Dusty Bins

More Thousand Sons marines - but bigger, dustier and with even less dynamic poses!

 Here come the Scarab Occult Terminators: bulky armour, fancy weapons and a 90 degree restricted field of vision (like Batman!)


There's a nice heft to this Tactical Dreadnought Armour - and I thought the Rubrics were bulky. I used exactly the same paint recipe as before, but there is a good deal more plate armour that means this squad look more blue than gold (although the lovely headpieces remain).

Having seen all the extras that come with Nurgle's Blightlord Terminators, I can't help but feel these Scarabs got the fuzzy end of the lollipop in terms of equipment and options.

Their melee weapons begin and end with power swords. Their heavy weapon choice is either a Soulreaper Cannon or a Heavy Warpflamer. There's not much in favour of the latter - its range is too short to use on the turn they teleport in - although it would be a handy weapon in Overwatch. Maybe it would work in a larger unit of ten.

On the other hand, as a nice bonus, another Terminator gets to have a Hellfyre Missile Rack without giving up any other weapons. It makes for a nice piece of heavy firepower, though not in sufficient quantity to have a big impact.

One question for the power gamers: is there a reason why you wouldn't stick the Missile Rack on the same Terminator that has the Soulreaper Cannon? The rules don't seem to prohibit it, and by loading everything onto a grunt that can't be picked out, you ensure maximum firepower on the last man standing.

The reason I demurred is:

1. I like the look of them on different models and Rule of Cool overrides everything
2. I haven't seen it on anyone else's armies anywhere, so assuming I'm not a military genius, I must be missing something
3. The new Codex rules are leaning towards 'in the box models', so it's possible that heavy weapons will be limited per model when the Thousand Sons book comes out.

Of course, the real issue is: how does he fire those rockets without blowing off his headpiece? That must be one smart missile.

As I said, it was the same recipe as the Rubric Marines (I'm not sure I've ever painted such uniformity - although I've yet to do my Stormcast):

• Gold armour: Retributor Armour base, Reikland Flashshade wash, Golden Griffon drybrush
• Blue armour: Thousand Sons base, Nuln Oil wash, Thousand Sons layer, Ahriman Blue layer
• Gun barrels: Ironbreaker base, Nuln Oil wash
• 'King Tut' headdress: Blue (as armour) + Yellow (Averland Sunset base, Cassendora Yellow wash, Yriel Yellow layer)
• Loincloths: Celestra Grey base, Drakenhof Nightshade wash, Ulthuan Grey layer
• Stormbolter: Skavenblight Dinge base, Nuln Oil wash, Dawnstone drybrush
• Eyes: Ulthuan Grey base, Biel-Tan Green wash
• Gems: Stormhost Silver base, Waystone Green glaze
• Force Staff: Ulthuan Grey base, Nihilakh Oxide wash, Coelia Greenshade layer
• Sorcerer's cloak: Screamer Pink base, Nuln Oil wash, Khorne Red layer + Ushabdi Bone base, Agrax Earthshade wash, Tyrant Skull drybrush

Either I'm getting into my stride, but I found these five an easier prospect that the Rubric Marines. For all that, I'm a bit fatigued with painting gold filigree armour (or more precisely, cutting in blue armour around a gold undercoat). So even though this is still a tiny force, and could certainly use an extra squad of both Rubrics and Scarabs, I think I'll be painting elsewhere for a bit.

I was even starting to think that Warhammer Duncan may be wrong (DON'T EVEN THINK IT!) and the most efficient way would have been to undercoat blue, and then pick out the detail in gold. Maybe I'll get some more units just to test that out.

And finally, the Scarab Occult Sorcerer - the only 'living' member of the squad. He has the option to swap our his left-handed Stormbolter for a Power Sword (although I'm not sure why he would, given he's already got a Force Stave).

Unlike the Exalted Sorcerers, I glued on his cloak before painting (necessitated by his backpack, and I manged to squeeze in a brush beneath it).

Although I would stress this: leave the headpieces off when painting. I'd glued on one headpiece before I realised this, and it was a lot easier to paint the helmets of the remaining four Terminators with subassemblies.

Off to the teleportation chamber with these guys, just in time for their first dust-up!