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Hello and welcome to the Neurode Crusade's Keep! This is my second attempt at a WIP thread in this section of the forum. I pronounce the first one dead - all of the images were hosted by Photobucket and many of us know how this turned out. However, technical issues are not the only reason why a fresh thread is justified. My approach to the hobby has changed and I have started doing things with my models. Before that, with few exceptions, the only thing I did was to hoard more models to meet a crusade composition I imagined, but did not control. That is why matters got out of hand quickly and the number of models swelled considerably. The miniatures were tucked into countless scattered boxes. This is no longer! Over the last month and a half, I appointed my Power Armour Marines to squads and/or "functions" and organised my bits. The way ahead of me is long, but I am finally able to see progress and hope. For a good start, I'll leave share this photo of the larger part of my PA Crusaders. In addition to 205 Marines (including 30 jump packs), I have 25 models in scout armour, 49 in TDA,17 bikers, over two dozen vehicles and a Freeblade Imperial Knight. Disclaimer: for the foreseeable future, no Primaris are allowed! And here is a sample of my painting skills. These models represent my current table-top standard (or I should probably add "overall standard," since I'm not able to produce better quality painting factoring in time-per-painted-miniature that I find acceptable). I am going to update this thread as regularly as possible - i.e. every time I manage to do something meaningful, like a completed kitbash/conversion, painted model, finished squad or reasonable progress in a larger project. All and any questions, comments or requests are mostly welcome!

A brotherhood of knights known today as the Neurode Crusade, over the last few decades, underwent a series of changes leading to its present day composition. The changes centre on the figure of Marshall Arthur, the current Marshall of the Crusade. At present, the Neurode crusade's forces are divided. While a pursuit force lead by Marshall Arthur and an accompanying Inquisitor is after a traitor governor who left the Neurode forge world in ruin, the bulk of the Crusade rebuilds its strength in a newly established chapter keep after sustaining considerable loses in a series of violent war campaigns. This thread, as many others of this kind, is a mess. You'll find here successful, suspended and abandoned attempts at converting models and scratch building. You'll find WIP shots and images of painted miniatures. There is also some fluff out there, which hopefully will one day be expanded to form a chronicle of the Neurode Crusade's feats. In order to do something with the mess, I'll be links to important posts here. My approach to painting black - a tutorial; part 1 - general stuff Marshall Arthur, conversion work Black Templars Marshal, Arthur - painted miniature Neurode mechanised Scratchbuilt Neurode-pattern Vindicator Lady Inquisitor WIP and finished model Venerable Dreadnought Neurode Crusaders +++ Below you will find a detailed overview of the Neurode crusade's notable battles. +++PART 1+++ The Otmar Intervention Still a Sword Brother, Arthur was appointed command of a minor, 35-man strong (including a Dreadnought and a 5 TDA Sword Brethren), Black Templar strike force. They were ordered to support Imperial forces on Otmar. Thereon, the safety of a sacred shrine of the Emperor was threatened by an Ork raiding party of unknown size. Planetary radars located an incoming Ork vessel and the local officials sent distress signals. Because of its location and insignificance, Otmar did not have a military force and had little chances of defending against the incoming Orks. The defenders of the planet were but a small, underequipped militia, mustered from the more zealous civilians and local priests. The plea for help was answered by a nearby Black Templar vessel. Arthur’s force landed in time to bolster local defences and, most importantly, secure the safety of the shrine located on a rise in Walhaim, the biggest city of the planet. The Ork shuttle crashed on the surface of Otmar on the outskirts of Walgaim just a few hours after the Black Templars landed. Arthur assigned 10 Initiates, a Dreadnought and some of the local forces to defend the immediate proximity of the shrine. Meanwhile, he lead a pre-emptive attack. Unfortunately, as the Orks need no time to organize, they already managed to brake the militia’s defences of Walhaim. Fighting the scattered Ork forces was tiresome. The greenskins posed no threat, nor were they a worthy challenge for the fearsome Crusaders. However, the crashed vessel was not the only inbound Orkish craft. Somehow two other, larger vessels remained undetected until it was too late. The cumbersome, mutilated chunks of metal entered Otmar’s atmosphere. This time the greenskins were lead by a Warboss. Seeing what was left of the first wave of attackers, the brute became furious. He lead a swift strike on the city, much more organized than the previous formless assault. Orks used their numbers to their advantage and were pushing the defenders back, deeper into the city. Even the might of the Astartes, stretched thin among the kilometres of breaking defence lines, proved to be insufficient. Arthur ordered all his man back to the shrine to prevent desecration of the holy place. The remaining forces of the human militia, at first hesitant to leave their homes to be ravaged by the scattered parties of the green horde, joined the Marines. Eager to fight the finest of the Imperium, the Warboss gathered a significant force of Orks and ordered a brutal onslaught on the defenders’ donjon. The joint Black Templars’ and militia’s forces repelled the initial push and two consecutive ones; yet, the defenders, especially the militia, suffered great losses. However, the Ork’s numbers were greatly diminished. In the third attack on the shrine, the Warbass was slain. The rest of his kin, leaderless, discouraged and broken, scattered. The shrine was secured. Walhaim was ruined, though. The remains of the defenders, assisted by fresh units of militia from other settlements, dealt with the scattered Ork survivors. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ORIGINAL POST: The thread description says it all: this will be my WIP thread in which I'll be posting (hopefully regularly) pictures of my endeavours to expand my Crusade and convert different pieces in my collection. Unfortunately I can't do anything for the ETL competition, because my pledged units aren't where I am. But I can devote myself to my new-found passion: making plasticard models. For the time being, I'm suspending my Thunderhawk project: I just want to make a smaller plasticard model to see whether I'm capable of making a decent looking craft. For starters, my cheap Vindicator (which I'll vow in ETL when I'm done with my rhinos & razorback). Here is a raw overwiew of what I have so far. http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/9049/p1050937zs.jpg And the cannon: http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/1724/p1050933c.jpg How do you like the look of the cannon? I did it according to the templates which I've found, but it is not as wide as in the original model. Does it look okay, or would you advise me to make it wider, more like in the original?

