The Albigensian Crusade

[Honda]

I lke challenges. I think they are motivating and I always appreciate the "spice" they add to any army exercise. So I jumped into the E Tenebrae Lux (ETL) challenge as a way to kick off my crusade.

Now having said that, I went a little "Joker" on my vow entries as you'll see in a little bit, but I'm more of a fluff player/modeler and I like to play with fun stuff, though I will do my best to play you as hard as I can with what I brought. I am all about blunt force trauma. Also, I think 40K is never more fun than when engaged in an Apocalypse game. I just wish I had more time to set them up and play.

Anyway, the following models are the start of my crusade, per the painting challenge. They are reclamation projects, having been with someone previously, been stripped or finished up and are now ready to be primed. I should mention that the sponsons for the LRC are still in pieces as I will paint them first and then finish up the construction. I really don't like post-painting construction, but I don't see an easy way to do the sponsons when they are all put together.

My vow for the time being:


Dreadnought - "Pious"




DCCW/H.Flamer


I'm calling this puppy, "Witch Hunter"


It's a "counts as" Land Raider Crusader (to align with ETL), but while I was working on the sponsons, I felt some crazy coming on and got this idea and wondered if I could make it work. Basically, instead of putting in the normal TL-Assault Cannon, I thought about going the full monty and putting TL-Redeemer cannons in the front turret and a sponson gun shield as the top part. I clipped off the back pieces of the guns that normally form the link to the promethium tanks that sit on the other side of the sponson and just let them sort of butt together.

It seems like it works and I hope it is worthy of being in a Templar armory.

Anyway, I'm glad to be finally kicking off my crusade, which just so happens to be the Community crusade effort that M2C is pulling together. When I get to the point of painting the crusade badges, they will all proudly feature the Albigensian Crusade to honour our community and the best sub-forum on the BnC.

C&C greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

[Marshal Rohr]

I will give you the internet if you manage to put the Honda symbol somewhere on it :P

[Honda]

Okay, it's been killing me seeing everyone making such awesome progress and feeling like I'm just sitting on the bench. I haven't been actually, I've made a lot of progress and I'm getting closer to having the vow complete.

So...here are some WIP shots

Brother Pious

Venator Maleficarum

As I hope you are able to see through the not-so-optimal pics is my style which is soft contrasts, hence the VMC German Grey for black, light grey for white, and so on. I still have a lot to do as far as inking and washes, and all the other stuff that will make them acceptable for a crusade, but I am getting there.

C&C greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

[Honda]

Hooah Templars, my 1st vow is complete!

Brother Pious

I'm not certain that I am happy with the sand effect just yet, so I'll let that set a while and see if something better pops up.

And now that wacky beast, which I have decided to name "Faithful Hunter"

Just for M2C

C&C greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

[Arthanor]

Congratulations on completing your vow brother!

 

The base of Brother Pious might benefit from a drybrush of a very bright sand color, maybe even white and a brown wash. It would add some depth to it and, if you apply it to the rocks, make them look less like plaster.

 

I very much like the weathering effect you have on flamers and the multi-melta, mine are left boltgun metal which I find a bit lacking. How do you do it? Gold and brown brushed closer towards the tip?

 

The Faithful Hunter looks like it'll pack a lot of hurt! Nice touch with the green marble plate! It is not a common color on BT and will make it stand out.

[Honda]

I very much like the weathering effect you have on flamers and the multi-melta, mine are left boltgun metal which I find a bit lacking. How do you do it? Gold and brown brushed closer towards the tip?

 

Note: This will work for either a Boltgun base, or in this case, a Brazen Brass.

 

1. Paint on base metallic color

 

2. Paint Devlan Mud (or equivalents, I've switched to Army Painter "Tone" washes) on the business end of the gun

 

3. Paint on an Asurmen Blue wash on the end of the gun, but not as high up as the DM

 

4. Use Scorched Brown to paint "up" towards the Mud/Blue lines. You'll need to use your judgement on this as it can vary

 

5. Point towards xenos/herectic scum and pull trigger

 

Works like a charm every time. :)

 

Regarding the sand, I agree with you and am addressing now.

 

Thanx for the feedback.

 

Cheers,

[Honda]

Well, after Arthanor encouraged me to do better, I went back and updated the basing...

Which I think is much nicer looking than the first attempt. I think I just got antsy about finishing my vow. Apparently my zeal needs to be managed.

...and now I am starting my 2nd vow, a Marshal and a Sword Brethren command squad.

