I’ve finally managed to get time to spray, base and photograph the second half of my Minotaurs Devastator Squad. Like most of my Minotaurs units, there’s a bit of kitbashing going on to keep the models interesting.

First up is the Sergeant. He was originally a gift from my mate Damo/Nerdfest09 over on Dakka along with 2 Lascannon and 2 Heavy Bolter Marines and painted in his earlier style of doing Minotaurs (a darker, more coppery armour colour than the brassy tone I use, and scratched metal weapons). I asked permission from him to tweak the model so that it fit in with the rest of my army and he said no problem, so I redid some parts of the model. The head I replaced entirely with a Maxmini Tribe of Black Lotus Helmet, since I wanted something a bit more obviously Spartan-influenced on the Sergeant. Some Liquid Greenstuff to obscure the eyes and facial details underneath, and then painted the eyes as lenses and the “face” as black enamel. Looking at it now, maybe I should have tried to sculpt a simple grill and paint that in silver. Oh well, maybe next time. Oh, and I have plans for the original sergeant’s head…

I painted the red base and yellow lines on his chainsword, but went around the scratches that Damo had put on the original, to incorporate them into the finished model. I also added pteruges from Anvil Industry over his crotch – Centurion Leather Straps.

The bolter that Damo had originally armed him with was also removed and replaced with a Combi-plasma for practical, gaming purposes.

The backpack scanner’s metals were left pretty much untouched from Damo’s original scheme, showing the contrast between the original armour in tone (the armour was more coloured than the scanner) and the scheme I use. I also swapped out the left shoulder pad for a Forgeworld one, in keeping with the rest of the squad.

When outfitting the Devastators, I knew that I wanted to use the two Lascannon models that Damo gave me, which left me with working out what weapons I wanted to use to compliment them. One of his Heavy Bolters has been in use for some time now, and the other is awaiting a new squad to join. I went with the traditional jack of all trades – missile launchers. I used Calth parts for the weapons. The right-hand model is mostly Calth MKIV parts, along with FW MKIV Minotaur shoulder, along with a Anvil Vanguard Torso, which I bought a bunch of years ago for my Minotaurs as the gorget makes them strongly resemble MKVIII armour, which the Minotaurs were said to have a fair supply of. I didn’t bother on this guy because of his arm being in the way, but the bare chest also makes them easy to add transfers or other details to.

The other bloke wears a more cobbled-together suit using a bunch of FW parts with the same Calth Missile Launcher. MKV head and Torso, MKII legs and shoulder, A bit of wear, staining and scoring on the launch area of their weapons, and they’re done. Incidently, the official FW Minotaurs transfer sheet (sadly OOP now) has their Devastator badge as the “explosion” variant. Clearly though, the Lambda is the most appropriate to use for Space Spartans.

The two Lascannon operators both wear pretty standard MKVII armour. I retained much of the work on the weapons, adding the red weapon casings and putting in the brass of the barrel coils. I might have repainted the barrel tip casings, but I wanted to keep the great heat-discoloured metal that Damo had done, so I left them as-is.

Once again, FW Minotaurs shoulder pads were added and the armour was “brassed up” a bit from the original to fit in with the rest of my force.

And finally, we have the completed squad, with both sections present. Next for the Minotaurs are some HQ units, and then some Terminators.