Drop Pod Reliquary

The Thunderbearers

“I invoke thee, Machine-Spirit; awaken anew,

Hear this anointment and be reborn,

Contained within thine shell shall be not the spirit of a weapon, but the spirit of Man,

For you are not a weapon; you are a vessel of all wrath,

Within every man unfairly slain,

Every life stolen,

Every dream shattered,

Every hope extinguished,

Every cry of terror, pain, or anguish, offered in woe unto the silent void

For you are not a weapon; you are retribution, and we its deliverers,

Blessed be this weapon.”

Excerpt from the “Psalm of the 1st Tempest,” the first in a cycle of many blessings that the Chaplains administer on a daily basis unto every bolter in the Chapter’s possession

Sons of the Hero Unremembered

“Nos tempestas sumus.”

These are the Thunderbearers, a monastic Successor Chapter of shadowy origin who worship the bolter and specialize in utilizing drop pod shock tactics and heavy ballistics.

The Thunderbearers were my first 40k army and are still my favorite to this day. They’ve been my main dudes since I started in the hobby, and over the last few years, I’ve written a lot of completely unnecessarily in-depth fluff for them. On this page you’ll find various lore posts diving into the Chapter’s structure, culture, and history, as well as periodic update posts documenting my progress working on their tabletop presence, alongside other stuff like my World Eaters, Crusades, and other more general hobby things.

Felled Chapter-Master Lucius Harold, now contained within the Venerable Aurum Eternatus, also known as “Big Harold”

The tag Codex: Thunderbearers will contain exclusively more semi-polished loreposts about the Thunderbearers and their inner workings, whether that be character profiles, remembrancer logs, or tidbits on Chapter structure. The rest of the blog will be whatever else, who care

First time using colored primer went pretty well! Certainly saved me a lot of time and Mephiston Red paint

Angron is progressing! Since my last post I’ve primed him and most of his subassemblies. I’m painting him sort of in half, with his left arm and wing detached, as well as his bronze armor plating. I’m doing this so that I can get in and color the backsides of his wings properly.

This guy has been a big challenge so far. A model this large is both imposing and resource-intensive, and I’ve done literally no painting as of recent, so I’m likely not going to finish him for a long while, but I’m excited for when I eventually do.

Formerly known as Urayen’s Reavers, the Eclipse Cavaliers are a band of opportunistic Aeldari Corsairs who all seek one thing and one thing alone: profit

Moving on. As I mentioned previously, I started playing Kill Team this year, and I gotta say, KT fucking rocks! The rules are super approachable and the small scale of the game allows for much more focused and cinematic battles. It’s also a lot quicker, which makes it much easier to get pickup games in, which means I can actually play some 40k sometimes nowadays.

These xenos boys are known as the Eclipse Cavaliers. They’re a band of scumbag Corsairs and my squad of choice. I’ve written a lot of backstory for these boys so as to texture my games a bit more for myself, so I’m gonna put all that stuff in another post where I can talk about these characters in a bit more detail.

The 2nd Company is lead by the boisterous Captain Zaraf Gorfried Redfale. They specialize in the utilization of heavy war implements, such as Gravis armor, tanks, and artillery vehicles

Now that we’re onto more conceptual subject matter, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how the Thunderbearers actually function as a Chapter. Each Company of the Thunderbearers controls a massive warfleet—much larger than the average fleet of most Successor Chapters—and acts as a semi-autonomous fighting force in and of itself, with the ability to prosecute independent campaigns so long as they remain aligned and in accordance with the Chapter as a whole. The 1st Company is functionally the “core” of the Chapter, made up of the Chapter’s command fleet, veteran company, and portions of the 10th.

The 2nd Company is technically the first of the Chapter’s autonomous fighting forces, and they’re also the only Company for which I own a Captain (the big Gravis fucker who I show off pretty often). The 2nd Company’s culture can largely be sourced to that of a feudal desert world known as Manticore. As the 2nd Company makes up a good amount of the Chapter’s infantry regiments, I felt it necessary to give them their own heraldry.

The special heraldry on their armor pays respect to Manticore in a few different ways. First and foremost, the red armor is a visual homage to the cold, crimson dunes that cover Manticore, but secondarily, it is a holdover tradition that comes from Manticoran warrior culture, wherein it was standard practice to color one’s armor with any number of red pigments so as to camouflage themselves in the dunes. Over time, different colorations of red grew to signify different things, with the 2nd Company’s crimson and gold coming to represent wealth and nobility.

I think that having a squad or two with a splash of red will really make my Space Marines pop out a little bit, and will definitely add some variation into my annoyingly uniform army. I’m thinking of doing little streaks of red on a few of the vehicles, as well, which will make them stand out too.

Speaking of vehicles, the Thunderbearers have received some reinforcements!

This is a Ballistus Dreadnought that I got my hands on through a friend of mine who was selling his Astartes. I kitbashed him a little but tried not to overdo it with the baubles, since my Redemptor is a bit of a piece. Design-wise, I tried to make this a sort of “Primaris update” of one of my first models, Big Harold.

The Aurum Eternatus, one of the Chapter’s most sanctified relics, is a Venerable Dreadnought whose chassis contains the body of the previous fallen Chapter-Master

The thing that I like the most about the Venerable Dreadnought is the ornate look to it. It’s got a lot of trim and fancy panels everywhere and kind of looks like a church-mech.

This aesthetic choice is most noticeable in the lascannon, in my opinion. Combined with the gold trim, the cool indented archway designs on the side panel of the las sorta gives “Gothic castle wall.”

While I couldn’t really replicate the trim, I did use a bunch of bits from the Venerable Dreadnought kit to up the Gothic factor. There’s also a noticeable lack of purity seals on Big Harold, which was something that I absolutely had to remedy. There’s 7 seals! Now we’ve got a proper 7-times blessed Primaris-scale lascannon to snipe tanks with.

Harold has sort of fallen out of use in my lists recently because, uh, Venerable Dreadnoughts do not exist anymore. Awesome! The older Dreads just aren’t as good as Redemptors as well, so Harold has sort of retired to a more ritualistic position on the Chapter.

