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.