Finished Model: Captain Agemman

Three months after I finally decided to do it, I finished Captain Agemman (my counts-as Lysander). He even took part in a game on the very day that he was finished. My new HQ and my squad of shooty Terminators formed a neat little Death Star that wiped out a number of Grey Knights.

The goal was to make a model similar to Lysander
without being an exact copy with different logos

A Lysander Stand-In
One of the first things I noticed about Lysander's armor is that it isn't too different from that of a Terminator sergeant. Since I certainly didn't want to go out and buy a resin Lysander from which I would have to remove the Imperial Fist logos, I decided to emulate the model with the plastic parts I had on hand. Although I wanted my model to look enough like Lysander to indicate who he was supposed to be, I didn't need or want an exact copy. I especially didn't want to have an impossible to remove representation of the Imperial Fists' logo on my Ultramarine Captain's thunder hammer.

I set aside Agemman's bits when I started preparing the parts for an eight man close combat Terminator Squad (i.e., the largest squad size that will fit in a Land Raider Crusader). Since I wanted Agemman to stand out from the squad's sergeant, I decided against giving the sergeant the same ornate thunder hammer and large storm shield that I was going to put on the Captain. The Terminator sergeant will instead stand out from the rest of his squad with extra purity seals, the ornamentation on his back, and the red sergeant's helmet.

The cape, which seems to be standard for Space Marine captains, was a bit harder to come by. With a lot of carving I was able to remove the power armor section from the Space Marine Commander kit's torso. Using Kaldor Draigo's cape as inspiration, I shaped the top of the cape so that it could be mounted to Agemman's lower back at the corners while the middle sagged below the armor's charging port(?). Like Draigo, Agemman's cape would appear to be attached with two purity seals.

In addition to the cape, I took several other items from the Space Marine Commander kit, including a head with three service studs (just like Lysander's) and a backpack banner. Although the Terminator kit has a wreathed skull similar to the one on Lysander's back, I figured that if Sicarius' model carries a banner, Agemman should too. The banner would also further distinguish the Captain from a Terminator Sergeant.

Agemman would also be my first fully based infantry model

I made a few other modifications to reflect certain details of the Lysander model. Lysander's shield has an Imperial Fist logo on the lower portion while the large plastic Terminator shield has a skull. I removed the skull from the shield to make room for an Ultramarines-specific logo. Lysander also has a chapter logo on a small plate on his chest. Although I decided against making a similar plate, I removed the original logo from the torso bit so I could paint the inverted omega in its place.

The Marathon
I started Agemman on the very day that I finished the Ironclad Dreadnought and with less than two weeks left before our next Cabal game. I began with the base, which was going to be more ornate than any I'd ever done before (the Ironclad base doesn't count since it's already molded that way).

With the Ironclad, I finally gave up on the plain gray bases I'd used on all my other models. Thus, the rim of Agemman's base was painted with Steel Legion Drab, just like GW's models. I used Stirland Mud texture paint on the top to give it the appearance of a rocky mud or dark soil. I eventually added rocks and static grass from a kit I won during our last Cabal tournament. Although a lot of the textured paint is now hidden, I liked it quite a bit and am considering buying some Astrogranite to simulate gravel for other models' bases.

Agemman's right shoulder pad. The logo is hand painted, as usual.

Although I was bound and determined to get the model done before the next game night, I enjoy the modeling aspect of the hobby too much to skimp on the details. For example, the Captain's right shoulder pad bears a slightly more ornate form of the Ultramarines logo than my other models. Also, since I wanted to distinguish Agemman's master-crafted thunder hammer from others, I attached a crux terminatus icon to the hammer's face and decorated the weapon with a detailed purity seal from the Ironclad kit.

Agemman two days before game night

There was only one night during those two weeks that I didn't work on the model (my wife has the patience of a saint). Nevertheless, by Thursday night it looked like I might not have a new HQ ready for Saturday's game. Friday night was a brutal slog; I worked on Agemman from 7:30PM to 1:30AM and still wasn't quite done. I'm still amazed that I was able to work for that long; my eyes usually can't focus for much more than two to three hours at a stretch.

Agemman at 1:30AM, less than 24 hours before the game

My kids work me up on Saturday morning at 7:30. The mere possibility that I could finish the model prevented me from going back to sleep (and I usually don't get much more than six hours' sleep anyway), so I ended up back at my painting table. Three hours later I was done.

First Company Captain Agemman
I think the final result came out pretty good:

To further distinguish Agemman's hammer from those of the close combat Terminators I'll be building next, the weapon was painted with brighter metallic paints than I would normally use. Agemman's hammer was painted with Chainmail, washed with Nuln Oil, and dry brushed with Mithril Silver. The standard Terminators will have hammers painted with Leadbelchers, washed with Nuln Oil, and dry brushed with Chainmail.

The stone effects on the shield and crux terminatus was done with a base coat of Codex Grey, a Nuln Oil wash, and a dry brushing of Fortress Grey. I tried to make the banner stand out from the armor by painting it with Altdorf Guard Blue, washing it with Drakenhof Nightshade, and dry brushing it with Altdorf Guard Blue. It turned out a bit closer in color to the armor than I had expected. The white circle in the middle was the perfect spot for the blue Ultramarines decal that I'd wanted to use for a long time.

Gold regions were base coated with Shining Gold, washed with Devlan Mud, and dry brushed with Burnished Gold. The handle of the hammer is Gore Red with a Devlan Mud wash. The handles of the Terminator Squad's thunder hammers will be painted in a much plainer brown shade.

On the original torso bit, the tassel hung from the point where the power armor's backpack passed through the cape (which was cut off when I did the conversion). I used a crux terminatus medallion to hide the fact that the tassel now seemed to come out of nowhere.

The fancy Ultramarines logo I was planning to put on the shield fell by the wayside late one night. I decided that Agemman's shield had some inspirational saying by Roboute Guilliman along with a small (and easily painted) Chapter logo instead.

This model came out a lot cleaner than some of my others. The dirty look comes from a heavy wash or two with Nuln Oil followed by a lot of dry brushing to bring out the edges and lighten up the wash. This is easy on a vehicle or basic troops where there are relatively few detailed areas. The detail I painted on the Captain before doing any washes made it difficult to dry brush the model without getting paint where I didn't want it. Thus, I used only a single, relatively light Nuln Oil wash and was a lot more conservative with the dry brushing. Given that Agemman is the Veteran Company Captain, you could expect his armor to be kept a bit cleaner than that of the rank and file.

At S10 and with +1 to the vehicle damage table, my stand-in Fist of Dorn is as destructive as the Ironclad Dreadnought's seismic hammer. I'll have to enjoy this model while I can; I can't imagine that Lysander will pack so many awesome abilities into a mere 200 points in the 6th Edition C:SM.