In his stead, though, we’ve got quite a few new additions to the army alongside our Ballistus. Not included here is another drop pod and a bunch of new infantry units.

Sternguard Veterans of the Thunderbearers 1st Company

Here’s one of ‘em! This is my first squad of Sternguard Veterans, but I’m in the process of building another. Like the Ballistus, these dudes are as of yet unnamed, but I like them quite a bit! To be critical, though, I think I overdid it with some of the bits, but I’m sure the silhouettes will look less obnoxious once they’re all painted and voluminous.

My favorite of the bunch is probably the Veteran Sergeant. His heroic pose and classic bits give “default Space Marine.” And the Veteran on the left is using a bit of a unique shoulder pad that may or may not be a cleansed and sanctified Chaos relic, which may or may not be a common practice in the Thunderbearers Reclusiam Cataegis.

I think it’s a good time to start working on my Astartes again. GW has been releasing a lot of banger kits recently, and since the turn of the edition, my drop pod strats have been more viable than ever. I’ve got some plans for the army going forwards, so I wanna talk about some of those here.

The new Company Heroes box is one of my favorite Primaris kits ever released. Each one of these sculpts fucking rocks, but I’m particularly interested the two decked out Veterans. Even more particularly the dude with the heavy bolter. Thing is, the actual datasheet attached to the kit is kind of mid, so instead of actually using the squad, I’m gonna cannibalize the kit for bits.

The Captain and the Ancient will be used as their solo datasheets. Not sure what I’ll do with the Champion, but I’m thinking I’ll use him to build a Librarian. The two veterans, however, are both gonna get recycled into Captain models.

Zaraf Görefried “the Red Roar” Redfale, Lord-Captain of the 2nd Company, forgotten prince of Manticore

Each Thunderbearers Company is a semi-autonomous armada, a vast independent warfleet of such concentrated force that it resembles a microcosmic Chapter in and of itself, albeit one with incredibly diminished numbers.

Due to their high levels of operational freedom, each Thunderbearers Company contains unique cultures and subtle variances of the Chapter’s doctrines. As such, those leading the Companies—the Captains, known interchangeably as Lords—are the greatest paragons of their fleet, representing most succinctly in both character and action the ideals of their individual Company.

Because of this, I’m trying to kitbash an interesting and characterful model for each Captain. Their model should tell a tale about them as an individual, but it should also be the clearest visual representation of their Company’s tactics and culture.

Perseus Lahan, “the Thunder Hand,” Lord-Captain of the 3rd Company

So going back to the Company Heroes, the robot lad is going to get converted into Perseus Lahan, the 3rd Captain. Perseus is known as “the Thunder Hand” not only for his sick ass gilded golden arm, but for his ruthlessly efficient decision-making and his finely honed (yet seemingly endless) temper.

This model is a pretty simple conversion, but super effective as a Captain, I think. I may also replace the circular thang on his power pack with a better iron halo, but I’ll get there when I get there.

Lazarus Sicane, “the White Wind,” Chapter-Master of the Thunderbearers and herald of the great storm

Heavy bolter guy gets better treatment than the robot arm guy though, of course. He’s gonna get converted into my Chapter-Master.

This will be Lazarus Sicane, the savior of the Chapter. He wields Exaction, an ancient, hyper-artificed bolt cannon that may or may not contain a dominated Warp entity. Lazarus is responsible for a lot of things in the Thunderbearers canon, including but not limited to reunifying the decimated Chapter after the opening of the Great Rift. He is, for all intents and purposes, the Chapter’s greatest hope, and one behind which all of its fleets rally.

I’m really excited to get this guy built because he’s kind of the quintessential Thunderbearers model. Old mark armor, lots of robes, gothic shit all over, a gargantuan ballistic cannon, and a metric fuckton of purity seals. He’ll also be super cool for narrative purposes, and definitely a bit of a centerpiece model.

Accompanying him will be a squad of Terminators, the Storm Guard, whenever I pick up a squad of those.

2nd Company Specialist test color scheme, courtesy of a friend

Since Companies are their own autonomous things, it makes sense for them to have their own heraldry, as well. To add some visual variety to my army, I’ve decided that a few of my dudes (specifically my Gravis units) are gonna get some red coloring to denote them as members of the 2nd Company.

The 2nd Company has a large quantity of recruits sourced from the world Manticore, which is a big hostile ball of frozen red sands. The red ceramite is an homage to the red-colored armor that warriors would wear as camouflage in the sand dunes.

Got quite a few things to talk about, but first and foremost, I got my hands on some Valhallan Blizzard and finally finished the bases on the few Berzerkers that I have painted. I’m pretty happy with these! The dry brushed stone beneath the snow gives a sufficient enough impression of, like, a rocky, mountainous environ, and the white contrasts really nicely with the red armor and dark ground, I think.

Initially, I was going to really drench the snow with blood—I think you can see that in a few of the bases that I painted first—but I decided against that after seeing how it actually looked. The bloody snow is a neat effect, for sure, but it’s super eye-catching and makes the minis a little noisy when overdone. In the future, I’ll likely save the blood for the more notable or interesting members of my World Eaters army (likely on characters and standout grunts), so as to make them stand out and add a little bit of base variety to the army.

This is my third time painting an Ultramarine, and my second time painting a dead Ultramarine

Lord Akselos, though, gets next to no blood on his base, so as to make him stand out in an inverse fashion. The snowy, mountainous base here represents the frigid crags of Gorranax, the planet upon which Akselos landed after betraying the Ultramarines on Valefar. Gorranax is also where he would first encounter his Berzerker-Surgeon partner, Kastigor Spineripper, who would eventually be responsible for implanting the Butcher’s Nails within Akselos.

I think his base is probably the best of the bunch. The placement of the snow sort of visually balances the black, swooping cape, and adds some interesting color in that bottom right section, which is a spot where the model is otherwise lacking in visual variety. I’m mad happy with this and glad it looks as cool as it does! And with the base finished and his highlights complete (complete enough for me, at least), Akselos is fully finished, and ready for the tabletop!

