The new edition of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy is available to pre-order right now, and the massive Saturnine box is mere weeks away from your painting desk. The Warhammer Community team were given two boxes with instructions to paint the contents.
It was a massive job so we split them between staff members – going so far as to call upon the help of the mysterious cabal who guard our grand archives to get it done. Today, we’re looking at the Loyalists.
Joel – Raven Guard
Saturnine Dreadnought
The Raven Guard aren’t especially known for their slower, louder and heavier units, but they still deploy large war machines such as the Saturnine Dreadnought.
This Dreadnought is a large, powerful unit so I wanted to add more gold, white and freehand elements to make it feel more of a centrepiece – and those shoulders are the perfect place to go wild with some cool ideas.
This is an awesome kit that has some great customisation options, lots of fun details to paint and opportunities to make it stand out in an army. I’m now excited to see it destroy some Traitors in my future games.
James B – Imperial Fists
Saturnine Terminators, Araknae Platform
I like to use a limited colour palette on my Imperial Fists, keeping them gritty to look at and relatively simple to churn out in my paint sessions. This also helps to keep painting new units over time consistent.
The Saturnine Terminators were incredible to build. The details and potential posing options on these are great. You could make so many of these and never have them look identical. I painted these three using veteran heraldry. Corvus Black is the main armour colour and Flash Gitz Yellow was used on the shoulder pads.
The Araknae is a mass-produced weapon during the Heresy, so keeping the paint scheme simple to represent that was key. I based everything with a coat of Iron Hands Steel with yellow on key areas.
Mike I – Salamanders
MkII Centurion, MkII Centurion Command Squad
As an avid Salamanders collector I recently discovered I had accidentally built an army for The Horus Heresy without even trying. All I was missing were some key components, one of which was filled perfectly by a Centurion and a Centurion Command Squad, which I could make with bodies from the Saturnine box and additional arms.
I immediately built these marvellous sons of Vulkan and outfitted them with the coolest melee weapons possible for maximum ability to bonk those pesky Night Lords right on the head.
I painted them in my usual variant Salamanders paint scheme which I've been using for years now: Warp Lightning and thinned down Basilicanum Grey for the armour, before edge highlighting it with Moot Green and painting the metal components Runefang Steel covered in Wyldwood Contrast and highlighted with Retributor Armour.
I've got five more Legionaries to add to the Command Squad on the painting table, then once complete I'll be challenging some Sons of Horus looks with menacing red eyes at Ben to a game.
Istvaan V demands payback. Vulkan Lives!
Joe S – White Scars
MkII Tactical Squad, MkII Veteran Squad
I already have a small force of White Scars, used as allies with a larger force of Blood Angels – think Siege of Terra defenders. But with the new edition, I thought it was about time they received some reinforcements of their own to become a fully fledged army!
I tried to keep the paint scheme simple as I had a fair amount of miniatures to get painted, so I started with an undercoat of (yes, you guessed it) White Scar, then picked out the trim with Blood Angels Red Contrast paint. The Veterans are marked out with details of Gehenna's Gold and a wash of Guilliman Flesh.
Luke – Blood Angels
MkII Centurion
I chose to paint the MkII Centurion as Blood Angel because I wanted to see how this miniature looked when not painted in a livery as utilitarian as the Iron Warriors. The Salamanders version gave me a good idea, but I wanted to see how he’d look as a truly fancy lad.
Despite being equipped with a power maul and Crusade armour, I think the rich reds and golds have made him look every bit as regal as a son of Sanguinius should. I left the dangling medallions and cyber-familiar off to give him a bit of a more streamlined and elegant look, and in a nod to a certain little duel that happens at some point long after Istvaan V, I also painted the chunk of destroyed Rhino he’s standing on in the colours of the Sons of Horus.
We’ll have more to show you later in the week as we share the team’s take on the second box, which features lots of Traitors.