Greetings Brothers, Some of you might be familiar with this project since I've been posting progress reports in the WIP subforum. You can see more work-in-progress photos in my thread. However, since I managed to finally complete the model, I thought that it's a great pretext for trying the blog function out. The project nearly turned out to be overwhelming. It took me way more time and required more skills than I anticipated, especially when it comes to handling Milliput. Nevertheless, despite the problems I encountered and the time it took me, I am quite happy with how the model turned out. The final product is a far cry from what I initially wanted to achieve and/or roughly envisaged the conversion to be but by no means is it bad. The main source of my problems was that I didn't do enough research and designing before starting work. I wanted to make the Redemptor more like the Castraferrum dreadnoughts, along the inspirations below: Clearly, I failed to thoroughly consider what made these conversions work and make the model look more like a 'true-scale' Box Dreadnought. Instead, with just a the vague impression and a set of ideas what I wanted to change and what I wanted to add, I started work, quite unconsciously taking more cues from the design of a Leviathan or Contemptor Dreadnought, than the design of a Castaferrum. The final result is quite different from what I wanted. This doesn't mean that I'm dissatisfied with the final product or the hours I spent on the project - I can quite confidently state that I'm quite happy with how it turned out and how the journey ended. I think that I managed to fix a lot of issues I take with the Primaris aesthetic and, overall, to my taste, the model is an upgrade to the vanilla Redemptor. A lot of this results from reducing the 'roundness' and plainness of the original (legs, shoulder guards), as well as shedding some front-heavy weight (the extra armour and the way the hull weapons are mounted on the original). And some side-by-side comparisons with a vanilla Redemptor Dreadnought: Shoulder guards: Including greebles on the back: Leg guards/greeves: Torso/hull:

With the release of the official flyer rules for Black Templars and my wallet being rather empty, I decided to devote my free time to building a Stormraven from scratch. I'm using Eli Patoroch's papercarft Stormraven templates and plasticard to construct my cheap flyer. Here are the first finished parts, the engine components: http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/8589/p1030564ww.jpg http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9503/p1030565v.jpg The front part of the engines: http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/9350/p1030566x.jpg And the turbines: http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/4779/p1030567h.jpg