Cheers,

[Arthanor]

Quite an improvement! I hate basing, so I understand wanting to get it done quickly! But it does seem to be something that is all or nothing. "Doing a minimum" can look worse than nothing. Looks very nice and arid now, I hope Brother Pious has good air conditioning :)

 

Looking forward to the terminators! But.. what's the white cylinder in front of the marshal?

[Honda]

Oddly enough, I like basing. It's like another stage of modeling for me, plus I like adding little details every now and then to keep it interesting.

 

But.. what's the white cylinder in front of the marshal?

 

Eh...<looks>, oh, thats a piece of plastic straw that will be painted up to look like an exposed pipe.

 

Cheers,

[Arthanor]

Oh, alright :) I was picturing a bucket and the marshal having some stomach issue. Looking forward to seeing how they will turn out!

[Honda]

Here are detail shots (such as they are) on my completed second vow.

Marshal

My attempt to show flowing energy on the hammer

Unfortunately, the dark blue of the base color doesn't distinguish itself from the silver as much as I would like it. It looks decent in person, but I'll have to think about that a little more.

His Command squad

Each of the powerfists have "energy" highlights on the finger tips. The fabric on the robes was an interesting exercise. I am striving for a very coarsely woven material, definitely not silk or some other poncy material. I want my crusade to look like it has forsworn ostentaciousness and gratuitous displays on their armor. I'll leave that to bloody Angels, thank you.

Give me my grit and dirt any time for an honest day's crusading.

Anyway, this one is done and put to bed. On to the next!

C&C greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

[Honda]

Ok, here is my new chappie. Per my third vow, he has Artificier armor, a plasma pistol, Holy Orb, and an Iron Halo on top of his usual gear.

All in all, I rather like how he turned out. The close ups are there to show you that my painting still has a ways to go, but I'll keep on it. I think he'll be a very unique addition to my crusade.

Cheers,

[Honda]

This post is intended to update and chronicle my last few vows for the ETL and mark the beginning of what will be "normal" modeling for me. I have no idea what that means, but I guess we'll see.

First off, a few detailed steps for painting the landraiders. After a black basecoat, I spray VMC German Grey all over the vehicle, though leave some of the black showing in recesses. Then I spray what I'll call highlight stripes just to break things up with a 50/50 mix of German Grey and VMC Light Grey.

Then I thought I'd go all "Krikey" on the standard LR

I think we can all agree that I'm not Krikey and that this effort introduced massive suction to the project

So I settled for this. It's easier and perhaps a bit more "me"

And a few detail shots, though I will freely admit that my photo-fu is weak.

This is an interesting shot that shows funnels of dirt spreading out to the base of the LR. What's interesting is that after I applied the MIG pigments, I turned the model updside down and then dripped the rubbing alchohol from the top and let it run down to get this effect. It was entirely accidental, but I liked the results so I will experiment with this some more.

I also used MIG pigments (Russian Earth) on the tracks, then dabbed rubbing alcohol on them and let them dry. Then sealed with hairspray.

My first crusaders

And here's the group protecting their chaplain as he recites the Litanies of Slaughter

I'd like to thank everyone for their postive feedback all along the ETL as it really does help motivate me and keep me focused.

Cheers,

[Marshall Crimor]

Honda, your commitment to expanding your crusade as a result of the ETL challenge is commendable. I really like the soft contrasts you chose in your color palette. What I like the most is the way your models have a battle damaged/worn look to them. Well done! Though I commited to the templars too late to join in on the ETL fun, your posts have definately inspired me to try some new paint techniques. The pictures of your latest completed vow have given me some motivation to finish my first crusader squad! Keep up the good work man. I hope the frantic painting during the ETL challenge hasn't burnt you out because I want to see more of your works in progress after this challenge is over.

[Brother Chaplain Ryld]

Honda, fantastic work on the tanks. I really like the deep greys you have used. I also like the freehand bits on your marines. They really look like what you would expect to see on a battlefield. I've even started to give my guys battle damage and lots of text on the armour after looking at your guys.

 

Awesome Brother!!!

[Honda]

I've been wanting to make one of these for a long time, plus some of you guys need to lighten up. :(

I do know that if the AdMech's ever got their hands on one of these STCs it would open up the entire universe...

It's odd that the base color is Ironbreaker (prev. Boltgun), but that doesn't seem to have come through in the pictures at all. That's sort of why I did the funky weathering and oxidation colors. Anyway, back to the neophytes I am working on...

Cheers,

[tvih]

Haha, classic :( What's the story behind wanting to do that? Not that LEGOs aren't awesome, because they are (at one point I even thought of having a "mock" 40k test battle to test the rules with LEGO dudes due to not having assembled soldiers yet...), but why a based and painted brick? Just curious, is all :)

[Idlem]

I imagine it's an objective marker, and he's right. With the STC Lego blueprint you can make anything you want! Though innovation is tech heresy...

