Descend into the Age of Darkness with the Sons of Horus

15 Saturday Feb 2025

Posted by terryshithole in Age of Darkness, Finished Work, horus heresy, Space Marines

Tags

30k, chaos marines, citadel miniatures, horus heresy, sons of horus, space marines

The other year I realised that I had a build up of GW vouchers and so I jumped on Age of Darkness when it was released. This is a good example of Getting Over Excited Because Other People Are and Not Reading The Instructions Properly. Not that its a bad set or owt, this is a great set. The minis are fantastic and for GW it’s a decent price (interjection: have you seen Rogue Hobbies’ video on Gundam? I am not a GW hater but goddam when the relative prices of plastic sprues are compared it makes me piss blood. I cheered myself up by reminding me that I recommended that my father-in-law buy GW shares, and he is well pleased with the return and regularly praises my stock tipping skills so what comes around goes around and all that). No, not that at all, but because I don’t especially collect Horus Heresy minis and already have a massive pile of ~~shame~~ dreams. In point of fact, I actually thought that a) this was a game in itself, like Betrayal At Calth; and b) that this would be a limited edition boxset like Betrayal etc. Whoops!

When I did Betrayal At Calth I decided, foolishly in hindsight, to paint the marines as Imperial Fists vs Death Guard. This was because Imperial Fists are great and Ultramarines are dull, and Death Guard are super interesting and never get any love. Since then of course Death Guard have become their own Thing and I have loads of them and they’re a bit boring (in an entertainingly squishy sort of way). It was clear that Sons of Horus vs Imperial Fists was fun, but I’ve already painted a load of 30K Fists, did I want to do more? Well, I will worry about that later, I’ve never painted any Sons of Horus and considering I’ve got some Lupercal Green and Sons Of Horus Green sitting here crying out for use, let’s start there.

What can I say about these? I really enjoyed painting them and I think they came out well. I am very pleased with the Spartan because tanks are so hard to paint well if you’re a hamfisted spanner like me. The marines look good. I think I should have added some battle damage and dust to the marines, but its not a problem really. I am also pleased with the freehand Sons logos. All in all, a success.

Arbusculus the Bloody-Handed, Night Lords Captain

25 Wednesday May 2022

Posted by terryshithole in Chaos, Finished Work

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

40k, chaos marines, night lords

Returning to the leadpile in search of a chaos character I find this chap, ideal! This is a great little miniature, mid-period GW, neither silly nor especially grimdark (given that he’s a Night Lord, for whom grimdark really means something). It was a pleasure to paint, although I chickened out of trying to paint lightning bolts all over him because my life is still hectic and my nervous system can’t handle the intense concentration that learning new painting techniques can take. It’s still an hour here or there really. Painting is like meditation in that the busier you are the more important it is to try and find some time to do it! I hope you’re all doing well and are enjoying the gradual return to normal. Remember that covid is still out there and some people are medically vulnerable so take care of yourselves and each other!

Hunea’s Reavers, a Warhounds warband

10 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by terryshithole in Chaos

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

30k, chaos marines, warhounds, world eaters

This is the second of the three pieces I’ve finished since March, an experiment that failed. Having painted a Night Lord next up on my journey through the Chaos Legions was World Eaters. Now the World Eaters started out as the Warhounds, and were blue-grey and white. When Angron took over he called them the World Eaters and reversed their colours. When Khorne took him over their colours gradully migrated to the red and brass we know today. So I thought that I’d paint a squad of each!

Hunea’s squad were based a long way from the rest of the Warhounds on garrison duty in a distant stronghold, with irregular updates by astropath. They followed at a distance the change from Warhounds to World Eaters, the butcher’s nails, the rebellion. They were able to hear the Legion break down into madness and bloodlust but not be part of it. Finally there were no more astropathic transmissions, the galaxy was at war, and the squad had to decide which side they were on. They decided that no-one cared for them so they cared for no-one, and started to carve out a petty empire for themselves on the edges of known space. After the heresy came the Scouring, and Hunea and his gang fled in the face of overwhelming Imperial retribution. They tried to use a warp storm to hide in and wound up in the Maelstrom where they made a base which they used to raid the Imperium and in which they gradually succumbed to the lure of chaos. They act as sell-swords and security detail for lesser chaos warlords in the Maelstrom, and are mostly trying to avoid notice by bigger fish like Huron Blackheart!

I didn’t enjoy painting Hunea’s squad that much, it felt like I was fighting the minis’ natural ‘feel’; a colour scheme that works for the clean lines of loyalists doesn’t work very well for the complex lines of chaos marines. It felt like I was forcing the paintjob. One of the plastic marines was one from a parts lot that had been stripped but was very badly built. I should have just chucked it in the bitz box and used a different marine instead of trying to repair and reuse it, it looks crap! But you live and learn, innit.

Obsidius Mallex!

09 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by terryshithole in Blackstone Fortress, Chaos

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Blackstone Fortress, chaos marines, Obsidius Mallex

Well, hasn’t it been a while! What a few months its been. Some people have had a chance during lockdown to paint and paint and paint but sadly I am not one of them. My partner came down with a light case of covid in March which wasn’t too bad, but it turns out that covid can have knock on effects in many different ways. She’s been suffering a variety of symptoms including fatigue ever since, and so I’ve had to do everything in our household. Its not been easy, caring for her, looking after two dogs, and trying to keep the household functioning at a basic level – I’m the disabled one and she’s the powerhouse in our relationship. We’ve had no real income, I can only work part-time and don’t earn enough each year to even pay any tax. We dont know anyone else in this country and haven’t seen any of our family or friends since Christmas. So its been a challenge and there hasnt been a lot of time for painting toy mans. But I’ve found time here and there, because you need to take care of yourself, and it doesn’t matter what your limits are, how resilient you are, whether you’re weak or strong or whatever you want to call it, you need to spend some time looking after yourself or you will be no use to the people you need to care for.

Obsidius here is from Blackstrone Fortress and whilst he’s a Black Legion chappy in the game I painted him as a Night Lord because I’ve been working my way through the Chaos Legions over the last few years and Night Lords are where I’m up to.

Lovely miniature, fairly pleased with the paintjob, but there’s not a lot to say about him. I resolved not to buy any more minis until I’ve painted Blackstone Fortress and a Chaos Knight, but that might be tested by Indomitus….

Dark Imperium Death Guard

14 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by terryshithole in Chaos, Dark Imperium

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Tags

40k, chaos, chaos marines, Death Guard, noxious plaguecaster, terrible stinky poo men yuk

Sometimes a hobby can feel like a chore and trying to get this lot done was one of those times. I found them very difficult to get looking this good, and I don’t think I did a very good job at all. Beautiful minis but there is so much fine detail!