I say this all the time but I love this sculpt so much, the 2002 Daemon Prince is the most iconic Daemon Prince—the fella from Dawn of War—even if it is pretty silly looking objectively

Speaking of finishing things, my big boy is finally complete. My ugly, ugly son is painted, based, highlighted, and Ready to KILL. This is, by far, the largest non-flyer model that I’ve finished, and while he definitely isn’t the prettiest or best painted model on the planet, I’m really proud of it. I pulled out all the stops on this model and utilized just about everything I’ve learned about miniature painting in the last few years. I also took a good handful of risks and learned a bit from him, too, and despite it being a kind of treacherous and elongated ordeal, it was a super fun experience painting him up, and I’m glad he’s done with. I did, however, lose the hilt of his sword to my carpet, but I’m working on replacing it with a cool little custom skull hilt, which I’ll post eventually, probably.

But with one big boy done, another boy has filled the empty slot in my to-do list with his huge red bod.

Finally got my hands on Angron, the man himself. I can’t quite describe just how obsessed with this model I am. Not only am I excited to have him because he’s one of my favorite characters in the 40k mythos, but he’s also a fucking Primarch—and a strong one at that—which is something I never thought I’d get to have as a custom Chapter player. All in all, I’m incredibly excited to paint this guy up and get him terrorizing my group on the tabletop.

I did have the opportunity to run a test game with my list on TTS a little while ago, which was both my 2nd ever World Eaters game and my 2nd ever 10th Edition game. Lemme just say about Angron: wow. He barreled into the enemy deployment zone in the first turn of BR1 and immediately mauled an Armiger. As a Space Marines player, I’m very used to none of my units being extraordinarily good at destroying shit, but those days are OVER!!!

Since he’s a big ass model, though, it also means that he’ll be a big ass painting project. I plan on making him a proper centerpiece, and after painting my Daemon Prince, I’m totally confident that I can make him look pretty fancy given a few weeks of work. To make that process easier for me, here’s the subassemblies that I’ll be painting him in.

I also got my hands on some Mephiston Red primer, which I’m using to expedite the painting process. As shown above, I’ve primed

My Khorne collection is getting pretty huge. So huge, in fact, that I now own more Khornate shit than Space Marines, both in bodies and points. My Khorne collection contains:

2,115 points of Adeptus Astartes units

59 individual Astartes models

2,995 points of Khorne units

107 individual Khorne models

Dark baptism confirmed. Corpse worshippers malding.

To start, I’m now about 3/4ths of the way through Khârn: Eater of Worlds, and it’s going pretty good so far! Lots of murder, which is par for the course for a World Eaters book. I like how the book expounds upon the Legion and its structuring quite a bit, as it’s one of the only Heresy-era novels where we get to see the Legion without Khârn or Angron. I like the Caedere a lot, I like how Dreagher is a normal person, and I like the human apothecary, Skoral, and her cool ceramite arm. I’m excited to see how it ends, but that’s enough book club.

A living myth known by countless infernal titles across the stars—the Apostate Scion, Betrayer of Valefar, Exile of the 8th, Deserter Lord—yet who himself claims none, Lord Akselos is a nigh-untouchable killer whose very name heralds the singlehanded slaughtering of entire worlds.

This is the Deserter Lord Akselos. Akselos was introduced to the blog a handful of posts ago when I first built him, but since then, I’ve not only fleshed out much of his backstory, but I’ve also given him a coat of paint and a nice base to go with it.

Billowing black cloak and beckoning hand for Khorne worshipping purposes, and definitely not because he is a bitter and melodramatic individual

I’m really happy with this mini. It may not be my best paint job, but I think it’s a solid kitbash, and all together, I think that he looks super cool. I am definitely satisfied with how he turned out. The painting isn’t super advanced but it’s cohesive and pleasing to the eye. This model also gave me a few challenges, primarily painting white. I’ve only used Wraithbone so I was a bit horrified using Corax White, but I think it turned out pretty okay.

Another challenge was figuring out how I’d base him. Because I want most of my World Eaters army to be visually similar, I figured that whatever base Akselos got would be the same base that I’d give my other World Eaters, so I had to decide on what would best fit both him and the rest of the army. I decided on some black, sort of mountainous rubble-rock with inlaid skulls (for Khorne, of course). I’m going to go over this and place some little patches of Valhallan White to break up the grey and I’m going to splatter the blood paint on the white snow, but this’ll definitely do for now.

Of his many names, Akselos is known most bitterly as Oathbreaker by the Ultramarines 8th Company, or at least by those few that remain in the 8th who still remember him.

I tried to keep the visual theme of asymmetry pretty strong throughout this model. Akselos’ soul is deeply conflicted, and has been for some centuries now. Currently, he is torn between two existences: that of the renegade Ultramarine, desperate for vengeance, and that of the Saint of Khorne, struggling to ascend attachment.

His right arm is made of Ultramarine bits. The Macraggean pauldron and Tacticus arm are all that remain of his old armor. Akselos wears this defiled heraldry as both a constant memento of his shame and a constant reminder of his hatred.

His left arm consists of Eightbound bits, who are the most daemonic units in the World Eaters roster. It’s visibly more corrupted than the rest of his body. After losing his human arm in a particularly desperate battle, the Ruinous Powers gifted Akselos with this charcoal black replacement. He pays for the gift by frequently nourishing it with the blood of the slain.

This won’t be Akselos’ actual squad, his escort squad will be a bunch of similarly white-headed Berzerkers built with Legionairy bodies to represent that they’re more renegade than WE

Akselos isn’t alone, though! I’ve officially “finished” my first squad of World Eaters. Again, the bases aren’t quite done. I’m going to add bloodstained Valhallan Snow to essentially all of these. I may also do place transfers here and there, and I’m definitely going to highlight Wally and Akselos, but the models and bases are done to a reasonable standard and I’m satisfied with calling them finished.

Shoutout to Wally he’s a day one

Here’s the squad leader, Kardon the Eternal, otherwise known as Wally the World Eater. Kardon is a veteran of unknowable age. Some claim that he fought for Khârn after Terra, some that he’s a hero from the Great Crusade, but all agree that he has been alive for millennia with the sole purpose of claiming skulls for Khorne. I think he’s a neat little homage kitbash and a solid paint job. Kardon looks purposely kinda simple so that he can either fit with a larger squad of 10 Berzerkers or lead a smaller squad of 5.

