Terminator Make Over

Building a Warhammer 40K army for under £50 is not going to be easy. I realise that I am going to have to invest time into the project giving new life to old figures in order to save money. Some of the models that I have bought have had to be stripped down to the plastic before repainting. Still hopefully I will succeed and beat my brothers Necron Army before the new year! Giving me a time frame of around 6 weeks.

One of the first units that I decided upon for my Blood Angel challenge was a unit of Terminators. I managed to buy 5 of the old style terminators for £5. They had a paint job on them but not one that I liked or that would suit a Blood Angle army.

Below is a couple of pictures showing the front and back of the terminator armed with the heavy flamer.heavy flamer. I will show the step by step pictures of this figure to show the progression of the models.

The new terminators have a 40mm base rather than the 20mm used on the old type. I felt that I needed to replace the 20mm bases with some spare 40mm bases that I had taken off some Grey Knights I renovated 6 months ago give an up to date look to the figures. 

To make the pose of the figures look more dynamic I removed the arms and cut a section out of the figures right leg behind the knee. When glued back together it gives the impression that the leg is bent in a running pose rather than the 'wedding photo stance' that the old terminators often have. I also used some pieces of cork that will be painted at a later stage to look like boulders.

After I was satisfied with the poses of each of the terminators I applied a grey undercoat followed by a coat of 'blood red' from the Vallerjo Air range of paints using my air brush. This was sufficient to cover the previous colours without sacrificing too much detail of the figure.

After printing out an image of some fine looking Blood Angel Terminators I set to work on the painting of the model.

The metal sections of the model, such as the power fist and joints of the armour, have been painted using Tinny Tin and Black Ink followed with a Chain Mail Silver dry brush. Bone White was used for the chest and shoulder motifs. Livery Green was used on the eye pieces. At the moment my paint range is Vallerjo but I do use Games Workshop's paints with similar names on occasion.

The base was painted first with Earth before PVA glue and medium sand was applied. The boulders were initially painted black with an over brush of Cold Grey. The grass is from the Army Painter's Highland Tufts range. Finally the base was tidied with black around the edge. Once I am confident the varnish is fully cured I will apply an anti shine coat.

As I finish the other four terminators I will include pictures.

Points for 5 Terminators, including one sergeant and a heavy flamer, 205. Cost so far £4.99.

Blogging At Last!

A good friend of mine, ubique-matt, has been encouraging me to start a blog for sometime now and with the arrival of my man cave (garden shed if you are from outside the UK and are unsure what a man cave is!) I thought that now would be an ideal time.

I have been tinkering with wargaming for close to twelve months now, mainly games between me and my brother. We have been reluctant to start playing others as we only get together a couple of times a month and still spend a lot of time checking rules etc.

I will be outlining on my blog current projects that I will have over time. My current project that I have set for myself is to create a 1500 point army for Warhammer 40K for under £50 by the end of the year.

I intend to show the methods I use as I progress and share things that I learn with you. Feel free to share your tips, tricks and shorts.