WIP - Terminator Squad

New multipart kit has new big sheet of decals - which is good.... until it is not. You don`t have spare shoulder marks for terminators (only 5 + 1 for sergeant variant, and even base variants have variations). Not enough text decals, and the worst - no names for sergeant shoulders (and no relief of the text on the model to just use a wash) 

There are no spare shoulder parts if you want to magnetize hands - additional one are for sergeant.
As for poses you only select how you glue hands and heads (which you can replace with no helments versions). Other changes need sculpting. 

 

Cool pose are achievable - but on this one I wouldn`t be using the hand of a rocket version (it has powerfist with some camera or laser beam) 

The size of Terminators is bigger than base primaris armour, but still smol. I wanted to paint some simple miniatures so thought these one will work with good relief and not much details.  

The rockets variant has a different chestplate - it has lower camera unit, so probably you can`t mount rockets on the base chestplate? Actually you can! It doesn`t touch anything, just slightly different design.  

GW has a kit of an approriate designed bases. But they are 28 and 32mm. I needed 25 and 40mm bases. So there are 2 ways: buy or sculpt similar bigger bases.  

Actually I did both things - bought 3d models and made recesses in grills much bigger, like on the mentioned GW`s bases. Also I added different cables and tubes to the recesses which was actually more time consuming because Zbrush primitives not always are solid models + you need to remove potential traps for air or uncured UV resin. Could do all from scratch, but not having a 3d printer at easy access it will be hard to guees tolerances.  

Parallel thing was searching for inspiration. Elminiaturista make great works with OSL and also has terminators painted.  

And if I`m doing OSL, why stop on bases? Deadlyprintstudio have perfect bundle of effects for terminators! Buying this too.  

Also I needed to decide which bases will work good with which poses.  

 

Notice drilled bolter`s barrels - they were not. Slide molding is not a 2024 technology for some companies. 

 

 

I thought it was a lot of small magnets. I was wrong.  

In the end, for painting all cool effects I needed magnetize 3 hands + shoulder armor, which is ridiculous. After that, it was hard to stop and not magntize abosulety all wargear options and fully rockets version + sergeant\regular version (it`s simpler than magnetizing heads itself). 

 

 

 

 

 

Had less white primer left in a can than I thought and finished priming with gray - not much a problem with good coverage of lacquer paints. 

Too much crocodiles for miniatures. 

Started with Mr color C323, mixed with C34 for a mid tone, for shadows used C65. For extra dark shadows Vallejo Express Colors 72.413 Azul Omega which is actually close to original Citadel Ultramarines color (Celestial Blue Contrast irk).  

 

 

 

 

 

Decals are thin and after Mark Fit Strong became very fragile. This skull made decal almost impossible to place without some cutting beforehand and I still damaged it.  

Bases are starting to glow. 

 

 

 

 

Testing with LED underneath how actual reflections will be. Good to know, but I don`t have lacquer magenta.  

 

 

Need to add grey highlights + reflections. 

 

"Radiators" glow 

Added decals and different patterns to chainfists 

 

 

You are seeing blue highlights for the last time! Remember them.  

The helmetless heads are too small for this armor. They look ok on photos, but too small IRL for my taste. So I tried fast painting just one.  

And that`s pretty much all. Need only some small fixes.