Mercy? That was the mercy setting!

Veteran-Brother Alruba, 36th Company, Imperial Fists Legion

I’ve made more progress on my Imperial Fists in the Age of Darkness project this week as another marine joins my Saturnine Terminators – and this time they’re bringing the full power of their heavy disintegrator!

Modelling

My goal for this unit of Saturnine Terminators was to make them look brutal and intimidating, and the focus of this miniature is very much the energy beams coming from the twin heavy disintegrators and their unfortunate victim. Long-time readers of this website may recognise this as a riff on the themes and techniques used in my “Burn Traitor” Golden Demon diorama, although this time I wanted to execute the effect on a usable gaming miniature rather than a display piece.

The disintergration beams are made from two yellow-green filament LEDs (shown switched off and switched on in the two images above). Although the disintergration beams shown in the Horus Heresy cinematic trailer are blue, I decided I preferred the look of green beams. The filaments are 38mm 3V LEDs (available in the UK from eBay), and each connected in series with a 10 ohm resistor. The two filament-resistor pairs were then connected in parallel to each other and in series with a single CR2032 coin cell battery and switch in the base. The filament LEDs have their connections at opposite ends, so one part of the connecting circuit passes up through the gun and arm, down the torso and legs and into the base. The other part of the circuit passes through the dead marines and directly into the base. If you plan to work with this type of filament LEDs yourself it is worth noting they are very brittle and will not bend at all without snapping. This whole miniature was constructed and painted very carefully!

The helmet LED is on a separate circuit with it’s own battery and is built around a TruOpto OSHR7331A-KL 1.8mm Red LED and the techniques described in my LED Eye Lens tutorial.

The dead Sons of Horus marine is made from parts of the Legion MKVI Tactical Squad kit and various fantasy undead components. I was trying to give the impression that the disintergration beams had already destroyed all the organic components of the marine and had now begun to eat away at the tougher bones and armour. The ‘flames’ were created from Water Splash Effect Gel, available from Green Stuff World.

Painting

I’ve been working on painting this miniature for several weeks, mainly because it is essentially two miniatures. The paint scheme I used follows my Imperial Fists recipes described in this earlier post and the Saturnine heraldry described in this post. My Sons of Horus paint scheme can be found in this post.  The flames on the Sons of Horus marine were painted with a thin glaze of Hexwraith Flame.

As mentioned above, I had to be very careful with the filaments during painting, as an accidental knock from my brush could have damaged it. To keep the filaments safe during undercoating I gently wrapped them in a layer of tinfoil using tweezers (and a steady hand)!

That’s all for today, but I’ll be back soon with more Imperial Fists plus some seasonal diversions! As ever, thanks very much for reading, and please remember you can also find me sharing my work on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon. Or if you prefer you can subscribe to my website by entering your email in the box below to receive updates whenever I post a new blog article or tutorial.

My Imperial Fists in the Age of Darkness project continues this week with the start of a new unit – the Saturnine Terminators! First to step out of the arming chambers is the Saturnine Terminator Sergeant.

Modelling

I want my Saturnine Terminators to look brutal and intimidating, so I have modelled the sergeant casually crushing a MkVI Sons of Horus helmet in his disruption fist. I also selected the Saturnine helmets with the spiked studs and vox grill for this squad. They might be a more common choice for the traitor legions, but I just love the look!

The LED effects on this miniature – both the Saturnine helmet and the exploding MkVI helmet – were created using the techniques described in my LED Eye Lens tutorial. The LED circuits for each helmet were connected in parallel to a single 3V coin cell battery and switch in the base.

I added Water Splash Effect Gel – available from Green Stuff World – in small patches over the MkVI helmet to create the crackling energy effect. This gel is best applied in thin layers, allowing each layer to dry before applying the next. To give the impression of sparks flying as the helmet cracked, I also added some very small lengths of fibre optic cable to the gel before it hardened. These were small sections of fibre cut from a child’s toy using a sharp hobby knife. You can see this process at various stages below.

Once the gel is completely dry, the final step is to apply a single thin glaze of red paint over all the gel. As long as this glaze is suitably thin it will enhance the look of the miniature while the LED is off without inhibiting the light when the LED is on.

My original plan for this army was to stick with tried-and-tested LED miniature techniques (as described in my tutorials) and not get caught up doing anything new or complicated. But this design goal seems to have slipped my mind with the Saturnine Terminators!

Painting

This was a very time consuming miniature to paint, both due to its size compared to other space marine infantry and also the level of detail. It felt a little like painting a miniature titan! The paint scheme I used follows the recipes described in this earlier post. 

This miniature was heavily influenced by Jes Goodwin’s early Terminator concept art (above), specifically the checked heraldry, large numeral on the left shoulder and the use of a back banner. The laurel wreath on the banner indicates the squad is a honour guard for a Saturnine Praetor. The Raptor Imperialis on the greaves indicates the squad are veterans of the Terran Unification wars. The red checks are heraldry for the squad, showing they are warriors of great strength and courage. The checks were painted using my ‘iterative’ freehand technique described in this post.

When painting the disintegrator I took influence from the disintegrator on my Ultramarines Veteran. I wanted it to look more like a bespoke, handcrafted instrument than a mass-produced weapon. The body of the gun is painted in Citadel Leadbelcher, with Retributor Armour washed with Agrax Earthshade to create an antique brass effect on the cyclotron and muzzles, and Corvus Black for the rubberised cables.

That’s all for today. I haven’t decided if I’ll now move on to the next Saturnine Terminator, or take a break from this squad and paint another part of the army. Either way, I’ll be back again soon. As always, thanks very much for reading, and please remember you can also find me sharing my work on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon. Or if you prefer you can subscribe to my website by entering your email in the box below to receive updates whenever I post a new blog article or tutorial.