This is his squad of 5! Not much to say about the rest of these bozos, except that the first guy had a bit of a “stepped on” incident and I lost the haft of his axe, so he wields a little chain hatchet now. I like to think that the axe actually started as a two-handed Eviscerator, and over time, this guy has slowly whittled it down into a baby axe by hitting shit with it way too hard.

Horus Rising

False Gods

Galaxy in Flames

Flight of the Eisenstein

Fulgrim

First Heretic

Know No Fear

Butcher’s Nails

Betrayer

Wrath of Khârn

Khârn: Eightfold Path

I finished Betrayer just a couple days ago, and holy shit. What an incredible book. I am a strong Khârn stan (Argel Tal, too) and I am more convinced than ever that I’m a World Eaters gamer.

I plan to read the three (or four) Unremembered Empire books before I loop back to A Thousand Sons to read the “main” Heresy storyline through to Slaves to Darkness, and eventually Siege of Terra. But for now, I’m making a little detour through all of the books that Khârn takes center stage for, so that I can satiate the hyperfixation and figure out what he’s up to in the 42nd Millennium. I also plan to finish most of the World Eaters books, as that was the whole reason that I started reading the Heresy in the first place.

Betrayer is by far my favorite Warhammer novel. Fulgrim was my top for a while—I may be a closeted Emperor’s Children enjoyer, don’t tell Blood Daddy—but man. Betrayer blew it out of the fucking water. What an incredible ending to an incredible trilogy. My biggest takeaways were as follows: nobody fucking likes Angron, and Khârn is my favorite guy ever. Enough gushing, though. Time for painting stuff.

The second Ultramarine I’ve ever painted, weirdly enough. My first Ultramarine was my first model, so my second being a keychain-corpse for a new army is weirdly sentimental

Since we’re on the topic of Khorne, I finished up the torso of my old school Daemon Prince. I’m exceptionally proud of this! I think the shading and blending is maybe some of my best, most advanced painting yet, and I pulled out just about every technique that I know for this thing. I even did a little drybrushing on the Necron skull. Here’s to hoping I can maintain this level of quality across the other pieces of this mini once I get some more primer.

Getting some good use out of my technicals, and finally utilizing my skull box

Still on Khorne, here’s some more progress on those Bloodletters from last post. They’re just about done, complete with horn blending and everything. I’m planning on doing flaming blades for them, but I’ll have to buy some more paints before I tackle that. I’ve got a handful more of primed and based Bloodletters, so they’ll probably be my backup easy paint for a while. The bases are simple and easy to make, but decently visually effective, which I think is good and fitting for such a massed unit.

Next up, I decided to give highlighting a go with one of my newer Thunderbearers, since I’m trying to boost my painting technique all around. This is definitely my best highlighting work yet, certainly leagues ahead of my first try from last year. I think he looks pretty clean!

I’m also experimenting with new photography backgrounds since I got kinda sick of having pasta or hamster cage cleaner or whatever the fuck in the background of my poorly lit update pictures. Think I may have stumbled upon a good method for backgrounds.

I love you, empty white void

Last but certainly not least, I finished up the first bike for my lone Outrider Squad. I’m really happy with him, as well. The hardest part of painting these dudes is definitely base painting. They just have a lot of ground to cover with your brush so they absolutely devour paint, but it’s cool cause I finally finished him up after like, actual months of sitting half-painted in my vehicles box. I’m a particular fan of the little white lens glare in the top left of his eye. I just think it’s neat.

For a while, life events had me in a spot where I couldn’t readily replace any of my shit, nor was I in a spot to buy any new kits or bits. And having just started a “bigger” project—segment painting my classic Daemon Prince—I was pretty discouraged from hobby work. But things are coming around and I’ll soon be in a much more stable place that’ll allow me to get my gay ass back in the mines.

Needless to say I am hopelessly addicted to the gradient

So, uh, as a way to sort of ease myself back into painting using two paints that I still had (Abaddon Black and Mephiston Red), I decided to learn blending. I’m still not great at it and I’m not sure I entirely understand the process, but I think that whatever I’m doing is… functional, if not consistent. That being said, it’s super fun. The results are really nice and add a lot to an otherwise very simple model.

Many of my Bloodletters are still primed, so I visited by LGS, picked up some more paints and two brushes, and whipped up a few more of these boys as a way to practice blending. I’m very proud of them! The little horns on the first Bloodletter are a subtle detail and I think that the gradients on the second one’s horns are fantastic looking. I definitely need to keep practicing and figuring out my technique, because at the moment, I can’t tell if I’m wet blending or glazing.

I think I’m doing some insane combination of both. I can’t properly wet blend because I kinda don’t understand it, but here’s my process so far:

Place two colors on palette, both watered down to a normal standard (milky consistency)

Use brush to place both colors next to each other on the model, touching, mixing them together very slightly

Clean brush and mix the borders between the colors, adding more of whichever paint I need to balance the gradient

This is far from efficient and very difficult to control on larger surfaces, but it makes a pretty nice effect when it’s successful! If anyone has tips on how to do this better, I’m totally open to hearing them.

This is maybe the best example I have of my newfound blending skills. This is the torso of my Daemon Prince. I decided to learn blending when I got him in the mail, as the official paint job for this model uses blending as a way to imply the transition between melded flesh and armor. I really wanted to emulate this, and I think I got pretty fuckin’ close. Very proud, and this catastrophic painting dub has definitely reinvigorated my motivation for this model.

I even finished his pants. He is now bepantsed. Dismembered, but bepantsed. Soon he will be whole, and he will be spooky, and he will kill shit. His torso and pants are the only pieces I have primed right now and I’m a little too broke for primer, so I’m just gonna really pimp out his armor before I move on.

I’m going to try logging all of my games this edition using the Tabletop Battles app

I had a lot of strong anti-armor. On the board was a Firestrike and a macro plas Redemptor, and off the board I had a squad of Eradicators in reserves, which are absolutely disgusting in this edition. Much like last edition, funnily enough. I knocked out an opposing Land Raider in the first BR, which gave me a significant advantage as the game went on, and I think it’s what eventually lead me to the win.

