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Terminator Squad Helios


Tranc

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So I've been working on this Terminator squad, which is the last unit I need to complete my 6th edition Ultramarines army. Most of them were painted circa 2012, but I hope to have the squad completed by year's end... (Yeah, I know I'm a little late pinch.gif)

My first terminator was this classic metal sculpt, painted in 2010:

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I was going with a Greek key motif for this guy, and decided to restrict myself to the Greek colors blue & white:

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I have a hard time sticking to the same color scheme for every model, so this guy was my experiment in red, white, blue & beige. I also used Ultramarine Blue instead of the Enchantment Blue / Regal Blue combination I used on most of the others:

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I was thinking French knight when I came up with this guy's blue & gold color scheme, hence the heraldic shield and gold filigree on the power fist. He was also an experiment to see if I could airbrush a two tone base coat, and then get away with just line/spot highlighting with a manual brush.

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Finally, a non-Black Reach terminator! His theme was lots of laurels. The shoulder shield was from Scibor miniatures.

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More to follow (hopefully by year's end!)

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I really like these models. Also, I agree wholeheartedly with the whole concept - each piece of TDA is supposed to be a relic in '40k', so it stands to reason they would be ornate and a little more unique than the still mass produced armour sets. Who says Grey Knights get all the heraldic fun? 

 

Really nice execution. 

Those are lovely!

Can you share the recipe for the blue?

Certainly, though I am still working my way through my pots of old version Citadel paints.

Most of the terminators were basecoated in Regal Blue, and shaded with Regal Blue + a little bit of Chaos Black (dark lined in pure Chaos Black). Layered highlights were painted with Regal Blue + increasing amounts of Enchantment Blue. Line highlights were done with Enchantment Blue + a little Skull White. I painted many of these before I started using spot highlights, but if I re-did them, the line highlights would become brighter at certain points where I would paint a glare in pure Skull White.

The blue, beige & red terminator was basecoated in Ultramarines Blue. Shading was done with Ultramarines Blue + a little bit of Chaos Black, while highlighting was done with Ultramarines Blue + a little bit of Skull White.

The terminator with the filigree on his power fist was airbrushed in Vallejo Air Steel Blue, with a highlight coat of a lighter blue (I believe it was Vallejo Air French Blue, but can double check if you are going this route). Line highlights were then painted on manually with Enchantment Blue + increasing amounts of Skull White.

Below: A second cyclone missile launcher armed terminator. I spent some time doodling that pattern on his power fist. Maybe he fought along side the Space Wolves?

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  • 1 month later...

Hi,

I finished a couple more terminators for my squad, these last two are based on the Cataphractii and Tartaros patterns of tactical dreadnought armour.

I had some difficulty painting the Cataphractii, in particular because of the large amounts of metallic gold that I used. While the surface of GW plastics are usually quite smooth, Forge World resign often has a lot of warps and miscasts, and metallic paint really makes them stand out due to the way that light reflects off of it. I did enjoy painting the battle honour of the First Pacification of Luna on his right pauldron, however, which I believe was the first major engagement of the XIIIth legion. Since 40K terminators can't take combi-plasmas, the right arm is magnetized.

A warning to anyone who plans to assemble cataphractii, it's really easy to damage the upper rims of the shoulder pads while cutting/shearing off the excess resin, so take special care. I ruined one set :-(

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The Tartaros pattern terminator bears the Invictarus eagle on his left greave, and what was supposed to be the leonine marquetry commemorating the Segmentum Solar campaigns on his right. Unfortunately, I failed to notice the two horse-like creatures in the negative space around the lion head in the original artwork (Betrayal, pg. 74). Whoops!

This sculpt also had a lot of miscasts, but luckily they were on the inside of the legs and thus less noticeable. I also tried painting marble striations on the column and tiles for the first time (yes, I'm practicing for Guilliman laugh.png).

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Oh man how I love tartaros. A seeing such a well painted marine in that pattern is just perfect. Now excuse me, Im going to safe that image in my inspiration archive if you dont mid tongue.png

By the way, if you want to try marble here is a good tutorial: http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com.es/2011/06/tutorial-painting-marble.html

Amazing.

A warning to anyone who plans to assemble cataphractii, it's really easy to damage the upper rims of the should pads while cutting/shearing off the excess resin, so take special care. I ruined one set :-(

I ruined all my crusade-pattern shoulder pads bought from ebay that way. sad.png

@GrandMagnus: thanks for the link. I saw that one when I was searching for marble tutorials, and did experiment with using gloss or satin varnishes on the column and stones. In the end, I decided to go with a matte finish because I didn't like how the marble out-shined the metallic areas, and drew attention away from the mini. I think this is the tutorial I ended up using to get myself started: http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/infopages/page561.html

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@Dosjetka: I haven't really settled on just one blue recipe, nor do I seek to. I like to continue to experiment (which keeps it interesting for me as a painter) and I figured that as long as my army has enough variation, no one unit will stand out ;-) The Cataphractii terminator was painted all by hand-brush, starting with a basecoat of GW Regal Blue, whereas the Tartaros terminator was basecoated using an airbrush and Vallejo Model Air Steel Blue. Both were line-highlighted with GW Enchantment Blue + white, however.

@Vash113: thanks, I'm a big fan of Microscale's Micro Set decal setting solution. Then I just coat it with a layer of Vallejo Matt Varnish when it dries.

-Tranc

  • 4 months later...

I finally had time to photograph the last two models of my terminator squad! Not only do they complete the squad, but also the 2000 point combined arms detachment I've been working on since the previous edition. blush.png

My penultimate terminator is from the Eagle Warriors chapter. I figured it wouldn't be unheard of for Ultramarines to be seconded to their successor chapters, and vice versa, to promote good relations. It also gave me a break from the all-blue color scheme...

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And finally, veteran Sergeant Arcus Helios of the XIII legion, 1st company, 6th terminator squad ("The Magisters"):

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I hope you've enjoyed! tongue.png

@AGPO - Thanks! The recipe is really quite simple: old GW Liche Purple shaded with a little black, and highlighted with increasing amounts of white. The tricky part, of course, is the blending. Thin the paint with water or flow improver so you can do multiple thin translucent layers.

The detail work that you have done is clean, effective and characterful, very nice. I really like what you have done here.

 

My 2 cents- It may be the camera shots, but the white helms seem to wash out a bit, and could use a little more depth.

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