I haven’t been posting much lately. Notsomuch from lack of painting or lack of wanting to – I just haven’t had any new content for awhile. I’m working on a bunch of skeletons for KoW and I’ve been finishing them, but it’s been quite the slog. I’m also working on more Gondor guys, Minotaurs Space Marines – even some Skaven who I finished stripping the other week. But nothing ready to show.

So I’m revisiting a model from the deep past. This guy is the original Terminator Space Marine Captain from the original Terminator Squad boxed set. This one was painted for a relative in the early 1990’s and eventually found its way back to me about a decade ago.

RTB09 Blood Angels Terminator Captain

Clearly, it was painted during that transition period between Rogue Trader and 2nd edition. I can tell by my overly-colourful paint scheme (too much bright blue and yellow) combined with the use of personal heraldry on his shoulder pad. So most likely around ’93-’94. The only thing that’s been done to him since I got him back was a rebasing to my own style as opposed to the green flock that he originally had.

Personal Heraldry on show.

The BA symbol is a decal. The rest is freehand. I believe that there was a full article with B&W illustrations on Marine Personal Heraldry, but I may be misremembering. Either way, the ‘eavy Metal page shown below was a huge influence and remains in the back of my mind even today when painting Marine heroes.

White Dwarf 123: ‘eavy Metal – Space Marine Heraldry. Copyright Games Workshop May 1990

On “Character”. I know the popular thing to say about old, oldhammer and metal models is that they have “character” that new models somehow lack. I do think the old models often have “character” but to imply that newer models somehow lack character across the board is just silly. Now to say that some of the newer models lack a je ne sais quoi is fine and accurate – things like the IoB skaven troopers and Poison Wind Mortars are sloppy sculpts, but it doesn’t mean that everything does – The IoB skaven hero is actually quite nice. This model is a nice one, but it is dated and very static compared to the newer sculpts. I still like it, but I’m as aware as anyone else that the rose-tinted glasses are in effect when dealing with many of the miniatures from my youth. Having said that, I still love metal models and that won’t be changing anytime soon, however nice the newest plastics are (I can love both!)

Auxiliary Grenade Launcher for the win!

Now, putting together a Blood Angels army has been on my list of Armies to Put Together for quite a few years, and I’ve been gathering the kits to do so for years on and off – as well as buying the odd pre-owned collection to use as well (Hi Damo!) I’d certainly like to use this guy when I do get to properly building my BAs. So that leaves me with a few questions to ponder – what to change and what to leave the same?

Rogue Trader Marine iconography. Copyright GW 1987

Now, I’m ashamed to admit that a few years ago, I stripped a whole lot of my original metal beakies in order to have them fresh for my Rogue Trader Crimson Fists project (that I still haven’t started). I didn’t even photograph them. I had several models in particular where I’d managed to paint the finely detailed Rogue Trader-era captain markings, sergeant and veteran sergeant insignia onto their shoulder pads, as well as weapon designations. I later picked up an unpainted copy of the “captain” model from ebay for about ten bucks, rendering the regret in stripping him to even harsher levels. Because of this, I’m hesitant to fuck with my old models too much. But I do like to tone things down that are too garish – as I’ve shown with my Beastmen and other Realm of Chaos-era models.

Rear View of RT-era Blood Angel Terminator Captain.

So the elements I’m considering:

1. Rebase to a 40mm round.
2. Repaint most/all of the blue. Mostly to black or brass/bronze, depending on the location (not to Khorne levels!)
3. Repaint the AGL entirely.
4. Repaint the cables from a fleshy colour to a dark metallic colour.
5. Tone down the yellow on the chest eagle.
6. Tone down the yellow on the bolter – or repaint to a black casing.
7. Brighten the “bone” colour on the Crux Terminatus & touch up the Captain flash on his shoulder.
8. General neatening up, but not changing the red or the black. (Or his head).

Any thoughts or feedback?