One Very Last Dark Vengeance Update

Last one.  Honest.  And it’s kind of a cheat...

I’ve mentioned once or thrice before that the Dark Vengeance kit has really solid, static figures that aren’t going to offer many options for anyone except really serious converters.  For those of us who can’t risk wrecking a model on an idea, the kit just doesn’t have a lot of flex room. The best we can hope for area few minimal tweaks that, if done right, can change the feel of a model.  This idea’s a little more advanced than some of those, but still doesn’t take a lot of work.  I’m also going to be a bit of a hypocrite—I’m suggesting this one and I have no plans of trying it myself.

Anyways...

The Dark Vengeance set comes with five Deathwing Terminators.  They’re absolutely beautiful sculpts.  As many people have noted, though, with all their iconography it’s tough to use them as anything except Dark Angels or a closely-related chapter.  It struck me on a long drive, though, that there is a completely different way for Chaos players to use them.

In the past I’ve tried to scratch-build my own Obliterators, because I’ve never been fond of the financial price vs. points ratio.  And that’s before GW cut them down more and more from the firepower nightmares they’re supposed to be.  Mutilators felt like a cheap (or not-so-cheap) attempt to spin off them that had some really rushed models. 

First things first, for any of these, is the head.  Before assembling the Terminators, take a sharp knife and very carefully cut off the helmets.  On a few of the models (or if you already put them together) you may need to carve them out of the collar/ hood they’re in.  A pair of clippers will help with this.  So will a drill.  It’s a bit troublesome, drilling into beautiful Terminator helmets, I know.  Just try to preserve the collar  if the helmet itself is destroyed, it’s no big deal.  The idea is to create a socket big enough that you can drop in a new head.  Any of the bare chaos heads would be fine.  If you can get your hands on some of the old mutation sprue ones, that’s even better.

Next, scrape off any symbols or iconography.  Shoulderpads, dangling icons, any of that stuff.  Purity seals and Imperial eagles can go, too.  Don’t worry if these aren’t perfect afterwards.  There’s going to be a big cover-up phase.

Helpful Hint--You may want to skip converting the Deathwing sergeant/captain.  With his robes, wings, and all his iconography, he may just be too much work.

If you have them, it’s also tempting to use some of the oversized Demon Prince shoulderpads to bulk up these models even more.  I’ve got a few of the old metal ones, and I’m sure there’s some spares floating around from somebody’s Fantasy Demon Prince.  I’m a little torn on using them, but if you’ve got them... well, it’s an option.

Now, for Obliterators, you need weapons.  Fortunately, that’s something most 40K players have lots of hanging around.  If you don’t have them yourself, Imperial Guard players probably have a bunch of lascannons and flamers, and possibly a few plasma cannons if they’ve bought some of the new Sentinels.  Heck, the Terminators come with power fists and an assault cannon.

Helpful Hint – If you just want a quick, cheap way to make a few big barrels, use the round sections of sprue.  You can drill out the center and voila—instant gun barrel.  Two of them one on top of the other would work as a fine multi-melta with the right paint job.  My scratch-built obliterators up above have three or four of these barrels between them.  I kind of like them because a big generic gun barrel can shoot anything.

To give the Obliterators the best look, I’d cut off the Terminator hands at the wrist and replace them with one of the larger, more prominent weapons.  The lascannon, assault cannon, or multi-melta would work well.  Don’t worry if it’s a messy join—it’ll all get covered.  Then maybe attach a few smaller weapons around that one.  They don’t need to be pressed flat together, so don’t worry about a little space between barrels. 

Mutilator weapons aren’t much harder.  The Terminators come with a chainfist and a power sword already (although I’d probably make the powers word come right out of the wrist, like the Obliterator weapons).  More power swords aren’t hard to find, and if you check around in your Fantasy bits (or those of your friends) you’ll find even more blades you can use.  That’s especially true of axes to be used as power axes.  You can also take leftover chainswords from numerous sets to turn power fists into chainfists.

Helpful Hint – If you really want to add to the sense of bulk for Mutilators, use the chainsword-esque choppas from the Ork sets.  They’re plentiful, big, and brutal-looking, and their “blades” work either as chainaxes if you use them alone or chainfists if you add them to the existing power fist.

Now comes the tricky part.  Get some green stuff and use it on the model.  You want to cover some of the more mechanical joints (the shoulder, hips, waist).  You also want to use it to hide some of the rougher joins or icon removal you had to do.  Just use small bits of green stuff (half a pea at most) and take your time working it into joints and spreading it around.  It should also be used near the weapons.  It’ll help make the joins more solid and add to that look of twisted skin and muscle the Obliterators and Mutilators both use.

Helpful Hint – If you’ve ever wanted to try working with green stuff, but you’ve been a bit nervous, this is a perfect project to try it on.  Things like distorted muscle and flesh are very forgiving, because once they’re painted they tend to always look... well, distorted and mutilated.  You may remember when I made the Plague Tower and also the Plaguereaper, I used a similar, simple technique on the pus cannon for each of them.

You can also make simple tubes and cables just by rolling a small piece of green stuff into a snake and cutting off the pointed tips.  I did something similar making little tentacles for the base of my revamped Hive Tyrant.

And, having written all this out, I’m tempted to try it with one or two of my Black Reach terminators that never found a home...