Terminator armour is perhaps the greatest thing in all of Warhammer 40,000, or at least that’s what we at Warhammer Community think*. Space Marines, but even bigger. Walking tanks with those iconic hunched backs and bulldog helmets, the image of the implacable advance of these veterans in Tactical Dreadnought armour has thrilled us for decades.
Battleforce: Crux Terminatus is available to pre-order on Saturday, and it packs 18 of these armoured brutes into a single box – along with a few teleport homers for good measure. We snagged one of those beacons, redirected a box or two our way, and dished out the plastic to staff in the wider Warhammer Community team. Here are their results.
Thomas – White Scars
I wanted to theme my Assault Terminators around one of my favourite bits of lore from the Horus Heresy – the Ebon Keshig – which also serves the double purpose of really making them pop against an otherwise all-white force. I took the scheme from the Horus Heresy Ebon Keshig Terminators, basecoating the armour in black and then airbrushing from above with Stormvermin Fur and Administratum Grey.
The shoulder pads were airbrushed with White Scar and the transfers are from the Horus Heresy White Scars transfer sheet. Metal components are all painted in Leadbelcher and dry brushed with Canoptek Alloy. I wanted a dirty, battered appearance for these dishonoured frontline warriors, so they were washed with plenty of Seraphim Sepia and weathered, before I based them to look like a thawing steppe – Stirland Battlemire, Valhallan Blizzard, Citadel Tufts, and some slate that fell off my roof.
Laura – Mantis Warriors
The painting scheme is pretty simple – once I’d got a nice blend of Warpstone Glow and Averland Sunset, I washed the models in Mantis Warriors Green thinned with Contrast Medium, then it was a case of lots and lots of weathering. I start by misting the model with clean water, then washing a very watered down sequence of Thondia Brown, Doombull Brown, and Skrag Brown. The water on the model helps the paint settle into recesses and also breaks up the pigment a little. That can lead to some really fun results – the only catch is having to wait for it to dry each time!
I wasn’t brave enough to try freehanding the Mantis Warriors icon, so I used some company markings from the Horus Heresy White Scars transfer sheet.
Riccardo – Mortifactors Terminator Chaplain
Being fascinated by some of the more unusual loyalist Chapters, after painting the Exorcist Deathwatch member – who undertake possession rituals – I focused on the Mortifactors and their, let’s say, atypical diet and brutally primal way of fighting. My Chaplain follows a classic scheme, with Chaos Black primer and a Corvus Black base layer, shaded with Nuln Oil before highlighting with Dark Reaper and Grey Seer. For the Chapter’s distinctive bone-coloured legs and pauldron I used Wraithbone, an Agrax Earthshade wash, and Corax White highlights.
The Chapter badge, the white skull, came from a Brutalis Dreadnought transfer sheet, and was the perfect size for a Terminator pauldron. For the metallics I went with classic Leadbelcher and Stormhost Silver for the Crux Terminatus, and Retributor Armour for his crozius and trinkets, symbols of his absolute devotion to the Emperor.
Graeme – Guardians of the Covenant
I grabbed a spare set of thunder hammer and storm shield arms to see how they fit on other Terminator bodies. Pretty well, as it turns out! These are Guardians of the Covenant, Dark Angels successors, so I used a Deathwing Knight body for the sergeant (matching the Tacticus-armoured squads in my army, who all have a robed leader) and used regular Terminator Squad bodies for the rest, with their targeting optics carefully cut off.
With four Deathwing Knights left, I intend to use them along with the miniatures in the Crux Terminatus Battleforce to add three more Terminator squads and a robed Ancient to my force.
Ben – Novamarines
I’ve chosen to paint up my Terminator Ancient in the colours of the Novamarines both because the quartered white and blue is a really striking look and as a bit of a challenge to myself, as I’ve not got the steadiest hand.
After undercoating him with White Scar, I painted some lines of Caledor Sky (heavily thinned with Lahmian Medium so I could correct any mistakes) to bisect his torso before filling in the blue portions. I then added chips and scratches with Calgar Blue on the blue portions, and Rhinox Hide and Leadbelcher on both the blue and the white. The next step was to apply several coats of Darkoath Flesh, heavily thinned down with Contrast Medium so it was almost transparent. I let this build up in the recesses of the armour (which Terminator Armour helpfully has loads of!) to just barely tint the white and blue of the main panels, adding some grime and dirt.
I had a lot of fun painting him up, but what is an Ancient without a squad to rally round his banner? I think I’ll need to add some Assault Terminators…
Darcy – Imperial Fists
I briefly considered making these Terminators members of my growing Black Templars force, but ultimately I couldn’t resist adding another unit to my Imperial Fists collection. Decision made, I painted them using the same methods that I use for all of my Imperial Fists.
The glow on the hammers was achieved by using very thinned down mixes of first Thousand Sons Blue, followed by some Ahriman Blue. I then edge highlighted using Baharroth Blue before drawing on some crackling energy patterns using Blue Horror. It was easier – and faster – to achieve a decent looking effect than I’d originally imagined, and I’m quite happy with the end result.
Some of you may have noticed that I used regular Terminator bodies with the new thunder hammer and storm shield arms. I'm happy to say that they went together perfectly and I enjoyed playing around with different arm poses until I found some that I liked. I do feel like I need a unit of lightning claw Assault Terminators now though.
As my recent showcase article perhaps indicated, I quite like painting Imperial Fists, and also had the chance to paint the new Darnath Lysander miniature.
I painted his armour using the same yellow recipe I talked about in the previous article, though I strayed slightly from his traditional colour scheme by adding more black and white areas to the model. This was to make sure he fits in better with my Imperial Fists, from the Fifth Company. I like to think that he’s been attached to them long enough to get a servitor to touch up his armour and swap out his cloak for one that better fits the Fifth Company aesthetic.
His shield was particularly fun to paint. I decided to apply the same technique I used on my Bladeguard Veterans to give a white marble effect to the shield before starting work on the various raised details. I even tried my hand at writing his name in a slightly fancy style – for how frustrating this was to do, I’m quite happy with how it eventually turned out.
Joel – Raven Guard
A squad full of lightning claws is pretty much the dream for Raven Guard players, so they will be most welcome in my ever-growing army.
Since they’re veterans, there is much more white on these than a lot of my army. To save time, I sprayed up the arms and heads with Grey Seer, then painted thin layers of Ulthuan Grey followed by a White Scar highlight. The black was sprayed Chaos Black, with Eshin Grey and Dawnstone highlights.
I spent extra time adding freehand across some of the claws, making use of the large flat areas to add a bit of individuality to each of them.
Jon – Blood Angels
Finally, resorting to his standard excuse of parental responsibilities, designer Jon completely failed to paint his Captain in time for the photography deadline**, and instead set himself a kitbashing challenge to add as many different bits from the Blood Angels Upgrade set (and a few other kits) as he could. How many can you spot?
That’s a hefty chunk of inspiration for anyone looking forward to painting Terminators! Battleforce Crux Terminatus is available for pre-order on Saturday – the Assault Terminators and Terminator Ancient will be released separately afterwards.
* Our editor insists that the greatest armour is actually Mega Armour, but it’s basically the same thing, right?
** As he set this deadline, we don’t have any sympathy.
