Heliomanii Cult - Army blog

[Heliomanes]

Greetings, fellow aspirants to the Great Work. I tought I'd get some pictures done of my Thousand Sons project. It started out as a Heresy army, but I've been gradually converting it to 40k. Just a few pictures to get things started. I hope you enjoy them.

[Kite Senet]

The sword blade hand Dreadnought is amazing, but I have to wonder...how does that work in-game? Are you able to remove it from the huge awesome portal base or do you play it with the portal always following the dreadnought around the battlefield?

 

Also, the basing on the terminators is stellar! I like the crystals in particular. Puts my army's plain snowy field basing to shame (even though I love snow -- which is a good thing since it's blizzarding outside for like the 12th time this winter!).

[Heliomanes]

The sword blade hand Dreadnought is amazing, but I have to wonder...how does that work in-game? Are you able to remove it from the huge awesome portal base or do you play it with the portal always following the dreadnought around the battlefield?

 

Also, the basing on the terminators is stellar! I like the crystals in particular. Puts my army's plain snowy field basing to shame (even though I love snow -- which is a good thing since it's blizzarding outside for like the 12th time this winter!).

Glad you enjoy it! To be honest I put it together and painted it this weekend, so I hadn't thought much ahead yet. Outside of a tournament setting I think I'll be fine though, as it's just the base size of a maulerfiend, and my friends tend to be pretty relaxed about such things. I made a few portals as a more sorcerous stand in to my dreadclaws way back when, and I thought this would be a good way to get one of them back into action.

 

I tried and failed a bit on the bases before I found something I liked. Good on you for trying snow bases though, that's pretty difficult to get right. How do you do yours?

 

To keep the thread going, here's a pic of my Shard of Magnus and my Lord of Change equivalent.

 

[Zodd1888]

Lovecrafts got nothing on you.

[Scammel]

Really love that take on Magnus - he's genuinely quite creepy to look at. The cool palette emphasises his inherent weirdness.

Edited April 2, 2018 by Scammel

[Kite Senet]

 

I tried and failed a bit on the bases before I found something I liked. Good on you for trying snow bases though, that's pretty difficult to get right. How do you do yours?

 

 

Eh, I'm a bit of a newb so I just do the simplest possible basing scheme: I just paint the base white, and then apply a more-or-less even layer of Valhallan Blizzard across the base, and then if I really feel like it I'll brighten it up with some white drybrushing. My gaming table is just a quartet of white Lack tables from IKEA, so I'm trying to aim for a uniformly white basing scheme, but it certainly isn't the most impressive basing you'll ever see; hence I've been keeping an eye out for cool new basing techniques.

 

I've been wanting to try out the use of two-part clear resins as a form of ice basing, but I haven't tried it out yet; unfortunately I have a compulsion to fully assemble plastic miniatures immediately as soon as I receive them, so that heavily restricts the cool basing tricks I can try out.

[Marshal van Trapp]

What the hell is that lovecraftian monstrosity made from? Also I love the dreadnought, I was thinking of doing the same kind of thing with contemptors to make some helbrute for my 1ksons that are less demon and more dreadnought.

[bozo69pd]

I love how many different ways you can outfit Magnus. Yours looks great, I am all aboard the no nipple horns bandwagon!

[Skerr]

The skin tone on Magnus is great, how did u achieve it?

 

Thanks for sharing btw...

[Heliomanes]

 

 

I tried and failed a bit on the bases before I found something I liked. Good on you for trying snow bases though, that's pretty difficult to get right. How do you do yours?

 

 

Eh, I'm a bit of a newb so I just do the simplest possible basing scheme: I just paint the base white, and then apply a more-or-less even layer of Valhallan Blizzard across the base, and then if I really feel like it I'll brighten it up with some white drybrushing. My gaming table is just a quartet of white Lack tables from IKEA, so I'm trying to aim for a uniformly white basing scheme, but it certainly isn't the most impressive basing you'll ever see; hence I've been keeping an eye out for cool new basing techniques.

 

I've been wanting to try out the use of two-part clear resins as a form of ice basing, but I haven't tried it out yet; unfortunately I have a compulsion to fully assemble plastic miniatures immediately as soon as I receive them, so that heavily restricts the cool basing tricks I can try out.

 

Cool! I prefer to paint the models first, fitted on tempoary bases. Then I try to base them later on. It breaks up the painting process and allows me to play with them without being "done" with the entire model. Looking forward to seeing what you try out, brother!

 

What the hell is that lovecraftian monstrosity made from? Also I love the dreadnought, I was thinking of doing the same kind of thing with contemptors to make some helbrute for my 1ksons that are less demon and more dreadnought.

