Emperor's Children Saturnine Terminators

No, these aren't the new plastic Saturnine minis that Games Workshop is releasing soon and which are all over every 40k Facebook group I follow.

Saturnine Terminators (well, one) first appeared in White Dwarf 109 back in the far past that is 1988. Here's Jes Goodwin's concept sketch for the armour, and note the iconic checkered powerfist:

And here's the original metal mini, of which I owned three:

I loved these Termies. Yes, they're in a classically static pose and holding their bolters at an odd angle, but this is the late 80s and us 40k fans were well used to that kind of sculpt. It's also completely unclear which chapter this guy belongs to, which is also bang on for that period.

Anyway, as Games Workshop keeps mining its ancient past (which it ignored for decades) as it's apparently out of ideas for new minis, the new box set of Saturnine Termies will set you back $315. I mean, you do get 50 minis for that, a whopping six of which are the actual Terminators everyone's been wanting for years and includes a Saturnine dreadnought because why not, but I'm happy to report that my proud members of the III Legion set me back only $35. 

And for $35, these minis are awesome. After priming them all with AK Black Primer they were each basecoated with Royal Purple for that classic Emperor's Children look.

I used a 50-50 mix of Royal Purple and Pink for the first highlights and then upped the Pink for a second once-over. I used a bit of Druchii Violet here and there to darken the shadows but really the armour was done at this point.

Oh Christ, now it's time for all the gold trim. I used Retributor Armour washed with Reikland Fleshshade to add a warmer tint. I then had to highlight it all, so for this I used Vallejo Polished Gold as it's a much brighter shade.

Their massive glaives are Stormhost Silver over Runefang Steel, as I wanted a nice shiny silver. Unfortunately I used too much Nuln Oil to shade them and dulled the silver too much.

The glaives' hafts were given a basecoat of Hull Red, and then the grips were highlighted with Screamer Pink and Pink Horror. The little green jewels are just Aelderi Emerald over the silver.

We're down to the final stages now, meaning my life of touching up gold and purple on an almost hourly basis is almost over. I used more Aelderi Emerald over White for their eye lenses and then painted the bolters and flamers on the tops of their armour Leadbelcher and Runefang Steel. The captain's mohican is Doomfire Magenta over a White basecoat, which in my opinion is way to red to be proper magenta but that's just me.

They're all on 40mm bases which I slathered with Stirland Battlemire and then glued on some flock and tufts. They're pretty basic but easy to do and I like them.

One thing I don't like about these minis is yet again I didn't get a chance to use my Slaanesh decals as there's nowhere to put them. After ordering them from Switzerland and waiting three weeks for them, I'm dying to slap them on something at some point.

One thing I really like about these minis is that they have little speakers embedded in their armour, a nod to the future of many III Legion marines as the infamous and totally awesome Noise Marines. And I just remembered that I painted three Saturnine Terminators back in 2023, and they're equally awesome. 

Now I've got the basic armour paint recipe down, expect more Emperor's Children — both pre- and post-Heresy — in the future. Honest.