Space Hulk- all terminators painted!

I've finally finished all the terminators for Space Hulk. It only took me four years! I was getting a bit fatigued toward the end, and I left out some detail painting. Here are all their pics- note that I rebased them halfway through!

Space Hulk Blood Angel Terminators- painted and in the Detolf!

Sergeant Lorenzo

Sergeant Gideon

Librarian Calistarius

Brother Leon

Brother Zael

Brother Claudio

Brother Deino

Brother Noctis

Brother Omnio

Brother Valencio

Brother Goriel

Brother Scipio

Bonus dead dude

Phew!

Some thoughts:

• Red is a challenging colour that I felt I had to master before I could commence this project, and I'm happy with the outcome. Army Painter Pure Red spray was excellent.
• I'm glad I rebased them on 32mm sculpted bases, but wish I'd done it before I started.
• I drilled out the barrels with a 1mm pin vice, which is such an improvement.
• Most skulls: Librarian 26 and Dead Dude 27, but that's mostly from their scenery, so the winner is Sergeant Lorenzo with 15.

I've still got a dozen genestealers to go... and a C.A.T. ...

Space Hulk- Sergeants

I find it really hard to finish projects without a deadline. I've powered through and finished off the last of my Space Hulk terminators!

Bang! Bang! Gideon's thunder hammer came down upon her head. I quite like the details on his storm shield.

Sergeant Gideon

Storm Shield

Sergeant Lorenzo was a bit of a hassle to paint with all those gems, and I kept rubbing off the paint on his cloak. The winged grail on his back snapped off due to getting repeatedly snagged on the custom foam case (fail), and I had to carefully pin it to fix it. I'm happy with his power sword, it is a simple and quick technique that I think is effective.

Sergeant Lorenzo

Power sword

So many gems...

This weekend I will put up some squad shots and some thoughts.

Skullometer™:

• Gideon 9
• Lorenzo 15

Space Hulk- Heavy Weapons

Giving that little extra offensive edge, the Heavy Flamer and Assault Cannon give the marines some iconic firepower.

I had a practice game while these were not fully painted- in desperation, a surrounded Brother Zael immolated himself to try and save the day- and survived! A classic Space Hulk moment.

Heavy Flamer

Everybody's favourite gun- the Assault Cannon. I tried to give a heat bloom effect with graduated pale brown, purple, and blue washes- I didn't want to overdo it and it is a little subtle, but I'll be doing this in the future on other similar weapons.

Assault Cannon

Assault Cannon- heat bloom

Skullometer™:
Zael 8
Leon 8

Space Hulk- the rebasing commences

I just can't help myself leaving well enough alone- inspired by Tim from Saskatoon's excellent work, I've started to rebase my Terminators. I got some 32mm GW Sector Mechanicus bases off eBay, and crudely carved the existing base off Brother Claudio. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I also added a rare earth magnet underneath with cyanoacrylate superglue, as part of a bigger basing effort underway at the Barks Bunker. And I'm putting the genestealers on 32mm bases as well. The Space Hulk board squares are about 31mm, so they don't cause serious problems with overlapping.

Claudio Skullometer™: 9

Space Hulk- more Terminators

Here are the remaining Terminators with Stormbolters. For faceless grimdark warriors, they've really been able to give each figure character.

Valencio has a Chainfist, which I didn't hesitate to paint in hazard stripes. I like the crisp whites on his bolter wing thing, which is also reproduced on his right pauldron.

I love Goriel- sometimes in Space Hulk hand-to-hand fighting, the dice come up your way and you win the fight against overwhelming odds. He's clearly had a brutal fight and suffered damage to his armour and lost an eye, but he's very happy with himself. "I beat one of you in hand-to-hand! How many more to go? Oh- bugger..."

Omnio is the squad geek. I'm not sure if he's checking his social media feed or taking a selfie.

Scipio is the lateral thinker, who has clearly decided that remodelling is better than shooting.

(I didn't come up with the names.)

Skullometer™:

• Valencio 7
• Goriel 12
• Omnio 5
• Scipio 4

Do you have a favourite marine?

Space Hulk- first Terminators

I've finished my first two 'proper' Terminators. I keep finding new cables, gems, skullz etc that I have to paint... but I think I've nailed the reds and am making strong progress with the rest of the squad. It is just the plethora of details now.

Brother Deino

Brother Noctis

I regret choosing to paint all the gems as gems...

Skullometer™:

Deino 9

Noctis 3

Space Hulk- Librarian

After getting started on Space Hulk, I still wasn’t confident with my reds. So the first figure I painted was the Librarian- I find blue a very forgiving colour.

Space Hulk: Blood Angel Terminator Librarian Calistarius

I painted his robe and stormbolter red to tie him in a bit more with his battle brothers, but don’t know if that was really necessary. I like painting psykers' eyes because I don't paint the pupils. I’m not happy with his force axe. I had to freehand the emblem on his right pauldron. I do like the writing on his book and scrolls.

Skullometer: 26, mostly from the base.

Space Hulk- It begins...

I've been circling, shark-like, my 2014 copy of Space Hulk since, well, 2014. Nipping at it and withdrawing every now and then. I've decided the time has come to get into it, and this post shows some of my preliminary moves.

I poked a brush at a couple of 'stealers for the Analogue Challenge in early 2016. I found a carapace and flesh technique I was pretty satisfied with.

The delay in getting to the Terminators is due, in no small part, to my difficulties with painting red. Army Painter Pure Red spray is a godsend. I did a practice figure first:

I refined my technique- a dark brown pinwash, then medium and light orange edge highlights. Emboldened, I painted the dead Terminator. I thought that if I stuff it up, then I can add weathering to hide the flaws. But I was pretty happy with the result, albeit exhausted at the time it took.

He looks like he got bored waiting. I like the helmet damage.

I've fired up the Skullometer: the dead terminator reads a respectable 27, mostly from his throne.

Next time: the Librarian

Deathwatch Overkill- finished

So, here they all are at last! Killteam Cassius with their 84 Skullz, looking forwards to negotiating a mutually beneficial solution with the xenos.

Deathwatch Killteam Cassius

Here's their chums, the peace loving Genestealer Cult- more pics via the link.

I've played a few games (as the Cult)- it's not the deepest game, but it is quick. Here are some pics:

In the spirit of the age, here are the participation awards:

Most Skullz (12) (also, best garter): Ultramarine

Best pose: Space Wolf

Best hair: Blood Angel (close competition for this award)

Most dakka: Imperial Fist

Best helmet: Raven Guard

Best chapter icon: Blood Raven

Best chin: Dark Angel

Best shopping lists: Chaplain

Best prostheses: Iron Hand

Best facial hair: White Scar

Most burn: Salamander

Honourable mentions to the Servo Skull and Teleport Homer.

Final thoughts:

The models are technically gorgeous, with crisp multipart sculpts and minimal mould lines cleverly hidden. I'm quite taken with the new 32mm bases. I refined my technique for painting black. I saw the benefits of drilling out muzzles.

But they are aesthetically frustrating, with the iconic black armour hidden behind a spectrum of bright colour splashes. I tried to minimise the colours with some success, but not a huge amount. I gave up and just went with it a bit more on the later paintjobs. There is so much extra detail on each one, the group literally took me months. And, well, they just emphasise the grimdaft silliness of the 41st millennium. These sucked up an awful lot of my hobby time this year.

Also, the character art for the board game is a bit crap. They look like pouty tossers.

Pouty tossers.

And that's it for the Deathwatch on this blog!