Actually got to use my Firestrike for once, which don’t feel like a horrible use of 80pts anymore

I also got the chance to play Combat Patrol with a friend of mine who hadn’t played 40k since before I started this blog, I think. I played my Khorne Daemons patrol against his Sisters of Battle. It was a super steady game until I got my Bloodcrushers in the fray, and then it was kind of a stompfest. As an observation, the Sisters patrol is an excellent counter to the Daemons patrol, because while the Sisters patrol isn’t particularly strong in melee, the fact that most of their units have Invulnerable Saves completely negates the excessive amounts of AP that Khorne weapons have.

This Rhino ended up exploding and killing way too many Bloodletters

I won almost entirely because my opponent was super rusty and didn’t know his unit rules or the mechanics of 10th. Key blunders like misusing his high value melee units and underutilizing his ranged attacks left him super undefended, but considering everything, he played a really solid game.

I really like Combat Patrol. I think it’s a great way to pick up and play, and we were able to set up a game super quickly. Cutting down on listbuilding complexity really allows new players to build and game, and I think it’s a great way to play more casual games. I played a lot of 500pts games back closer to the beginning of 9th Edition, and I can pretty confidently say that Combat Patrol is a lot more balanced than that. Combat Patrol went on well into BR3, whereas the 500pts games of old were usually decided the second your most expensive unit died. This one felt like an actual 40k game. There was a decent amount of objective play, which was noticeably lacking in older 500pts games because it was much easier and much more efficient to just wipe the other army off the board.

Finally got my hands on this guy again. I only need two more models to finish my World Eaters character collection: Azrakh the Annihilator and Angron. I also saved the Juggernaut body from my first Invocatus so soon I’ll have a Lord on Juggernaut as well

The fluff behind Lord Invocatus is so excessively metal that I can’t help but love it. The mental image of Avocado here galloping across the sky on a bridge of smoke and flame is one of the most raw things I think I am capable of imaging. That being said, the model is, like, very disappointingly not on fire, even if it’s still a banger model. I felt that this was a horribly missed opportunity, so I went about and built a reposed Invocatus with an added 3D fire effect from Deadly Print Studios to represent the bridge of flames. I’m really happy with this! Not only does the repose make him look larger and more ferocious, but the fire makes him look like the centerpiece that he should be, and the visual of him and his Juggernaut leaping over a plume of flame is sure to strike fear into the hearts of whoever I field him against. Or he’ll be the biggest target on the board because of his posing, and he’ll get shot and killed immediately. We’ll find out!

In the time since my last post, I’ve also come into possession of a few new neat 3D printed models for some little projects of mine, courtesy of an Ork-playing friend. This guy here is Tyrant Siege Terminator from the Iron Warriors Legion, the Chaos Legion that my Thunderbearers claim their heritage from (not that they’d know this, though).

Making that objective marker from a few posts ago was really fun, so I made some more ideas for custom ones to use with my factions. While I don’t exactly have a plan of action regarding this guy here, I do know that I’m going to turn him into some kind of relic recovery marker. A supremely apocryphal Chapter artifact of the highest sanctity, for the eyes of the most elite Thunderbearers only. An echo from a forgotten past, a powerless demigod from a lost era, frozen in time and waiting for 10,000 years. This’ll eventually be painted in Thunderbearers regalia and draped with either creeping vines and wild overgrowth, or dust, cobwebs, and rubble. Despite its heraldry, however, this ancient armor is still noticeably a Terminator pattern utilized almost exclusively by the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion. This implies that whichever venerable forebear originally adorned this armor would’ve either been a Battle-Brother of the Chapter’s earliest shrouded histories, or a later Astartes of such grand renown that he inherited what would’ve undoubtedly been one of the Chapter’s most valuable artifacts. Regardless, it’s a neat looking piece and not something that people will glean from first glance. It’s like a little Chapter Easter egg basically for me only, and that’s cool cuz it’s my army. <3

This beefy boy will be the subject of another objective marker. After a page describing each of the Chaos Gods, 9th Edition’s Codex: Chaos Daemons includes a two-page spread detailing anecdotes about various Daemon Worlds and how exactly they’d fallen to the Gods. The above excerpt from the Khornate incursion on a Daemon World named Tartora struck me as particularly visually poignant, so this boisterous Ork is gonna get turned into a statue of brass and bone. I’ll decorate his base with various skulls and lots and lots of blood. Maybe fire, too. I think a sort of glowing red vein effect on the base might be pretty cool. I’ll use him primarily with my World Eaters. Combined with a classic skull tower that I’m gonna make at some point, that means I’ll have two objective markers for both of my armies.

Moving on, I’ve been painting my dudes in what I believe to be their final color scheme for a good long while now. I’ve even started putting transfers on some of them as of a couple loads ago. That being said, I noticed that my most up-to-date heraldry sheet was kind of total garbage, and it didn’t represent the current look of the army whatsoever. This new heraldry sheet will be my (almost) final one; the colors are all correct, the helmets are all correct, and the Chapter icon has been edited and finalized. I may change the symbol signifying Chapter Honor Guard to be a set of tilted black stripes, sorts like hazard stripes but with the yellow replaced by Wraithbone. This could be another subtle nod to the Iron Warriors heritage as black stripes are a very common pattern, which means it could rationally be either an ambiguous heraldry of visually pleasing design, or iconography from culture that’s evolved slowly over the course of 10,000 years.

On the gameplay front, I recently played my first and likely final game of Strike Force in 9th with my brother. To send out 9th and usher in 10th, the Thunderbearers and Cobalt Lancers got together again for a good old fashioned “full-scale combat simulation.” They definitely used tracer rounds or something.

Most of my games are pretty standard but this one was great fun. We had very similar army compositions, with differences only in some key areas, like armor and HQ choice. The plan for us both was to forward deploy Infiltrator squads to hunker down on objectives, since we both took our Chapter-specific action secondaries. The mission we rolled, however, had better plans, and disabled setup rules in No Man’s Land, effectively making the Phobos forward deploy completely useless. It was a really even game, likely my favorite I’ve played so far, and I realize now after playing it that 2000pts is definitely the way that 40k is meant to be played. There were a lot of cool moments, too, and I think that was mostly facilitated by the higher point limit.

