Category Archives: Legion of the Damned

Legion of the Damned #4: Sgt. Centurius and Legionnaire.

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Legion of the Damned, 2nd Edition, Sgt. Centurius

Somewhat recently, I showed off my Legion of the Damned models, updated for 40k 8th edition on nice new scenic 32mm bases. When I took that series of photographs, I somehow forgot(!) to take pics of Sgt. Centurius and the above Bolter Marine. They were residing on a separate shelf at the time, and it was some time before I noticed, let alone got back to take the photos with this pair.

Sgt. Centurius in this case was not painted by myself, but by my friend, Matt F. He was lucky enough to get one from a friend in GW when they were released as part of the “Apocalypse 100” celebration of Games Workshop’s 100th store worldwide, back in March 1996, with rules in that White Dwarf. Of course, there were no GW stores in Melbourne at that time, so for almost all of us, we were SOL. I think Matt was mostly interested in it as a painting exercise, so having done that he was kind enough to pass it on to myself, as I played LotD.

Centurius’ offsider here is another Blood Angels Death Company marine, added to the squad because of the sculpted skulls and scrolls on his armour. (Imagine that! a time where you had to actively seek out Marine models that had some extra skulls and bling on them!~) The flaming-skull shoulder pad is of course freehand. 🙂

The only changes I’ve made to Sgt. Centurius over the years have been to rebase him to fit in with my models (twice now) and replace the plastic backpack with a metal Legion of the Damned one.

The skull-design on the Legionnaire’s MKIV Corvus helmet is also freehand. Corvus helms are my favourite mark for painting Legion of the Damned models. The shape and extra space really lend themselves to the design. The Aquila is a transfer, originally just a white outline, I overpainted it with the shading and details. He has 2nd Edition marine arms and a 2nd Edition Boltgun, which has probably now been retconned into being a Phobos-pattern variant. Pretty chunky!

Unfortunately, Sgt. Centurius today suffers today from being an unavailable figure of a named character from a previous edition of the game. Meaning that there are no rules for him or the Animus Malorum (the skull he he holds aloft) , and barring a remake of him in plastic (Slambo!) there will not be rules for him in 8th edition. With that in mind, I’ll have to “Kitbash” some rules for him, based on the other 8th edition Marine and LotD profiles for use in friendly games here. We’re currently using Power Ratings anyway in a friendly-rather-than-exploitative-way, so niggling over a few points isn’t going to be an issue. I’ll do the same with the Librarian when I finish painting him. Yes, LotD had a full army list – in White Dwarf 224 (August ’98).

To cap it all off, we have a group photo of all of my completed Legion of the Damned models. I’ve got a couple more classic Rogue Trader models on the paint desk to join them one day sooner or later, and once they (and a bunch of the other unfinished Power Armour on my desk) are done, I can look at some of the later “proper” LotD models.

Legion of the Damned #3: Rogue Trader & 2nd Edition

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We have another trio of my old Legion of the Damned models today.

The first of this trio, from WD 102 in June ’88 is from the RT103 Space Marine Heavy Weapons set, sculpted by (I believe) Mark Copplestone, as he and the other sculptor listed, Aly Morrison had distinctively different sculpting styles of marine helmet. This one was simply “Gunner 2” and he’s armed with an early model Lascannon, from the relaunch of Imperial Army as Imperial Guard, from a year or two later. Of course, with Index: Imperium 1 being designed entirely around “Models currently available for sale”, the Lascannon option is technically illegal, as LotD can only have Multi-Meltas and Heavy Flamers. I guess I’ll be prying apart my classic model that’s been painted for a deca.. I had you there, huh? Fuck no. I’ll just work out the points difference between the Melta or Flamer and a Lascannon and run it like that. I don’t play in tourneys or even PUGs in game stores, so I don’t have to worry about people being TFG.

Anyway, lots of bone on this guy and a complete lack of flames. A freehand skull on one shoulder, and a ribcage on the other, because why not?

The middle guy here is an official Legion of the Damned model from their first official model release in 3rd Edition, 1998/9. They’re from the days of metal models with plastic arms. The Legion are essentially the late-Rogue Trader (1.5) edition metal-bodied space marines with skully and firey bits sculpted on. I think I managed to purchase them all, yet this guy is the only one of them that I’ve actually painted. Once I get the Minotaurs and Dark Angels I’ve got on the go out of the way, I’ll try and rectify that.

I found this one to be a particularly nice model, I chose to paint it because I really liked the sculpted ribcage. No true freehand on this guy, either. The flames, crossbones and the shoulder pad’s detail are all sculpted.

The final model of this trio is a “Death Eagle” Space Marine, from 1989. These three were released with no real explanation of what a “Death Eagle” actually was. A new chapter? An armour variant? A unit type? What we can see is that Mark Copplestone’s trio are the forebears of MkVII Aquila Armour, predating even the 1990/91 exploration into Archival and Artificer armour variants by a couple of years. Anyway, this guy got inducted into the Legion and like several others had his backpack replaced later on with one from the ’98/99 set. All of his flames and most of his bone work are freehand – with the exception of the bone eagle on his left shoulder – which was the main reason he was chosen for the Legion – and again, I’m quite happy with the ribcage that he wears, this time on his left greave.

I do have a (un)healthy collection of Legion of the Damned models from the various releases through the years still sitting around in boxes, from 2nd Edition through to the newest ones – which admittedly aren’t especially new anymore unless you’re an old grognard like myself. Once I’ve finished rebasing and touching up my old/painted LotD models (there’s 3 more unfinished old-school models on my painting desk right now), the collection will give me another set of models I can paint a few more of from time to time for interest and enjoyment. Who knows, maybe at some point in 8th they’ll become an independent force again, as they briefly were in 3rd via a Chapter Approved supplement? But I guess that would only come alongside a new plastic kit, so less likely than a whole lot of other things…