Sergeants Lorenzo and Gideon, Brother Scipio, Space Hulk Terminators

The last of the Terminators are finished! This has been a year-long journey, and the end is in sight; only the Space Hulk Librarian remains.

Brother Scipio

I feel like I've been saying this about every Terminator, but this guy required the most work to clean up his legs. Scipio is the marine who is kneeling and (for some reason) tearing up the floor. Since I've been removing all of the models from their plastic stands and putting them on traditional round bases, Scipio's floor bit had to go. That meant a major reworking of his hand and foot.

 

 

The entire toe was resculpted and the purity seal was widened to cover the irregularity on the back of his leg.

 

The underside of the shin grieve was easy enough to smooth out, but the fingers on his power fist needed to be completely redone. Rather than sculpt them, I cut the fingers from another Terminator and glued them in place with a little putty work to cover the join. I wasn't sure what to do with the hand, and at the last minute added a skull (it was just the perfect fit) as though he was collecting a trophy or perhaps the remains of a fallen comrade.

 

 

On the shoulder, I managed to salvage the existing skull, and then sculpted the cross around it. Surprisingly, Scipio didn't have very many blood drops that needed to be removed, so he required the least amount of "touch-up" sculpting.

 

 

 

 

 

Sergeant Gideon

Both of the sergeants had Blood Angel banner icons that I replaced with icons from the Black Templar upgrade sprue.

 

 

The storm shield proved to be a challenging resculpt. I needed to remove the skeleton and wings, but I wanted to keep the banner running around the edge. It was a four-step process: First, I sliced and scraped away the plastic details. Next, I used putty to smooth the surface of the shield. Then, I sculpted the cross. Finally, I sculpted the parts of the banner that go over top of the cross. The small skull below the cross is the head of the original skeleton that I carefully sliced away and then glued in place on the finished piece.

 

 

 

I think Gideon had the most pendants that needed to be replaced. In this photos, you can see which ones have been replaced, either with plastic Templar and Terminator parts, or sculpted over with putty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sergeant Lorenzo

I was dreading this model the most, but once I looked at him, there really wasn't that much work to do. I think the cape makes him look more complicated than he is.

 

 

 

He only had one pendant that needed to be replaced, and actually had two Templar cross icons on him already. Other than a few small skulls, the challenging sculpting went into replacing the Blood Angel icons on his leg grieves with Templar half-crosses.

 

The blood drops on the cape were sliced away and replaced with a circle of putty, into which I pressed a small tube to create an inner circle. They were painted like gemstones with a gold mounting ring. By this time, sculpting a cross and banner on his shoulder was old hat. The model needed to be primed in parts so I could ensure coverage in the recesses under his cape. He was then assembled and the join in the cape puttied and primed again. His chest plate was left separate for painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With these three, the Templar Terminator conversions are complete! They all fit perfectly on a display stand in my cabinet. I have been adding each one as I finished him, and seeing the dais gradually fill up with the Terminators has been like watching America's Next Top Model, except in reverse. And with less bulimia.

 

 

The spot in the middle is reserved for the Space Hulk Librarian. He wont be a Black Templar, though, for obvious reasons.

 

 

Coming up, I'll have a tutorial on the process I use to paint my Templars.

'Til next time!