+ Squad Redemptor, First Host +
The veins on Raphael's neck stood out as he tried to resist the Krell's psychic attack; but his limbs felt distant – oddly empty. His will was being displaced by a being of greater strength; balled-up and confined. The loss of agency was horrifying, humiliating. He retained all awareness his posthuman sensations could feed him; but his panicked mind had no way of acting upon them. Unable even to move his eyes, his peripheral vision nevertheless picked up the other members of the squad. They moved slowly, with the same jerky, alien motion as the Nai – and himself. He screamed impotently, wordlessly, as his arms rose, bringing his boltgun up to draw a bead on his brother, Barbarigo.
A heaviness, like that preceding a storm, permeated the air. Briefly he felt the Krell's domination waver and recede – just enough to jerk his hands and throw the shot off. In that moment, everything seemed to slow; and he heard a distant chittering at the edge of hearing. He strained to hear it, but it receded at the same moment the Terminators arrived.
Teleportation folded its travellers back into existence in a way that Raphael could never describe; one that made his guts churn and teeth ache, even at a distance. Desperately trying to communicate with the veterans, he felt the iron will of the Krell assume control of his body once more. His head turned aside, he could no longer see his squadmates, but from the sounds of weapons fire, they were – like him – already firing upon their newly-arrived reinforcements.
The boltrounds flattened against the reinforced plate; or spanged off wildly. The Terminators raised their weapons, but not against their brethren. No; they targetted the Krell. Deafeningly heavy firepower lashed the creature, smashing into a luminous field of energy as the Terminators advanced upon it.
It was then Raphael realised why the Terminators were unaffected. As the veterans marched past, ignoring their brethren's fire, they revealed a Librarian. Blue-clad below the waist, he clutched a glittering sword. His hand outraised, the Librarian's psychic hood was crackling with energy. Even a blunt like Raphael could feel the struggle build.
The Librarian leaned forward, as though into the wind; and Raphael struggled again to regain control as his weapon tracked inexorably towards the Librarian.
One of the Terminators pushed through the Krell's psychic field, his helmet and shoulders alive with psychic fire, and seized hold of the bloated creature. Suddenly, with an audible and very final snap, the Krell collapsed to the dusty floor.
Raphael felt the presence in his mind ebb away slowly, allowing him back into control of his post-human body. He was left with a sensation a little like pins-and-needles across his whole frame; and a furious, placeless urgency. He shuddered as he raised himself, muttering an imprecation to Sanguinius to suppress the nauseating urge that was their Chapter's curse.
He breathed out heavily, attempting to balance his humours in the wake of such violation. The other members of the psy-dominated squad were clambering unsteadily to their feet; as were the surviving pair of Nai the Krell had impelled forward with it.
El-Aster was first up. His knife was in his hand; then in the nearest Nai. Over and over again; desperately, violently.
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+ Squad Redemptor +
+ Very much enjoying building these embiggened Terminators for the Alien Wars – if you'd like a go yourself, there's a tutorial here [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. My only slight grumbles are the awkward poses of the stock Aquilon Terminators, and the limited variation is a bit frustrating – I was particularly dismayed to find the two different types (firepike and 'normal') are identical except for the weapons. Even the arms are resculpts from the same base, so the underlying way the arm is held are identical between kits, which I thought was a bit of a shame. Nothing that can't be fixed with a little knifework, so I'm not too choleric about it! +
+ Anyway, four down, one more to go. The torso of the final Terminator seems to have been moved by the household gods. I'm sure it'll turn up. +
Sinistro e Dexter: Brother Martial (Agshekolah 2:09)
Brother Lucello the comely (Tiphareth 3:04)
Brother Lucello the comely (Tiphareth 3:04)
Sergeant Redemptor (Pahaliah 2:01)
Brother Comeccino (Abacyel 2:02)
Brother Comeccino (Abacyel 2:02)
[Absent from pict-capture] Brother Lesandro (Caranial 6:18)
+ A rear shot shows that the backs of the torso and legs are unmodified. While I think the sculpted look works well for Blood Angels, part of me wants to give getting the back to look more like the original sculpts a go. Perhaps I'll order the bits and do one for my Ultramarines, Iron Hands or Iron Warriors? +
+ Note the tilt shield on his pauldron. I'm tempted to add one to his gun, too, as the original inspiration does. +
+ The assault cannon itself, as the red colour probably gives away, is also from Space Hulk. It's got some nice details that required it to be posed in a certain way – otherwise the decorations would not hang properly. It's probably not something you'd notice at a casual glance, but missing details like this can give your models a slight sense of 'wrongness'. +
+ Usually arms and legs alternate when walking (i.e. the arm swings backwards as the leg on the same side comes forward, as on Brother Comeccino above), and this tends to make for good naturalistic miniatures. +
+ Here, I've deliberately matched the angles in order to emphasise the weight of the chainfist, and make him look wary – as thought he's prowling slowly. I've added a damaged pad to reinforce the feeling of danger.+
+ The final member of the squad is not yet ready, but as soon as I dig out that torso, I'll pop him up here. My plan is to make a particularly belligerent squad member. The only real distinguishing feature of the original model (from WD139) was that he had a bionic eye. I'm going to riff on that and experiment with a bionic arm and battle damage. +
4 comments:
I'm drooling all over. Fantastic!!
Confession- I have never magnetized a miniature. I am severely tempted to follow your tutorial but try using magnets to make the loadout interchangeable. The cost is so prohibitive that I would only ever build one of these squads. The increased size of the miniatures makes magnets more viable (IMO)
Do you think that using standard terminator arms would look too short for this build? I'm wondering whether magnets at the shoulders or magnets at the wrists are the way to go. Magnets at the wrist gives you more control over the final pose, and terminator armour is powerful enough to wield an assault cannon like you would a sidearm- so it shouldn't look out of place. Magnets at the shoulders seem like less work though.
The squad looks great so far- you've managed to squeeze a lot of variety out of limited poses. Can't wait to see some paint on them.
I don't miss the support struts- I was never married to them as an idea because I don't think they were executed well in any of the existing terminator models. I get the idea of a frame that supports all these extra armour panels but it was always just an unrewarding part to paint.
Similarly, the back of terminator armour has never been particularly exciting- the big vents don't add anything to the design except the sharp angle in the side profile.
Great work!
hello. I think this is a bit late. but the reason of using custodes terminator (aquilon specifically) is to fix it's posture. if you put your terminator's arms too high, then the reason of converting will be nulled.
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