A Redemptor, an Aggressor Squad, an Eversor Assassin, and a Primaris Techmarine walk into a bar.

One of those cool moments was a chain of events that I’ll remember for a good long while. After my Predator las-sniped an enemy Redemptor, my own Redemptor stomped up to join two Space Marine columns locked in combat. After some intense combat, the Dreadnought was felled, surprisingly setting of an explosion, dealing mortals to literally everyone in the circle. The Techmarine takes the opportunity to kill the Eversor after this, who then explodes, killing the Techmarine. Earlier in the game, an Impulsor had exploded, and if I recall correctly, Big Harold exploded, bringing the game’s total explosion count to around 4 or 5. Fun!

My brother beat me on objectives, 26-40. He played his primaries far better than I did, and I was far too focused on killing his scary shit to properly run my secondaries. While I took out his Repulsor—the centerpiece of any good Cobalt Lancers army—during the game’s first BR, which significantly lessened his firepower and freed me up to move, aggressive pushes with his Impulsor and excellent positioning of his squads kept me at bay and I lost the inevitable Astartes vs. Astartes battle of attrition.

Here’s the first of hopefully eventually many pieces of Thunderbearers commissions! This piece, depicting a nondescript Thunderbearers Astartes—maybe a Sergeant—locked in combat with a nondescript Goffs Nob, was commissioned from the lovely Picklld, who you can find on Twitter and Reddit. They were an absolute joy to commission. Incredibly patient, incredibly cooperative, and incredibly creative! They absolutely nailed the Thunderbearers look with very minimal input, and the pose, lighting, and detailing are all undoubtably fantastic.

There’s a lot about this piece that I really appreciate even beyond the novelty of my guys being art now. I think Picklld absolutely excels at utilizing extreme values to create dramatic compositions, and they have a deft eye for detail. The battle damage on the Astartes power armor tells the tale of a long-embattled warrior, the inscriptions on his hip, fluttering purity seals, and still-burning backpack candles visually professing his monastic devotion to the Chapter. His bold, aggressive pose professes the signature Thunderbearers battle fury as he dives headfirst into close combat with a Nob, the buzzing killsaw framing the Marine’s figure like the halo of a venerated saint. The Ork, too, looks suitably bestial, his snarling jaw held together by a brutal metal similar to that which his terrifying power klaw is made of. The jaw prosthetic and head stitches imply that this Ork isn’t one to succumb to any injury as menial as a decimated jaw or an exploded head. A skull and tallies on his weapon of choice supports an air of monstrous veterancy, perhaps counting the most worthy of opponents that he’s felled over doubtless years of gory combat.

Rex Manticore faces down Bladeguard Squad Cambarn during the Second Battle of Deadside Pass

As a brief aside, the Ork’s power klaw and killsaw abomination is a little reference to a rivalry that my Lieutenant, Simon Sadrian, formed with the Goffs Warboss, Rex Manticore, during the Calthradia Crusade. Sadrian and Manticore have waged pitched battles at the same location three times now, each one taking place in the mountainous region that acts as the main passageway from the Calthradian beachhead onto the plateau, and subsequently into the mainland. This region is called Deadside Pass, and its rocky cliffs have been forever stained with the blood of Astartes and Ork alike. In each of these battles, Rex and Sadrian met in hand-to-hand combat. While the Ork in the commission isn’t necessarily Rex, he also isn’t necessarily… not.

In conclusion, I’m incredibly satisfied with this art. It’s sick as fuck and I’ll very likely be commissioning the artist again in the future.

Moving from drawing to painting, I finally swung by my local Games Workshop and grabbed my classic 2002 Daemon Prince. This model is a few firsts for me. It’s my first resin model, and man, resin is obnoxious. It’s not horribly dysfunctional, it’s just uncomfortably soft, and a total pain in the ass to clip from the sprue.

This is also the first time I’ve ever attempted to paint in subassemblies. This is a really nice and rare model, so I’d like it to stand out on the tabletop. Since I didn’t have any paper clips, I ended up using, like, matches or incense sticks or some shit to prime the pieces. Sub assemblies are very… strange to me, and I’m not really sure I like doing them. Building a model to completion before priming and painting it kinda scratches my brain better, but I understand why this would be a more efficient way to paint a model, especially a big fancy one.

A layer of Khorne Red washed with Agrax Earthshade, cleaned with another layer of Khorne Red, and then brightened with Mephiston Red, making him the same color as the rest of my World Eaters

Speaking of painting, tackling this thing’s color scheme has been a little bit of a challenge. The GW version of the model has a lot of advanced techniques to it, things that are undoubtedly beyond my skill level, like some really gorgeous blending between the Prince’s skin and the armor. Because that’s far beyond my ability at this point, I’m gonna try and paint it the best I can using the stuff I’ve learned. That means mostly color layering and excessive use of washes. Whoops.

In regards to the actual color scheme, black armor wouldn’t really work for a World Eaters Daemon Prince, so despite my desire to keep my World Eaters as “vanilla” as possible, I’m gonna swap up the colors of the model. I think I’m going to try and emulate the scheme of the new Prince on my Prince. Black skin, red armor, and bronze trim, which is quintessential World Eaters. A new scheme on a classic model, and an homage to the modernized (actually good) Daemon Prince model, since I like the new one but much prefer the old shitty one because it was in Dawn of War.

Woah! Heraldry!

The shoulders of my Thunderbearers have been remarkably unblemished for far too long, so I finally got around to putting transfers on my painted models. All of my (painted) Intercessors now have a black arrow on their right pauldron—a decal sourced from the Imperial Fists transfer sheet—denoting their position as battleline Astartes.

A few of them have numbers on their golden knee pad, but most of my normie dudes have sparse transfers beyond that and the shoulder arrow. I purposely didn’t put numbers on everyone because, frankly, I’m not sure what they signify yet.

