Heresy (or 30K) miniature line and started collecting a force for  the First Legion, my beloved Dark Angels. 

For two Challenges now Greg has been showing us his gorgeous 30K Son's of Horus troops and last year it triggered me to put most of my kits and troops together, but they have been lacking a paintjob. This year I was sure I was going to get a headstart with the painting but hey the hobby-butterfly came calling and I ended up painted a lot of other miniatures than 30K.

So as to not loose too much face in the 30K model and please the Lord Primarch Gregarius; I hereby present my first painted 30K Dark Angel Land Raider!

Now the observant watcher will have noticed that I made a big boo-boo: I left all the moving parts free/ separate so they can indeed move, but in doing so I mixed one of the sponsons up with one from my Kratos Tank so now this Land Raider features one Sponson that's not supposed to be on there. I will fix this for sure sometime soon. 

Whether I will be able to get more 30K stuff done this Challenge remains to be seen, but I do not think so. Pointswise 1 vehicle in 28mm is 20 points.

Cheers Sander

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Hi Sander

Hobby butterfly is not a bad thing … I think we all enjoying seeing our challenge-mates bop from one project to another 😊

Nice looking 30k vehicle and I like that you’ve chosen to leave the moveable parts move-able. Leave the extra part in the Land Raider … perhaps it will make the vehicle extra fast?

-Sarah

From GregB - Sons of Horus Devastators (25 points)

Sons of Horus Devastator Marines - classic resin figures from GW. 

As we settle in to our regular weekly posting pace, I am trying to focus on clearing out some projects from the old "I am going to finish that project, no really, I am" pile. This little palette-cleanser comes from that pile. This is a group of Devastator Marines (i.e. carrying heavy weapons) painted in the stirring colours of the XVI Legion Astartes, the Warmaster's own Sons of Horus. These are multi-part resin figures from GW's Forge World subsidiary/division/whatever it is called now.

View of a couple of the Marines, showing the weapon and the embossed legion crest on the shoulder.

In the "Age of Darkness" there are a lot of scary things! Things that will trouble even the superhuman Space Marine warriors! Fortunately there are all sorts of scary heavy weapons for them to carry around. And no need to spread them out or anything...better to have them running around in groups. Right? I mean, if shooting one thing with a big laser cannon is good, then shooting it with five must be better - much wiser to be certain you will cook what needs to be cooked...

This fellow looks to be tracking a higher target...given all of the terrifying stuff stalking the battlefields of the 30k universe, I'm sure he won't be short of targets...

These heavy-weapon-toting Marines are known as "Devastators" in the game, and these particular ones are carrying las cannons, so they are focused on wrecking vehicles and heavily armoured gribblies to be found in the 30k setting. These guys will augment a five-man squad that is already in my collection, bringing it to 10 Marines (all with the consistent green on the armour, soothing the OCD monkey in my head), ready to really wreck some sh*t in the name of The Warmaster!

This guy looks to be appreciating the after effects of one of his shots...you can also see the spare energy cell for the weapon hanging from the back pack - a nice touch on these classic Forge World sculpts.

"Take aim lads...for The Warmaster!"

These particular Marines are wearing Mark III plate, probably the best design that GW ever came up with for the Horus Heresy setting. These kits have since been re-issued as multi-part plastic kits - twice - and the plastics are pretty nice, but can't match the grim, cold, merciless air of this mark of power armour. They look even more terrifying with the lascannons. 

For scoring purposes, we have five 28mm figures, which should account for 25 points. And there are two skullz in there on the chest plates too!

Thanks for reading! 

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Lovely addition to your growing Legion Greg, and they will bring some serious POW to your force! I do like the baroque Mk III armour styles, and the classic Lascannon. My own World Eaters tend to just bash their opponents over the head with said Lascannons instead of shooting them though, which is highly amusing and much more fun, even though it must do nothing for the fragile targeting alignment. Still, Blood for the Blood God and all that!

-Paul

From GregB - Space Marine APC and Librarian (25 Points)

Thousand Sons Librarian Consul and Deimos-Pattern Rhino APC - models from GW.

For my third submission I'll be sticking to GW's "Horus Heresy" setting as I continue to try and clear off some projects which have been sitting in the "pending pile" for weeks - or even months - leading up to the start of AHPC XV. Here we have a Rhino APC and a Librarian Consul, both painted in the colours of the XV Legion Astartes, the Thousand Sons. The vehicle is a multi-part plastic kit, and the foot figure is a multi-part resin kit - both are from GW.

It's not a fancy ride by the standards of the Space Marine Legions, but it is still the first vehicle for the Thousand Sons in my collection!

Some esoteric markings on the door...probably safety instructions, and nothing to do with using spooky powers or anything like that...

The Rhino is the classic APC of GW's Space Marine forces, and this plastic "Deimos pattern" of the vehicle is very much a loving homage to the original plastic Rhino model kits of GW's much earlier days. I had built this model back in the summer, determined to paint it promptly but...of course I did not, and it sat there on the shelf for months. 

View showing the iconography of the Thousand Sons on the vehicle. I was pretty sparing with the markings (I find the Thousand Sons tanks in the GW/Forge World books to be a touch too whacky/busy for my liking and prefer to keep it simple).

My collection of Horus-Heresy-era Thousand Sons has, up to this point, comprised solely of infantry models. This is mostly because it grew out of the infantry-focused box game "The Burning of Prospero" (which I highly recommend) so I would add infantry and characters, but never got around to painting any vehicles for them. No doubt my Sons of Prospero will be pleased to have the opportunity to at last catch a ride on the table!

Love the post of this sculpt...he is about to unleash some warp fun on you!

