+ First Company, Squad Redemptor +
+ Sustainers; First-amongst-equals of the War Eternal under Master Formosus, Lord of the Host, Master of the divided Legion and heir of Sanguinius +
+ Terminators are a troop type that I've always liked, and yet rarely used. Since I moved to building larger 'art/truescale' marines, I've tried lots of different ways to make Terminators to match, and – until these ones – never really found a way that hit the mark for me. I'm very proud of these, though. I think they capture the brutal walking tank aesthetic nicely, and – unless they're pictured next to another model – are convincingly familiar to the standard models. – thinking about it, I should probably have got some pictures of them against some aliens! +
+ The tutorial, if you want to have a go yourself, is probably lurking at the top of the + High-access Datacores + to the left, as it's long been the most popular post on the blog. If it's not there, here's an inlink [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. +
+ Anyway, a mere two years and three months after building this squad, I've finally spent the three evenings necessary to paint them – funny how timings work. I'm delighted with how they've come out, so brace brace brace for a wall o' pics! +
+ SQUAD REDEMPTOR +
Sinistro e Dexter:
Brother Lucello the comely (Tiphareth 3:04)
Brother Comeccino (Abacyel 2:02)
Sergeant Redemptor (Pahaliah 2:01)
Brother Lesandro (Caranial 6:18)
Brother Martial (Agshekolah 2:09)
Additional
Brother Etruscus (El Neqemah 7:01)
+++
+ Sergeant Redemptor (Pahaliah 2:01) +
+ Terminators are heroes of the Chapter, so they're all decked out with widgets, doobries, charms and honour markings – though I've not gone completely over the top. Large as these models are, I want to avoid them drowning in details in order to keep them recognisable as related to the squad in White Dwarf 139. +
+ Blue and turquoise gems abound on these models, adding some eye-catching points to lead the viewer around. +
+ The original's power sword was all gold; I've made it a little less gaudy and restricted the gold to the decoration near the hilt. The gold is washed with purple to enrich it and harmonise with the red. +
+ Similarly, the originals have yellow-cased bolters. I couldn't decide whether to follow that or tie them in with the rest of the army, and compromised on black casings with yellow markings. Note that Redemptor's chapter marking is yellow on black, as per the rest of the sergeants. +
+ A fun bit of freehand, this is a direct copy of the original's banner. Looking at it here, I might add a decoration to the top. The original had a skull – but perhaps one modelled after an ork or genestealer skull might be a fun update/homage? +
+++
+ Brother Lesandro (Caranial 6:18) +
+ As standard a Terminator as you get; storm bolter and power fist. The base models – Forge World's Adeptus Custodes Aquilon Terminators – arelovely, but limited in pose. After making the tweaks mentioned in the tutorial [REF: above], I made sure to add some bits taken from the Space Hulk Terminators, as I had loads of their bits left after making my truescale Ultramarines, the Praetors of Calth, many years ago. +
+ The spiked pad – from Master-Crafted Miniatures, though I've modified it by trimming away all but a few spikes – injects a bit of modernity to the army , preventing it being a slavish recreation. This modelling decision meant that I had to adapt the freehand Crux Terminatus, making it smaller and pairing it with a Company symbol: the '1' on the rear of the pad. +
+ As with the rest of the army, Squad Redemptor's been marked with the Army badge – the small blue circle. I was particularly pleased with the gradient and freehand on the shoulder pads. The large area really gave me space to play. +
+++
+ Brother Martial (Agshekolah 2:09) +
+ The bionic eye, jewels, eye lens and purity seal wax here show the use almost all of the accent colours from my palette – orange, blue, green and purple. It just goes to show that as long as you keep them subtle, you can use a lot of accents without overwhelming the scheme. Note the use of lots of neutrals – the purity seal papers, loincloth/pteruges and neutral gold. These help provide the eye some resting space. +
+ The chainfist is another bit culled from the Space Hulk set. It came with moulded blood drops that fitted nicely in the theme, so I left them. These are a good example of less being more – there's no need to pick them out in a different colour, as they stand out nicely simply through highlighting and shading. +
