A Thousand Sons: pre-Heresy 15th Legion

[Magos Explorator]

++Throughout the decades of the Emperor's Great Crusade, the reputation of the Fiftteenth Legion--the Thousand Sons of Magnus the Red--has been tainted by whispers of forbidden knowledge, and the name of Sorceror.++

My pre-Heresy models to date have mostly been squads from assorted Legions. I've wanted for a while to focus on one force and, through raiding the bits box and the purchase of a couple of components, I'm ready to do so. My chosen Legion is (as the title suggests) the Thousand Sons.

I'm aiming for a force which could take part in the Tempus Fugitive's Siege of Terra event next May, although I don't yet know if I will be able to attend. I am going to be careful to model them so as not to commit to any particular era, though, so they could represent a force right from the Great Crusade through to an (unmutated) army at the Siege or during the Scouring. Although the Tempus Fugitives list includes new units and special rules, I'm also going to try and make sure most things would work in a normal game of 40k.

Over the next week or so I am planning to finish building the force, then it's on to the painting as time allows. So to start off with, here's a selection of the HQ choices I have assembled.

First, the Primarch Magnus the Red:





++Magnus, large even among his brother Primarchs and with an unrivalled mastery of the secrets of the Warp.++

Before anyone asks, the model is a non-GW figure which sometimes appears on eBay labelled as the Scarab Lord. I think he makes a good stand-in for Magnus, although he is huge (see the regular marine for scale). It's a nice-looking model although an absolute pain to assemble, with lots of loose bits and gap-filling. The weapon shaft snapped just under the hand so I sculpted a couple of purity seals to better hold it in place.

Next up is Ahriman. The conversion is inspired by (but not meant to be a direct match to) the artwork in the Collected Visions books. He's made of a large number of components. The head is from MaxMini and the base, as with all the others in the force, from Foundations of War. It's the 'alien temple' range, which I think could represent an alien world or the shattered ruins of Prospero quite well.





++Ahriman, Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons. He shares his Primarch's obsession with the arcane.++

I've also assembled two models which can be used as either Librarians or Captains.





++The commanders of the Thousand Sons legion were invariably blessed with psychic might.++

One uses Captain Sicarius as a base, and the other a Master of the Chapter. On both, relevant icons were removed. The round, flat areas will have the Legion symbol painted on. The one with the jump pack also has some attempts at sculpting simple scarabs over the U icons falling down near his feet. I thought that using the metal Thousand Sons heads would be a good way to denote leaders--it is shown in the art books--and have done my Tactical squad Sorceror-Sergeants in the same way.

Comments and suggestions appreciated, and I'll do my best to answer any questions.

[WhiteOwl]

I have a feeling this is the start of something epic! Looks very good so far cant wait to see more. Were did you get those giant SM legs for the primarch?

[Magos Explorator]

Thanks. I am hoping to put together 3,000-4,000 points.

The Primarch is not my own sculpt; if you search eBay for 'Scarab Lord' they come up sometimes. Some person/people have done a bunch of models which look like the Primarchs and this is one of those. So it's not a perfect match, but I think it will do.

[Hushrong]

wow, impressive. i cannot wait to see more.

[eltanko]

Interesting start. That Magnus counts as model is huge! big Primarch! very nice though!

ElTanko

[khaosBlizzard]

i love thousand sons, this is awesome man keep up the good work

[fluffstalker]

As a growing Pre Heresy fan myself, I jump for joy whenever I find Pre Heresy Threads! Looking good man, especially the Egyptian style kopesh blades they have. The Scarab Lord is maassssive. Write up some fluff rules for him for apoc games, should be pretty scary stuff .

Also, just as a note for inspiration, not a challenge to do better than, search you tube for a thousands sons pre heresy army, some guy from BoLS did one and its pretty neat might give you some ideas, not just for fluff but game wise also. Again not a "this is better" but just a potential springboard for progress.

[N0th1ng c4n b34t 3lv3s]

I know that feeling, fluffstalker. I jump just as much the same.

Good start - especially with Ahriman, and nice to see some use of the Thousand Sons helmets on Pre-Heresy models - although mr. Red is a bit on the huge side! It looks like the beginnings of something valuable for my inspiration folder!

[Illiterate Scribe]

Great to see another TFer here! Can't wait to see some of these in May - the Captains/Librarians are especially awesome.

although mr. Red is a bit on the huge side!

He was meant to be enormous.

Write up some fluff rules for him for apoc games, should be pretty scary stuff.

There's already rules in the campaign pack, I think.

[shaw3029]

Exellent start!

I didn't realise that model of Magnus was so massive! I don't think you will be able to use him at the Tempus Fugitives event though as it says "Models must be scratch built or at least be based on or comprise of at least 50%Citadel miniature components."

Ahriman is very very nice indeed and I like the Commanders you've done although the Sicarius models helmet doesn't seem to fit to well at the moment. Will you be removing the Imperial eagles from them?

Do you have a list written up? Surely you can't build the whole 3000 point force next week!
That woul be a challenge.

Thanks.

[Magos Explorator]

Thanks, all. I appreciate the comments.

Yes, the Magnus model is huge! I got him about a year ago but didn't get round to assembling him until more recently. I have got a list in mind which doesn't include him, as he's a non-Citadel model I did think there may be issues.

Anyway, the 3k list using Tempus Fugitives rules is something like this:

HQ: Ahriman, 2 Epistolaries
Elites: Techmarine, Terminators (including Ankhet), Seraphis (Librarian-dreadnought).
Troops: 2 Tactical squads in Rhinos and 2 Scout squads with sniper rifles.
Fast Attack: 3 Land Speeders, 10 Assault Marines, 5 Jetbikes and 1 Attack Jetbike
Heavy Support: 2 Vindicators, 1 Land Raider

I'd pare this down to create smaller lists for the other games.

