Index
The *new* only army book - 2018
The Thousand Sons are my all time favourite army; I’ve stuck with them far longer than other races in the 40K universe and have many different generations of models in the force. They are also the inspiration behind my gamer tag, but who are they?
Well they’re bad guys, used to be good guys but they made a mistake, wasn’t even much of a mistake really. They foresaw genuine bad guys doing bad things, told the good guys about it but kind of got lumped together, shooting the messenger sort of deal.
So The Thousand Sons are reluctant bad guys who are mostly Psychic, which is 40k’s way of saying they’re Mages.
Most of them are now spirits bound inside their armour. Each Space Marine legion has their own genetic quirk, with the T-sons that’s unexpectedly turning into horrible flesh monsters... To cure them of this they cast a spell called the Rubric, the aim being that they would never mutate again. To the Rubric’s credit they don’t anymore, as they’re dead (ish).
Because you can’t have an ancient Egyptian themed army without the undead I guess.
There are also a decent amount of novels written about the T-sons, one of the best things about the 40k universe is the amount of lore available.
To understand the origins read A Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns, both Horus Heresy novels. The former book from the Thousand Sons perspective and the later from the Space Wolves point of view. You don’t need to read the second book, its mostly the word wolf before any noun.
Space Wolves are the army who invaded the T-sons home world, ruining everything, burning books and ultimately forcing the Thousand Sons into a life of crime, the Space Wolves are still considered good guys despite this and [are probably the most over represented army on the table top] nobody likes them.
Then its worth reading the Battle of the Fang, basically the T-sons turn up to the Space Wolves home world and get their revenge.
Lastly I’d recommend reading the Ahriman novels, Ahriman was their first captain but after the failed Rubric he was banished. Wandering the stars like an eight foot super human psychic hobo he starts to gain followers with the aim of winning back the Thousand Sons favour.
My collection all started with this image from a old Chaos Space Marine codex. I saved up my wages from the paper round I had at the time and I'm please to say I still have the models, although one has gone walkabouts.
Now they don't have the same paint job from my teenage years but the models are still quite outdated. I’d consider repainting them but I like the fact they are a sign of an earlier time. They are a little top heavy as a result of the heads being white metal, back then the basics of the figure were plastic and anything with increased detail was cast in metal.
Phase 1 - Regal Blue - 2010ish
This was the first time I decided to collect an entire Thousand Sons army. However at this point in time options were limited.
I repainted my original unit of Rubric Marines Regal Blue (They were Snot Green beforehand because I was an idiot), and also began work on customising a unit of Terminators with some Scibor parts I had kicking around.
Lastly for this era was getting hold of a Forgeworld Thousand Sons Dreadnought. I refuse to call these things Hellbrutes.
At some point in the last few years, I added a couple of the OG Thousand Son models to this unit and lost a couple of the others.
The *new* only army book - 2018
Each army of 40k had their own army book, with the Thousand Sons you had to build an army from the generic Chaos Space Marine book. For two decades Thousand Son players made do, so when Games Workshop finally announced a Thousand Sons book I was ecstatic.
However it didn’t really live up to twenty years of expectation.
The biggest flaw in my opinion was that the codex appears to be Thousand Sons & Friends rather than a pure T-sons list. It is almost as if GW updated the two Thousand Sons units and said what else can we include? *providing we already have the models in the existing range we can bolt on*.
Like the book has Chaos Cultists as there are models for them already, missing a perfect opportunity to include Spire Guard. A human unit mentioned plenty of times in the lore.
We also have this Rhino, see the art work GW commissioned (left), now compare it to the model they painted (below). It’s just a blue tank, nothing custom really, nothing particularly interesting. Certainly not a tank you would associate with an army who are basically a parody of their former selves with regards to the ornamentation on their armour.
I had hoped to see something new, actual Thousand Sons but with heavy weapons, jump packs or maybe a squad of junior psychics. There is a counter argument regarding new units like Thousand Sons Havoks I've heard before, it's basically that T-sons can’t have them! "Where is it mentioned in the lore?" the Games Workshop fanboy might say, "only things already mentioned can exist in this Sci-fi realm".
