The Ahriman With A Plan

Now the Rubrics are all dusted off, let's finish with the man who started it all...



More than any other model - even Magnus himself - Ahriman is synonymous with his legion. He's up there with Khârn the Betrayer, Typhus, or Lucius the Eternal - only with the best series of novels to back him up, and a sweet ride to scoot around on.


It surprises even me that, despite a deep dive into Thousand Sons for the past two years, that I hadn't got this model earlier.

This was partly an attempt to forge my own characters for the warband (something I find that falls away once you have such a big named character in there). My impression of him was also soured by his appearance (via proxy) in my very first Thousand Sons battle where he got beaten-up by a Tech-Priest (that's what you get for using proxies).


The main factor holding me back was that I was a bit intimidated by the sculpt, and worried that I might stuff up the painting. The box art actually isn't my favourite, so I didn't have anything to directly copy from, and I was left to the rather-limited palette of my imagination.


It turns out, I needn't have worried. I had a great time painting this model, and am pleasantly surprised with how it turned out.

I didn't approach it in the usual way (metallics, armour, cloth etc) - I just picked a bit I wanted to paint and went for it. Continuing like that, little and often, did the trick. It also helped that, by this time, I had painted nine other sorcerers. So I had a fair amount of experience to lean on.


With Ahriman, there's not a whole lot remaining for my Thousand Sons (I have more than enough models for even the largest game). In game terms, I think he will be even more effective than Magnus, so I'll have to use him judiciously, but I daresay there's some fun to be had.


I'm now thinking I want to do a 'Chaos Champions' quartet - just have to wait on the release of a plastic Lucius...