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Long story short, I have a Thousand Sons army that has multiple Cult factions within it, I'm trying my best to stay with a look that is Thousand Sons all the way through. I'm looking to do some Plague Marines to represent members of the Order of the Jackal from the original TS legion. I'm using things like Khenetai Occult Blade Cabal for my Bezerkers and Noise Marines will be part of the Order of Ruin using Noise Marine upgrade on Rubric Marines. The problem I'm having is trying to figure out how to represent Plague Marines with Thousand Sons.

So far I have 2 ideas: The first one is probably the much cooler option, but may be far beyond my ability to do and make look right. This involves cutting away section of each mini to show massive battle damage and possibly have some sort of sand or smoke coming out. The second option is to use Rubric Marines with Breacher shields and then equipping them with the appropriate weapons and I'm considering a few options on the paint for them. If i go this route I'm looking at the head crests have alternating lines of green and brown, green shoulder pads, and marking the shields with 3 small Thousand Sons legion Icons (think Nurgle's Icon) as their insignia on the shields and shoulder pads. I'm also considering adding a rust effect to the paint job as well.

Like I said, I'm really leaning towards the second option of using the shields instead since I'm not convinced I can do the conversion very well, but if anyone has any better ideas, I'm open to thoughts and suggestions.

What if the "Plague Marines" were recent recruits touched by the horrific mutations which inspired the Rubric in the first place? If the mutations were painted in traditionally Nurgleish colors while the armor was TS it would convey what you're going for I think.

Yeah, the usual 'fleshy' Nurgle look with dangling intestines etc doesn't seem right for TS.

Don't know what your 'pure' TS look like, but would it be possible to modify that by adding massive corrosion, rust, tarnish, etc, via paint effects after some careful scalpel damage?

 Clang wrote:
Yeah, the usual 'fleshy' Nurgle look with dangling intestines etc doesn't seem right for TS.

Don't know what your 'pure' TS look like, but would it be possible to modify that by adding massive corrosion, rust, tarnish, etc, via paint effects after some careful scalpel damage?

By 'pure' TS I'm going for every model to have something in common with the Legion in some way. I'm looking at using the Forgeworld Scarab Terminators for my DeathGuard Termiantors because they are both wearing Cataphractii Terminator armor instead of the other patterns. My standard CSM will be 30K models with some TS upgrades, I'll probably use Scimitar Jetbikes for Bloat Drones, all characters will incorperate Thousand Sons bits, Bezerkers and Noise Marines will both use TS models, I'm considering using Rubrics as a base for Possessed units. my tanks have TS upgrades (forgeworld and third party ones), even my Dark Apostle uses a Thousand Sons Helmet. I've got a number of conversions already for the army, this is just one spot where I am stuck.

Don't use em. Plague marines got nerfed in 8th ed. With the loss of pistols and poisoned weapons getting way worse, the only thing going for them so far is 1 extra toughness. If the new book makes em 2 wounds or gives em pistols back at least they'd be significantly better.

I would give the first option a try. Pick up a jar of sand texture paste and practice on sprues. It’s pretty easy to use, just brush on and let it dry.
Additionally it might be cool to flip the Rubric scheme so that they look like weathered bronze statues plodding around.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6e/2b/71/6e2b711cfca377c35f4c8966e1964fa3.jpg

 Drummernathan wrote:
Don't use em. Plague marines got nerfed in 8th ed. With the loss of pistols and poisoned weapons getting way worse, the only thing going for them so far is 1 extra toughness. If the new book makes em 2 wounds or gives em pistols back at least they'd be significantly better.

My collection ins't based on what's good and what's not. I play with the units I like and I find ways to win with them. My current tourny list that has so far won all games I've used it in, would probably considered a crapy list to play with.

You could paint your plague marines like old corroded statue constructs the Thousand Sons use in battle. Make them rusted iron or tarnished verdigrised bronze. Less organic nastiness and more old magical robots.

Or heck just use the Imperial Robots that the Thousand Sons had a whole army of as your Plague Marines.

 Badablack wrote:
You could paint your plague marines like old corroded statue constructs the Thousand Sons use in battle. Make them rusted iron or tarnished verdigrised bronze. Less organic nastiness and more old magical robots.

Or heck just use the Imperial Robots that the Thousand Sons had a whole army of as your Plague Marines.

I'm looking at using those robots for things like Forgefiends, Helforged Predators, Decimators and things like that.

Your hellforged predator comment has me intrigued, I'm looking forward to seeing the imagination of that idea..

Sauragnmon wrote:
Your hellforged predator comment has me intrigued, I'm looking forward to seeing the imagination of that idea..

Right now I am side tracked with trying out an evil clown them for my Death Guard, but I do have some ideas how it might work out.

That's an interesting idea too, I'm curious now.