Defenders of the Faith: Chaplains Part 3 - Contempory, Terminators & Conversions

This is a last round-up of the chaplains that I've managed to paint in the space of the past twelve months and have yet to allow onto the blog. This lot represents the odds and ends that don't really fit into a catagory of their own and as such are dealt with here in one final post of space marine zealotry.

I've often been very hard on the current range of characters available for the space marines, but the chaplains for the most part seem to have escaped the crazy levels of mad poses and two tons of wargear. I had a blast painting this mini, the detail and pose are fantastic. But I still think that he's asking to be shot in the chest.

This guy is pretty much the epitome of what a terminator character looked like back before the introduction of the new wider bases. He also has a far more conservative pose than the later terminator chaplain and his wildly flailing chain of ammunition! I like the new bases and the emphasis that they lend to a terminator, but I still admire the fact that almost as much miniture was once packed onto a 25mm slotta base.

Converted from the Dark Angels Chaplain Asmodai, this model represents a chaplain of the Bladesworn company. I simply removed the crozius from his left hand and attached a shield from the Chaos Warriors box with the symbols removed by filing. Rather than keep to the bone colouring on the helmet, in this case I was sure it would be lost in the tones of the robes, I instead used it on the outer face of the shield and the blade of he powersword. All in all, I was very pleased with the way this one turned out.

This started out as Xavier of the Salamanders, a mini that I have no idea why I bought in the first place and spent a long time in the "to do" pile. Loosing the crazy lizardskin cloak and removing a few Salamander icons left a fairly generic chaplain, but not a bad one. I coloured the kneepads bone in order to draw attention away from the more subtle flame motifs on the legs and concentrate attention on the overall scheme.

This Blood Angels Death Company chaplain lost his rather over the top headdress and the more crazy elements of the chapter iconography. I replaced his all too Blood Angels crozius with a chainsword and linked it to his bolter with the bone colourscheme. I covered the mad chestplate with greenstuff and mounted a terminator honour in the centre as well.

This is a true bits box chaplain if ever there was one, with legs and arms, head and chainsword from a chaos marine, torso from a plague marine, backpack from a legion of the damned mini and a groincloth to cover his shame at such a mixed heritage. Not the best chaplain in my collection, but I don't think it's bad for a mini put together from random parts.

This is another chaplain conversion that is more about experimenting than anything else, but does have the honour of being the first marine in my collection to be equipped with a jump-pack. The elements of the body are standard for an assault marine, but the head was a leftover from an old Chaos Warrior box with a hood sculpted from greenstuff.