Heresy Era Thousand Sons - The Dust Storm Approaches...

As this is my fourth go-around with the Thousand Sons, I wanted to take some time to come up with some further background fluff and theme for the army. I have always envisioned the forces as having a shared continuity, the first iteration way back in the Tempus Fugitives days was a Great Crusade force (pre-heresy, as it were), while the second and third were set just prior to, and just after the Razing of Prospero, with a few homebrew characters making an appearance in every force (The doughty Sergeant Hesyre being the obvious example). This time around I'm envisioning a late-heresy force, in the time immediately prior to the Rubric of Ahriman where the legion is beginning to unravel both figuratively and literally. Enter the Khamasiin, Warhost of the Sorcerer Lord Sethep-Khet!

Sethep-Khet is a new character in the annals of my force, being one of the devotees of the Pyrae cult and sub-altern to Khalophis during the destruction of Prospero. During the destruction of the cult temple, Sethep-Khet's legs were crushed by falling masonry and though dragged to safety by his brethren he refused to retire from the battlefield. Using telekinesis (though a Pyrae, most practitioners were capable of lesser feats from other disciplines) he held himself aloft through the remains of that dark day, making a fighting retreat to the center of the city where he and the other remnants of the legion were translocated to Sortiarius, the Planet of the Sorcerers. He refused bionic replacement limbs and instead relies on his powers to hover in stately grace - In the heat of battle however he bounds across the battlefield in a manner disquietingly similar to that of the flamer daemons that caper in the realm of the Great Eye. From the bridge of the battle barque Re-Setyu, Sethep-Khet now leads a warhost known as The Khamasiin, (being a Prosperine dialectic derivation of Khamsin, a dust/sand storm in the Gyptic and Nordafrik areas of Old Terra), Thousand Sons who have pledged their loyalty to the Warmaster. Just roughing in colors on him so far, to get a feel for the balance of white, gold and crimson. Gotta throw in a touch of blue here and there as well, it being Tzeentch's color after all!

The Khamasiin are a departure in style from the previous forces, as I wanted to really try something different - The last few armies have been very tank-heavy, so the obvious flipside of the coin is an Orbital Assault force! Ties in nicely with the whole duststorm motif to have them falling from the skies and soaring in on flyers and skimmers. Got the majority of the infantry basecoated, though there's still another 20-strong assault marine squad in the wings (pun!) that are awaiting a few more bits to arrive before they begin the build process. Itching to get cracking on these guys, but will finish off the Mechanicus elements on the painting deck first. Gives me impetus to get 'em done!

I'm going to focus the painting efforts on a 2500 point force to begin with, being the theoretical force I'll be taking to NOVA later in the year. Did a cut-down paining chart to help me visualize where things stand, what I still need to buy/build and keep me from haring off on other non-essential models for the force, as fun as they may be to paint!

That said, the intention is to have an army capable of other configurations beyond the Orbital Assault (which is a bit restrictive overall). Still keeping with the lighter elements, so no Land Raiders or Spartans this time - just a a few predator variants, and who am I kidding the army is going to have a Glaive or a Mastodon at some point, it's a foregone conclusion. Hah!