inload: Salamanders Terminators

+ Under burning sands and rocks, Salamanders emerge +

+ A quick look at some minor progress in the Dust of Armageddon project. +

+++

Ambition's great, but is can also be restrictive, and January's a great moment to say to yourself 'This idea has been lurking half-baked for too long – just get moving.'

It's with this in mind – and spurred on by seeing pict-captures from a Badab-themed game between Omricon and Bob Hunk – that I dug out some sprues that have lurked unbuilt since the release of 10th edition 40k, and set to building.

+ Librarian +

The stock version of this sculpt is awesome, but I couldn't help myself when it came to building him, and made some simple changes to personalise him a bit:

 

The head's from the Terminator squad, and fits nicely with an artwork that's stuck with me, of a power-armoured Librarian from Codex: Armageddon. Perhaps this chap is the same figure at a later stage of his career?

Beyond that, the brazier is from a Chaos figure, I believe – maybe the chap yelling and waving a book? – and the rest of the conversion work is little more than a slight repose on the axe arm.

+ Commander +

Every force needs someone in charge, and so this Terminator captain has stepped into the fray. The thunder hammer is from the old Space Hulk Terminators (I've made this picture black and white to hide the red plastic), and is understated – clearly a figure who appreciates that less is sometimes more in craftsmanship. I've tweaked the wrists and positioned the head to be looking upwards as something even bigger than he is: I wanted a wary but determined and confident look. 

While adding the details like the tongs and brazier (like the head, all taken from the Salamanders upgrade sprue), I couldn't help hearing that line from the Marvel Thor film:

'You're big. I've fought bigger!'

+ Elites +

What are officers without their troops? The last things built were a Terminator squad. These are pretty much straight from the box, though I swapped the arms around, added some details like tilt shields, votaries and such like from various marine kits, just to differentiate them from the other push-fit models.

Nothing here was particularly difficult or notable, beyond scraping off the Terminator sergeant marking on the marine at the back. I already used another copy of that base figure as the sergeant for my other Terminator squad (below), and wanted to avoid duplication.

Prior to building, I also worked a little on some of the models that have been lurking too. This was fairly monotonous: painting the bases, the hands and picking out blacks on the figures. It's odd coming back to figures after a long time. I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of things, but for the moment it's still feeling a bit untethered!