Monday 2 November 2015

Rogue Trader Chaos - Traitor Terminators

 Nothing like a deadline to get things done ! A week ago these guys weren't even on my schedule but a last minute appointment for a game next Week End decided otherwise and here they are !
Those models are meant to join the ranks of a growing chaos force for which I've foolishly decided to collect all the models as you can see HERE and HERE.

If you're not familiar with the models (quite unlikely but not impossible after all) they are the first chaos terminators sculpted during the first edition of Warhammer 40k by the talented Jes Goodwin who had already sculpted a goo load of their imperial counterparts.

Picture taken from Solegend

As you can see above there aren't many choices for the bodies especially if like me you insist on your lord being the only one with the bone armour and the squad leader being the only one to get the skull faced one...


Now that leaves us with one body option, 2 left arm options (power glove and power chainfist) and 3 right arm options (since I want the leader to have a unique bolter variant). With a bit of pinning though I managed to give  a "little" variety in the poses, trying to keep the feeling of weight and might these guys should have. The simple fact of opening their arms a little give them more dimension as opposed to the rather robotic feel you get when you just glue the arms on the pegs. Gluing the arms without pinning means you'll get a very perpendicular build which kills all d
dynamism in my view.


The fist 3 troopers received the same basic elements with only one getting a chainfist instead of the power glove. I know I've been painting a lot of OSL on my models lately but I needed to tie those models with the rest of the army and since I've already painted glowing power weapons on all of them so far so I had to keep doing that.


I have painted quite of these models back in the day and I have to say I didn't remember those organic rtextures on the bolter. To tie the models with my Dreadnought (see at the end of this post) I decided to paint those textures in flesh tones and to blend them in the black of the armour. Blending them with the armour seemed mandatory in order to avoid it looking like they had raw meat on top of thei gun.

Next models on the line were the ones with heavy weapons. I've always loved the style of that autocannon and how it seemed to fire big hellish bullets. The heavy flamer though always looked weird to me, I'd even believe this one wasn't sculpted by Jes Goodwin but by another member as I see no evidence of his "style" on this arm. 

 To give a bit more funkiness to both heavy weapons I decided to give them an inner fire showing in some recesses and in the eyes at the tip of the guns.


You may have noticed that the paintjob on those is a rather straightforward one with many shortcuts and simplifications. This has 2 main reasons :

- From day one, I wanted my renegades to be mostly black.Though I know it closed a lot of painting opportunities, for some reson I really wanted my  chaos army to be this massive black tide so I've tried so far to limit any other colour to the strict minimum. You can see that I did use some blue to make the power weapons stand  on the battlefield and the heavy weapons did get some red. All of this has been carefully thought to limit as much as I could any disturbance with the whole look.

- The second reason is that this is likely to be the only army I'll really do as my focus is more on small groups of models (5 to 12 models) now. In order to keep the mojo with this army, I therefore had to find a suitable way to paint them efficiently to get the joy of completion from time to time. The techniques used are therefore speed techniques that do not necessarily show the best of the sculpts but they get them painted. I have a bout 80 models to paint for this army and have only a 4th of them done so far so that means it's still a long haul. Knowing the sculpts, I know I will not enjoy spending time on each in its own way, one after the other and while I really like seeing others do this I simply can't.

All of this to say that for this army, I'll focus on getting everything painted and will allow myself to have a bit more fun in a few chosen like the leader in this squad.




The main body has been painted the same way as the others but I decided to spend a bit more time on his skull mask and power sword.
Funnily enough the more I look at him the more he looks like a librarian to me with all those Horus eyes and that mask echoing a psychic head gear.

You can also notice that I bent the forearm in a way to avoid having the sword perpendicular to the body. The bolter arm is also widely open thanks to pinning whish makes the build less rigid than if I had just glued the parts right away.

The right arm has a weird mix of bones as a glove which makes me think the part could have been better on the lord but I didn't know the part was like that before so he got it instead,
Since the whole painting process had been closer to Taylorism than anything else, I finshed this whole by playing a little with the sword, trying to give it a hellish look. After all, amongst all of them he has got to be the one with the fancy weapon !

Since I have quite a lot of renegades now, I just couldn't get all of them into one place for a nice group photo late last night. As these were meant to be in this WE's game I guess you'll have a group shot soon enough though as a game on Saturday will most probably be followed by a Battle report in the following week ;)

Here's a shot of a bunch of them next to the Dreadnought for now :

This week is going to be busy as I still have my Rogue Quest entry to finish and since I'd like to finish a tutorial I'm preparing on how I paint my champions of Law.