+ The bionic arm here is from Anvil Industry. Nicely posable, it fits perfectly with these marines and gave me some variety and flexibility beyond the fixed three poses of the base figures. +
+++
+ Brother Lucello the comely (Tiphareth 3:04) +
 |
| + *BRRRRRRRRRRT!* + |
+ Assault cannons are awesome. The big rotary machine guns are a classic Space Hulk image and – for me at least – the iconic Terminator weapon. Lucello here – a good-looking boy, judging by his epithet – is decked out with scanners and details culled from the Space Hulk set, which is also where his assault cannon was sourced. The tilt shield was painted using a little granulation medium on ink, something I've been experimenting with recently. The medium causes the particles in the ink to clump together, leaving a lovely random grainy effect. +
+ The assault cannon has lots of nice details. I had to be careful to match the angle to the original, or the dangly bits would have fought against the composition. It was a less fiddly conversion than I had expected – I had to carve away the forearm of the Terminator to match it to the larger Custodes arm. +
+ At least one of the marines needed the classic Rogue Trader/2nd edition hazard markings, right? In retrospect, perhaps I should have saved this for one of the others marines – Lucello here is in danger of being swamped by details. However, having said 'less is more' above, sometimes you can have too much good taste. A bit of flamboyance is nice, and together with his rather smug name, perhaps suggests something about Lucello's character, don't you think? +
+++
+ Brother Comeccino (Abacyel 2:02) +
+ Tactical Dreadnought Armour is tough, and a bit of weathering and battle damage go a long way to getting that across. The huge holes blown in his pauldron (again, from Master-Crafted Miniatures) catch the eye here, and hint as the squad's resilience. His pose certainly implies he's not been bothered by it. +
+ The skull here is marked with a red roman numeral on the forehead. What it signifies, I have no idea, but it definitely shouts out the madness and ritual of Warhammer 40,000. Leaving details like this unresolved and unexplained adds to the atmosphere. +
+ This rear shot shows the beautiful sculpting on both the Master-Crafted Miniatures piece and the main Forge World body. As the conversion tutorial above explains, there's been extensive modification to the front of the model, but much is left as standard at the back. The sculptural form fits nicely with the Blood Angels, but I think for other Chapters (as with my Ultramarines Captain Aethon [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]) I'd resculpt at least the lower legs, and possible the rear vents to look more like the official Terminator sculpts. +
+++
+ Brother Etruscus (El Neqemah 7:01) +
+ Etruscus was the first one I painted, a while back, and I'm pleased with how closely he matches the rest of the squad. The tufts on the base are something that I've not added to the rest of the army (save Captain Tycho [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]), but I think I will. They add a nice contrasting texture without losing the desert scheme. +
+ The powerfist here has a more subtle band of hazard markings, showing that you can interpret your inspiration in a number of ways. +
+ The Chapter heraldry received a repaint. I had initially painted it with white to help it stand out, but decided to make it black to match the rest of the army, and the squad. +
+++
+ ...and that's the lot for now. I'll leave you with some group pics, and would love to hear your thoughts and feedback. +
4 comments:
Really impressive and imposing termies! Gonna have to resist buying a bunch of of Aquilon parts to copy this... the MC pads, is Artscale Primaris, or for something a little bigger? Not sure what they mean by "larger" warriors.
Not only your working rate is overwhelming, the quality of your output is simply awesome. I do love these termies so much. They have that 'something' that makes them special :)
Cheers TDA; and no need to resist! Would love to see your results. Regarding the Master-Crafted Miniature pads; you're spot on. The Artscale pads are the correct ones; 'larger warriors' is copyright-safe speak for Terminator-sized.
Thanks again, Suber – just trying to keep going while the enthusiasm is high :)
Post a Comment