Artscale Grey Knight Terminator
Overall I’m very happy with how this particular model turned out and I have to say an army of these (lets face it there aren’t many models in a GK army) would look just glorious on any battlefield, especially if they are stood next to non-superhuman models.
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.