I think I’d like them to denote the Company that the individual warrior originates from or holds the closest connection to, since squads are constantly broken, shuffled, and reformed in a Thunderbearers order of battle. I haven’t decided quite yet, though, as it’d also make sense for the numbers to represent what squad the Astartes is part of. I’m definitely leaning away from that, however, because that’d require me to slot my dudes into specific squads, which I don’t want to do at all. Breaches the rules of my weird organizational brain.

2nd Lieutenant Simon Sadrian of the Thunderbearers 1st Company

My Intercessors aren’t the only ones with new decals, though. Lieutenant Simon Sadrian, seemingly in a never-ending quest to be my most pimp infantry model, is sporting fresh livery as well. He’s got about three new decals, all of which adding considerably to his noble regalia, further emphasizing him as an important and stand-out unit.

The transfer on his front left kneepad, a numeral ‘II’, represents the fact that Sadrian is the 2nd Lieutenant of his Company, that being the venerable 1st Company. I’m debating where I should put a white ‘I’ to represent the actual company he’s a part of, but I’m thinking of putting it on his forehead to give him a more distinct appearance. I think it’d look cool, and would pair nicely with the white of his Armor Indomitus.

The transfer on his gold-trimmed right shoulder is a Codex-compliant Lieutenant symbol signifying his role in the Chapter. This was pretty much a no-brainer decision, he’s a Lieutenant so he gets the Lieutenant logo. Whatever. But speaking of shoulders and trim, I think I might make it so only 1st Company gets the gold shoulder pad trim. It would be a good way to have my Veterans stand out, and would explain why all my Command units have gold trim, while my goons do not.

Sadrian’s bracer was another broad surface to plaster shit onto, so I decided to give him an Iron Halo symbol. His actual Iron Halo, previously placed atop his backpack, has long since snapped off and been lost. Despite this, he usually has an invulnerable save when I’m playing him on the tabletop due to him frequently being kitted with the Armor Indomitus relic. I figure the Iron Halo symbol signifies that he has alternative forcefield tech somewhere on his body or in his armor, maybe contained within in the bracer, itself.

The Chapter’s most revered Dreadnought, the Aurum Eternatus, an indomitable warrior sentience birthed from the melding of interred Chapter-Master Lucius Harold and the remnant soul within the Hail Aeterna

Moving on, Big Harold, another venerable (awesome pun) veteran from the 1st Company, has received his transfers, as well. Being the Chapter’s previous Chapter-Master, Big Harold has seen an unknowable number of combat deployments. The Chapter sees him a veteran of the absolute highest regard, considering him with as much honor as one can a walking coffin. Suitably so, he’s kinda been plastered with decals to bring him closer to that venerable status in appearance.

Put some “text” (scribbles) on his purity seals and I also cleaned his little Dreadnought engine backpack up a bit

On the top-center of his chassis is a white, Codex-compliant Command skull, which represents his role of Chapter-Master prior to his interment within the Hail Aeterna, despite him not technically being a member of Chapter Command. The large ‘I’ numeral on his left arm states his belonging to the 1st Company, as well as his honor amongst even the revered Dreadnoughts. There’s also some prayers inscribed around his arm, but I couldn’t get a good enough picture of it.

His left leg panel is either a campaign badge or an honor mark. I can’t decide, and it doesn’t matter that much, to be honest. It just looks sick. On the right side, though, is a Codex-compliant Veteran symbol and another ‘I’. This is further veteran regalia, harkening to his history in the Chapter, both past and present.

The ‘Raijin,’ a recovered pre-Indomitus Interceptor with a particularly furious machine-spirit

That’s it for my transfers quest, but as a closing note, I’ve decided to say that my Interceptor is tentatively “finished.” The black-lining is solid and… most of it is properly colored. It’s not a fantastic tabletop presence and I definitely plan on highlighting it at some point, but I’m done with this shit for now. Hallelujah.

Missile launcher bro thinks he’s part of the team meanwhile it’s a completely illegal model

Our first little squad of Berzerkers is coming into shape! I’ve got a bit more painting to do before this squad is done, but everyone’s got their trim, at the very least. Most of them also have red, which, when combined with the brass trim and the black primer, technically counts as battle-ready, since it is 3 different colors. Does this mean I can put them on the tabletop and play with them? Not without feeling ashamed of myself for never painting, no!

Brother Kardon the Eternal, veteran of the Long War, possibly over 10,000 years old. So old and presumably powerful that he could easily be a Chaos Lord if he wanted to, but is so dedicated to killing at all times that he can’t be fucked to actually lead anything

Wally is one of my better minis, I think. He’s a tame but distinct kitbash and a fun way to pay homage to the ugly ass past of the World Eaters. He’s also one of the better painted models that I own. This, I think, is for two reasons: I changed how I use washes, and I started thinning my paints more.

Firstly, I finally ditched the fucking Nuln Oil. The new formula is garbage and doesn’t look good on anything except for metal. Deeply disappointing! But being left with no go-to wash left me wanting, so I’ve made the switch to Agrax Earthshade. Agrax Earthshade is magic. With almost every one of my models, I’ve been finishing their base colors and then promptly slathering them in mildly thinned Agrax Earthshade. Once it dries and stains the mini, I take a small amount of the base color and fill in the broader surfaces, brightening them and cleaning up messier spots where the wash had dried. This makes the recesses a lot darker while maintaining the cleaner look on the armor panels, and that contrast generates a very serviceable illusion of depth without having to bother with highlights.

You can also experience a glow up like this, all you need is a cape, trust me

Color-wise, I tried to paint Kardon as close as close possible to the original Wally model. For example, his Mark of Khorne belt buckle (that’s cute) is brass and his belt is red, just like the old model. His backpack is mostly red, with the… wing-connector thingies being brass. And while it’s hard to see in the reference image, Wally’s right kneepad has a silver Mark of Khorne on it. Kardon noticeably lacks kneepads, having a MK6 torso and legs. To maintain that cool little splash of silver, I moved it onto the Khornate emblem that Kardon uses to pin his cloak to his shoulders. Most of that shit is meaningless, I just felt like talking about my decisions because I thought they were cool if I’m real.

