Dark vengeance Chaos Lord

The Dark Vengeance starter kit, much like the most recent Deamons wave of releases, has allowed me to breathe new interest, and life, into my Thousand Sons army. Being able to add 20 cultists, 6 Chosen and hellbrute and a Chaos Lord to a force that had one squad of Thousand Sons, a Sorcerer in Terminator armor and a Deamon Prince (who could also double in the Tzeentch themed Deamon army) was pretty meager. Enough to field the army under 5th with generic deamons and under 6th with Deamons as the main force and Chaos Space Marines as the allies. but not the ultimate vision I have for this army.

With the Dark vengeance Chaos Lord, I plan to have the terminator armored sorcerer become part of a squad of Thousand Sons terminators. Whether this is possible at the time \of me writing this blog post is unknown, as the Chaos codex won't be released for another four days. But that is my hope, otherwise I just have two HQ choices.

I stuck to the same color palette as the Hellbrute, and was quite pleased with the results. One other item I would like to remark on is how all of my models since the new GW paint line came have been based with Stirland Mud. I actually just had to replace the pot because I ran out. While I know anyone can mix paint and sand and achieve this, I love the convenience of it. I do have some Mourn Mountain Snow as well, and hopefully will be using it on my 30k army when I decide on it.

Treacheries of the Space Marines

Having recently finished Treacheries of the Space Marines, I can honestly say this collection of short stories was rough going. It should be no surprise that with the new Chaos codex out, this anthology is all about Chaos and Chaos Space Marines. ADB fans will be happy to know that the his Night Lords audio drama is formatted into print in this anthology. Fans of Anthony Reynolds' Marduk character will also be pleased to know that there is a short story featuring him in this anthology as well. Despite those two bright points I found the stories slow going, uninteresting and generally blah. The above two mentions might make it worth picking up, but otherwise not so much in my opinion.

Thousand Sons Hellbrute

The first model I wanted to build from Dark Vengeance was the Hellbrute. All of the models in the set are so great, but they don't have the impact that the Hellbrute does. Normally, I would save the best model for last, but in this case, i actually put the most boring at the bottom of the list.

All of the Chaos models have a bit of an intimidation factor with them. They are all highly detailed, and the meld of organic and machine makes things a bit harder to decide how those organic areas are done. In the end, I decided that, rather than be fleshy areas, they would be extensions of the models armor.

The two main adjustments I made to the Thousand Sons color scheme were the additions of Naggoroth Night as the base coat and Gehenna's Gold replacing old GW Shining Gold.

Second Chapterhouse Jetbike

The second jetbike from Chapterhouse is now finished. I've been doing these one at a time, and will add one more and the attack bike variant as well. This one came together fairly easy, however I had a bit of trouble with one of the hands holding the handle bars. It broke during assembly, but was glued back in place with no problem.

This jetbike model is the squad meltagunner. I posed the marine holding it in a cradled position to add some motion to the model. This time I used the Chapterhouse base rather than the a GW flying base, though they don't fit quite as well.

For the painting of the model, I stuck with the same colors I have been using from the new GW paint range. The only difference is that I have replaced the old GW Boltgun metal with the new Leadbelcher.

Eldar Rangers

For my Altansar allies, I was torn between Dire Avengers and Rangers for the troop choice. Both are good units, and I might end up getting the Dire Avengers down the road, but I wanted to have at least one unit besides the HQ in the force that was representative of the craftworld.

I painted the red with layers of Khorne Red, Mephiston Red and Evil Sunz Scarlet. The Coats were done with a layer of Dark Angels Green and a Highlight of Warpstone Green. The yellow is done with Averland Sunset, Yriel Yellow and Flash Gitz Yellow.

Rangers have always been my favorite Eldar unit, at one time I had an Alaitoc army even. So I'm glad I was able to include them in the allies force. Next up for the Eldar, comes the Swooping Hawks. But first, get ready for some Dark vengeance!

MKIV Death Spectres Apothecary

I debated a while about what to do with the MKIV Apothecary. Perhaps now, knowing about the Forge World Horus Heresy products coming out I would have changed my mind, but in the end I decided to do a small Death Spectres army. Especially after the conversion of the Sicarius model I did.

The apothecary was built with the Forge World kit, but I ended up using a resin base because I didn't notice the Forge World piece for the apothecary to stand on. Otherwise, the model is straight forwardly built.

I painted the model using the new GW paints, with layers of Ceramite White and White Scar for the main body. The metal was a layer of Leadbelcher, a wash of Argax Earthshade and then a layer of the old Chainmail. The bone was done with Zandri Dust, Argax Earthshade, Ushabti Bone and Screaming Skull. The red is Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet and Troll Slayer Orange. After all of the painting was done, I used Testors Dullcote to seal the model, then Applied a Death Spectre's water seal transfer. To apply the transfer, I applied a coat of Decal Set, applied the transfer and then a second coat of Decal Set. Once it was dry, I sealed the model again with Dullcote.

Shadows of Treachery

Shadows of Treachery is the latest Horus Heresy short story anthology from the Black Library. Fans should know that three of the stories within are reprinted from other media. First off, the limited edition stories of "The Lightning Tower" and "The Dark King" are brought back for mass dissemination. For detractors of the audio dramas, you can be happy to know that "Raven's Flight" has been transcribed into short story print form. I have had a signed copy of the limited edition stories since they came out back when Games Workshop still had Games Day in the US in Baltimore, MD. I also enjoy listening to the audio books while I paint, so I was able to skip these three stories. That left "The Crimson Fist," which is the recounting of what occurs to the Imperial Fist expedtion to Istvaan when it becomes becalmed in the warp and stranded in the Phall system. Also, "The Prince of Crows" is a novella picking up for the Night Lords after the battle between Lion el'Johnson and Konrad Kurze on Tsugualsa. Just for the new fiction alone the book is worth it. The Horus Heresy series continues to entertain me, with moments of awesomeness scattered amidst the general coolness of it all.