Showcase: Terminators from the Tale of Painters #2

You forget, over the years, how much you have painted in your time. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not that old. Not even 40 yet, but that still gives me a span of over 25 years since getting into the hobby and that is a long time to develop ones tastes and abilities. This is simply my way of saying that this could be a long post. I make no apology. It’s been a satisfying journey for me at least. The brief? Simple. Terminators…

The question isn’t when did you start painting space marines. The question is when did you start taking photographs. Even that isn’t the real question, because the REAL question is when did you start earning enough money to buy yourself equipment capable of taking pictures of miniatures. The answer to that is over ten years ago in 2002, the year I painted my first DIY chapter. The Hellcats! The bases of the entire army were designed to look like the chapter had been roused in their home base, hence the stone floor and carpet look…

Make sure you wipe your boots before treading on the carpet

Before Grey Knights existed I used to dream of an army of them in TDA. So I started playing around with converting the kit that existed at the time. I finally got my dream about ten years afterwards but in the meantime this was my creation…

Plastic conversion ten years before the current kit was released

After that came AOBR and a new, very static, breed of terminator model. I painted this one for an online competition. I chose a chapter from my very early introduction to the hobby – the venerable Deathstrike!

Don’t let my static pose fool you!

Next came the release of SpaceHulk – which always was, and still is, one of the greatest games GW ever produced. I don’t know why people bother with 40k and WFB when games like Space Hulk and Blood Bowl exist. Does that make me a heretic? Influenced by the 40k short stories of my youth I eschewed Blood Angels (foolishly trading them away for peppercorns) and went with Death Wing.

Weasel Fierce, Cloud Runner, Two heads talking, Lame Bear. 

Are you feeling the nostalgia yet?!

After that came deep purple. And I don’t mean smoke on the water, though it did involve a lot of noise. This was a really fun project I enjoyed – I’ve always loved a deep and rich colour scheme, and it was velvety smooth to create and subsequently look at…

Noise marines don’t need to be able to see – right?

I began in 1992 doing a paper round earning £5.45 per week saving for boxes of SW blood claws. It was nice to come back in later life and revisit my first love, this time in Terminator Armour rather than the young and flighty new recruits…

Beware the green eyed monster…

In 2012 I was asked to do a guest display in Warhammer World – which is fine, except I give most of mystuff away so instead it became ‘paint every odd mini in your bits box’ time. The result was a lot of fun and experimentation and some cool minis at the end…

Not a marine, but still TDA – right?!

Blood for the Blood God! (and other GW clichés)

Among one of my all time favourite minis that I’ve produced

And another in fact…

I dropped my keys under the seat

My last and most recent foray into the world of TDA was the most recent release of plastic Grey Knights. Done in a classic black scheme rather than the more common (and quicker, easier) silver scheme these were a right pain in the behind. Good overall final effect on the table top however so worth it in the end…

On three, everyone smile and say ‘overexposed’….. ‘OVEREXPOSED!’

Draigo

Bannerman

Apothecary

Null rod guy channelling psychic energy (or doing a crotch thrusting victory dance, you choose)

And I think that’s it from me on the Terminator armour front. It is one of my favourites so I’m sure I’ll do more in future. I’ve never done Nurgle which I’ve always wanted to do so I’m sure I’ll be back for more in the future. If you have any questions on schemes or anything leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to be as useful as possible. In the meantime, my regards to you all.