The Raijin’s targets rarely foresee the Interceptor’s attacks as it stalks its prey from low orbit before diving from the highest heavens to strike. Once its locked in, it moves so swiftly that quarry aware enough to catch a glimpse of the plane see nothing more than a few red falling stars before they’re annihilated.

Anyways, enough about Kardon and his friends. Here’s an update on my Interceptor. This thing has taken so much goddamn paint and, frankly, doesn’t look super great, but once I’m done brightening and highlighting the panels, I think it’ll look great. I think the golden guns are really good and funny, because that’s so unnecessary, they’re fucking aircraft guns. It feels very 40k, like, of course they’d make their plane guns golden. I’m really satisfied with the Raijin, as well, and I wish aircraft were better so I could actually use it.

The ‘Raijin,’ an antique Interceptor found by Brother-Pilot Mercúr, who was consequently the only Astartes who could quell the Interceptor’s raging machine-spirit

This is a big work in progress, but I’m definitely liking how it’s turning out. Unless Dreadnoughts count (Dreadnoughts don’t count), then this is the first proper vehicle that I’ve ever painted. It’s a lot different to painting men! You need a lot more paint and a lot more coverage, but it’s been a fun break from dudes. I’ll post more of him when I’m actually done, but for now, this is where the ‘Raijin’ sits.

On the Chaos front, the first step towards my goal of collecting all of the named World Eaters characters begins with Khârn. He was super easily to build, but the skulls were a huge pain in the ass. I’m not really sure how I should base him, but the skulls were a good start, I think. I have a few ways to go from there.

I could fill the rest of the base with skulls and have it mirror that of my Khorne Bloodmaster, but that strikes me as kind of bland, and I’m not sure how well the skulls would fit inside that exterior ring.

I could also cut a bunch of skulls in half, glue them to the bottom of the base, and then submerge them in blood to make a sort of… skull bowl? It’d look very Khornate and neat, but would be a lot of effort, and I think the dimensions of the base would look weird.

I could do sand dunes inside of the skull ring, having the sand spilling over a bit, and he’d theoretically fit the rest of my army, but that feels like I’m not really doing Khârn justice.

This is Intercessor Sergeant Arctos of the Calthradia Crusade. The first image was his old paint job, and the second is his new, current one. I think it’s better, for the most part.

The seals on his breastplate are better, no doubt, and the white bits are cleaner. I also really appreciate the softer shading on the tabard, but the helmet is definitely a downgrade. While painting him, I fell for a classic blunder and completely forgot that his helmet was supposed to be gold (I think I did this the first time I painted him, too). Because of this, I did, like, a full 3 coats of Skavenblight Dinge, colored in the metal bits, a few layers on the eyes the eyes, and did a full wash before realizing, “oh shit he’s supposed to be a completely different color.” Because of how much paint I’d already put on him, the gold came out pretty thick and didn’t take to the washes super well, which is only mildly infuriating. The model looks… fine, but man, the helmet bugs the shit out of me.

Arctos has been one of my main units since the beginning of the Calthradia Crusade, so he’s naturally got a good bit of lore behind him.

He was a battleline Intercessor of particular talent during the Gale Sicane, which is what the Thunderbearers call their (particularly rough) portion of the Indomitus Crusade. He was reliable, quick to act, and masterful with a bolter. In his squad was an Intercessor with whom he grew particularly close with, a hotshot Astartes who wielded a minor relic blade. This man was Arctos’ mentor and friend, a man who he looked up to and aspired to be like. Unfortunately, during a particularly brutal skirmish during their battle across the stars, Arctos and his squad were cornered and overrun. His brother was laid low before him and Arctos was forced to wield the relic blade in a desperate attempt to fend off their attackers. This attempt would prove successful, and so Arctos would keep the relic blade by his side from then on, vowing to use it to defend himself as a remembrance to his fallen brother.

Sergeant Arctos has been on Calthradia in more recent years. He isn’t the most natural leader and struggles with timidity given greater responsibility, although only as much timidity as any Astartes could reasonably display. As the conflict reaches a fever pitch, he’s started loosening up with his usage of the blade, and he’s growing into his role as a leader of men. With his vengeful heirloom sword, Arctos cleaves a bloody path across the battlefield as his men cover him with raging storms of fire. One would not be remiss to assume, if Chapter-Command were satisfied with the Crusade, that Arctos would pursue the path of the Chapter’s Bladeguard Veterans.

Anyways, moving on. Here’s my first painted Khorne Berzerker. I think he looks really good! He wasn’t too hard to paint, the most difficult bits were the trim. Washing a mini in its entirety before running over it and highlighting with your base color is the move, I think. It looks super clean. I’m still undecided on basing, but I want to do a classic desert dunes meme for my Khorne boys. Blood and sand.

SOON HE WILL BE MINE……….

Damantyne-pattern Bolters

The Emperor’s Storm: A General Overview of the Thunderbearers

The Thunderbearers are a Successor Chapter of currently unknown founding with shadowy origins speculatively dating back to the days of the Horus Heresy.

They are masters of rapid, orbital shock assault, and they subsequently specialize in mass usage of drop pods and heavy bolters, alongside other Astartes heavy weaponry. Their culture is uniquely monastic and highly austere, with a focus on stoic philosophy and dominance of the self. The cult of the Thunderbearers dictates that they must revere the sanctity of the holy bolter, viewing their weapons as divine vessels for the Emperor’s wrath. To a Thunderbearer, the act of wielding a bolter is the highest form of worship, and consequently, killing with them is a seen as a spiritual experience of no rival in sanctity.

Due to their creed of weapon worship, each and every weapon—but primarily bolt weapons—in the Chapter’s Armory is viewed as a relic, and is treated and maintained as such by both the Techmarines and the Chaplains. Due to the close proximity of these two elements of Chapter Command, the Armory and Reclusiam are combined into one facility called the Reclusiam Cataegis, which houses both the Chapter’s weapons and its worship. This special facility is overseen by a high-ranking member of the Chaplaincy called the Cataegarch—or the Thunder Warden—who fulfills the role of both Reclusiarch and Master of the Forge for the Thunderbearers.