Heresy & Heroes

Every now and again, I need to return to the psychedelic madness of Slaanesh’s favourite legion and paint up something with neon pinks and greens, animal print and lots of gold. So over the last week or so, when I’ve had a mo, I’ve been playing around with reviving this old Emperor’s Children Terminator of mine. By the Dark Gods, it has been fun.

I should explain. About 5 years ago, I bought a box of Chaos Terminators for my Emperor’s Children army. I painted them with enthusiasm and I was proud of them. A couple of weeks ago, I was digging through my drawers for something to use in my Titan project and I came across the old boys, languishing in the darkest recesses of my hobby past. Their paint job was bad and there were several sins committed in construction and decoration that I just couldn’t abide. To give you a better idea of what I mean, here’s the new chap next to one of his old brothers yet to receive his revitalising tonic…

Now, as you might have noticed, my keen-eyed readers, is that I’ve been playing around with a moodier photography technique this week. It looks pretty cool, but it’s not great on highlighting all the details so allow me to walk you through some of the key changes.

The chap on the right lacks several things. For a start, the bare sand base is an awful look (and if you want to know how to do proper sand, you can check out my article here) and I’ve long since moved on from the ‘porridge dessert’ look. His parts are unhighlighted, his mould-lines remain, his gun barrels still undrilled… all of these issues and a few more have been rectified with the rejuvenated model stood proudly to the left of these pictures. He had his old layers stripped down with fairy power spray, was re-undercoated and had all of those little issues fixed. I even added the second trophy rack – all the old ones had just a single row of spikes which I’m sure was me trying to be interesting at the time. And of course, a skull on the base for tradition and good luck.

Those skull-themed shoulder pads are one of the best parts of the Chaos Terminators box and I was glad that I got to do it justice. And of course the reaper autocannon is the most iconic weapon in the kit, and turning that from a single silver dipped in wash into a more interesting blend of weathered and highlighted metallics made me feel good. But this was not about creating the perfect terminator, or doing my best paint job. Having spent a month staring at the bare grey legs of an unbuilt Titan, I needed to see some colour, and this guy is alive with all of Slaanesh’s favourite shades. I wanted to keep my eye in with these in an effort not to forget how to paint them.

This model also has lighting effects that, in his former incarnation, he was severely lacking. The subtle glow of the red eyes is something I’m particularly happy with, especially because highlighting a red glow on a bright purple/pink is not an easy thing to do! I’m also really pleased with the pink lightning coursing over the obsidian axe (seen better in the picture at the top) which is something I wouldn’t have ever attempted a few years ago.

So there you have it. My love for Slaanesh is rekindled, my ability to paint vibrant tones remains intact and I’ve had a bucket load of fun painting this Terminator. It also means that, one day, I could get round to doing the whole squad, but that will have to wait. There are plenty of other projects that require my attention for now. But can I resist the temptations of Slaanesh? We shall see. Onwards…