Showcase: Terminators from the Tale of Painters #1

Just in time for the rerelease of Space Hulk we bring you something special here on Tale of Painters: A tribute to the iconic Terminator armour (also known as “tactical dreadnought armour”). It’s bulky silhouette is striking fear into the hearts of traitors and xenos alike, but it is also a welcome addition to any painters’ collection. Check out part 1 of our epic showcase of Terminator squads, this time with contributions from Garfy and Stahly.

Garfy:

I thought I would use this opportunity to share some new Terminators I’ve been working on recently. The sculpts in the Space Hulk box set are amazing. The level of detail and the dynamic poses combine to make my favourite Terminators of all time. So far I’ve painted three of the models. I’ve also started my Deathwing from the Dark Vengeance box set. This Saturday I will debut the first of a trio of Space Hulk tutorials. The series will cover Genestealers, Blood Angels and Deathwing.

These classic Terminators were painted as part of my Tyranid Attack (aka Advanced Space Crusade) project. These same sculpts were used in the first edition of Space Hulk and the Deathwing expansion.

These glorious warriors from Ultramar’s illustrious first company are conversions based on the current Space Hulk models. I trimmed and filed off the Blood Angel insignia and replaced with Forge World brass etch.

Over to Stahly…

Stahly:

So far I’ve painted two squads of Terminators, both in the livery of the Ultramarines of course. The close combat Terminators belong to my current Ultramarines collection, they were painted in 2011. You can check out more pictures in this post.

The second squad was part of my old Ultramarines army. I guess they were painted in 2006 or 2007. I really went over the top with the freehands, I wanted to give them a Rogue Trader/second edition feel with the red weapon casings and checkerboard patterns. It’s something I don’t do anymore, nowadays I have more of a “less is more” approach when it comes to painting. It seems that I had enough spare time to go crazy back then. When I paint stripped my old Ultramarine army to become what is now my current collection of Ultramarines, I didn’t have the heart to strip them as well, so I sold them.

I also bought a squad of Tartaros pattern Terminators a while ago. I’m going to paint them as Blood Angels, for a small allied contingent for my Ultramarines. By the way, if you love Terminator armour, I can recommend Gav Thorpe’s Master of Sanctity novel. One of the protagonists gets to don the tactical dreadnought armour for the first time after his promotion to the Deathwing. Apparently Terminator armour is much more difficult to control than power armour, plus you need to adopt the weird stance you can see on the models. It’s a both informative and hilarious chapter to read.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our Terminator showcase, when our other painters enter the spotlight!