Laurentia Crusade WIPs

[Arthanor]

Hail Brothers!

In this great hall I, Marshal Arthanor, come forth to gather forces for the pacification of subsector Laurentia. More than a hundred years ago, the crusade of Wrath fell upon the Word Bearers hiding within the Maelstrom. I was one of them and as an initiate, I fought alongside the Astral Claws before we were called to purge the Xenos from the lands of Ultramar. Today, brothers, it is time to return to the Maelstrom! Our ancient enemies stir once more and threaten our realm. Worst, our allies have turned away from the Emperor! Join me, brothers, and we shall smite traitors new and old!

For the Emperor! For Dorn! For Sigismund!

No Pity! No Remorse! No Fear! was the answer from the mass of initiates and neophytes assembled below. Today, many will be joining the newly commissioned marshal as he boards his strike cruiser.

_____________________

Now some pictures!

Field Marshal Arthanor, flanked by the Emperor's Champion and the Recclusiarch of the Laurentia Crusade:

The Emperor's Champion's back banner is to be a depiction of battle brothers "Accepting any challenge, no matter the cost"

According to my pledge to ETL, the Marshal's war panoply includes:

- Artificer Armor (to be denoted by the iron halo, scripture and decoration of his armor)

- Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield

- Terminator Honors (fancy shoulder pad)

- Adamantine Mantle (fancy cloak)

- Holy Orb of Antioch and Meltabombs

Further details, notice the melta bomb on his left side and the Holy Orb of Antioch on the right.

Let me know what you think!

[Castellan Alaric]

marshal looks awesome man! your chappy is pretty sick as well. can't wait to see them with some paint!

[Arthanor]

Thanks!

 

I just realized I forgot to give credit to KhorneHunter for the idea of the Iron Halo on the marshal's helmet. I always thought it needed something more than normal crusaders wearing the same helmet and that does it perfectly!

 

Now off to the desk for some painting. EC first since he's also for the crusade Expansion.

[Arthanor]

Well, bare plastic is only so interesting.. after all we all have lots of it.

So here are some WIP of the Champion after a few hours of work. Base coat, dry brush on the armor and chaos black wash, which shows the color scheme nicely. I am particularly fond of the shoulder guard trims which somehow look like non-metallic metal gold on the picture when they are merely brown with the wash. I added a green stuff cross to the empty shoulder. It felt naked without sculpted detail, so I wasted a lot of time trying to give it some.

I also played around in paint to make a picture of my crusade badge:

The field represents the red shield of my Marshal, shattered but supported by the white shield of his mentor behind. The gold line is the Emperor's Light uniting the two. The Templar cross is the mentor watching from above and the white fleur-de-lys is an honor won when fighting alongside Sisters of Battle.

C&C welcome!

[reckoning]

Can we get some close ups of that EC? Love the badge by the way.

[Arthanor]

Close ups! Well, just higher resolution version of the previous picture, I hope that works! The pictures were taken last night so it was a bit tricky with the light and they came out grainy. Not to say that the model is top notch, that's still very early progress and I haven't painted in a while.

But here we go!

Also, I saw other crusade badges and was wondering what you people used? Obviously not paint, as mine is crude and you can see all the pixels while others are sharp. I'd love to get a fancy looking badge!

And.. talking about crusade badges made me think of sharing my sketchs of the crusade banner (on the left), with the Emperor's champion's banner (on the right).

The crusade banner shows the crusade badge (or vice-versa?), with the gold line replaced by the black sword. On the ground rest a broken flaming skull and a gauntlet, symbols of the (to be) vanquished Word Bearers and Astral Claws who are the crusade's main two enemies fluff wise.

The Champion's banner shows two of my crusader squads (represented by their squad leaders) who volunteered to take and hold the planned location of a Word Bearer ritual to turn a planet into a demon world. The flames will be painted in a variety of colors to represent forces of the four chaos gods arrayed against them. Deployed by drop pod onto the hill itself, they disrupted the preparations until the main forces could reach them, preventing the loss of the planet. Their willingness to face the enemy despite the certainty of heavy losses is now depicted on the Champion's banner to inspire all battle brothers to follow their example and "Accept any challenge, no matter the cost".

[Dirt Diglett]

I use Photoshop to do my one, so I did one for you too:

 

http://i.imgur.com/qF1mK.png

[Tolek]

That looks awesome Dirt! may you give a tutorial on how you did that in photoshop?

[Dirt Diglett]

That looks awesome Dirt! may you give a tutorial on how you did that in photoshop?

 

It's a bit difficult to explain, I basically just mess with the pen tool to get the shape of the shield, fill it in, cut it around, use color overlay for the red half. Apply gradients on the sides to give the curved feel with a lowered opacity then apply a noise filter over the entire thing at like 2% opacity to make it feel "gritty"... I usually just fiddle until I find a nice look.

