The First Thunder Warriors

The start of a new army! I'm a terrible hobby butterfly, never able to concentrate... Anyway. I've always loved the Thunder Warriors, with their distinctive overlapping banded shoulder pads, their epic helmet crests, their old-fashioned early armour design that is clearly the ancestor of but different to Space Marine Power Armour, and their brutal attitude. They were the Emperor's first genetically modified army, precursor to the Custodes and the Astartes, the army with which he conquered Terra.

So I wanted to bring them to life, on the table top. For a long time I thought about based them on Space Marine models, possibly Chaos bits, with Cadian heads. But they just weren't cool enough, they weren't unique and interesting. But when Age of Sigmar was released, I saw the Stormcast Eternals and wanted to make them into something pre-Heresy. Their beautiful shapes seemed ideal to represent some sort of earlier and more elaborate Power Armour... And then when the official Custodes were released, with so many shared design elements between them and the Stormcast Eternals, I knew what I had to do. I wanted an army of Thunder Warriors to accompany the Custodes, in armour that looked like Custodes but more stripped-down and brutal. Together, they would be ideal to represent the Army of Conquest that united Terra for the Emperor.

These models are only works in progress, in particular they are lacking their backpacks (which will be the new Iron Armour backpacks from Battle for Prospero). But the basic shape is coming together: Stormcast Eternal bodies, heavily trimmed to remove their arms and shoulder pads. Arms from Terminators, with additional shoulder plating from Orruks to give them the classic banded shoulder pads. Heads from the Militarum Tempestus Scions, with plumes from a variety of sources: not quite the "standard" Thunder Warrior conversion, which uses Cadian heads, but there's something about the almost Weird-World-War look of the Scions that I love. I'll switch out the large storm shield when I get another small one: the double-headed eagle is obviously not appropriate for pre-unification Thunder Warriors...

So yes. My plan is to finish these guys, and make another couple of squads. Use them in game as an all-terminator army, probably Space Wolves Champions of Fenris, the Wolves suit the OTT heroic-epic style of the Thunder Warriors. Fluff-wise these guys are clearly larger and tougher than the standard Thunder Warriors. They're probably an elite group, the centre of the battle line alongside the Custodes. I have some ideas along those lines, I'll get them fleshed out for when I'm presenting painted models!
Incidentally, I *love* the new Sector Imperialis bases. I've always been too lazy to do basing, but getting a Sector Imperialis base and then adding some extra junk is something even I can do.