The Thousand Sons Circle of the Black Cat
With Adepticon 2026 coming up quickly, it is about time to do an army showcase for my Thousand Sons! My story with Thousand Sons has a few twists and turns, as this army is my third paint scheme going back to the end of 1st edition. That’s probably not terribly interesting, so I will concentrate on this iteration. I started this army in earnest while waiting for 3rd edition to drop. Thousand Sons were by far the worst legion in 2nd edition, and I will be happy to argue that point. I pride myself as a narrative gamer; however, they were terrible. While starting this army for 3rd edition, I just hoped that the Thousand Sons would not be super bad. And having played them quite a bit in 3rd edition, I can attest that they are good! 1 out of 6 armies at Kirokon were Thousand Sons, after basically not seeing them on the table for a couple years.
Speaking a bit about the paint scheme, the red is fully from Medders’ Miniatures. I also took some other pieces from him, but getting the red right on Thousand Sons is the key to the whole thing. You can do the white many ways, but you must get the red down. People often complement me on my blue, which is really my white. However, I do use two blues in that recipe and it, does admittedly, show more blue than white. Nevertheless, it is intentional, and I am also pleased with how that ended up turning out.
To be fair, I have not done a great job of taking good pictures of this army. I caught up on some infantry a couple weeks ago, but while putting this together I realized I was missing the tanks. So, I went back and took some pictures today. They aren’t great…
Like I said, not great pics. Whatevs. I recently added a Rhino wreck to the collection! Wrecks in 3rd edition are awesome, so I have already painted several for various armies. I have a Predator wreck in the works as well!
My Thousand Sons army is unique in that it has a number of allies specifically meant to go with it. The Thousand Sons were allied with the Forge World Zhao-Arkhad, and actually had their own specific Taghmata painted in Thousand Sons red. Now, I love painting that red, but it is a pain. Right around the time this idea was coming together, Medders put out a video about painting Thallax with Speedpaints. Forge World Zhao-Arkhad had its own internal civil war with Taghmata Kiarii staying loyal to the Imperium. My Thousand Sons force was already split off from the legion (which is how they survived), so I decided that my dudes would have some Taghmata Kiarii with them. I used Medders’ recipe for getting a quick bronze but developed my own green. When the Skitarii came out, I naturally added them to the mix as well. I know, the lore says they were their own independent thing. I am still working that cannon out in my head…
Magos Mark Ro Lamda leads my Mechanicum. He is named after my father.
The final (maybe?) ally, I just finished this week. It has been a great project to eat up time while I wait to travel to Adepticon. (Yes, all the stuff that I need painted for Adepticon has been long painted. It is a novel concept but that’s how I roll.) You can read about my experience playing my friend Chris’ Cerastus Knight Acheron in the previous post. The thing was tons of fun and inspired me to do one of my own. My other friend Chris, long ago got me a resin Castigator, so I made those weapons options as well. There is no Knight Household specific to the Thousand Sons or Zhao-Arkhad in the lore, so I labored over paint schemes for days. I even did a bunch of mock-ups, which is not normal for me. I can usually visualize a paint scheme in my head, but I just couldn’t do it this time. After all that, I spent some time perusing Insta for some inspiration. I found a marble scheme I liked, which made me think marble blue would be cool. Marble blue made me think of the sky, which made me think of space! After that, everything quickly came together (in my head this time), and I was able to start banging it out!
I spent over a week on this project, which (for me) is a long time. I generally take copious notes on my projects. On this one, I took not one note. I just painted. It was glorious! On a model of this size, you can keep adding and adding. You have to decide when you want it to be “done.” I added sponged-on battle damage to the chassis itself, but wanted to keep the panels relatively clean. There’s something mystical/mysterious about this Knight. It was also odd for me to use so few decals on this model. I went to town on the banner, which I do regret a bit. That is a detail I may revisit later…
Starkiller is a Freeblade Knight. It is meant to go with the Thousand Sons and Taghmata Kiarii. I have a Questoris Knight painted as House Vyronii, but don’t really endeavor to paint an entire Household.
Anyway, back to the main force at large: the Thousand Sons. As everyone knows (obviously), the majority of Thousand Sons were killed at Prospero. However, I think there are more that survived than most people know. The Fifth Fellowship survived Prospero and later sided with the Loyalists. The Fourth Fellowship was sent away from Prospero but was later killed to a man in a short story. Revuel Arvida is the lone survivor from that massacre. However, the Fourth Fellowship comprised around 5,000 Space Marines alone, and the Fellowships were further broken down into Circles (which are rarely discussed). So, my army comprises the Second Circle of the Fourth Fellowship. I was extremely happy to find some Egyptian-style cat art to work in as the special symbol for my army. You can see in my bio on this very site that I have a black cat named Shadow!
I have painted Ahriman for this army but just field him as a Librarian named Not’Ahriman. The actual leader of the Second Circle is Zha’karos, Harbringer of Sorrows, which is the model in Terminator Armour. All of my other characters have names as well, but I will save you that pain.
