I painted a Contemptor Dreadnought, a Kratos, and some infantry, so now it was time to add a worthy leader to my Sons of Horus strikeforce. The Praetor with double-handed axe is my favourite model from the new Horus Heresy range, and I wanted to do the model justice.

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Front view of a Sons of Horus Praetor with double-handed axe, painted by Stahly
Side view of a Sons of Horus Praetor with double-handed axe, painted by Stahly
Back view of a Sons of Horus Praetor with double-handed axe, painted by Stahly
Side view of a Sons of Horus Praetor with double-handed axe, painted by Stahly

I think the Sons of Horus Praetor is just amazing. I love the bulk of his artificer MkVI armour, and the baroque style of his armour feels so John Blanche and is so different from the more gothic 40k power armour designs.

Front view of a Sons of Horus Praetor with double-handed axe, painted by Stahly

I made a little conversion and gave him one of the Eye of Horus chaos icons from the current Chaos Space Marines kits, and also painted an alternate custom-printed head for the model to add some more Sons of Horus flavour. A similar head can also be found in the official Sons of Horus upgrade pack from Forge World, but I want to save these for when we’ll hopefully get some plastic MkV at some point.

Cinematic moody shot of a Sons of Horus Praetor with double-handed axe

The Sons of Horus Praetor painted

Here is a 360 shot of the model. The cloak was painted mainly with drybrushing, inspired by Juan Hidalgo’s Fulgrim tutorial, in which he used a similar technique for painting Fulgrim’s cape.

Teaser image of Stahly's Patreon exclusive Sons of Horus masterclass tutorial

You can find a tutorial for my Sons of Horus here, and on Patreon, there is a more in-depth version that also covers vehicles and the Praetor’s details, such as the burgundy cloak, caucasian skin, and black hair.

Cinematic shot of a small Sons of Horus army, consisting of a Kratos tank, Tactical Support Squad, Praetor, and Contemptor Dreadnought

And here are all the models so far. Not that many yet, but with the Sons of Horus Praetor painted, it’s an HQ choice, tank, Dreadnought, and infantry unit. Feels like the beginning of a small army. Make sure to check out my Contemptor Dreadnought, Kratos Heavy Assault Tank, and Tactical Support Squad if you want to see more of this collection. I’m not sure what I’m going to paint next, I guess it will be the Land Raider Proteus I reviewed here.

Please leave a reaction or comment below, or, if you got any questions, you are invited to join our friendly hobby Discord channel here. Happy hobbying!