Wish me luck !

36 comments:

  1. A squad of ultimate badasses :D I just know these guys are gonna curb-stomp some lousy do-gooders, can't wait to hear all about it, muhahaha!

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    1. We'll see how long they survive under heavy meltagun fire... Squat players seem to "compensate" with heavy fire.
      I'll put any bad result on the freshly painted syndrome anyway. MWHAHAHA

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  2. Not usually a fan of GW chaox too much pointy armours and screamiong skulls to my personal taste, I didn't knew about those terminators and I must admin they look much better thant their modern counterparts.

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    1. That's my thought too, he could have gone a little further with th eorganic look I think but at least they look bulky and heavy and don't have too much big skulls and pointy bits? They looks like they're meant for combat and not for parade ;)

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  3. A menacing unit indeed, JB. I know the feeling of having to use one as a lord and one as a squad leader. It does limit the troopers for variation but you've made the most of it with a bit of pose modification. Nice stuff and good luck in the game.

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    1. If only the head could be changeable easily it would change a lot ! That's th egood point of the later ones I guess though their style is definitely not as good.
      I'll need luck as I'm generally not playing "hard" so I'll just set myself the goal to kill a couple of things and I'll be happy !

      Cheers Ed.

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  4. Great ones JB! Last pic is epic , I also put green staff on my termies always between the body and arms connection to open de arms and creaty some more dynamic poses as you stated ;)

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    1. Yes, I didn't show the models before priming but I did add Green Stuff to make a nicer joint between their arms and torsos, otherwise they look silly and almost shy ! Those guys must have open arms to welcome combat !

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  5. Really excellently done JB, with a lot of thought gone into them.

    They look really good (or bad to the bone!) . I like the way you have painted the black armour and the red on the weapons to give a darker feel to them infused with Chaos energy.

    You are right, as a range of miniatures they do not have a great variety of sculpting and poses. The repostioning of the arms, and limiting the skull headed sculpts works very well. I was never a fan of the heavy flamer, it always looked like a last minute sculpt added onto the range. However I have always liked the Auto/Assualt Cannon.

    The squad leader looks awesome, with real menace, and I like the way you've picked out the Eye's of Horus, and how the sword looks. I really like the metallic and red on the shoulder for the Eye of Horus.

    All and all a great addition to your great Chaos force. I'm currently just starting a Rogue Trader Chaos project, and it's great to see all these Chaos Marines about.

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    1. Cheers Lee, I agree withyou on the Heavy Flamer, weird weapon that one... It's nice to see some renegades getting some more love lately, I have to be thankful for this game opportunity as it's helpe dme get a little further on completing the range. ^^

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  6. How did you do the black? I'm thinking of doing my Avatar in a similar style, with black plates and lava between, but I'm wary of the black sucking all the life out of the miniature.

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    1. I've actually started to do my avatar just like this ! You can see him here (at the very end) :
      http://leadplague.blogspot.fr/2014/07/collecting-rogue-trader-chaos-renegades.html

      Recipe is really simple, I spray some AP grey over a black prime, one run at an angle (45ish) on th efront and rear and then a pure zenithal on each model. The idea is then to pick the raised areas and to add a lot of contrast, don't be afraid to go far on the bright side.
      YOU can then use a mix of matt medium, black paint and water (roughly a third each) you then drown the entire figure in (just remove the excess at the end of the process of course) to get a even coat. The medium will help it not to get too much into the recesses but it will desaurate th epaint enough to show the highlights through.
      Really useful technique I learnt from my local hobby shop.

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    2. That is almost exactly how I want my Avatar to look! Thank you for the tip on painting black. I will give it a try.

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    3. Well, it hasn't moved any further since that picture... I do mean to finish it some day though, maybe before the end of the year just to start afresh...
      Not sure where to go with the wraithbone parts though, traditional bone isn't inspiring and I considered stone but I'm not sure either...

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    4. I haven't started mine yet but I was thinking either gold or a light grey charcoal for the symbols, probably the grey.

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  7. Round of applause. Great black going on here.

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    1. Cheers ! Without that secret technique I've been tought it'd have been tricky to get as much black looking decent. I hope I can keep on painting some of the renegade every now and then to get this army done sooner rather than later...