[Tolek]

Ok, thanks for the simple tutorial...but I am photoshop iliterate. My question to you battle-brother is would you be willing to make one for others crusades since you have the photoshop gift? (very nice work by the way)

[Arthanor]

I use Photoshop to do my one, so I did one for you too:

 

Awesome! This looks so much better :) thank you! I bet I wasted more time on the paint one too...

 

Any thoughts on the banners guys? I put a fair amount of thought in them, but I wonder if they might be too busy with all that's on them. It's certainly setting myself up for a headache when I'll try to paint them but I don't know if I should cut anything..

[Brother Richard]

The crusade banner is pretty good.. not sure I would change any of that. Except that maybe a broken astral claw shoulderpad would be easier to depict than a gauntlet.

 

The champions banner 'battle scene' might be a bit tough to show on such a small scale. Maybe just a templar cross with the chapter badge in the center could 'symbolize' the strenght of the Templars supporting this crusade against all odds (multicolor flames of chaos rising from the bottom). Simple can look really good sometimes and still get the point across.

 

You might reserve your battle scene for the top deck or sides of a rhino. I have even seen a few who can put them on a cape..I unfortunately have no such talent.

[Arthanor]

Well, at long last, time for an update!

Thank you for the comments, Brother Richard :) Whenever I get around to the crusade banner, I'll see how hard the gauntlet is to depict. I like the idea of staying with chapter symbols (flaming skull and clawed gauntlet) though. Your idea for the Champion's banner inspired me to revise the idea and keep it more symbolic than literaly showing the marines. I kept the flames, but decided against multicolor ones for now, the 23rd is so close! To represent the two squads, I went with your idea of a templar cross, but instead of the crusade badge, made up one that ties with their squad leaders. One is an initiate with a power axe, the other was a sword brethren with a power sword, combining the colors and weapons, I came to:

I also made some progress with the Champion himself. Besides some touch ups (why are pictures never flattering?), he is pretty much done. The sword needs more work though. My vision of the Black Sword is looking like obsidian or black metal, with gold engraving for the words. Currently, it does not really come out. Since I want the gold engraving, it prevents me from using washes as they would color the recesses, leaving me without one of my favorite tool. I'm not sure how to make it work, so any suggestion is welcome.

[Lysere]

Thanks!

 

I just realized I forgot to give credit to KhorneHunter for the idea of the Iron Halo on the marshal's helmet. I always thought it needed something more than normal crusaders wearing the same helmet and that does it perfectly!

 

Now off to the desk for some painting. EC first since he's also for the crusade Expansion.

 

Consider that helmet design stolen for one of my characters.

[Brother Richard]

Now that is a good crusade badge.. easy to replicate and still holds true to the ideals of a heraldric device. I look forward to seeing this on a few of your troops.

[Arthanor]

In the records of the Eternal Crusader, the Laurentia Crusade's last communication dates from more than a year ago. That was just as Marshal Arthanor had been granted command and sought to assemble his forces to launch them against the traitors lurking in the Maelstrom. Besides the target, the name of the crusade and its leader, only the badge identifying the crusade is known. There is no data on the assets of the crusade, or any mention of battles it may have fought. Amongst the Black Templar High Command, the Laurentia crusade is considered to be lost in the Warp. The space surrounding the Maelstrom, after all, is one of the most treacherous regions of the galaxy.

Until now! With the liberation of the Rikia system by Marshal Kacir and his household, severe warp instabilities in the Laurentia subsector are clearing away, allowing new forces to reinforce the crusade. Not only is the long lost veteran marshal joining the crusade as fleet marshal, where his naval expertise shall shine, but the Rikia system has agreed to supply the Black Templars' efforts. Their first contribution: A previously unseen pattern of the storm talon gunship.
 
Hail brothers!
 
I came back to the forum a while ago, around the time we got our new codex, but until this Christmas, I did not have the means to update my crusade to 6th Ed and the new codex. This time is over! Sparing no expense (and taking advantage of all the sales/bundles/short term offers I could), I am now the owner of all I need to purge the enemies of mankind from the skies as well as the land. First out of the assembly line, I give you:

The Rikia pattern Storm Talon:

(credit where it is due, this conversion is inspired by the one found here, which had pointers at how to improve the bird, if not the exact modifications I wanted)

 

The modifications include moving the missile pods closer to the fuselage, miniaturization of the assault cannon turret, reinforcement of the cockpit front to better protect turret mechanisms.

 

As well as elongation and redesign of the tail to obtain better balance of the profile.

 

And from above:

 

Also, the Laurentia Crusade as it currently stands, assembling on a cardboard hill in manufactorum VII, on Rikia III:

Note: More detailed pics of the squads of Laurentia Crusade are available on request for inspection. Castellan level clearance required.

