Sons on the Run: A Scouring-era project

[Pacific81]

This is a blog thread for my new favourite hobby thing, which is Sons of Horus. Why 'The Scouring' as a setting? Many years ago, a poster on the sadly departed Great Crusade forum (Wolf Lord Mjolnir, also known as Dave) and I were chatting about it as a hobby project. We agreed it would be quite a cool narrative for the Traitors especially; Horus was dead and the survivors were suddenly left without their cause and progenitor, the war was lost. What made them fight on, rather than just lay down their guns or make one last charge (as I am sure some did)? We discussed that possibly it was a sense of brotherhood - those same tunnel-rat gangers who had fought as kids on Cthonia, had followed their commander (much as with history's wars and those of today, most of the combatants would have simply done this without understanding the larger geo-political picture) fighting through seven years of civil war against their former kin. Even though they were now very much the 'bad guys', and had done very bad things, that common human element of a bond with the men who had fought alongside them for so long, through all of that bloodshed, was all that was left. 

Finally and most importantly, it would hopefully be a fun modelling project. The warriors as they appeared after Horus's death would be very much different from those who had fought in the Great Crusade or even those who had been there when the Traitor's die was cast on the surface of Istvaan. So, its the opportunity to kitbash, convert and try something a bit different. 

 

For reference material, there isn't that much out there. We have Chaos Marines, but they have existed in the Eye of Terror for millennia, their armour slowly warping, and the survivors (certainly of the Sons of Horus Legion, who were less 'warp-tainted' than many of the others) would not have that appearance yet. So instead I have gone from descriptions in Aaron Dembski-Bowden's quite excellent Horus books, as well as the Night Lords Trilogy, which did a wonderful job of imagining the marines as warriors with all too human frailties, and not simply snarling two-dimensional villains. Also, some of the wonderful artwork in the Heresy Collected Visions books; The Sons of Horus are very much illustrated as almost feral-looking, brutal murderers. With lots of spikes and determination, even if the colour schemes have been ratified since. So, a bit of that artwork below for starters, and then the next posts will be first attempts at the minis themselves. 

 

 

 

[Pacific81]

"Horus was dead.. they all felt it, even though he was up in orbit. they on the surface of Terra, fighting for their lives within the Imperial Palace. The call to retreat was sounded.. now all that remained was to survive."

 

The first Sons of Horus veteran I have completed (apologies to anyone that has already seen this in the Hobby chat section). 

 

 

Have gone for as much of an individual look as possible. The base is from a Chaos Space Marine (one of the Killteam box) with all of the chaos/8-pointed star iconography removed. To tie it back to Heresy I've used a MkVI shoulder pad, and a custom shoulder pad and helmet from Archie's Forge. These fit very well on the standard GW kit with little work required. Finally, I added some chainmail made from Greenstuff. 

 

 

Painting wise I've used mostly a standard scheme. I did toy with trying something metallic or otherwise left-field, from the Collected Visions book, but I want to make the force recognisably Sons of Horus, and not look too much like Chaos Marines. So used GW Incubi Darkness, through Sons of Horus Green with Syballite Green as a highlight. 

 

 

 

 

These are quite laborious to create, about an hour per miniature, so please don't expect too fast a rate of progress with this blog! Any thoughts on the army concept, the Scouring or anything else very much appreciated 

[Procrastinate]

Excellent stuff. You’ve done a great job conveying the images into a model. Love the belt fed Bolter, damaged greave and evocative   paint job. Look forward to more, although no pressure, they will be worth the wait!

[RolandTHTG]

That mini is excellent and it looks like a great modelling project. 

[Pacific81]

Thank you @Procrastinate and @RolandTHTG 

 

"Sergeant Tubal.. Brother Zillah.. blood brothers in the tunnels under a forgotten Cthonian city all of those decades ago. They'd saved each other countless times since then; killing Xenos and now killing their former Legion kin, it made no difference to them. The knife, the bullet, they went in the same way. The thrill of the hunt, the kill. No matter that Horus was done, they would follow their gang leader, Ashurhaddon, just as they had always done."

