Deathwing Terminator Squad WIP

 

Greetings and welcome back.  Today I'm sharing progress on my first project of the 2024/25 hobby season.  While putting together my TODO list for the season, I was inspired to get started on my Deathwing terminators.  I made great progress last season with my 40k Dark Angels and I thought it would be great to put more progress in this season before I inevitably get distracted by legions Imperialis once again!

To recap, I built this squad from the Warhammer 40K Leviathan box set shortly after it came out. It was great to see some right-sized terminators, especially since the modern Primaris marines were towering over the original sculpts.  But they were a bit plain...so when Deathwing Assault was released, I worked with extras from that kit and my bits box to produce a squad that had a better Dark Angels Deathwing feel.

Now that is more like it - but that was last season.  Now it was time to put paint on these terminators!

Looking back as I write this post, I realize I didn't dig out the teleport homer or the watcher for this project.  I'll probably take on all the watchers and teleport homers as a single project later this season. 

I tried something new here, and primed the terminators with brown instead of the usual black. You can get an idea of the color by zooming in on the bases. I hoped this would provide shadows the lent themselves to the overall ivory/bone look I was going for. 

Over the primer, I first sprayed Pro Acryl 'Ninjon' Dark Ivory as a base coat.  I then sprayed Pro Acryl Ivory as a zenithal highlight straight down over the top of the minis.  This looked great at the start....but by the end of the project, I'm still not convinced it did anything to affect the final outcome.

I then thinned GW Seraphim Sepia with a custom shade medium and brushed that over all of the minis.  You have to take care with this over all shading approach to manage the shade and prevent pooling that will later dry as yellow/brown blobs. Once the shade had dried thoroughly, I used an over all dry brush to lay down some Pro Acryl Ivory highlights. Then I got started on details, starting with the weapons.

At this point, I departed from any sort of formal process and just started picking up all the various details as the mood suited.  One thing that challenged me was neatness.  As I hit up various details, I would occasionally paint outside the lines or catch an armor panel randomly with a brush stroke.  This is a pain with all the layers of color forming the overall bone look of the Deathwing armor. Not only is it tough to paint the ivory over darker 'mistake' colors, I had to restore first the sepia tone, then the ivory dry brushed look. This made each painting mistake a bit of a chore (and time consuming) to fix.

But I stuck with it and soon it was time for my favorite part of any project - Transfers!! I thought at this point that the terminators really came alive with their traditional heraldry. These veterans have not yet achieved the status of Deathwing Knights, and so have not earned the right to display personal heraldry on their tilting shields. So they get the simple Deathwing icon instead.This squad also got veteran skulls on their power fists.  Little details like this not only help tell a story, but make it easier to recall who goes with what squad.  I have 15 terminators in all and I want to be able to keep the squads clear.

At this point it was time to clean up and finish the bases.  My armies get a signature black rim to help the surface of the base and model stand out from whatever surface they are on. Now they were ready for the table, but I still had some fussing to do before I sprayed them with lacquer and called the project done.  Check back later in the week to see the final light box pics. There are purity seals and oaths of moment scrolls to tidy up and detail, among other bits of cleanup. I spent a bit just staring at each model trying to decide what done should look like.  Do you ever get caught here with a project?

Cheers and Happy Gaming!