The False Primarch will perish by my hand – or my fist!

Brother-Captain Caedes, Third Captain of the Flesh Eaters

It’s back to the Flesh Eaters project this week with Brother-Captain Caedes, Captain of the Flesh Eaters third company and Master of the Armoury during the War of the False Primarch.

Modelling

One year on, I’m still slowly working my way through the contents of the Leviathan box. The base miniature for Brother-Captain Caedes is the Terminator Captain from the Leviathan boxed set (also seen in the Space Marine Combat Patrol set). I’ve tried to modify it to fit the aesthetics of the Terminator Captain included in the metal RTB9 ‘Terminator Squad‘ box. This is one of my favourite classic GW models, and the style fits perfectly with the ‘Rogue Trader era’ aesthetic I’m aiming for with my Flesh Eaters army.

The head for this miniature comes from the Horus Heresy Character Heads Upgrade Set 2, which I feel may have been an intentional homage to the head of the original Terminator Captain. If not, it’s coincidentally a very close match!

I wasn’t trying to recreate every detail of the original Captain exactly, but just capture his general aesthetic. I positioned the sheathed sword on the other side of his waist as this was a better fit with the pose of the Leviathan Captain. I also thought that it made more sense being on that side so he could draw the sword with his storm bolter hand rather than the power fist – although I think I do remember an old piece of artwork with a Terminator Captain holding a power sword in his power fist!

Another feature of the original that I didn’t replicate was the grenade launcher built into the power fist. I would have been happy to add that, except that it would have interfered with the LED power fist effect.

With the LED power fist, I was aiming to give the impression of an active ‘disruption field’, with lightning crackling over the surface of the fist. If you’re interested in the details of how the LED power fist was made, I have added a full LED Power Fist Tutorial to the LED Miniatures Tutorials section of my website.

Captain Caedes’ rank as Third Captain of the Flesh Eaters granted him the title of Master of the Armoury during the War of the False Primarch. The chapter’s arsenal received a massive influx of materiel during the conflict, both by direct order of the High Lords of Terra and as spoils of war. This put more resources at Captain Caedes’ disposal than any other Master of the Armoury has had since the founding of the Flesh Eaters – resources that he did not hesitate to deploy.

EXTRACT FROM ‘A TREATISE ON THE WAR OF THE FALSE PRIMARCH’ BY SCRIBE HOWTOPHER BUXCRAFT

Painting

At this point in the Flesh Eaters project my colour schemes are well established. If you’d like to know what paints I used with this miniature, then you can find my paint recipes for red armour, Terminator iconography, Space Marine pale skin, and freehand checks in the linked articles.

I did consider giving Captain Caedes grey or white hair, but settled for brown because I wanted to give him a more youthful appearance to feed into the “young hothead” narrative – he has sworn to defeat a Primarch in personal combat after all! “Young” is a comparative term for a Space Marine Captain though, he’s still over 100 years old!

Captain Caedes’ heraldry is inspired by the heraldry of the RTB9 Terminator Captain, which is checks in opposite quarters, a skull, and a Crux Terminatus. My original plan was to reproduce this directly, but I decided it needed the third company numerals in there somewhere, so I replaced one of the check quarters. Then I wasn’t happy with the tiny Crux Terminatus that I painted, so I replaced that with a second skull.

Like their forebears, the noble Blood Angels, the Flesh Eaters also have a great respect for artisan work. Brother-Captain Caedes is said to have hand sown the embroidery on his own cloak. Like so many others in the war, the Brother-Captain had sworn to kill the Abomination by his own hand, and the black of the cloak was a constant reminder of that solemn executioner’s vow.

EXTRACT FROM ‘A TREATISE ON THE WAR OF THE FALSE PRIMARCH’ BY SCRIBE HOWTOPHER BUXCRAFT

That’s all for today, I hope you’ve enjoyed this insight into the latest addition to my Flesh Eaters army. Thanks very much for reading, and please remember you can also find me sharing my work on Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X, Bluesky and Mastodon.