The Neurode Crusade - Updates and Fixes to HQs and Elites

[Firepower]

Make sure to magnetize those lances.  I was not so careful in making my own.  Transporting them is...problematic.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Firepower

[AndrewChristlieb]

How are you doing your scratchbuilt TFCs? I'd be interested in seeing how those work out.

[Brother Christopher]

Andrew, please refer to the bottom of page 15 and the top of page 16 of this thread. There are some, though not very good, pictures. The plan is to mount the guns on a rapier-like chassis, which seems to be much easier to manufacture than the fancy original TFC tracks, with all the detail exposed.

 

Off course, as it seems to be always the case with my scratch builds, the gun's I've made are considerably larger than the original kit - a result of relying on the available plans for the guns and inefficient estimation (I did not have access to a normal model at that time). This fact, and that the cannons I've made so far are somewhat messy and crooked, kind of discouraged me. Luckily, the difference in size will be/is easily manageable due to the specificity of the planned rapier track unit, which will allow me to move the cannon further back and hide the excess under some "armour plates".

[Metic]

For sure magnetize the lance arms. Mine are and I know they would be broken if I hadn't. They really don't do too well on the table, so it's also been nice to just remove all the wargear and run them as a retinue of ablative wounds for my mounted chaplain. I think they become extremely point inefficient after you put more than 60 points of upgrades on the squad. 

[Brother Christopher]

So, I'll do that. I'll most likely do two lancers as a kind of "honour guard"/escort for my biker characters. I've also decided to built some day in the future a techmarine on bike, with an ornate bolter to represent Primarch's Wrath. I suppose that this would be a nice, cheap character who'll allow me to unlock bikes as troops, and who'll be able to supplement the bike squads in their support role.

 

In terms of progress, there's some. Unfortunately, I decided to play some Civilization V with my better half. Despite that turns in a hot-seat game of Civ take some time, it's not enough to do any reasonable painting. However, I found that the waiting times are perfect to do some gluing and assembling. As a result, I managed to prep next 6 marines for undercoating. Also, as you can see, most of these guys are repurposed and retrained marines. Well, I got them second hand for cheap... But the bit about retraining sounds much better, as if I helped them find a new home in the grim galaxy and, hopefully, return them to their former (or allow them to reach their potential) glory. Here they are:

 

1. A Bazooka clone. As I have a second identical model, I had to make this one stand out a bit, hence the tabard.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150936_zpstkjaih3l.jpg

 

2. Heavy flamer sword brother. For a long time I couldn't make up my mid whether do him as he is, or use a HF from the Terminator kit and readjust it to fit a regular Space Marine. In the end, I went with a more 'original' solution my heavy flamer Templar.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150937_zpsh13kitlx.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150938_zpsbp0do0tc.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150939_zpsfvvcbdq6.jpg

 

3. Grav-gun Black Templar. As you can see, at the moment he's more green than black There was a time I've been more short on cash than normally and felt like not buying any new kit from GW. That was the rationale for... making a press-mould grav gun. Yeah. In the end it turned out pretty well - I hope that it'll look even better when painted. Also, and you can't see this in the picture, I'm very satisfied with how the torso tabard turned out.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150940_zpsvuccxjqs.jpg

 

4. Multi-melta Black Templar. More "fire support". The 'unique' thing baout him is that the MM is the old, metal gun. Heavy in its own right!

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150941_zpsjvgmn6ur.jpg

 

5. Flamer Black Templar.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150942_zpsmc3nt6sx.jpg

 

6. And, last but not least, plasma gun Black Templar.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150943_zpsblqban8l.jpg

 

Apparently, I'm still working on the fire support for my Crusade. I want to have 4 marines with each heavy weapon; 2 with each specialist weapon + 4 magnetised marines with exchangeable specialist weapons, just in case I'll need to field 4 of some "gun" or 4 flamers. After I finish these guys, I'll have:

 

> 2 grav cannons,

> 2 missile launchers,

> 1 multi-metla,

> 1 heavy flamer,

> 0 lascannon, plasma cannon and heavy bolter,

 

and most of the specialist weapon targets, i.e.:

> 2 plasma guns,

> 3 melta guns (yeah, I run 3 melta+power fist crusader squads back in 5th Edition),

> 2 flamers,

> 1 grav-gun.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Brother Cristopher

[Brother Christopher]

I'm posting a small update. I present to you the final two bolter templars from the last batch of miniatures:
 
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150958_zpscpj8kqbs.jpg
 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150953_zps0gl5ebqt.jpg
 
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150952_zpsdbamhtqd.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150957_zpsnzqcsvul.jpg

 

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150954_zpsp9g8g6vn.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150956_zpsev9hzo5l.jpg

 

And finally, a group shot.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1150960_zpsstr3a14s.jpg

 

I'm currently figuring out what to paint next. I feel I should stick to my plan, which means I'll paint another 6 initiates with the special weapons from the previous post. After that, I'll probably move on to some vehicles - Sicaran, Storm Talons and Drop Pods.