 

Sergeant Tubal of the Veteran squad. Once again a Chaos Marine was used as a base, with any symbols or extra armour flourishes removed. I'm keen to add a few top-knots to the marines as the Legion was known for them, so this was added to a standard MkVI helmet. The Armed with bolt pistol and chainsword have had some Cthonian gang markings added.

 

Brother Zillah; I wanted to make a running marine, referenced from the Collected Vision artwork. Some battle damage has been added, along with his armour being a mix of different marks, to represent the marines making use of dwindling supplies. Perhaps even taken from fallen foes and repainted.

[Pacific81]

The World Eater had forced open the Rhino door, inhuman strength bending back ceramite. His mouth frothing and eyes utterly berserk, he had long since lost track of who was friend or foe. As his head lunged into the cab, Jubbal had placed his shotgun in-between those champing bronze-capped teeth and pulled the trigger. "I like to keep this, for close encounters" he said as he pulled back the re-load action on the weapon. The squad's vehicle carried on at speed, bouncing across the scorched earth and away from the palace walls. 

 

 

Another Sons of Horus Veteran. This one is a real mix of bits, with custom head and shoulder pads (the latter had small railway rivets added). The shotgun and ammo belt is from a Goliath shotgun (old Necromunda) which has sat in my bits box for 20 years! Don't ever get rid of your bits :) A friend of mine said it reminded him of Hicks from Aliens, so hence the background. 

 

 

 

A Sons of Horus Reaver. The Forge World miniatures I thought were quite plain (and expensive for what they are) so I looked at alternatives. On the grounds that these guys almost sound like proto-Berserkers (you can imagine them going that way eventually) I used the 40k Berserker box as a base. I removed all of the Chaos and Khorne markings (that took a *lot* of time, these guy have a lot of bling!) and once again added some Archie's Forge head and shoulder pad. There are a few Cthonian gang markings on his axe and also a few extra spikes here and there, to try and match the artwork we have of a Reaver in the HH books.

 

Finally, a photo showing the lovely artwork from the Jon Hodgson sci-fi book, which I am using for all of these photos. 

 

 

A few more Veterans next, as I've almost finished that squad, but then the first character I've been working on. Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

 

Edited September 4 by Pacific81

[Gattopardo]

My thoughts are that these models, and this project, look absolutely awesome.

 

Keep going!

[Xenith]

Looking ace, I always love those armies of characters, and this is one of them. I'm lacking inspiration to do that with my alpha legion, the way they're characterised, but I've been toying with SoH or WE for a while, thirdy might swing it! How are you doing the green?

[Pacific81]

Thanks very much guys! 

 

@Xenith - for the green its quite a simple recipe I found online: incubi darkness base, then SoH green, then final highlight Sybarite green, with some mix steps in between those. 

 

I think Alpha Legion would do really well with a character-driven approach; lots of individual customisation, even guys out of power armour and in cloaks etc (as they were in Legion). Admittedly this will create the same problem I have is that its an army that probably wont see the tabletop in AoD (or perhaps is more suited to a skirmish level game), but if you enjoy the modelling project then thats worthwhile in my book!

[MoriyaSchism]

On 9/4/2025 at 1:01 PM, Pacific81 said:

 

 

A Sons of Horus Reaver. The Forge World miniatures I thought were quite plain (and expensive for what they are) so I looked at alternatives. On the grounds that these guys almost sound like proto-Berserkers (you can imagine them going that way eventually) I used the 40k Berserker box as a base. I removed all of the Chaos and Khorne markings (that took a *lot* of time, these guy have a lot of bling!) and once again added some Archie's Forge head and shoulder pad. There are a few Cthonian gang markings on his axe and also a few extra spikes here and there, to try and match the artwork we have of a Reaver in the HH books

These look fantastic. The scale of the modern Chaos Space Marine range is perfect and some of them look great as Heresy Era Marines when cleaned up. Great for late Heresy traitors and the Death Guard range is excellent for Mark III if you want to put in the work to clean them.