Horus Heresy 500p Challenge: The Thousand Sons by Bothi

The second part of the third block is a sorcerer. I decided to use the model of Magistus Amon, because the model is just so awesome.

I painted him the same way as Ahriman. So one more steps of highlights everywhere, a glow on the “casting hand” and a lot of inscriptions on the armor. Also this is the first model which actually shows skin. So I tried to go for an deep arabic skin tone.

The base is the Forge World base that comes with the model. It kinda fits the rest of the bases of the army so I used it. And it’s awesome aswell.

The third block is finally finished (1 week late, I know). It consists of two parts. The first part is a 5 man squad of Sekhmet. These are the Terminator Elite of the Thousand Sons (as if Terminators are not elite enough). I stayed with the same paint scheme and used the same weapon effect as with Ahriman. It’s a lot of work, but I still love the result.

I magnetized all the weapon options, as you can see on the pics. So I can run them with Force Axes, Powerfists, Chainfists, Combibolters and Combimeltas. I also have some Combiplasmas and Combiflamers magnetized, but these are not painted yet and wont be for the near future.

I also tried a new technique to photograph metallic minis. Tell me what you think.

As promised yesterday I managed to finish Ahriman today. This finishes the 2nd block in time. So I made it this time and can maybe paint something other in the meanwhile. But first some pics of the man himself.

So. The second block of the challenge is underway. The timeframe is January and February. I have to paint another 10 man veteran squad and Ahriman. A bit less in minis than last block, but seriously I can’t stand painting MK3s anymore.

Nevertheless I finished the veteran squad today. They are called the snakes. But again first two pics from a week ago with the finished bases.

Ahriman is nearly finished aswell. So I should be able to finish the block in time. There will be pics tomorrow, Thursday at the latest.

I know I am nearly 3 weeks late, but I finally finished the first block of our Horus Heresy Challenge. Short reminder: my first block were two squads of 10 Thousand Son Veterans.

I am getting really used to the painting scheme and I just have to say, painting with so much metallic paints is a real pain. Due to the consistency of the paint it is so much harder to be precise and get covering results. Also taking photos is really hard too. But when I see them in RL I think it’s worth it. I got a lot of feedback from friends and they all say the photos don’t do the minis justice. But unfortunately that’s all I can show here. So judge for yourself.

As to some feedback I got, yes I know that the white looks quite terrible on the pictures. This is due to the metallic-ness of the figures. Hence I have to take photos of them with really low lighting (otherwise you get reflections and flares like crazy). Then if the gamma/brightness of those photos is increased in “post-production” the white turns really bright.

Actually the white on those figures is not white at all. It is ivory with white edge-highlighting. Following are two pictures of what I am trying to do with the white.

The white is painted as follows:

• Base paint (covering all): Army Painter Skeleton Bone
• Layer paint (covering 99%): Vallejo Ivory
• Edge-Highlighting (very thin line on upper edges): Vallejo White

Somehow I could not get the other post to take more pics. But I still have more. So I continue in this post. Read post below first 😀

As promised yesterday here comes the update with the pics of the finished squad. Due to their insigna I decided to call them “Squad Skarab”.

I managed somehow to take o.k. pics of them. I had to play a lot with the lighting not to get shiny syndrom all over the place. But I am still not quite pleased with the photos. Maybe I need a better camera. Or a light tent for less spots on the minis.

Nevertheless I am quite pleased with the minis. They turned out better than expected and I learned a lot. Especially about metallic paints. They can look great but are a pain in the butt to work with. Now it’s only two more squads to go. And a lot of other stuff 😀

The first block of the challenge is nearing it’s end and I still have to finish 2 squads of 1k Sons. Fortunately I already finished the bases for all 20.

I am quite happy how those turned out. Especially that I managed to not go overboard to much on the glow.

And I manged to finish the first squad.

As you can see I still have no idea how to photograph a metallic mini. The pic looks terrible compared to the real minis.

Nevertheless I still need to get those guys on their bases and apply some finishing touches. So hopefully there will be an update tomorrow. For second squad, they are still red. All the blocking, layering and highlighting still to do. So I am pretty sure that I wont finish them in time. That’s one whiskey bottle I have to get for the other guys.