Justaerin on the cheap: Painting Sons of Horus Justaerin

The Justaerin are part of Horus’s elite troops within the Sons of Horus, and …

When I came to buy some of the Justaerin, I checked the Forge World miniatures first, but hesitated because, when funds are limited, it’s a big chunk to pay out for five miniatures – despite how nice they are. Instead I picked up the Justaerin Upgrade Pack, and used the squad of Cataphractii terminators from the Betrayal at Calth box from Games Workshop. Now with the Calth terminators, the forearms/wrists are pretty chunky, so that they looked a little iffy when I started to cut the hands off them, but with a little whittling they looked decent enough, and I had a five man squad for a fraction of the price. I will say it, they don’t look as good as the Forgeworld ones, but on a budget, they’re decent enough.
Now the Calth terminators don’t have the top knots, which for me is ideal as I’m not a fan, but if you wanted to use them, you could fashion them out of ork top knots from the Ork Boyz boxes which is what I did when making a 40k Horus.

Painting the Justaerin was a remarkably simple process. The reason for the glossy purple power weapons is entirely because I love the look of the colour against the green of the Sons of Horus, so the whole army has them.

Base colours
Tubing, weapons – Vallejo Model Air Chrome
Axe heads – Citadel Xereus Purple
Armour – Undercoat of Citadel Abaddon Black (brushed on – ran out of spray)
Armour trim – Vallejo Model Air Rust
Leather lappets (the dangly leather bits) – Vallejo Beige Brown
Skin – Vallejo Flesh Base
Bionic eyes and lenses – Citadel Mephiston Red
With the base colours complete, the next stage is to shade them. The shading really brings the miniatures to life for me, and it is so easy to do.

Shades
Tubing, weapons – Citadel Nuln Oil
Armour trim – Citadel Agrax Earthshade
Leather lappets – Citadel Agrax Earthshade
Skin – Citadel Seraphim Sepia

Once the shades were dry, I added a little white to Xereus Purple and assed some Crescents to opposite edges of the axeheads – so if there is a lighter crescent on the top ‘handle-side’ of the blade, there would be a crescent on the bottom ‘blade’s edge’ side of it too. Once the first layer was complete, I added a little more white to the mix, and added a slightly smaller crescent to each of them. This process was repeated four times, then a final highlight of pure white was used. Once done, I added a little Citadel Druchii Violet to the darker areas of the blade, then painted it with Citadel ‘Ardcoat Gloss Varnish.

Because I’d brush painted the black undercoat, I took this moment to give it another layer of Citadel Abaddon Black to cover any patchy/streaky areas, before applying highlights of Vallejo German Grey.

Next I painted the grip of the axes with Citadel Mephiston Red, then washed them with Druchii Violet shade. I also used a piece of sponge to apply Vallejo Model Air Steel to the armour to make it look chipped and scuffed.

The skin was also highlighted using Flesh Base, then a further two highlights of a Flesh Base and White mix.

 

With the majority of of the colours done, it was just a case of adding some Model Air Chrome to the studs on the lappets, and a white spot on each of the lenses on each terminator’s helms.  The bionic eye lens was painted using the standard crescent method of painting lenses. A link will be added here when the lenses post goes live.

The bases were started with a little static grass, and some paving slabs from Antenociti’s Workshop.

The Multi-Melta was given the tempered metal effect by using the method shown here.

The slabs were painted in three layers, using Vallejo Dark Seagreen, Vallejo London Grey, then a London Grey/White mix. Citadel Stirland Battlemire was then added for the mud effect.

With that, I called them done. They’re not as detailed as the rest of the Justaerin for my Sons of Horus, but after most of them were wiped out before firing a shot in the last game, I was loath to spend too long on them. Below is a picture of the Justaerin I have to choose from for future battles.

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