Salamanders Legion Praetor Terminator

For every army, there needs to be a commander. Some are junior, others are more senior. Some are pressed in to the role due to circumstances beyond anyone's control. This Praetor has a feeling of seniority combined with circumstances (Isstvan 5) that no one in the legion foresaw.

The model has been assembled from a variety of sources. The legs and torso come from the Forge World range -- Salamanders Legion Firedrake. However, I wanted the model to not be a total copy of the Firedrake, replete with shield and everything (even though that was actually very appealing for canonicity and authenticity to Isstvan 5).

Instead, the arms are a thunder hammer (actually sourced from the Dark Angels range) and a chaos space marines combi-melta gun. The reasons for the are due to personal experience with the Dark Angels (narratively, the Salamanders are friendly with most other legions -- sworn brothers to the Dark Angels, and why shouldn't some of the senior officers have served and made comrades out of other legions - there's plenty of evidence in the books for this, not least of all between Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus), and the latter due to the dire situation that the survivors of Isstvan 5 found themselves in. I think he must have looted it from a more chaotic legion myself - perhaps the Word Bearers?

The shoulder pads are both the same and from the (older) chaos space marine terminator range -- the skull with curled horns. This shoulder pad is not as chaotic in nature as it might seem. To my mind, they conjure up the marine's background on Nocturne where he might have hunted such great beasts.

The helmet meanwhile is from standard 40k terminators. I was toying with a lot of different helmets for this praetor ranging from a bald head, through to top knots, and everything in between. I felt that the standard 40k terminator was appropriate given the upper torso configuration which is very reminiscent of the 40k range. He could therefore be deployed as one of any type of terminator (potentially) using the armour as counts-as Cataphractii, and so forth.

For the painting, I followed the usual prescription of the warp lightning contrast paint, accented by lighter greens and complemented by the fire motifs.

In all, a worthy leader of the desperate force that I'm constructing for my Shattered Legions. And for once, not Meduson either. Rather, this is the praetor who re-forged his brothers and cousins to use the Covenant of Fire rite of war to survive, eliminate their enemies, and attempt to escape Isstvan 5.