Some battle photos from my Iceworld set-up! I need to do this again soon!
This was one of those armies that ballooned to the size of my Dark Angels and White Scars. If Dark Angels were my 1st edition army and White Scars my 2nd, Thousand Sons have become my early 3rd edition army. I have so many things that are partially painted. I have a bunch of stuff built from my first two attempts at this army. 40K Thousand Sons, Tomb Kings, etc. have been a smorgasbord of bits for this army! And if you know me, you know I love modularity. You can see the Master of Signals in one of the pictures above. I also modeled it so that he has a Thunder Hammer that fits right in his open right hand and can be magnetized to the base. This allows him to be fielded as a Siege Master! One of my favorite models is the character with the winged backpack (from the 40K TS Sorcerer box). The idea is that this can be used either as a jump pack or not. And I put considerable time into those feathers! Additionally, his arms are magnetized. I just haven’t even done any other options for him now, as Lightning Claws are a really great option!
Some people might ask, considering that Thousand Sons arcanas can only be taken on non-vehicles, why did you paint a bunch of vehicles? Well, that is exactly why! When the rules dropped, I thought the arcanas were pretty powerful. After having played a bunch, I can say that they really aren’t. Athanaean is useful because Clarity essentially works as a Nuncio Vox but can be taken on units that cannot take Voxes. It also gives you a nice little shooting attack with Panic (1). I originally thought Pyrae was more useful with its melee attack, but it is only one attack per round. It is still useful, especially on a model that only had one attack anyway. Thousand Sons depend on reactions to get much of their powers off. And once you start rolling checks, you start killing your own dudes. Corvidae has a nice power that allows you to give your shooting attacks Rending (5+), which is cool until you kill three of your own tactical marines just to get it off! There are some combos that you can get into, like combining Rending with weapons with Breaching (Plasma Guns, Aether-Fire Blasters, Seekers’ Kraken Bolters…). Aether-Fire Blasters with this combo delete 2-wound models, including Terminators. Seekers have been a bit of boogeyman in this edition. I have five for this army. They are already bullet sponges in any army, but comboing Corvidae with 4+ Breaching bolters is legit. However, you have a great chance of killing 1-3 of your own guys to get it off. Trust me, I have done it!
I don’t mind a bit of risk/reward. However, I started playing with Dark Angels in 6th edition. I learned early that I had a talent for rolling 1s with plasma. It never seemed to be a reward for me. My plasma guys generally died turn 1 without ever having done anything for me. In editions where plasma has a normal profile and overcharge profile, I love plasma. I like having player agency. Thousand Sons gives me agency because I can choose not to use certain powers. Psychic weapons can be used without being supercharged. If I want to supercharge them, I can, but I don’t have to! Nevertheless, I still end up doing this mental calculus on if various arcanas/powers are “worth it.” I have done plenty of math, but this ends up being shaped by experience as well. A 16% chance of rolling doubles might sound small in the abstract, but it might seem more like 50/50 in practice. And when you need it to go off in a key situation and you instead end up killing your own dudes, that can be a feel bad. After experimenting, I often end up finding myself taking what I perceive as more reliable/predictable choices.
Here is my 1500 point list for the Adepticon Doubles Event! I will probably continue to refine the format, but this is what I am taking!
For a long time, I struggled with getting what I saw as a cohesive force that would also be balanced and fun to play. I also needed to bounce it off of Chris’ Warhounds. I really wanted to get both Predators in the list as well.
As far as infantry, I wanted to take an elite force. I have three characters, two elites units, and a tactical squad with combat vets. Job done. The Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnought has become the lynchpin of my army. Utilized correctly, he is nearly unkillable (in fact, he does die because I often mess up on my own MO).
All the tanks are ebay rescues. The Rhino had the havoc launcher on it already. The volkite Predator was built that way and I couldn’t break it down more than being able to switch the sponsons. The other Predator is modular. I have several magnetized options for the main gun. The multi-melta is stuck on, which is a bit annoying. It is extremely expensive for something that generally ends up doing very little. Oh well.
Yup. This is a nice, tight force. I had various other iterations with maybe some more powerful units, but this is a friendly event. I always end up “optimizing” my list at some point and then walking it back again. I consider this list optimized because it checks the boxes of being cohesive, balanced, fun to play with/against, and so on!
As an interesting aside, I did paint a 3d printed Titan leg! It is meant to be from Legio Xestobiax, which is the Titan Legio from Zhao-Arkhad. I do have a Warhound that I plan to build and paint one of these days. Will it walk in the Legio Xestobiax colors? Time will tell. In the meantime, I have this nice piece of themed terrain.
Conclusion
Well, that wraps up the third of my army showcases! Stay tuned here as I adventure to Adepticon again!
In the meantime, you can check me out Instagram or Facebook!
