We had a couple nice days and it was temperate enough to get the sorcerer cabal flocked and sealed! Brace yourself for a mess of pics!


Gotta have the full group up first - Everybody pose for an action shot!


The leader of the current force, Sorcerer Lord Sethep Khet is the commander of the Khamasiin. Borne aloft by the twin flames of his devotion to the cult of the Pyrae, and the burning hate for the loyalists who destroyed his legion and his home.


Sorcerer Adept T'khat-Mose joins the Hyskos Sky-Chariot unit (jetbikes), riding on his personal Disc. Definitely my second-favorite model, pretty pleased with the flame in his hand - He too is a disciple of the Pyrae.


The second Sorcerer Adept of the force, T'khat-Enkhanen is struggling with the flesh-change but has found new depths of resolve in his constant war to keep his form stable.


Adept Asherat follows the Raptora, his fearsome telekinetic powers further bolstered by the constantly-rotating psychic astrolabe atop his force staff.


Adept Jamshid is a devotee of the Corvidae cult, which shouldn't come as a surprise. Even his fellow sorcerers thing he's carrying the bird motif a little too far.


Acolyte Khonsu is one of two lesser wielders of the arts, and generally accompanies one of the Veteran or tactical squads in to battle, providing further psychic might.


Acolyte Djet is the second subaltern psyker of the force and like Khonsu generally skulks around with the support squads.


As a secondary 'named character', the Khamasiin is occasionally allied with other fragmented elements of the the shattered Thousand Sons legion prior to the Scouring and the Legion Wars. Prior to become a founding member of the Black Legion, Iskandar Khayon and his daemon-wolf Gyre led diverse elements of the sons of Magnus in a last ditch attempt to prevent Ahriman from completing his Rubric.


The villain of the piece, Azhek Ahriman will not take the field in this instance of the army, but will be used in the vignette I'm planning!


With that a goodly chunk of the painting chart turns green, which is always a good feeling! Next up, going to switch gears a little and work on the Thallax for the NOVA charity army. Pics to follow of the work done so far!

It's been a hectic week so not as much brush time as I'd like. Coupled with the fact that the temperatures are soaring, it's becoming less comfortable in the hobby loft after work. Oof!


That said, I have been putting a little time in here and there on the sorcerers and they're almost done! Just a few little touch-ups to go, a few tufts of grass and they'll be ready for a sealant pass. Once they're done I'll be switching gears to work on the NOVA mechanicum models - Gotta get them finished and sent off soon!

Another quick hit - Not a huge amount of painting time but managed to squeeze in enough to block in the basic white and blue undercoats. They're looking a little less Khorne-y now!


They're very flat so far, just a Vallejo Stonewall Grey as the underpinning of the white, and Magic Blue for the basecoat of the turquoise. More highlights and washes to go before these two colors are complete. The weather has turned rather warm of late and the hobby loft is starting to get less amenable - Time to get the window AC unit reinstalled, I think. Though it being Colorado we could still get one more snowstorm before spring is out!

Just a quick hit today, got a little brush time in and laid in the gold trim and the green effect for all the psychic shenanigans. At the moment they look a little Khornate, amusingly - Khorne would be disgusted by all this magical frippery, after all!


Holy moly was that ever a ton of filigree to pick out! Next up will be the whites and blues for the loincloths and robes, which should help them start to look a bit more Thousand Sons-y. So far, so good!

Once the new Thousand Sons plastics were released I fell in love with the Exalted Sorcerers kit - No real surprise there I suppose! I ended up picking up several boxes worth and just couldn't stop building Sorcerers until I reached Tzeentch's favored nine. Now it's time to paint 'em!


Sethep-Khet is already done, so I have him out to ensure I'm maintaining the scheme correctly on the next eight! I have a scheme in mind to do a little vignette with Khayon facing off against Ahriman at the height of the casting of the Rubric, we'll see how it pans out!


In other news, I've been doing a fair bit of research into transport solutions as I'm going to more destination events these days. While I've been reasonably happy with the Battlefoam PackAir and Pack720, after three or four trips each they're starting to get pretty beat up - the extendable handle on my PackAir no longer functions, and the 720 is suffering some stitching issues. Had a little extra cash squirreled away for a replacement for the Air, and ended up deciding on going for the daddy of transport and picked up a Pelican 1615, which arrived a few days ago!


I have to say that I'm well pleased with it so far! The interior dimensions allow for 6" of trays, with one set of large and two sets of mediums side-by-side. A little shallower than I'd hoped due to the top and bottom foam - there's an inch-thick chunk on the bottom that fits around the wheel and handle insets, as well as an inch and a half of eggshell in the lid, but in the end that's probably best for transport safety anyway!


