Greetings and welcome to another edition of the Workbench. This month, I've been working on models from the new Deathwing Assault box and updating some older models with some of the new upgrade bits from that box...oh, and a new Terminator Chaplain. All-in-all this is my Deathwing terminator core - and...other stuff.
So one cool thing about the Deathwing Assault box is early access to bits for the new Terminator scale models that first appeared in the Leviathan launch box. Above is the push-fit captain in terminator armor form that box.
And here it is updated with a new head. When my terminators go into battle they wear their damn helmets. ;) I know it's a small thing - but he has a nice cape and will read more like a member of Deathwing this way.
Next up, I upgraded the Leviathan box terminator squad. Above is the original push-fit models form the box. Below, it the upgraded squad.
Now with a plasma cannon, chainfist, pointy hand, some various relics, and an upgraded sergeant. The sergeant received a new sword arm, belt relic, and tilting shield. Again, small things that hopefully sell the Deathwing motif better in the end. The plasma dude also got a head upgrade to have a fun targeting eye. The pointing arm made the one striding terminator more interesting and the chainfist just makes the squad more useful. Overall, I hope that when painted up these fellas blend in with the new Deathwing terminators - the main difference just being a lack of embossed chapter icons on the right shoulders.
The new Chaplain in terminator armor got some small upgrades too, with an eye to adding more Dark Angels flair. The chapter icon back banner is an obvious add, along with a Deathwing tilting shield and relic bit on the belt. The BIG upgrade was swapping the extra Deathwing knight shield for the original to make a new Deathwing relic shield. Some slight modification to the shield, arm and skeleton relic allowed the whole thing to be assembled more or less like the original. I neglected to take a pic of the shield but you can see here that it IS a Deathwing Knight shield and not the original relic shield.
The Deathwing terminators were loads of fun to build. I built them to be a full squad of ten with a "second in command" that could serve as a "counts as" sergeant if I field them as two squads of five.
The first demi-squad is pretty straight forward with Sergeant, Missile launcher, and two chain fists.
The second demi-squad fields a sergeant w/chainfist to serve as the counts-as Sergent. he had the upgraded head and a Deathwing tilting shield w/sword as a Lieutenant might, indicating his elevated rank within the squad. I felt this was better than giving him a sword, but then saying the sword was something else in a game where he was in the ten man squad. Easier to say the stand out model w/the chain fist is holding a "power weapon". This will become very important during all the games I'm not playing... 😂
I like the new Deathwing Knights a lot. Very fun and flavorful; easy to build. I never liked the old models and feel they were diminutive even from when they were first launched. These fellas look the part, and stand even with their other terminator armored brethren.
And last, but certainly not least, we come to Belial, Grand Master of the Deathwing. He got a decent upgrade having crossed the Rubicon Primaris and can stand tall amongst his brethren. Scale creep is real, but it IS a much better miniature than anything that has come before. I'm lookign forward to getting some paint on him.
Oh, and there is the Librarian in terminator armor from the Leviathan box set. I didn't make any modifications there. We'll let the paintwork sell the Dark Angel/Deathwing membership. Taken in all, that's a lot of terminator bodies to fill out the Deathwing in my collection. Thanks to the new book, I have Sternguard Veterans and more Bladeguard to bulk out the first company as well. I'm going to need to paint the six Ravenwing outriders I have as well or risk the Ravenwing getting petulant over all these new bodies in the first company.
And that's more painting projects in the queue for years to come, no doubt. I really like the updated models and look forward to working on them soon. For now, I HAVE to finish this Primaris Repulsor and then thing about MonsterMarch, when I was expecting to try out a Leviathan Tyranid beast, probably the Screamer-Killer. It'll be nice to paint an actual monster for MonsterMarch, for once. 😅
I hope your projects are going well.
Cheers and Happy Gaming!