[Honda]

Haha, classic What's the story behind wanting to do that? Not that LEGOs aren't awesome, because they are (at one point I even thought of having a "mock" 40k test battle to test the rules with LEGO dudes due to not having assembled soldiers yet...), but why a based and painted brick? Just curious, is all

 

<Oh, there's always a story...>

 

My youngest son is a Lego-maniac and wants to be a Lego-engineer when he grows up. What's very interesting is that he builds anything and everything with them, including 40K weapons and such. The regular Lego sets that you get rarely last more than a week in their proscribed form, before he's pulled them apart to make some other fantastical creation. At one point I was joking with him about how the AdMechs are always searching for the templates that 40K stuff is built from and one of those light bulbs went off and we had a good giggle over it.

 

Besides I've seen people do all kinds of stuff for objectives and I just wanted to have a fun one. Given that when you say "Black Templars", usually the next words out of people's mouth are not "light hearted" or "humorous". At some point I may do a little more in this are.

 

Anyway, my youngest is 12.5 and has been an active modeler and converter for many years and if it weren't for the fact that he's an Ork player, I'd be posting his stuff up here. When he sees a part, he doesn't just see it for what it is but where he can use it to represent something that he wants to build. Sometimes it's scary to see some of his conversions because they are quite ingenious. Yes, I'm bragging on one of my kids, but he really is, at least when it comes to Orks, an exceptional modeler. We're going to start posting some of his stuff on Da Waagh here before too long.

 

Anyway, I think that's where the idea came from.

 

Glad you liked it.

 

Cheers,

[tvih]

I was always more a set kind of guy, myself. Or rather, while I always liked doing "custom stuff", if I had a set I always wanted to (re)build it sooner or later, because I liked it and wanted it because of that to begin with. So to build something custom I would have needed a bunch of non-set parts, which I didn't have aside from some basic bricks. That'll be rectified at some point... because indeed, I'm a "born again" LEGO nut as of a few months ago, which actually is oddly a part of why I finally got into 40k too :D

 

As far as 40k and LEGOs in combination, one thing that I'm most likely going to do is make up temporary buildings and other such terrain elements out of LEGO bricks, considering I don't really have "appropriate" terrain pieces. No painting gonna happen for those, though!

[Acebaur]

Looks good Honda, I dig the twin flamers instead of the AC. I have perhaps what is a stupid question. You said your chappie has an Iron Halo, can I ask why? He has a Rosarius which does the same thing that a Halo does.

[tvih]

You said your chappie has an Iron Halo, can I ask why? He has a Rosarius which does the same thing that a Halo does.

Indeed, the rules/codex even say that it's not possible to have a Halo on a character with Rosarius, which is something that all Chaplains already have.

[Honda]

I dig the twin flamers instead of the AC.

 

When I first put it together, it was mostly as a lark. But it has since grown on me and I really like the look now.

 

Wait till you see what I do for a "counts as" Achilles. :P

 

I have perhaps what is a stupid question. You said your chappie has an Iron Halo, can I ask why? He has a Rosarius which does the same thing that a Halo does.

 

No, it's a decent question. Everything done up to this point was influenced by the ETL challenge. That meant making expensive units/characters, not necessarily efficent units/characters. So since I could add the Iron Halo and bump him up a bit, I did. I would not do that for a character that would be in a real game unless there was some other sort of narrative going on.

 

Anyway, going forward, you can count on more traditional builds for the rest of the crusade...at least from an army list perspective.

 

Right now I'm probably going to put out some infantry, since the ETL has left me with a Marshal, his command squad, and one five man initiate squad. I'm feeling the need for more boots on the ground.

 

Cheers,

[Arthanor]

Awesome objective :)

 

I will always be fond of Lego bricks! At first I was a bit puzzled but with the line about the STC, it makes a lot of sense. It's good to see a bit of humor with the Templars, we tend to be a zealous, angry bunch :angry: (all in good faith and just for fun, of course :D)

 

Also, great work on the chaplain and infantry, I'm looking forward to what's coming!

[Urkh]

I have perhaps what is a stupid question. You said your chappie has an Iron Halo, can I ask why? He has a Rosarius which does the same thing that a Halo does.

 

No, it's a decent question. Everything done up to this point was influenced by the ETL challenge. That meant making expensive units/characters, not necessarily efficent units/characters. So since I could add the Iron Halo and bump him up a bit, I did. I would not do that for a character that would be in a real game unless there was some other sort of narrative going on.

 

 

but doesn't that make it an illegal ETL entry since it's illegal to bring a chaplain with an iron halo?