To describe the actual work done; the legs are completely scratchbuilt to the same scale as my other previous terminators, whilst the rest of the model is more subtly modified. The torso is already fairly large and the only change I made was to space the front and back pieces with Green Stuff to give it more depth, but only at the bottom. The arms are largely unmodified, only altered to accommodate the pose. Rather than sculpt an outer skin over the shoulder pads like I normally do I instead opted to extend them by adding thicker trims whilst rescultping the arching plates that go over the top. The model’s head is stock just because it’s so damn nice (I was tempted to try and save it for a later project).

I wasn’t totally satisfied with the Force Hammer that comes stock, and after many attempts found an icon bit that is meant to fit atop the terminator armour that could be nicely modified to fit. As an added bonus I also magnetized the head of the hammer and gave him an optional Halberd set up. The hammer looks better (gotta love the brass bits from FW) but a halberd might be a better choice in game so I added the option at least.

The final addition after the odd purity seal and grenade was the loin cloth from the box set. Only problem was it didn’t look particularly animated, just a bit bland. So I trimmed it on one side and sculpted over most of it to try and create a bit more flow. I’m starting to gain a bit more confidence with cloth shapes now, the trick being to have the basic shape underneath the surface already in place and solid so you’re only sculpting a smooth skin rather than manipulating a big lump of putty.

I knew I would have difficulty carving text directly into the greaves because of the way I build minis in GS, so I opted to attach engraved plates in the same positions. This is the first time I remember attempting to sculpt text like this and I have to say I’m reasonably pleased with the end result. The basic technique involves making the entire plate in one piece of Green Stuff, making sure it’s the right shape and in the right position and then using a sharp pointed tool “push in” all the space around the letters.

I have to say the quality of GWs plastics gets better year on year. In some ways it’s hard to find ways to attempt to improve upon the standard kit. Luckily for me scaling up minis is a particularly unique form of converting 

This was my second Lord Commander Culln conversion, commissioned after I made the first one. I followed the same guidelines as before only really altering the cloak. I took this cloak from a Hector Rex Forgeworld mini (with a lot of whittling of the inside to make it fit). Even though it doesn’t match the original artwork as closely I think I prefer this particular model.

So here is a Pre-Heresy Terminator armed with Lightning Claws (of the Alpha Legion). The claws took a while to get right, my first attempt made them with the fingers too long so I removed a few joints from the lightning claws to shorten them. The rest of the model followed my standard method of construction, although I have to admit the shoulder pads were tricky.

At first I attempted them in plasticard but wasn’t happy with the result and so fell back on GS simply because I’m more confident with it. The claws were originally going to be used as masters to have cast, but I’m making another set for that purpose (more fitting for regular scale models). You’ll find a Mini-Tutorial on sculpting Alpha Legion icons here.

This particular conversion was part of the Mark V army I was commission to build. There’s pic of an Assault Terminator on page 31 of the 4th Ed. SM Codex with riveted legs armour. That’s what I tried to capture here, that there is an extra layer of armour riveted onto his normal Terminator suit, so the greaves are larger than usual. I stuck with the half bionic plastic head on this mini as it seems most suitable fora grizzled old Chaplain (of the 1st company no less). The rest is pretty standard. I’d recommend if trying to make something like this yourself – make the hip plates separately and attach afterwards, it’s a much cleaner finish. On this mini I kept the standard arms as the shoulder pads are already rather large to start with. For the icons on the greaves I sculpted the one on the right and then molded and cast a duplicate with Blu-Stuff.

Click for size comparison pic.

Even though I had no plans to collect a Red Scorpions force, I love the cover artwork from Imperial Armour 9 and decided to try and create a conversion worthy of it.

Some of the proportions will be different as with all conversions like this the intrinsic proportions between art and model are different. I used a Grey Knight NFW (metal) as a base for the sword, the plastic ones not being available at the time though they would probably be a better choice as the blade is thinner and sharper looking. The stormbolter arm was taken directly from the FW Culln model with no real need for modification. The rest of the details were sculpted except for the eagle iconography on his hip plates which came from the Grey Knight brass sheet (Forgeworld).I opted to convert a plastic head rather than use the resin Culln head as I thought it might be a touch on the small side.

I started with the basic armature made from Terminator plastics ready to be sculpted over. The feet were completely replaced with scratchbuilt Green Stuff pieces and the plastic legs cut up extensively to pose them correctly. In addition the lower legs have had plasticard spacers added to increase the overall standing height (I used the same approach on previous artscale terminators so).

The torso has two pieces of plasticard fitted to either side and then filled with Green Stuff. Finally to bulk the torso I sculpted a new chestplate over the existing one. Making the legs uses pretty much the same approach as converting a power armoured marine, but with more layers on top. One of the hardest things about converting something like this is matching the left and right.

To make the arch/hood I used two strips of curved plasticard and greenstuff and mounted them on a piece of plasticard. I then made a mold (Blu-Stuff) and made a Green Stuff cast of the original. This allows me too make more in future very easily should I decide to make more scaled up Terminators.

I left off the knee pads and hip plates because it’ll be simpler to make them separately and attach them later. You can either remove hip plates from plastic terminators or you could sculpt or cast (mold the plastic ones) them in Green Stuff. 

Size comparison work in progress pic.

As you can see the stormbolter arm is not fixed (magnetized) to allow easier painting and ingame repositioning. I’m rather pleased with how the cloak has turned out and am looking forward to attempting it again on some upcoming conversions. I basically rolled out a thin sheet of GS onto some spare plastic that it comes stored in and shaped it into approximately the right shape. Before it had completely cured I attached it to the model and later modelled more shape onto it rather than just have it flat.

I decided not to go overboard with purity seals and stuck with the regular plastic ones. All in all I’m very pleased with the final piece and it does show that Artscale Terminators can be done very nicely. I also love the fact I was able to pull off the commanding stationary pose, as I wasn’t sure it was going to work out.

This was my first proper attempt at an Artscale Terminator. Not an easy process by any means and I’d suggest you have a good grasp of sculpting with Green Stuff before attempting something like this. The basic conversion goes something is basically a Terminator frame with lengthened legs (plasticard spacers), widened torso and a “skin” of Green Stuff to bulk it out. The whole model is done is a large number of stages, allowing each area of Green Stuff to completely cure before moving onto another stage.

This particular model also had magnetized arms and shoulder pads so the arms could be swapped out for different weapon combos but the same shoulder pads would fit on all.

The same model with Lightning Claws.

Full on size comparisons.

Here we have a Red Scorpions character in terminator armour (a counts as Lysander I believe). The client had commissioned four Red Scorpions Captains each equipped differently. This is the first, equipped with terminator armour, thunder hammer and storm shield. The pics are pretty self explanatory. The thunder hammer arm is magnetized at the shoulder joint, allowing rotation and removal for easy transporting/packing. The shield is a conversion of Lysander’s with the Imperial Fist iconography removed.

The head and the loin cloth on this model came from the Assault on Black Reach Captain, a great mini I just have to keep hacking up. The bit on the base is a dead Tyranid Ripper from the Chaplain Cassius model and the head of the thunder hammer came from an Iron Hands model. Although the hammer head is smaller than a regular plastic one, I find it looks a nicer scale and will be unique amongst other thunder hammer wielding terminators. The legs and shoulder pads for the model came from the Forgeworld Commander Culln miniature.

The client had requested a lot of battle damage on this model. My approach to battle damage is to paint up the model first and add the battle damage as the last details (click here to see the model before damage was applied). When applying damage either physically or with paint you have to be carefully to find the right amount, too little will be unnoticeable, too much may ruin all your hard work.

Work in Progress pics