 

Honestly, it's quite simple. I smashed the tail end of Archaon the Everchosen's mount onto part of its wings, and added a tyranid mucolid spore as a head. Very happy that you guys caught the Lovecraftian aspect that I wanted to bring forth. On the subject of contemptors, have you seen the Osiron models from Forgeworld? I'll try to get a picture or two of mine up soon.

 

The skin tone on Magnus is great, how did u achieve it?

 

Thanks for sharing btw...

My pleasure, brother! I tried mixing red and blue with either black, gray or white, and each other in varying versions. I started with a bluish purple that was kind of dark, and gradually added more red, grays and whites into the mix. It's all drybrushing. I think what makes it work is the gradient transition from a cold color to a more warm one.

[Re'Koleq't]

Absolutely awesome work mate. I wanted to do my Sons red but eventually bottled it as the rubrics looked off. You make me reconsider! Haha!

[Heliomanes]

Well, the highest phase of the alchemical work, rubedo, or "reddening" is obviously a potent signifier, and reason enough to shun the azurite factions within the legion... Haha, well, I guess I chose red because this started as a Heresy force.

Got a few pics of my contemptors and a few assorted terminator units. A bit miffed that I can't play legally with my kitbashed cataphractii in a Thousand Sons army, but c'est la vie.

[Xenith]

Great work - the backdrop to your photos is super busy and the models dark, making it hard to see any detail, any chance for better lit close ups?

[Heliomanes]

Great work - the backdrop to your photos is super busy and the models dark, making it hard to see any detail, any chance for better lit close ups?

I recognize my failing and shall endeavour to correct it. Still struggling a bit with my potato camera (and the ineptitude of the operator), but this should be a bit better. What do you think?

 

[Pearson73]

Magnus' wings and the starry depths of the portal are wonderful, the pale fleshiness of Magnus is rather creepy too, nice work!

[Tichinde]

Awesome work!, Do I spy one of creature casters creations lurking in the background? Got one myself to do at some point.

[Galloway]

All outstanding stuff, particularly like the kitbashes, Magnus' wings, the bases, and the Cthulhu LoC. The red and black scheme is very nice and well done. 

[sneakybamsen]

Your magnus is pure inspiration. I had already decided that I will one day own the model, but the way you painted him, made me think out of the box for my take. My army is going to be the traditional theme, I think, and keeping magnus in blue colours collides with his title, so I have to work around that somehow.

[Heliomanes]

You are most kind, all of you. I'm looking forward to seeing your creature caster er... creature, fully painted, Tichinde, and your take on Magnus, Sneakybamsen.

Adding in a quick pic of my flamer squad, aka Pyrae Cult initiates, and the aspiring sorcerer that leads my Rubricae around.

[Tichinde]

Yeah, I have her and the vulture daemon as well as both versions of Magnus to do soonish (my slow progress can be found in the Prospero project thread in the WIP section of the forum, you might appreciate my Leviathan ;-) )

 

I do like the darker tones you use.

[Heliomanes]

I wanted some more unique and tzeentchy cultists for my Thousand Sons, hope you enjoy them. The bodies are from puppetswar, while the heads are a mix of greenstuff and bits.

[Tyriks]

Very nice looking models! Especially the dreads!

[Pearson73]

The Pyrae initiates are an inspired idea, I especially like the pose of the fellow just about to conjure something up, slightly hunched forwards. Cool cultists too, the flashes of brighter colour against the dark cloth works well.

[Skerr]

Your flamer unit is total Boss, dude. What a cool idea on the hand flamer swap.

 

The cultists are creepy especially the eyeball men, which I love. I have eyeball iconography in my army, outside of sculpted eyes, by painting gems as actual eyeballs. Looks creepy and i am happy with them.

 

Your cultists also fit in with the other horrific elements of your army. Like these guys sought out and found "secrets man was not meant to know" and were unprepared for the knowldge they learned...

 

a little Steve Jackson Games; Illuminati reference there...

 

 

 

Fnord

[Heliomanes]

Oh man, thank you so much for the inspiring words, Skerr.


I'm sharing two experiments with you guys. One is a contemptor I've tried to turn into a daemon prince - effectively giving me a chance to use him again, and getting closer to the goal of having a highly converted/kitbashed army.

The second experiment is indebted to Archaeinox for the idea of turning a sorcerer into a daemon prince while retaining most of his astartes features. I was dubious at first, but it got me thinking and experimenting, so I'd like to thank Archaeinox for the inspiration. I hope I did the concept justice. My twist on it is trying to depict him as a Thousand Son sorcerer that got turned into a daemonhost. Perhaps he was tricked by the Changer of Ways, or perhaps he felt the flesh change coming for him and decided to go out in a more... interesting way.