Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Javelin Attack Speeder Squadron Ka-Tet begins!

Another trio of models were set in front of the painting servitor, ignoring its plaintive blurt of binaric. It's Javelin Attack Speeders this go-around, one of my favorite models in the Heresy range, with an upgrade to armour, and several impressive weapon options over their more pedestrian Land Speeder cousins. As an orbital assault force, the Khamasiin is somewhat lacking in ranged anti-tank weaponry so squadron Ka-Tet is armed with twin-linked lascannons and multi-meltas. That's the ticket!

I'd left the crew separate to facilitate painting, so started off by laying in the basic colors on them, and worked up the shading on the speeders a bit.

Once the crew were ready to go, the black and bone panels were laid in on the speeders and then the gold trim - Coming together nicely!

Far too hot today to paint after work (nearly 100F), so other than a furtive burst of installing the crew and starting the steel on the first model I was driven from the loft, but not before snapping a couple quick pictures.

So far so good!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Drop Pods complete!

Or more accurately, I'm done with them! When all is said and done I am really rather happy with them, but not keen to do more drop pods anytime soon. The upcoming Sons of Horus will emphatically not be a drop force!

Once the bone and gold were laid in they definitely started to feel a bit more Thousand Sons-y. Some hieroglyphs and the nova legion symbol helps drive it home!

Of course, nearly all that legion goodness will be obscured when they're actually in play. On the other hand, a couple more spot colors do give them a bit more visual interest.

Leaving the two sections separate for painting really paid off in the final stages. Getting the hazard stripes and control pylons done would have been a nightmare otherwise!

Ended up taking a crack at making a little stencil to help with the hazard stripes, which worked fairly well, though even with the lower section loose it was still challenging to get the stencil in place. Blu-tack to the rescue!

At this point I'm closing in on the last of the models earmarked for NOVA later on this year - All that remains are a trio of Javelin Land Speeders and the Storm Eagle. Then more test games, discover my army list is rubbish, and then some frantic painting to get some unplanned new stuff finished!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Drop Pods continue...

Pressing onward with the drop pods, and they're coming along nicely so far! I had laid in some initial color patterns on the Storm Eagle earlier, and tried to fill in similar areas on the pods.

Just blocking in the various areas, starting with a graveyard earth as a basecoat for the areas that will end up bone colored. I'm a little worried about the wash step that I use when it comes to the big flat areas like the fins, so extra care will  need to be taken. On the up side, a multitude of sins can be fixed with judicious weathering, which the pods will be getting.

The black on the bottoms of the doors will get some gold or white hieroglyphics, while the white nova legion symbol will adorn one or more of the red doors (depending on how many I can scrape together in the appropriate size). Once the bone and black are done, they'll get some detailing picked out in gold, after which attention will be given to the interiors. So far so good!

I will say that painting them has been more fun than building them was, but that's not saying too much.

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Drop Pods painting begins...

I couldn't quite bring myself to apply an exclamation point to this post's title, as drop pods are just not all that exciting. Nevertheless, they form an integral part of the Orbital Assault rite of war that the Khamasiin is based on, so gotta get cracking on 'em!

Having built them in sub assemblies really helped on the painting front so far - definitely makes getting to all the nooks and crannies a piece of cake. Just the red and basic gunmetal laid in so far, but that gets us almost halfway to the finish line already!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Assault Squads actually complete!

Success! I ended up braving the heat in the hobby loft after work yesterday and got the two assault squads finished, flocked and sealed.

Assault squad Mekhata

Assault squad Besenmut

Basically all that remained was some highlights on the bone weapon casings and the usual blue power cables and jump pack thrust nozzles so it went rather quickly. The addition of some grass tufts gives the bases a little extra zest and they're good to go!

The painting chart is encouraging at this point - nearing the tipping point where there's more done than not. Not bad at all! Next up, a trio of Drop Pods - not glamorous, but integral to the Khamasiin's deployment strategy!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Assault Squad nearly complete!

A quick hit this morning, nearing the finish line with the two assault squads! Been getting back into the swing of early morning painting and got a few more colors laid in over the past week. Did the bases this morning and fired off a quick picture (though it's a little grainy due to the wholly artificial lighting that early in the day).

Getting the bases laid in really helps the models pop, and other than a few details and final highlights they're just about ready for the flock-and-sealant stage. It'll be good to get a couple more Troops choices done, meaning I can work on some vehicles or elites choices next which is always fun!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Assault squads painting continues...

Holy smokes is summer ever upon us here - Been sweltering hot of late which has made post-work painting a daunting procedure. Time to switch over to the summertime schedule and start getting up an hour earlier so I can paint in the cool of the morning!

That said, over the last few days I did manage to lay in all the gold trim and the ghostly green wings on the two assault squads. Halfway to the finish line now - next up is all the silver and bone!

Heresy Era Sons of Horus - Test model (more or less) complete!

Quick hit this evening - Chugging along on the 20 assault marines, but just had to take a little time and bash out the rest of the tester model for the incipient Sons of Horus force!

 

Really quite pleased with the seafoam green, and though the cloak is relatively unadorned at the moment, I rather like the desaturated reddish brown. Works from a color theory standpoint and yet hopefully avoids the worst of the "Christmas Effect". Tried a little bit of pitting and scratching, which will require a bit more practice. It's passable but could definitely be improved - practice makes perfect, right?

No further Sons of Horus work planned for the immediate future however, something else will have to be completed and sold first to fund the force!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Assault squads painting begins!

The weather has turned rather warm here, meaning it's getting unpleasantly hot up in the hobby loft but I have managed to sneak in a session or two in the mornings while it's still reasonable up there. Figured it was time to knock out a few more troops choices, so the assault squads came out of the foam and onto the painting desk!

Not a whole lot of excitement so far, just blacked in all the joints and laid in the first two greys and whites on the trim. So far so good though!

As a bit of a teaser, I quite enjoyed the green color the Sons of Horus NOVA Charity Army recipe suggested, and after painting up the helmet of one, it was a foregone conclusion that I'd try it out on a full model. Fairly straightforward, it's Vallejo USMC Tank Crew as the mid-tone, with a 50/50 mix with black for the undercoat and the USMC Tank Crew Highlight as the, well, highlight. I rather think there's going to be more of this in the future once I get on the other side of all these Thousand Sons!