Warhammer 40,000 – Converting the Space Marine Terminators

Last year I showed you the new Space Marine Terminator Squad, in updated scale and Indomitus pattern armour. And those were build with the intention of use in Space Hulk, as written last July as well. As I pointed out, a few options and poses were missing to fulfill all roles needed to play the different campaigns.

As a TLDNR sum up, there is the core game of Space Hulk and further campaigns, making use of the Terminator variant boxed sets for Dark Angels or Space Wolves, and I wanted to re-create this more Codex Astartes compliant with Sons of Dorn, the Imperial Fists. By using the parts from the Terminator Squad plastic kit and further sprues, among others from the Deathwing Assault set, I went on to convert the Terminator miniatures for the weapon load outs, that I would need to cover the extended gaming material.

While could build most of what we need, especially for the Space Hulk core set and Ultramarines campaign from the vanilla Terminator squad, there are still a few poses open.

From the Dark Angels campaign Bringer of Sorrow, we would need the third Terminator with a special weapon, in this case the Plasma Cannon, as we covered the heavy flamer with the multi-part squad and the assault cannon from Leviathan.

I used the Dark Angels accessories sprue and took the plasma cannon from there. It didn't had any Dark Angel insignia on it, so that was a very easy fit.

From the old Dark Angels Deathwing Terminator kit, which gave you the option to build Knights and a Command Squad, I grabbed further bits, for the additional poses. While that kit dates back to 2013, Games Workshop relieved themselves from remaining stock with the Wrath of the Soul Forge King in 2023. The kit itself is top notch, a lot of options, but the scale creep captured up to it and doesn't make it that great with the new Primaris range. Therefore the update was a good choice, currently just leaving the Space Wolves in the old scale.

From that sprue I took a couple of bits, the lightning claws, the Apothecarius bits, a thunderhammer and a cloak.

The Lightning Claws are quite the no-brainer, I just had to remove the Dark Angels Insignia on the inside. For this single pose, it was enough, especially as I had the spare parts in stock. But if you need more, I would recommend third party bits, for example Red Warden, who has a lot of 3d printable options to offer for Astartes, among them this set of Lightning Claws in the new scale and poseable.

The biggest work is with the Apocatherius, as we have quite a few bits and pieces, and laid them out. While the old Dark Angels sprue has an arm with a Narthecium, that arm is a bit small, so I decided to use the new, larger one, as it didn't really fit the proportions. And while I was at it, I transfered the helix from one pad to the new one. Along with the further equipment on the belt and back, this makes for a really round model.

This means there are three sculpts missing and yet to do.

• 1x Thunder hammer & Stormshield
• 1x Deathwing Champion with Halberd of Caliban / Stormbolter + Frost axe
• 1x Banner Bearer

As I am going for Imperial Fists, a Deathwing Champion would certainly look out of place, but I am thinking about doing a Champion of the Emperor in Terminator Armour. I was thinking about having the Thunderhammer and Stormshield covered with the Chaplain in Terminator Armour, but I could give that model a different weapon set, and have him cover the champion. With the Thunderhammer and Stormshield an updated version of Lysander would be an interesting design choice. It depends a bit on what bits I can get my hands on, physical as well as STL files.

Regarding the Banner Bearer, I think that is blatantly unhandy for Space Hulk combat, so I'd probably simply add a Stranger in the Dark servant with a relict, Cherub, Servitor or Servoskull to one of the other Terminators and have that as a stand-in.

And this certainly calls for something like Zone Mortalis bases, and to go for the pink-primer yellow on top paint job for Imperial Fists, as we have lots of surface. But first let me complete the set of miniatures.