Deathwing Centurion Devastator Squad

After making my Primaris Assault Centurion squad I wanted to also have a squad of the Devastator Centurions.

I chose the lascannon fit out as after all these years it’s still my favourite heavy weapon.

I used the same approach to build as detailed in my how to post that was a pretty easy way to increase the size of the bros up to primaris size. I made the sarge a little taller than the other bros and used the Mohawk bit from the original kit.

All the heads are from the primaris lieutenant kit.

Painting followed my Sternguard Veterans approach which had more of a bone white colour. Finishing off was a heap of transfers and the bases using old bark as rocks and astrogranite textured paint.

Here is a size comparison next to a primaris marine.

Wasteland Station

 After being donated this cool scratch build terrain piece it was time to wasteland it up.

I grabbed as many shades of brown and grey paint I could find and a silver spray can.

The goal was for a muted dull look so the building walls were painted a sandy yellow mixed with brown. The “steel” was sprayed silver with rust spots of brown.

After these base paints I used a dirty brown wash over the whole structure. The wash was used a little less in the grey concrete sections.

The base was sprayed brown with dry brushed lighter browns to yellow for the ground cover.

This should fit in nicely with the other 40K terrain I have painted recently.

Dark Angels Ancient

In my few games of 10th edition I have valued the contribution of the Ancient to both combat and OC.

I decided my greenwing needed a morale boost so I picked up this bro from the indomitus box set.

Painting followed my usual black, white grey drybrush followed by Vallejo speed paints.

I wanted the skeleton on the banner to look aged so went with the more dull bone than the traditional white.  

Again I used a lot of transfers from the Dark Angel upgrade kit across various parts of the mini. I really like the one on his left shoulder pad which is a slightly different style to the traditional chapter icon.

Am happy with the outcome and look forward to running him in a few games.

Dark Angels Captain

After a few months of painting Deathwing and Ravenwing, it was time for me to swing back into the greenwing with this captain from the indomitus box set.

No conversions were necessary and he came with a cool base with a dead necron.

I am a fan of the skeleton on the shield so I spent some extra time making the bone a little darker in the recesses than I normally do. This gives it a more aged look than the bone of my Deathwing.

I added a fair bit of gold on his armour befitting his Captain status. I added a heap of the decals from the upgrade kit with some extras on the purity seals.

With this bro finished think I have most captains covered for each of the wings of my Dark Angels.

Next up will be Reivers and then it’s time for some special characters.

Ravenwing Jump pack Assault Intercessors

 The Ravenwing continues to grow with these jump pack assault intercessors.

The minis are from the easy to build collection with pre primaris jump packs that fit on perfectly. 

The hooded heads and the sarge’s power sword come from the most recent primaris upgrade sprue.

Most of the transfers are from the same upgrade kit.

These dudes will either go with the jump pack Captain  or Chaplain.  Paint schemes also follows the approach of those dudes.

Ravenwing Invictor Tactical Warsuit

The next addition to my growing Ravenwing force is an Invictor Warsuit.

I purchased this in a bundle and it was assembled and helpfully was painted in the base colours of the Iron Hands which worked as my base colours.

Painting followed my other Ravenwing bros using a lot of Vallejo speed paints over the existing colours. 

The weapon barrels had a mix of purple, red and brown washes for some weathering.

I used a lot of the new Dark Angel transfer sheet which has great variations including the cool silver skull on his left chest.

The warsuit base came with some skulls and a cool metal container dug into the ground. I kept these and added the tactical rock and used astrogranite to finish the base off.

The Ravenwing will continue to grow over the coming months with assault intercessors with jump packs, more bikes and reivers.

Firstborn Techmarine

 In the lead up to my first 10th edition Tournament I needed a techmarine so it was time to check out the pile of shame.

Luckily for me I had the old school techmarine with thunder cannon. Although he has been sent to Legendsville and is a little short next to his primaris bros, I knew mounting him on a strategic rock that dominate the 40K universe would help any size inadequacies he may feel.

This mini is metal too so with all his ammo, weapons etc he is a monster. 

He did pretty good in the tournament so I am sure he will take the field again but this time he will avoid Angry Ron who did about 40 would when he charged him.

I followed my painting approach to my also red Apothecary Biologis that turned out great. Here they are together.

