There’s one model I’m really keen to finish this year: Horus Ascended. I painted about half of this colossal Primarch back in the spring, but then took a break to work on some Skaven and other models. Now, I’m finally getting back to it.

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As I mentioned above, I paused work on Horus due to all the hype around Skaventide, and painted up some Skaven Clanrats for a tutorial. After that, I really wanted to get started on my Warcry terrain collection. But I’d sworn to myself that I’d finish this model this year, so next up was the fur and the cape.

WIP shot of the backside of the Horus Ascended model on a black background, painted by Stahly
Model kindly provided by Games Workshop Ltd.

For the fur, I’ve opted for a white wolf fur, which is lighter than the fur on the studio paint job. This is, of course, a nod to the Lunar Wolves. I primed the fur black and zenithally highlighted it with white, then built up the shading with diluted Vallejo Xpress Color Zombie Flesh and Pro Acryl Black Wash, and drybrushed and highlighted with Reaper Master Series Leather White.

The cape is drybrushed, too. I started with a basecoat of Two Thin Coats Amphora Red, followed by heavy drybrushing with TTC Asmodeus Red and TTC Emperor Red, then light brushing with Vallejo Model Color Vermilion. I glazed the transitions with diluted TTC Asmodeus Red and TTC Emperor Red, and highlighted with VMC Vermilion and AK 3rd Gen Dead Red. Instead of gold, I painted the applications black, which I think suits the black armour better.

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

You can grab the complete step-by-step tutorial for my Sons of Horus scheme here in my Patreon shop (or by becoming an Autarch tier member). I also got other “grimdark” tutorials for Imperial Fists, Emperor’s Children, and Blood Angels there.

Sons of Horus Horus Ascended WIP image 2
Current state of Horus‘ front

Next up is the final assembly, and a few small repairs to bits that broke off during painting. Then all that’s left is the glow effect around Horus’ head, and of course the display base. Fingers crossed I can finish it this year!

I hope you all have a lovely festive period. Check back on Tale of Painters over the next few days, as every year we post our look back at our hobby year with all our painted models.

Feel free to leave a reaction, or drop a comment below, I’m also happy to answer any questions on our friendly hobby Discord server. Thanks a lot, and happy hobbying!