Monday, May 31, 2021

From GregB: One More Post - Sons of Horus Space Marines

A Veteran Tactical Squad for the Sons of Horus. 28mm figures from Forge World

Good day everyone! I am pleased to share that I received my first COVID-19 vaccine jab yesterday, and so this will be my last submission to the Analogue Hobbies Quarantine and Vaccine Challenge. The group of figures you see here in this submission is a Veteran Tactical Squad, clad in the colours and livery of the XVI Legion Astrates, the "Sons of Horus". These are resin figures from Forge World, part of GW's "Horus Heresy" setting, often referred to as "30k".

Trooper carrying a meltagun, flanked by Marines carrying fancy bolt guns.

Lots of intricacies on the power packs - you also can see the handy chainswords carried by the veteran troopers.

I am a huge fan of this setting, and I generally love how GW has, over the years, issued a huge variety of models and figures for the 30k setting. There are many different variants of power armour for the Space Marines, many different variants of weapons, and a large assortment of bespoke accessories, such as the shoulder plates featuring the symbol of the Sons of Horus legion. This huge assortment of components, broadly speaking, are all compatible with each other - this is an awesome feature, and for dorky fan like me, allows for many components to swap in to the different units.

Vox operator on the left, Vexillary on the right.

More detail on the backpacks - I quite like the bizarre little details on the communications pack.

The squad sergeant's ominous "power claws" and plasma pistol point, while in the background you see the trooper with the heavy bolter, a support weapon.

A lot of rivets and segments in the Mark II power armour...a bit of a challenge to paint, and I was pretty rusty in terms of painting these guys, but they still came out OK.

These particular Marines are wearing Mark II variant power armour - an "early" pattern of armour, but carrying "later" patterns of bolt guns, with box magainzes. The chainswords they are carrying are spares from the plastic Mark III marine figure set, as are the special weapons seen on the officer. The heavy bolter is a plastic accessory from the plastic Mark IV marine figure set. So a lot of different component packs came together here, which was great. Besides, I figure veterans would be the sort to keep the older armour, but ensure they got their choice of the nicest/newest weapons :)

Horus for hope!

You may note that the transfers are still quite glossy in these photos - it has not been "safe" to spray the final coat of matte spray on these figures, so that may wait for some time - that is something I will get to at a later time.

The embossed shoulder armour plates are great - not the cheapest thing to decide to like, but I do love them.

So that's a wrap for me! Thanks all who participated and shared comments. I look forward to seeing you all again in the next edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Cheers.