Happy Little Blue Birds

They're still picking bits of Black Legionnaires from their beaks, so it was about time I finished of my second wave of Tzaangor

Let's get pecking!

Internet opinion seems divided (isn't it always?) on Tzaangor. They're a brutal unit in Age of Sigmar, and can dish out a near-genestealer level of close-combat punishment in 40k, but that is accompanied with some harrumphs about 'goat herder Thousand Sons'.

Personally, I'm not going to complain about a unit that both looks awesome and performs well on the tabletop, since just one of those criteria will suffice for me. The fact that I'm technically bolstering two of my armies in one go is a bonus.

It helps with my double-dipping that the 'Tzaangor blades' loadout is far superior to the more 40k-centric 'chainswords and autopistols'. After all, if autopistols were any good, they wouldn't give them to Cultists. And chainswords seem so intrinsically Imperium in look, it looks out of place on a flerd of Tzaangor (saying nothing of the costs of the upgrade sprue).

I remember the last time I painted a batch of Tzaangor, I found it a slow and fiddly process. But that was before I was a veteran of painting Rubric armour, so maybe I would breeze through it this time?

No. They still take forever. Chaos Space Marines they ain't.

At least I take painstaking painting notes, so I can match the last colour scheme. And here they are again:

Skin: Calgar Blue base, Drakenhof Nightshade wash, Lothern Blue drybrush

Horns, hooves and claws: Zandri dust base, Agrax Earthshade wash, Zandri dust drybrush

Claws and beaks: Averland Sunset base (wet-blended), Agrax Earthshade wash

Feathers: Screamer Pink base, Carroburg Crimson wash

Dreadlock/tentacles: Druchii Violet wash, Lothern Blue blend

Mail kilts: Celestial Grey base, Drakenhof Nightshade wash, Nuln Oil wash

Cloth kilts: Celestial Grey base, Drakenhof Nightshade wash, Ulthuan Grey layering

Armour and shields: Retributor Armour base, Reikland Flesh wash, Golden Griffon drybrush, Ahriman Blue layer

Shield bosses: Kalabite Green base, Nuln Oil glaze

Weapons: Ironbreaker base, Druchii Violet wash, Stormhost Silver drybrush

Weapon hafts: Charcoal Grey base, Celestial Grey drybrush

Tongues: Pink Horror

The Twistbray isn't much cop in this set (but I have the skull-faced Tzaangor from the original batch who can step up), but I will admit that the icon bearer is an improvement - having a banner in the first place is a big help.

I was aware when I was assembling these that they're not *just* for the Thousand Sons. We may eventually, somehow, someday, play Age of Sigmar again, and so I tried to pay attention when assigning weapons. I think I've got a good spread and a legal loadout on all concerned. Maybe we'll take them for a trot once AoS 2.0 drops.

This model was a happy accident - caused by me not dry-fitting the models before committing the glue. I quite like the idea of a Tzaangor so crazed he has to chew on his shield rim.

(but next time, seriously, dry-fit first)

These guys are slightly different from their Silver Tower brethren (no bad thing in a Tzeentch army) and I'd only just scratched the surface with the number of poses I could put them in.

Overall, it's a really good kit. If there is a drawback, it's that the body parts are specific to these moulds, so kitbashing potential is limited unless you're prepared to expend a lot of greenstuff. A shame, as there are a few Tzaangor heads left over and a whole bunch of Acolytes waiting for the change of life...

Last, but certainly not least, the mutant Tzaangor. He's just there for flavour in 40k, though how he gets an extra attack in AoS (how he manages that with a split head, Sigmar only knows). He looks awesome for all that - I added some extra wire and blobbed on Blood for the Blood God, just to add to the sinewy horror of it all.

And that's the last of my Thousand Sons troops done! It's elites all the way from here!