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Hey all,

I'm in the process of putting together a Thousand Sons army - but my problem is I'm really not a fan of a lot of the daemon or daemon engine models they have available.

I've decided to sub in some of the AoS undead models instead, trying to either convert something interesting or use an appropriate model for the daemon I'm replacing. For the daemon prince with wings, I've used a morghast archai (figured the glaive would pass as an axe or sword) and will be painting the 'spirits' as a magical effect (but keeping the rest of it bone/armour to make it look like a dead daemon prince has been brought back to life). For the chaos spawn I've decided to use spirit hosts and will be converting them to be escaping from broken pieces of rubric armour.

I was wondering what I could possibly use in place of the tzaangors and heldrake. I was considering using skeleton warriors for the tzaangors, potentially painting them as ghost-like and have them crawling out of the sand - but it didn't feel like a great fit. I'm tempted to use a mortarch for the heldrake. Any other ideas?

I'm also curious how these alternate models and conversions would go down at tournaments. I'm not a tournament player but wouldn't necessarily like to rule out attending them in future!

I am here because I would like some alternative Heldrake. I really, really hate that model.

These are my conversions for Helldrakes. It's just a Maulerfiend and Helldrake mashed together essentially.

(Post exalted for showing me the coolest biomechanical dragon thing I've seen all day.)

Yeah that's awesome. I'm also looking at getting a jump on a new tsons army before the codex shows up and things become scarce. That's a sweet idea for a helldrake.

Aie, this is one of those times that I curse GW for discontinuing the Tomb Kings line. They had some of the perfect models for T-Sons:



That thing alone served as the basis for Maulerfiends, Forge Fiends and even Grey Knight Dreadknight-count-as conversions. Even Heldrakes if you got creative (those stone wings could actually make the thing fly).

But enough reminiscing on the past.

For Heldrakes, I would recommend the Frostheart Phoenix. While it doesn't fit their egyptian theme as well, it is a magical creature and would be in line with the T-sons conjuring some kind of greater warp daemon instead of relying on a machine. It also fits the Tzeentch theme of birds. Unfortunately, I don't really know what I can suggest for Tzaangors, as if you decided to use the phoenix, they'd fit even better (birds of a feather eh?)

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:


For Heldrakes, I would recommend the Frostheart Phoenix. While it doesn't fit their egyptian theme as well, it is a magical creature and would be in line with the T-sons conjuring some kind of greater warp daemon instead of relying on a machine. It also fits the Tzeentch theme of birds. Unfortunately, I don't really know what I can suggest for Tzaangors, as if you decided to use the phoenix, they'd fit even better (birds of a feather eh?)

Fantastic idea, the flamespyre phoenix would look fantastic covered in blue flames too! As the Tzaangors go I actually quite like them, and like you say with the Phoenix in there it seems quite fitting.

Going back to my original post though, how are these alternate/converted models generally viewed at tournaments? The base sizes are all the same but I imagine there would be complaints with 40k using true LoS now.

Unfortunately I cannot answer for Tournaments as I don't regularly attend them. But general rule of thumb seems to be as long as the relative size is the same (i.e height, wingspan, length and "paunch"), is on the correct base, and is easily distinguishable as to what it is (don't bring two phoenixes with minute differences and then call one a Heldrake and the other a Helltalon), then most people won't have a problem.

If you're already using morghasts and spirit hosts, why not a mortarch mount for a heldrake? I use them in my vampire themed night lords army and they work fine. Same base size, same average height in the air. And now that Heldrakes don't really have specific flying rules to stop charging/being charged, being on a flight stand doesn't make much sense for them.

this is my Tzeentch Heldrake

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
These are my conversions for Helldrakes. It's just a Maulerfiend and Helldrake mashed together essentially.

Great minds think alike! Spoilered because the images are larger than anticipated.

Considering looks I think Legion Breachers are perfect alternative to Rubric Marines as they are heavily armored and their Mk. II/III bolter looks really heavy duty compared to more sleek later models. Also the soulreaper cannon can be modelled with FW 30k rotor cannon.
All in all, using FW legion breachers instead as Rubric Marines is great option if for some reason one doesn't want to use normal GW models.

(Post exalted for showing me the coolest biomechanical dragon thing I've seen all day.)

Cheers

Great minds think alike! Spoilered because the images are larger than anticipated.

Oh man, yours looks awesome. I was seriously debating about putting them on the flying stands when I was doing up the conversion. I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't be able to pose them correctly if they were flying high like that, but clearly you were able to pull it off well. Good job.

It's funny, when the dinobots and hellturkey came out back in 6th. Everyone hated them. All I thought was, why didn't they put these two models together? It would look like an actual dragon.

Ghorgul wrote:
Considering looks I think Legion Breachers are perfect alternative to Rubric Marines as they are heavily armored and their Mk. II/III bolter looks really heavy duty compared to more sleek later models. Also the soulreaper cannon can be modelled with FW 30k rotor cannon.
All in all, using FW legion breachers instead as Rubric Marines is great option if for some reason one doesn't want to use normal GW models.

I'm looking at doing something similar with my Thousand Sons army. Without going into the background, I'm looking at using breacher shields with Rubric bodies to represent Thousand Sons Plague Marines.

Ravingbantha wrote:
I'm looking at doing something similar with my Thousand Sons army. Without going into the background, I'm looking at using breacher shields with Rubric bodies to represent Thousand Sons Plague Marines.

Not gonna lie, that sounds very extreme to me, but cool nonetheless! Gonna be some sweet looking models if you get it done, rubrics are so cool, they just don't fit the Night Lords aesthetic I'm going for.

 Drasius wrote:

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
These are my conversions for Helldrakes. It's just a Maulerfiend and Helldrake mashed together essentially.

Great minds think alike! Spoilered because the images are larger than anticipated.

Spoiler:

Awesome paint job

Those are sick. Wish I had that skill level on painting.