2It's been a while since we visited the past, hasn't it? Since we took a look at my Black Templar Assault Marines last time, I thought we'd go back to my Centurions Chapter once more.
The Centurions were a labor of love those 5 to 6 years ago when I started them, and while I should have done a series of feature articles on them before (yes, KrautScientist, I'm looking at you), at least I"m able to bring them back now as a part of the Throwback Thursday series.
This time I'm going to highlight the 5 Terminators I created for them, paying special attention to the conversion work on them rather than lump the painting into it as well.
I really and truly put heart and soul into this army when I started working on it. I dug out history books on ancient Rome and Greece, ways they waged war and weapons used at the time. Not to try and do a 100% historically accurate army, but to lend flavor and a richness of culture and feel to it. It may have taken a year to complete, but it was well worth it.
I specifically chose to do this force as a Space Wolf Counts-As force because of two reasons: Cavalry (which I'll get to in a later post), and the sheer amount of options I could have that would enable me to go crazy with conversions. I went to town on the terminators in this regard.
Universally I wanted to give them a feeling of mobility and movement, so to me that meant removing the hunchback look of the armor completely. I ended up dremeling out a channel for the neck, adding a gorget and stud work, with a little GS to smooth it all out for a finished torso once more. Imparting a sense of movement also meant that I would be slicing and carving away plastic where the arms connected on both the bodies and the arms themselves, requiring me to pin them in place before resculpting most, if not all, of the soft armor joints. This would allow for more dramatic and dynamic posing of the arms at the least.
I also would bring back favorite head swap of mine for Terminators from the Fantasy (RIP) Chaos Warrior helmets, trimming them down and adding a dramatic horse hair plume from some 3rd party heads from Max Mini. Continuing to borrow form that model range, I used the Chaos Knights shoulder pads instead of the standard Terminator ones, with some plasticard trim in the shape of leather banding.
The final elements of the conversions on the whole involved trimming tabards from Black Templar chest pieces to hang below their waists, custom-made lambda disks on their belts, and all kinds of bits and bobs to add more detail. Finally, every one of the 5 would have a unique weapon option, from a sword to a spear, a hammer to an axe, and finally a pair of claws.
And the whole unit together…
You may be wondering where the skull-faced one is in the bunch. The one from the center of the initial image? Originally he was going to be a Lone Wolf from the codex. One that was gladiatorial and out for blood. He was so much fun to convert, using the skull helm from the Chaos Warriors, the cloak from the Chaos Terminator Lord, chains and skulls from Chaos Marauders, and so much more. Unfortunately he never ended up in the army, though he went to live on as a Black Templar Terminator Captain in another army I painted on commission. Here he is though, in the only pictures I have of him in his original iteration.
I hope everyone is enjoying this TBT series as much as I am visiting past projects. Let me know in the comments below!
- Tim