Good morning Los Angeles 2029, it’s Jstove here and I’m back to show you some toys I’ve been working on.
Like every Necron player ever, I’ve long fancied the idea of the Terminator tribute army- The army that everyone thinks about, but to my knowledge, no one has ever actually done. Quick, somebody prove me wrong.
So with that in mind, I cherry-picked all the best robots from the best parts of the Terminator franchise (and there’s a lot of the Terminator franchise that needs to go back in time and murder itself…) and made it into the Cron army that everybody always thought about making.
Cyborgs and meatbags, I give you the Skynet Dynasty!
The immortals are the early-war T600s with rotten and battle-worn rubber ‘human’ camo that has been burned off over years of conflict in the ruins of Los Angeles. They’re carrying Maxmini miniguns that I bought here from Spikey Bits, and they’re 7 bucks for 5.
I’m very pleased with the bit, and I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking for an alternative assault cannon or heavy bolter.
The royal court of lords/crypteks leading the T800 endoskeleton warriors (with chopped, shortened gauss guns because the glowsticks don’t look terminator, also unfortunate that I never found any weapon that looked like a phased plasma wave rifle in the 40 watt range.) are the iconic infiltrators. Schwarzenegger T800 himself is a reaper model, and Summer Glau as Cameron from Sarah Connor Chronicles is Goreshade’s little friend from Privateer Press.
I couldn’t find a Skynet unit I actually liked to represent scarab swarms, so I just let them be. I could have done swamp-robot-snakes from Salvation, but except for the T600s, Salvation kind of sucks so I didn’t bother. What’s important about the scarabs is that they carry the basing theme of the army- Lots of rubble, bones, and debris painted in blues and blacks to look like the twilight warzone of LA 2029 from the future war scene at the start of T2.
The army is led by Phaeron Wintermute, Skynet’s personal incarnation on the battlefield, a converted Vargard Oby. I took a creative liberty with the overlord because Skynet itself is depicted differently in different parts of the Terminator franchise- In one movie, its cloud-based software, in one its a mainframe in Cheyenne Mountain, in the wacky Star Tours style ride at Universal Studios, its some kind of chimeric hydra thing.
Instead of trying to personify Skynet as one of his wackier incarnations that the franchise is always changing, I just decided to go with a spookier, newer looking boss terminator.
The point is, you have to cherry-pick the Terminator franchise for good stuff, because the plot has been so screwed up by time travel that none of it really even matters. I also wanted to make different HQs as an homage to evil robots from other franchises to be the overlords/destroyer lords, like HAL 9000, SHODAN, the Matrix/Agents, and ED-209.
Bonus points if you recognized the Cyberdyne Systems triad on his chest.
The centerpiece of the army is an aerial HK from T2 representing a flying pastry. The base model was a space marine storm guppy with the prow built up out of BONDO and regiment trays. I ran the numbers to see if it was cheaper to buy the actual scale model kit that exists for the HK, or the toys that were available for T4 that you can sometimes find on Ebay, but I determined it was just cheaper and easier to buy a storm guppy from Spikey Bits– The discount on the web store beat out the competition and shippng in the collector market.
The proportions of the craft aren’t perfectly faithful to the original, but they’re close enough that you get the profile and recognize the distinctive twin-engine hammerhead profile.
The base of the HK is probably the most intense part of the army, and is modeled to look like the iconic nuclear holocaust from the start of T2, complete with flaming playground equipment made of paperclips and washers with greenstuff fire. Bones of dead LA residents also feature prominently. the 41st millennium has got nothing on 2029!
That’s it guys, i’m outta here, BUT checkout my other fun and exciting articles by clicking this link right HERE. -Jstove
About the Author: Jack Stover