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  8. I'm not much of a fan of termies to tell you the truth (except the first prototype), but I do like that chaos dread JB, looks killa with the metal faceplate!

    Excellent black :)

    Oh, and could you tell me what this "dreadcember" is? You really got me worried that there's another painting challenge to enter :) Or were you just pulling my leg?

    Cheers :)

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    1. I do like them to some extent but they're a missed opportunity for me, they should have been more chaotic with more organic shapes and all like Goodwin did with the Chaos champions...
      I do have the Big Shoulders terminator and I'm looking forward to painting that one.
      There's no such thing as Dreadcember (as far as I know at least) I was just being a dick ;)

      Thanks mate !

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    2. No you were not! Dreadcember sounds perfect....

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    3. Do you realise what' you've already unleashed with Orctober ? Not sure the world can handle it ;)

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  9. These look amazing! I love how simple and clean they look. I've often gotten lots of flak for using a simple color scheme. Everyone wants something that "pops" or is contrasty. Not a lot of people can appreciate a simple paint scheme, but you have done a great job. Are you using them as the Black Legion or your own renegade group?

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    1. I'm glad you like them Urion ! I fully agree that this type of approach cannot please everyone but I feel ambiance is sometimes a little more important.
      I had actually planned to paint my chaos orks in the same vein and th eribbing on my Genestealer hybrids too but you came in and made that before I did ! I'll keep the idea though and will develop it my own way (and with a little less skill let's be honest).
      For now I suppose a Black legion seems like the easiest way to go though I remember having greater ambitions when I first started it all ! ^^'

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    2. Lol. One of the realizations I just had while painting my orks is that I now know the difference between wanting to paint a mini and wanting a painted mini. I've started out excited about painting a mini and realized that I didn't want to paint it I just wanted it to be finished. The more I want to actually paint a model the more ambitious I get with its paint scheme.

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  10. Very nice JB, a wrecking crew if ever I saw one! Lovely black, and good call on the larger bases :-)

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    1. Cheers, 30mm bases do fit to many RT models like terminators, genestealers and a couple of space orks which had a wide stance. My rule is always to get my models the base they need and not larger.

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  11. Good work JB. You've done a great job with the black scheme by being restrained with the details, while making sure there's high visual contrast. The simple black with blue, red and bone additions really catches the eye.

    I realise you painted these up to a tight deadline, but if you had more time (or wanted to add further models to the unit), you could have done some minor conversions on the troopers - replacing the skull with another icon, cutting away part of a helmet to reveal a wounded face beneath.

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    1. As you understood given a little more time I could have tried something to convert. I do have some spare terminator heads that could have been used and severed heads from chaos champions wouldn't have looked out of place I guess ;)
      I'm glad that the rather extreme take on painting with an almost all black scheme is well perceived. Even I have moments of doubt but the group effect is exactly what I wanted. That and it's an approach I haven't seen for those !

      Thanks !

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  12. Can't wait to see pictures of the battle. i'm sure your whole dark army will look stunning on a battlefield against Goulven's awesome squat army

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    1. It will undoubtfully be great ! Really looking forward to this game ! It's been a long time since I last played 2nd ed !

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  13. Lovely, lovely work. Though I must confess I would have used some more colour, the quality of your black makes them look absolutely great. That, added to the dinamism you got on them and the effects on the lights make these termies a little masterpiece. Never had thought of the skull one as a Librarian, nice idea...
    I have a few of these pending, and I love the sculpts, your have been highly inspirational!!

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    1. I understand and even I have to fight the urge to use more colours and paint more details to keep this look I want !

      Maybe I'll get a few of the models as extra just to paint them with really fancy paintjobs like in the old days !

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  14. JB, these guys look amazing mate! These are some of my favourite Chaos models and you've really done them justice!

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    1. Cheers mate ! They have a lot of charm despite the sculpt being a little soft in places. I'm glad I haven't got any huge complains about them being too black so far !

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  15. Of all the Terminators above, the one that stands out the most is the one with the skeleton mask. Lovely work on his power sword too. Not too familiar with the Dreadnought though. He does look cool and is a close second to the masked one.

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    1. Well due to his position, I had to give him a little more attention hence why he stands out (that and the fact he doesn't have the same body as the other 5). The dreadnought is the iconic chaos version of the imperial dreanought, a wonderful model I have another example to paint.

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