“I was never a Son of Horus.
I was and remain a Luna Wolf.
A proud son of Cthonia,
a loyal servant of the Emperor,
beloved by all.
I am your enemy.”
Garviel Loken
Well but indeed he is the Captain of the 10th Company of the Sons of Horus, one of my favourite characters of the Horus Heresy novels. I always wanted my Sons of Horus to be the bad guys on the tabletop battlefield but here and there I would like to step away from this guideline. That’s when Loken fills in best. I would for example really like to field him against Flattervieh’s Kharn. Of course I can’t use everything I have that day, like the Justaerin. But for a special scenario that should be no problem at all.
You might ask why I changed his head and chose a helmet. I really don’t want to hate on the sculpt Forge World came up with. That’s great work for sure. My problem is just that I’ve always pictured Loken to look different. I mean I read the books first and had quite a clear image in mind how that dude is supposed to look like and that’s nothing like the result Forge World came up with. That’s not like Abaddon who we are all familiar with since the day Jes Goodwin came up with his great sketches for him. But as I don’t have any influence on what the official designers do or won’t do, I came up with quite a simple idea. During the course of the novels Loken often puts on a helmet, et voilà. I went for a more imperial look with that roman crest on top as I’ve always imagined that this is a bit more the look of the good guys (there are counterexamples of course).
As I had finished the paint job for Abaddon some weeks before, I had to paint their huge scenic base of course, too. This was a bit weird, because this has to be the first item I ever painted which is not supposed to be for a game but for the shelf only. While I did I noticed a problem which forced me to come up with a little conversion. Both Forge World and Games Workshop are putting their Space Marines on 32mm bases now as they think this looks better. Unfortunately I really share their opinion on this matter. Therefore Loken was my first Space Marine on a bigger base. The problem now was that the scenic base was designated for a small base, thus I had to work with neodym magnets again.
Garviel Loken
The Captain of the 10th Company of the Sons of Horus.
The famous duel between Loken and Abaddon on Isstvan III.
While I like my Power Armours to be crisp and clean, some dirty pigments on the ground are not a bad idea at all.
Abaddon was fortunately not in need of a base conversion.
At first I fancied the idea to paint the armour parts on the ground in a different colour (I favoured Emperor’s Children), but then I figured that this here is a special Sons of Horus only event.
An epic scene for sure!
Here you can see how Loken will switch between the battle field and his place on the scenic base.