Tag Archives: 40k

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.

Officio Assassinorum: Cullexus Assassin (40k2e, 1999)

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Officio Assassinorum. The Order of Imperial Assassins. The face of death to whomever is unlucky enough to see them, and many who never even catch a glimpse of their killers.

This is the “Head 1” version of the model. I think I have the alternative version, unpainted, somewhere. It utilises the same torso and body, and given the “throwing grenade” pose of the torso, I doubt we’re going to get a radically different model when I do eventually find and paint him.

The Culexus Assassin, of course was released last out of the four (five?) Imperial Assassin types. The first, obviously was the Rogue Trader-Era “Ninja” Assassin, of no fixed temple. Now my memory is a little sketchy, but I recall the original being superseded over the course of three months worth of White Dwarf by the trio of the Vindicare (Sniper), the Callidus (Close Combat Shapeshifter) and the Eversor (All-out Psycho-Killer Berserker). Later on, with Codex: Assassins, they introduced the Culexus, who is a psychic “null” and a thing called the Animus Speculum bolted onto their gigantic, Xenomorph-like heads. When the eye of the Animus opens, focused “negative psychic energy” is unleashed and does a right number on any Psykers nearby, and in particular on its target.

Having read through Index 2 to see what this guy is like in-game, I can see he’s a bit of a glass cannon, and appropriately nasty against psykers. Assassins were a nasty surprise to anyone who came near them back in 2nd edition, which was when I most often employed Assassins – this fellow in particular against a friend who’s Slannesh army was fond of rather potent psykers.

I’m not sure how often a weapon like this will manage to see the tabletop in my games of 8th, which will largely be focused on smaller, friendly games for some time as the forces are built up. Perhaps he could be rolled out for especially large games? Certainly once we get to the stage of Daemon Princes and Greater Daemons being rolled out to the table, he’d have a place then.