Deathwing Primaris Centurions

 With my recent conversion to create Primaris Centurions it was time to get some paint on these bad boys.

I wanted these dudes to have a more bone rather than a clean white colour for their armour similar to my Sternguard Veterans.

Painting the armour started with Vallejo bone and normal white and then a GW bone contrast paint. This came out a bit too dark so I used the GW white air paint followed by Vallejo white for highlights.

Gold speed paint and Vallejo gold was used for the armour trim. Gunmetal speed paint and metal was then used for highlights.

The cables used blue and red speed paints with various lighter colours to highlight.

Basing used astogranite with a heap of old small GW slate pieces with some bark for rocks.  The astrogranite was painted with Vallejo earth, then bestial brown and leather with a few light dry brushing of bone white. The rocks were black speed paints with bone highlights.

I am a big fan of the transfer sheet in the new primaris upgrade kit so went a bit nuts with as many as I could fit on without them looking like a nascar driver.

I am very happy with the finished result as these dudes are now the size befitting of their stat line and weapons.

How to make Space Marine Centurions Primaris size

 The Space Marine Centurion miniatures are one of those squads that often divide opinion. In this age of crossing the rubicon, these armoured telly tubbies just don’t stack up to their Primaris bros.

With my recent painting of a Deathwing army, I thought a couple of units of centurions would fit in well.

There are a couple of YouTube videos that in addition to adding size also alter the legs and their sometimes maligned poses. I personally don’t mind the leg poses so this post will be about increasing the height of the mini.

The good news is to achieve this outcome all you need is a couple of those plastic covers that come with paint brushes. My recommended size is equal to the diameter of the waist of the marine pilot. Thankfully the waist is separate to the body so finding the right size is a matter of sizing up to one of these covers.

Step 1 is the legs.

Each centurion has separate “feet” that connect with the leg piece with a ball joint type connection. Cut a small section from your plastic cover and it should fit snuggly into the feet.  Let the plastic fully dry on both feet before inserting the ball joint.

The ball joint will fit in nicely as seen below before I glued the plastic covers onto the feet.

I did this for all three minis and the only one that caused me any grief was the “striding” left leg on one of the sculpts. This was overcome with a bit of trial and error with different shapes and a combination of plastic glue, superglue and patience. Note the plastic glue did slightly melt my plastic covers used for the extra height.

The only downside is the stabiliser things that attach on the back of the legs and feet no longer fit. This was not an issue for me but I am sure someone can come up with a fix for them to be able to attach.

Step 2 is the waist and body.

After the legs and feet are strongly dry it’s time for the body height. Cut a piece of the plastic cover a few millimetres in height and glue to the waist. 

When dry, the body of the centurion driver is attached with glue, blue tack inside the plastic cover and some patience. I use the blue tack to also give some weight and stability to the connection due to the size of the body piece.

Please don’t attempt this step with the arms or head attached to the body as the additional weight will make assembly very difficult.

Optional Step 3 the head.

If you want to use the heads from the kit I recommend using a slightly thinner plastic cover.

This can be measured against the head you want to use and added into the centre of the “neck” as follows.

As I was using some spare primaris heads that had a similar ball joint under their “neck” I did not need this step.

Step 3 or 4 (depending on your approach to the head) is the front armour plate.

This plate needs no alteration beyond lifting it a little higher than the instructions due to the raising of the body. This actually emphasise the new height of the mini due to the changes to the feet and waist thanks to those little plastic cover cuts.

The arms are then assembled following the instructions. Please note the cables on one the mini’s right arm will no longer fit to the body due to the altered body. I am sure some extra length of cable can be found to correct but as it is tucked under the arm I did not feel the need to make the correction for my first unit (maybe the second unit).

After assembly or Step 1, glue these bad boys to their bases and get painting.

This was a complete trial and error and achieved only after noticing the diameter of one of the many plastic covers that sit at the bottom of my paint brushes container. I gave it a go and it turned out great. 

Assembly required patience and a few different sizes for the plastic covers but works those looking for a minimalist approach to make your centurions measure up to those primaris dudes.

Here is a series of size comparisons.

First born librarian, OG centurion, Primaris size centurion and Primaris Captain.

Captain and new headless centurion.

Finished minis next to assault intercessors with jet pack.

Completed unit with captain and assault intercessor.