In a previous video I helped the centurion across the primaris rubicon. While I was
really pleased with how he turned out, I did want to try some centurions that were specific
to different space marine chapters. That’s how this build started. As a grey knight centurion.
It… kind of got out of control as I went and turned into a full on mini dreadknight.
To try and get a more dynamic pose than my previous centurion I started with an
assault intercessor I’d previously cut the chestplate off of for a different project.
In this case though instead of replacing the knees with the servos from the original centurion kit I
left the intercessors original knees intact and simply affixed the stilts to the bottom of his
feet. I planned on using grey knight pauldrons as knee armor and they wouldn’t fit over the servos.
The reason I wanted to use the pauldron is because one of the big problems with
converting grey knights at a scale different than the normal marine is that their distinctive
inscriptions are basically impossible to copy, so as much as possible I wanted to incorporate
original grey knight bits into my centurion. The scale actually works pretty well too, and the fin
on top mimics the one all primaris kneepads have. ...and the rest of the leg assembly I didn’t grab
footage of because it was such a fiddly and frustrating process. You may notice that the
stance is entirely different, and that’s because I cut open the hip of the marine and swung it to
the left. Basically, centurion legs all need to have really wide stances or they look terrible.
The only big change I wanted to make was to shift his feet from the centurion ones to the ones from
the ambot kit, which was easy enough to do. For his crotchal portion I could’ve just used the
original plate that comes with the centurion kit, but one of the key aesthetics of grey knights in
concept art is that they half a multitude of half tabards and purity seals streaming in the wind,
so I instead replaced it with this flag. It has a bit too much of an Ultramarines
flavor to it though, so I later fit the pennant from a Dark Angel kit over it.
With the legs done, I moved on his torso. As with my other centurions I narrowed it by
slicing off the missile launcher portions. Unlike for my primaris centurion though,
I also extended the height of the torso with this armor plate from a grey knight terminator.
Making the torso taller would help iron out the centurion’s proportions,
and the terminator armor adds just a little more grey knight flavor.
I started by leveling off the top of the centurion’s torso and hollowing out the inside of
the terminator’s. I then carefulling snipped off the bottom portion of the terminator chestplate,
careful to leave the inquisition insignia intact so it could fit over the centurion portion
and make it look like the chest plates were one piece. I left a little bit of
a gap so I could use milliput to sculpt the two shapes a little more organically later.
The one difficulty of heightening the torso like this though was that it means that the yoke-like
shoulder pistons don’t fit anymore. They’re one of my favorite elements of centurions though,
so to include them I sawed off the back of the centurion torso and raised it so it was roughly
the height of the gorget. I snipped off the collar portion of the pistons so it could fit
snug, and then green stuffed the rest of the torso into place. It turned out pretty well.
I’d fit on a terminator chaingun to get a rough idea of the centurion’s proportions,
but replaced it with a flamethrower. Just as with my primaris centurion I planned on using it as a
base for a more complicated limb. I snipped off the muzzle and barrels and dry fitted the blade
of a Dreadknight. It had snapped at the mid point by accident, but looked fairly cool as a katar of
some sort. The downside of a katar is that it makes for an unagile weapon since you lose all
the range of motion afforded by the wrist. But that actually makes sense for a centurion who
isn’t that agile to begin with and would mostly be using it for brutally powerful thrusts and cuts.
Another option I considered for awhile was using this hand from an ambot to hold a hammer
taken from a helbrute. I eventually decided against it just because I thought the sword arm
looked just a touch cooler, and his stance with it out would be more open and less cluttered.
For my centurion’s left arm I wanted to use this ballistic shield from the ogryn kit. It’s
design language is a little too militaristic and practical for a Grey Knight though, so I planned
to put this banner from the Grey Knight terminator kit over it. To achieve a close fit I sliced the
shield flat, and did the same with the back of the banner. I left the crossbar of the banner
in place to help explain why the thing doesn’t just get twisted and tangled up on everything.
Moving back to his weapon arm, I decided to place the Dreadknight blade over the forearm
of my centurion with the ambot hand under it. This adds just a touch of realism since
being able to lift and manipulate things would be handy, and also looks cooler.
For the back of my centurion I decided to do something a little more complicated than just
give him the original centurion reactor. Because both of his limbs were occupied,
I decided to mount a cannon on the back of my Grey Knight so he could still engage daemons at range.
To take up space next to it and so he’d still have some kind of reactor, I used the
gravity gun the original kit comes with. Something had been nagging me about my
centurion. He was looking a little too… heroic. The thing about the Grey Knights is that despite
their name they’re not really a chivalric chapter, more ancient than heroic, their
pauldrons inscribed with wards and attributions of their faith. And centurion pauldrons don’t
really reflect that. To me they made him look too much like a World of Warcraft Paladin.
Replacing them was tricky though, because there aren’t really any other ones of the right size.
Eventually what I ended up using was the leg plates from a dreadnought. They were nicely
gothic… but looked too much like a Diablo 3 Crusader. Sigh. I replaced them with a pair
of leg plates engraved in a way that’s vaguely reminiscent of Grey Knight visual language.
To make him even less heroic I got rid of the back cannon and replaced it
with a small altar made up of a reactor and inquisitorial symbol in a steeple.
One of the things I dislike about the Dreadknight model is that it should be as much a walking
shrine and relic as a war machine, its protection as much spiritual as physical. To do battle with
daemons the Grey Knights arm themselves not just with steel and servo, but faith and psychic might.
And with that my Grey Knight was ready to grapple with the nightmares of the warp made flesh. He no
longer really looks much like a Centurion, or really a marine in a suit at all despite the
proportions and pieces all being there. With conversions you sometimes just have to embrace
elements of the final product you didn’t expect, and while not a good centurion, I do think my Grey
Knight makes for a pretty cool mini Dreadknight: tactical, mid sized power armor designed for
deployment in urban environments where a full dreadknight wouldn’t fit or isn’t available.
If you liked this video hit the like button, subscribe, or check out my
previous Grey Knight primaris conversion. And if you really liked it, check out my patreon
where I posted an exclusive analysis of various Dreadknight conversions. Thanks for watching.