Two points to that argument, firstly what happened to all the heavy weapons the legion would have had? All the jump packs, bikes etc. Did they leave them on Prospero, only having the time to take the bolters and terminator armour, maybe some flamers too.
I’ll tell you want happened, the whole army has been based off one model with a bolter. Which leads me to the next point, I remember a time where T-Son terminators wasn’t a thing, a time before T-Sons Dreadnoughts. Evidence that the army has evolved against the existing lore.
Phase 2 - Alaitoc Blue - 2018 to 2019ish
So with the arrival of new models, I came back to the army and started adding a variety of squads. This was mainly determined but how many 3rd party parts I could find. I didn't want to include two of the same squads in the force you see.
I also changed the shade of blue from Regal to Alaitoc for some reason. Probably due to the same reason GW did the same thing, they forgot about the earlier depictions. In hindsight this was a weird decision by James Workshop. Could you imagine new units of Ultramarines being an Ice Blue?
I also added a unit of traitor Blood Ravens, mainly due to ordering these conversion parts from Kromlech. I didn't feel that these parts were detailed enough to be Rubric Marines, so I settled on this excuse.
I built a Rhino for them too.
During this era I also added two more Rhinos. I would have loved to have made one of these into a Predator, but then I wouldn't have been able to make use of the top and side hatch parts.
The Rhino above has doors from Wargames Exclusive.
It was also around this period that I experimented painting non-metallic gold. I think it needs a bit more refinement but the process is documented here.
While this Rhino has parts from Tabletop Art.
I'm also pretty sure this 3rd party conversion set was featured in the officially licenced Space Marine 2 game, because the devs can't rely on James Workshop making a miniature for their own army.
The same front plate was used for the Predator too.
I then added a 3rd Terminator squad, not because I wanted too, but because the conversion parts from Wargames Exclusive existed.
Lastly for this era, was converting a very old Land Raider. I thought that of all the armies I had, it would make the most sense that the Thousand Sons would still use this very old pattern Landy.
The process of converting it can be read here.
Phase 3 - Tamiya X-13 Metalic Blue - 2024 onwards
So I have the new Space Marine 2 game to thank for getting me back into my Thousand Sons. I hadn't planned on changing their shade of blue again, but two things happened. Firstly, the Thousand Sons in the game had a metallic shimmer to their armour and secondly, I found this Tamiya paint in a local Hobbycraft.
I'll aim to get a video posted about using this paint, as it's not as simple as the citadel colours. My best advise is shake the absolute hell out of the pot before use.
It felt odd not adding layers and highlights, but the end result isn't worse off without that in my opinion. Just look at it shine in the sun.
For those wondering, the conversion parts are also from Wargames Exclusive. This is the second time I've used these parts, but the first unit is beyond salvaging, so I decided to remake them.
So what's next?
I'm planning on converting a unit of newer plastic Rubric marines with the old metal parts. A way to remake my original unit, without repainting them all over again and damaging what little detail is left.
I've also got a unit of Tzaangor in the pile of shame that I'll get round to one day.
19th of December, 2024
OK, so this update sort of spans November too. I had been working on another squad of Rubric Marines. This time reusing the old metal parts which a friend kindly gave me. It was an unexpected, but nice side project. While I still own my original models, they're a little dated in both paint job quality and now scale. As for the kit bash, it was mostly sticking the old shoulder pads and helmets on the new plastic bodies. They largely fit. The old torsos however was a little bit more involved. Greenstuff joined the metal fronts to the plastic back pieces and once the arms where on, hid the fact these two pieces aren't designed to fit together, mostly... As for the Sorcerer, this required me making instant molds of the old metal model, then using various putties to make replicas of things like the old models head and shoulder pads. The robe was made entirely from milliput in the end, with some carful sanding to put some of the creases in the fabric.
Here we can see the change in scale over the years. Dead happy to be able to field these older parts, just with a base model update.
One other thing I've also been working on in December, aside from slowly working my way through a unit of Tzaangor, is this objective marker. It kinda came to me one night, remembering I had this old Malifaux model. An Essence of Power I think. I thought it would be a great base to recreate how the Rubric Marines are reassembled in Space Marine 2. See below a Marine that was almost raised before a stupid Bot Sniper shot the Sorcerer...
Anyway, here's it is.
Comments