40k conversion musings: Thousand Sons!

So if you've been keeping up with this blog for its short life span you may have guessed that I am a fan of the Death Guard when it comes to my Chaos Marines.  I love the lads of plague and Mortarion and have been in love since 3rd edition 40k.  So now we are here in 7th edition and CSM are in a mediocre position.  Many loved units are either in disfavor or just not as good as some other choices in the codex.  One of the units that have fallen deeply in disfavor are the Thousand Sons.

Looks badass, not so much on the table. Credit: warhammer40k.wikia.com

These possessed suits of ancient armor have such great lore but they just seem to fail on the table as many people will leave them for other more useful units (read: Plague Marines).  That doesn't quite stop me from wanting to do some conversion work as the standard GW models are just...well...outdated.  Great when they first came out, now with some of the CAD work they've done they are starting to show their age.  So without further ado here is what I am thinking of for conversion parts:

Heads/Shoulders

With these I am going to capitalize on the whole Egyptian theme and while Puppetswar have plenty of other options, I felt that going with 2 10 man squads these would be my prime choice.  I figure I would use the Egyptian god pads for the squad, and go with Forgeworld's 1k Sons shoulder pads to represent legion.

Torso/Backpacks/Tabards

 

I am going to pick up the chest pieces from Spellcrow as I like the chest pieces since they are not as crazy detailed and offer some form of cohesiveness for the unit.  I've always envisioned the 1k Sons dust suits to not be the "personality focus" like the sorcerer would be.  Sort of like the countless legions of death with a few differentiating figures.  Like pre-Ward Necrons.  I am going to grab the tabards and backpacks from Wargame Exclusive.

I could go all out and grab some alternative legs/arms/bolters but truth me told I am ok with GW's CSM standard bits for those parts.  I think with the above bits I should be good to go for the majority of the unit.  I am still hunting down some parts I want to use for the sorcerers as I want them to stand out more than the dust suits.  I might need to look at some other sites or just brainstorm some more with the aforementioned, I might just grab some tomes from Wargame Exclusive or something.

Until next time fellow gamers have a good one, and have fun out there!