It comes with some very robust-seeming wheels and handle arrangement, time will tell as to how it will hold up, but I have to say I'm not concerned based on Pelican's well-known ruggedness! A bit spendier than the more-or-less-equivalently-sized 1520, but I have a feeling it'll withstand a lot more abuse at the hands of the airline baggage gorillas!

One should always start off a project by doing one of the main HQ models, right? I couldn't help but continue on with Sethep-Khet over the last few evenings and he's almost table ready! Just needs a sealant pass but it's been rather chilly of late...


Picked out a ton of bling, and went with reasonably subdued reversed blue and white detailing on the robes - I think the model is busy enough without over-complicating the paint scheme. Rather pleased with how he's come along!

Next up, it's time to reinitialize the painting servitor, and get cracking on with the troops choices - not the most exciting part of the force, but it's good to get them out of the way early!

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!

With all the awesome news and pics of all the Thousand Sons goodness coming out of the Heresy Weekender, it is time to re-evaluate the army. As with most projects there's usually some little thing that's nagged at me about them - In the case of the recent incarnation of the army, it's that the bases don't match up with the ones I've used on the Prospero Spireguard. However, I recently found a caster who does some rather awesome bases that match up nicely with the Spireguard and I picked up a whole mess of 'em. Of course that means the logical thing to do is throw out all the effort on the last take on the Sons and start again, right?


The next incarnation of my Thousand Sons will be a late-heresy force. I'm envisioning an army set post-Prospero but prior to the Rubric of Ahriman, where the legion is beginning to unravel both figuratively and literally - a bit more flamboyance in the bling, a bit more in the way of mutations showing up, and the influences of the Primordial Annihilator beginning to make their mark as they've done with the other three chaos god-aligned legions in the later stages of the heresy. Leading the charge on the new force is the first of two Veteran Squads (as I'm quite liking what I'm hearing on how they'll function in the upcoming book), using a mix of the new plastic Rubric Marines, backpacks from the Betrayal at Calth set, and Achean shoulder pads from FW.


The sorcerers for the force I sort of envisioned in increasing levels of craziness. This mostly-reasonable chap will be the L1 variant. A little blinged out and with some subtle Tzeentchian iconography but otherwise fairly 'normal'.


I quite like the Corvidae/Divination cult, so the second-level sorcerer really pushes the bird theme, as though the cult ethos is starting to make itself apparent on the form of the armour. Both of the cloaked backpacks are just held on with blu-tac and the moment and will be painted separately.


Lastly I wanted an interesting centerpiece Praetor for the force. The as-yet-unnamed leader of the army lost his legs in the Burning of Prospero, but rather than submitting to bionics he uses his considerable telekinetic powers to hold himself aloft. This model was a blast to build, and is based on the lower half of the new Changeling model, I knew as soon as I saw it that I had to build a sorcerer using the bits!

Next up on the building mat are the second squad of Veterans, and then the first of two twenty-man tactical squads. They'll be a bit more reserved overall, using the Mk.IV Calth bodies, and the FW Achean upgrade shoulders and heads, but I'll need to make another FW order to get all the relevant bits for the second twenty dudes. Of course with all the amazing new kits they've shown off over the last couple days at the Weekender I have a feeling I'll be making several orders for new kits over the next few months!

Got a fair bit of brush time in over the last two evenings (thanks to a much needed break in the punishing heat) and I managed to finish off quite a few models!



Assault squad Mekhata is done and ready to take to the field - not much to do on them from the last post other than finishing up the bases and doing a little clean up here and there. I attempted a little bit of OSL on the sergeant's wings, erring on the side of "less is more". ...Also known as "I only sort-of know what I'm doing". Hah!


The characters got some more work as well, though as a group they're not quiiiiite done. First up, the special edition Praetor - quite enjoyed painting up this model, and although he's not going to NOVA, I do plan on using him frequently in the future! Had to sneak in a cheeky little symbol of Tzeentch on his right-hand shield...


Apothecary Thothmes is coming along nicely - a little more work here and there is needed, however. It's only in the pics that I realized I missed out on his backpack's lamp, and all the various vials and beakers will need to get a gloss sealant pass to shine 'em up a bit.



The Sorcerer turned out reasonably well, I ended up using a selection of Fallout Hobbies fantastic "magic sigils" to spiff up his cloak which turned out fairly well. He's currently the third-string sorcerer in the force however. Definitely interested to see how FW handles the thoroughly psychic nature of the Thousand Sons - at the moment the default rules only allow for up to two psykers per army and they max out at L2. Not particularly inspiring, but I hold out hope!

At this point, all the models that I'm intending to take to NOVA are painted - next up is pulling them all out and figuring out the best configuration to pack them for the trip!