The character figure is a "Librarian Consul" from the updated "Age of Darkness" range. This figure was intended to be generic in that he has no specific markings for any of the particular factions in the setting so you could paint him up for any Legion. In the 30k setting, "Librarians" are not mere civil servants checking books in and out - they are powerful adepts skilled in manipulating the dangerous energies of the warp. This fellow has the trappings associated with Space Marine Librarians...fancy armour, fancy cloak, a helmet with some slight extra fluff, and esoteric bits like old keys, a spooky old hard-cover leather-bound book, and, naturally, a couple skulls...because they...help...or something.

Big, pimped-out cloak? Check! But I really love the spell book chained on to the power pack unit (which has some further embellishments of its own as well - like I said, awesome sculpt). 

I love the figure - he has a "beakie" helmet, awesome! - and had already painted one of these fellows for my Loyalist Imperial Fists. Given that the Thousand Sons are noted for their preponderance of psychic-power practitioners (what could go wrong with that?), I thought I would paint this second figure to join them (and take his place with the other, legion-specific psyker model for the XV Legion). 

"I foresee...getting a ride for once! About damn time!"

For scoring we have a single 28mm vehicle and a single 28mm foot figure, so that should amount to 25 points. And a few more skulls...hey, I'll take em! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more soon - I hope!

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Lovely work on these two models dude. As an archivist I can't help myself in shaking my head at GW's decision to call the Space Marian psykers 'Librarians', like WTAF? I have yet to meet a librarian who can hoist a stack of books without quivering in near collapse much less wear power armour and haul around huge melee weapons. 'Don't make me release the awesome power of the Dewey Decimal System on you!' *eyeroll* Anyway, my peccadilloes aside, your Librarian is a wonderfully painted example of the breed. Like you I really enjoy all the details of the sculpt, very characterful and dynamic. And what Marine wouldn't appreciate resting their armoured-shod feet with a ride in a Rhino such as this. The Dodge Caravan of the 30th millennia. Great work dude!

- Curt

From GregB - Sons of Horus Breacher Marines (70 points)

A squad of Breacher Marines from the XVI Legion Astartes. 28mm multi-part resin figures from GW. 

Greetings once more to all Challengers! It is a delight to be spending winter with all of you once more, tackling projects old and new while making a dent in the piles of unpainted plastic and resin that haunt all of us. I'm glad to open the 15th Edition of the Challenge with a familiar theme, and veteran Challenge participants will hardly be surprised to see that I have returned once again to GW's "Age of Darkness" setting, the great, galaxy-spanning civil war of the Horus Heresy, known colloquially as "Warhammer 30k". This is a squad of 10 Breacher Marines, resplendent in the colours of the Warmaster's own XVI Legion, the Sons of Horus. They are multi-part resin models from GW. 

Three of the breacher Marines...you can see the fellow in the middle suffers from dimpled surfaces and frosting caused by a defective matte varnish spray from back in 2016. The repainting helps a bit...but still...f*ck spray paints.

Breaching Marines are great fun. We can sense just how dire things must be in the Horus Heresy setting when it becomes necessary to take a super-human soldier clad in super-amazing power armour and say, "you know, we should give those chaps a giant pavisse-style shield, you know, because safety". I love the proto-medieval look of this variant of the Mark III power armour, and how the shields have the little "hooks" that allow the Space Marines to brace and fire their weapons while on the move. Brilliant sculpts.

Fans of the Horus Heresy are enjoying a veritable golden age in terms of new figures and models...but these are not new. They are rather old, and have been re-painted as part of an ongoing effort to bring my large collection of 30k Sons of Horus models, painted over a now 10-year timeframe, into some manner of consistent appearance. You see, my hobby mind has a peculiar affliction - that of the screaming-inside-OCD monkey. Certain things - like an inconsistency in the green armour of a Sons of Horus collection, for example - cause this monkey to scream and throw things in my mind. 

Love the shields! These are some of GW's finest 30k sculpts...and there are a lot of great 30k sculpts!

These particular figures were first painted back in 2016, right as I switched over to my current approach toward painting the vaguely-blue-but-mostly-still-green armour of the Sons of Horus. This squad was painted mid-change...with about three models painted using my current approach, and the other seven painted using a previous approach (which involved many pointless glazing layers). Mixed greens within the collection were bad enough...but within one squad? The OCD monkey does NOT APPROVE! I found I could NOT deploy these in good faith knowing - and seeing! - the different greens. What would the Warmaster think??

Sergeant on the left, and a special-weapon trooper wielding a lascutter (great for opening the hulls of ships, or the armour of enemies...whatever). 

Thus I soothe - ever so slightly - the screaming inner monkey by re-painting the lost squads and vehicles a few at a time...and this is how I am kicking off Challenge XV! These Breachers are now properly ready to "stand in the line." I will shamelessly exploit the "Limbo" theme for this purpose - after all, these WERE a stalled project of a sort, from back in 2016 :) That's ten 28mm infantry figures, and 20 points for a theme, which should count for 70 points - a fair start toward my target, and a nice little start for our 30k duel. Even better, two of these guys are wearing skullz - so that is TWO skulls :)

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Greg, it's great to see you launch your opening gambit with this set of venerable-but-wonderful models. Like you, I've always been taken by the whole ridiculous idea of Breacher Marines and as you say these models are marvellously baroque with their bronze chased slab armour and spooky grilled helmets. Terrific stuff. And then there is the added bonus of the 'new' legion livery which placates your OCD monkey while making the force more cohesive. The Warmaster will be pleased. All is good in the world... Until of course you cast your eye upon the next unit of heretical off-colour models and the process deliciously repeats itself. I look forward to it!

70 points is is my friend. Well done and welcome back to the Challenge. 

- Curt