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.

Tournament report (brief)

 A couple of weekends ago I tried a new Dark Angels list at my first 10th edition tournament.

Spoiler : I lost three games but as this was a warm up event my plan was to get a feel for this list and what each unit can do without stressing about taking objectives:

My list:

++ Army Roster (Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Dark Angels) [1,995pts] ++

+ Configuration +

Battle Size: 2. Strike Force (2000 Point limit)

Detachment: Inner Circle Task Force

+ Character +

Ancient in Terminator Armor [95pts]: Singular Will

. Storm Bolter and Melee Weapon: Power Fist

Apothecary [50pts]

Captain in Terminator Armour [110pts]: Champion of the Deathwing, Relic Weapon, Storm Bolter, Warlord

Chaplain in Terminator Armour [105pts]: Deathwing Assault, Storm Bolter

Librarian in Terminator Armour [85pts]: Eye of the Unseen

Lieutenant [65pts]

. Neo-volkite pistol, Master-crafted Power Sword & Storm Shield

Techmarine [55pts]

+ Battleline +

Assault Intercessor Squad [75pts]

. Assault Intercessor Sergeant: Astartes Chainsword, Heavy Bolt Pistol

. 4x Assault Intercessors: 4x Astartes Chainsword, 4x Heavy Bolt Pistol

Intercessor Squad [160pts]

. Intercessor Sergeant: Bolt Rifle, Close Combat Weapon

. 9x Intercessors: 9x Bolt Pistol, 9x Bolt Rifle, 9x Close Combat Weapon

+ Infantry +

Bladeguard Veteran Squad [180pts]

. Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant: Heavy Bolt Pistol

. 4x Bladeguard Veterans: 4x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 4x Master-crafted Power Weapon

Deathwing Terminator Squad [180pts]: Watcher in the Dark

. Deathwing Sergeant

. 3x Deathwing Terminator: 3x Power Fist, 3x Storm Bolter

. Deathwing Terminator w/ Heavy Weapon: Assault Cannon, Power Fist

Deathwing Terminator Squad [180pts]: Watcher in the Dark

. Deathwing Sergeant

. 2x Deathwing Terminator: 2x Power Fist, 2x Storm Bolter

. Deathwing Terminator w/ Chainfist

. Deathwing Terminator w/ Heavy Weapon: Assault Cannon, Power Fist

Sternguard Veteran Squad [90pts]

. Sternguard Veteran Sergeant: Sternguard Bolt Rifle

. 3x Sternguard Veteran w/ Bolt Rifle: 3x Close Combat Weapon, 3x Sternguard Bolt Pistol, 3x Sternguard Bolt Rifle

. Sternguard Veteran w/ Special Weapon: Sternguard Heavy Bolter

Terminator Assault Squad [185pts]

. Assault Terminator Sergeant: Twin Lightning Claws

. 2x Assault Terminators w/ Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield: 2x Storm Shield, 2x Thunder Hammer

. 2x Assault Terminators w/ Twin Lightning Claws: 2x Twin Lightning Claws

+ Vehicle +

Ballistus Dreadnought [140pts]

Land Raider [240pts

++ Total: [1,995pts] ++

First game against knights was a brutal affair but I managed to take down one big boy.

I had set up a beast of a charge with a reroll of the captain, ancient and a squad of termies but of course I failed twice. Lessons learnt is if I get in melee with knights they do fall.

Game 2 against Angry Ron and his world eaters with a Lord of Skulls. Ronnie boy got into the landraider with an advance and charge on turn 1! It did not go well but cap and his termie did take out lord of skulls who was parked on what became by vowed objective.

Game 3 was more knights with a couple of assassins. I was in with a chance on this game taking early points but the big guns of the knights took out my assets as I focused on killing rather than objectives.

Great friendly to get a feel for the Deathwing. I will tweak my list to capture those objectives.

I will drop the librarian and one unit of termies and add in Azrael and my new primaris size centurions I have converted. I was a little disappointed with the stern guard vets but they are one my favourite minis so am playing around with options.

One of the best performers was the chaplain with the assault terminators. Despite poor dice rolling on my behalf throughly the day, they always delivered some brutal outcomes.