 

And a pre-battle pic of Marshal Kacir and his household, marching in formation before orbital deployment to Rikia IV, the main hiveworld of the system.

[greggles]

Nice job on the stormtalon. Looks fantastic. I'm half tempted to add a helicopter blade to mine so i play the airwolf theme everytime it comes on.

[Honda]

Nice conversion on the nose and tail of your Storm Talon. I think anything that lengthens the fuselage makes it look better.

 

Cheers,

[Arthanor]

Well well.. I finally get around to my crusade's little online subsector. At least it did not take me as long as last time!

First off: Thanks guys! I am glad you like the conversion, especially as I have started to work on the second one The first step being cleaning up every piece before hacking away at it, I decided to "bluetack build" it to get comparison shots. I think it highlights the gains in length and aerodynamics quite well. It failed the girlfriend test, however: "I though the modified one looked better, but now I think they both look ok".. meh! But I shall press on nonetheles. I think it is quite an improvement. Let me know what you think:

Sideview:

Above/front.

There are a few more shots in my album too. This being shown, in preparation for the ETL, I am also building more:

A full squad of honor guard (missing a few extra decoration bits from the upgrade sprue and maybe backpack ornaments):

All the guys with the winged shoulderpads (and the dude just in front of the banner) will also double as vanguard veterans with the sanguinary guard jetpacks. The idea is to make a themed squad: The Angels of Death (how original..!) where each marine represents a different killer. On the left of the previous picture is the executioner (with the huge axe), then from left to right on the next picture are: The unyielding defender, the rampager and the champion (who will also double as the sergeant with relic blade). The 5th guy (with no tabard or winged shoulder pad), I am not sure yet, maybe the lucky recruit.

And finally, some characters:

A techmarine/Master of the forge awaiting his servo-harness

A more dynamic remake of my marshal, who will also get a jump pack option (After looking at the picture, I am now thinking of rotating the wrist and head to make him look more like he is about to strike, but I also like the "Forward brothers!" pose..)

I was going to finish by showing Epistolary Volkmar of the Radiant Light (my IF homebrew), but decided not to so as not to risk prompting apoplexy in some of my brothers. He's in my album though, in case you're curious.

[Honda]

Awesome additions brother. Might they be awaiting paint until the time of the extremely tenuous lighting?

[Arthanor]

Oh yeah! I'm in building mode right now, so the Rikia III forgeworld is churning out all kinds of new stuff for the Templars.

 

Up next are 5 sternguards sword brethren I think, then when I feel gutsy, a Rikia pattern stormraven to complete the StormWing. I've also got all the armored support for the Laurentia Crusade primed and ready to go (LRC, LR, Pred Annihilator and 2 Rhinos that double up as TLLC Razorbacks especially for ETL for easy points).

 

So I need not worry about having stuff to paint, the challenge is getting them painted. So far I do infantry well enough, but my vehicle attempts have been failures and got primed over. I can't do big flat surfaces it seems.

[Honda]

Is an airbrush purchase possible at this time? It will revolutionize the base coating of your miniatures, especially vehicles.

 

In fact, I might be so bold as to say that it actually lets you look forward to painting vehicles.

[Arthanor]

Oh, basecoating is alright, I think. I am using GW paints so I prime everything black from the can and go from there. I have never had coverage issues. My problem is what to do after to get something that doesn't look like a barely basecoated vehicle, but neither like a dusty/grimy one.

 

My usual process is basecoat -> Drybrush -> Wash -> Highlight twice, but that did not pan out when I tried it on a rhino and I never tried again. To be fair, my biggest problem was with white and the GW ceramite white is so much easier to paint than skull white. Maybe I'll be fine..

[Eberious]

Good to see another use the BA winged shoulder pads. I made a small unit some time ago using them as well. While being very BA, just remove the icons and I think they fit very well with higher ranking BT's.  Looking foward to seeing them painted up.

[Arthanor]

I think they work great for most SM, we are the Angels of Death, afterall. Of course the blood drops have to go, we're not blood angels. I kept the skulls and intend the replace the drops by templar crosses, once I figure out a good way to make them in the scale I need. I am thinking of greenstuff molds to press them, but I have never experimented with that, so we will see.

 

As for seeing them painted, my priorities are getting some air support and then probably the ETL. For that challenge, it's a shame the honor guard are so cheap, although in general I would certainly not complain! I expect Fleet Marshal Kacir and his retinue (black and white terminators from a few posts back) to feature heavily instead. I am much better at painting infantry and the HQs a worth a lot of points. Hopefully the painting advice I got from the Suoirebe crusade post wil help with vehicles too.

 

And while you're passing by, Eberious, take a look at the techmarine. Upon being given his servo-harness, he shall be forever known as Eberion.