Magnus and a Fellblade will take this up to ~4,000 if I play other games using the Tempus Fugitives rules, or in Apocalpyse (where I figure Magnus could count as a Lord of Change or something, and the Fellblade as a Baneblade).

As a growing Pre Heresy fan myself, I jump for joy whenever I find Pre Heresy Threads! Looking good man, especially the Egyptian style kopesh blades they have. The Scarab Lord is maassssive. Write up some fluff rules for him for apoc games, should be pretty scary stuff .

Also, just as a note for inspiration, not a challenge to do better than, search you tube for a thousands sons pre heresy army, some guy from BoLS did one and its pretty neat might give you some ideas, not just for fluff but game wise also. Again not a "this is better" but just a potential springboard for progress.

Fluffstalker: Thanks, I'll have a look. I have got a bunch of smaller Tomb King blades to use on an Assault Squad, too.

Ahriman is very very nice indeed and I like the Commanders you've done although the Sicarius models helmet doesn't seem to fit to well at the moment. Will you be removing the Imperial eagles from them?

Shaw: I have tried to avoid too many Imperial Eagles, as the fluff says that the Emperor's Children were the only Legion who were all allowed to wear them and otherwise it was a battle honour. So the Librarian above has one (as a battle honour) and my Dreadnought will too. But I am not using them on other Marines, and will omit/cover them on most of the vehicles. I figure two models in an army isn't too bad. I think the helmet on the Sicarius looks ok in person--perhaps it's the camera angle.

I did some building yesterday and will do some more today so perhaps some updates soon...

[Magos Explorator]

Here are some pictures I have to share of the aforementioned weekend work.

++The humble Rhino APC is a mainstay of the forces of the Legions of the Astartes. Here, as is not uncommon, the Thousand Sons have opted to display their status as the Fifteenth Legion.++





These guys are not heavily converted, unlike some of the impressive attempts I've seen out there. Both have (as will all my larger vehicles) a plastic XV to denote the Fifteenth Legion. These came from a merchant of clockmaker's spare parts. The cupolas are removable so I can spin them around, or sub in something else if I decide to take a Hunter-Killer missle or similar.

I will have two Tactical squads, with different armour types, and the cupola-mounted Marines are designed to match their squads. I've also used some of the Forge World Red Scorpions vehicle doors and filled in and smoothed down the Scorpion symbol in the middle; I intend to paint the Thousand Sons Legion symbol in here.

++Many Astartes forces include Techmarines, whose specialities in maintenance and repair are invaluable on the battlefield. In addition to this, they are skilled combatants in their own right.++



I built this Techmarine from a wide variety of parts; he's got a Thousand Sons bolter and loincloth to help tie him in with the rest of the force. As the rest of the models are converted, I didn't want to use a stock figure (although the stock figure is very nice!).

[shaw3029]

The Techmarine is very nicely posed and the XV is a great idea.

[Gonders]

Sweet tech marine you got. The pose is nice and different but still gets across the nature of what he'd be upto.

How did you do it? cut him the waist and replace the legs?

Gonders

[tcraigen]

very cool work.

[Magos Explorator]

Thanks, guys.

Gondor: Actually, that Techmarine body came as a torso in the Blood Angels Honour Guard box set from a few years ago; it was designed for the plastic Assault Squad legs so I didn't even have to do any chopping.

[Magos Explorator]

Finally time for some troops...

++Although the majority of the Thousand Sons--as with the other Legions--take to the battle in the assorted patterns of power armour, lightly-armoured scouts are often employed for reconaissance and sniper duties.++



I have 10 scouts; the above picture shows 4 of them. I've not done too much with these except swap the heads for those of trimmed-down WHFB Chaos Warriors; I tried this with my Death Guard Scouts a year or two ago and liked it so have done the same. It's a bit tricky to fit the heads on some of the poses, and lots of filing of parts was needed.

I decided that the non-aiming models will be my sergeants; to denote this, one got Telion's head and the other got a crest from the High Elf archer box set on his helmet.

++Versatile, disciplined, deadly: the Tactical Squad. With a mixture of bolters and more specialised weaponry, these Space Marines are well-equipped for any battlefield role.++







This is my first Tactical squad, a mixture of standard marine, Chaos marine, Thousand Sons, Forge World and MaxMini bits (with some Black Templars and Tomb Kings on the leader). I went for the 'standard' fitout on this; additionally, the Tempus Fugitives campaign rules allow Thousand Sons to upgrade their Sergeant to a Sorceror-Sergeant with force weapon and combi-plasma, so I decided to go for that option, so I decided to go for that option, using Dark Angels Commander Azrael's gun.

The overall look of the armour was inspired by assorted pictures from the artbooks, and I wanted the squad to look coherent. I sculpted simple scarabs over the Red Scorpion icons present on some of the chest plates. The backpacks are mostly from the Chaos range, with the exhausts trimmed down and inverted, for a more arhaic feel.

I'm quite pleased with these guys. I should note the middle guy in the middle picture doesn't look quite so much like he's tipping over in reality, but I may repose him.

I will use the metal Thousand Sons torsos I have for the second Tactical squad.

[systmdownxer]

Shave them aquillas off those scout armors!

[Magos Explorator]

They're not aquilas, they're winged skulls... The aquila is the eagle-headed one.

[N0th1ng c4n b34t 3lv3s]

Shave them aquillas off those scout armors!

Besides, they'll be less obvious if painted the same as the rest of the armour (a metallic red I suppose?) - but good progress nevertheless! Where did those "Iron Armour" helmets come from?