 

What really tempts me is doing a 9-man Honour Guard. Yesterday I started inventorying my Crusaders and got distracted with doing elites next - the mentioned Honour Guard and Vanguard (Sword Brethren). But, to be honest, my priority should be building a 1500 points list of miniatures painted up to my current standard. Which means dealing with the backbone of the army: (re)doing more Initiates and vehicles. The really glamorous stuff should come next, right?

[Marshal Reinhard]

I really love the look you've achieved there. If I would offer one criticism, its perhaps that they could have their hightlights sharpened a wee bit more, but it's something I have trouble with myself.

 

Quite like the gloria helm on that one guy, though it'd looked out of place on a regular marine, but perhaps not so

[Metic]

These guys look fantastic, very nice work!

[Jacques Corbin]

Wow those are sick! Great work cousin!!

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks a lot for the comments, brothers!

 

Reinhard, I would like to work on these lines, but I'm actually forcing myself not to. If I don't do that, I'll get bogged down with painting and repainting which will in turn fuel my frustration, as (unfortunately, I have to admit defeat) I am not able to pull off GW-like quality, not to mention all the other masters out there. I just want to catch up with all the stuff that I hoarded over the years and paint them to a satisfying table top quality. I also plan (in the far, grim future) to get back to these minis and redo the highlights and whatnot (who knows what new painting 'techniques' I'll develop over the years).

 

As for the helmet, that's kind of a part of my larger plan now. I need a couple of more ornate Initiates to denote a more veteran-like sort of Templars who can fill in two battlefield roles: that of regular Initiates and Sternguards shooting Sword Brethren. From a fluff perspective, I figured that my Crusade is to elite, with the number of my Initiates and Sword Brethren of various sorts in my target army would roughly be the same (that not taking into account another 9 "Honour Guard" and two command squads, which adds up to another ~20 models). I do not want my army to be a "marshal's household' force, but a more regular Crusade. That's why, I decided, I had tu curb down on the number of Sword Brethren.

 

I plan to limit my SBs to the roughly 35 Terminators, 10 Sternguard, 10 jump Vanguard and 10 Vanguard on foot. The number of power armoured "veteran" marines on foot (i.e. Sternguard and Vanguard) for table top purposes will be expandable by 5-10 marines painted with the, in my opinion, more pleasing aesthetically black/white shoulder pads, instead of the SB red/black scheme.

 

I'm currently snowed under with work, with the new semester starting at the university and work, so I too my huge disappointment I did not have an opportunity to make any considerable progress with painting. I managed to base coat the tabards of the next batch of marines, though (the six marines posted above). And I continue to carry out a census of my Crusade and delegate relevant numbers of marines to perform given roles. After the years of unregistered and uncontrolled collecting, I find it pretty interesting to discover what I actually own.

 

I've already made plans related to the Honour Guard. It will consist of 2 power axes, 2 power swords, 2 power mauls (I plan to use the excess of chaplain models), 1 standard bearer with a power sword, 1 relic blade and 1 thunder hammer champion. By the way, can the 'chapter champion' take a relic blade in the current rulebook? Hopefully, I'll start working on these guys this summer, after I'm done with the queued units (this batch of regular marines, thunder fire cannon with a gunner, raptor wing, as apparently it's a big thing now).

[Brother Christopher]

Hello again, brethren!

 

I've made some progress over the weekend. I'll skip my usual grouching about time and quality and get straight to the pics, which show 'finished', yet armless Space Marines. I'm hoping to get their arms, weapons and backpacks done before Easter.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160016_zpsigbfrhwa.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160017_zpsxyqf8pgi.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160018_zpsmynmzrji.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160019_zpsrhicdm3z.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160020_zpsaycyojuj.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160021_zpswpi5iiqq.jpg

 

There's also a multi-melta Templar, but it seems that due to some chaos mischief the photographic record of his existence was lost. The Crusade's techmarines are working on retrieving the visual resources.

 

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful week slaughtering and burning heretics! For the Emperor and the Primarch!

Edited March 20, 2016 by Brother Cristopher

[Brother Christopher]

The ETL became something of a tradition for me. Although I can't seem to find as much time for the hobby as I'd like to support the common cause and contribute a significant number of points to the Black Templar's output, thus far I have always pledged something. For preparation for this year's ETL, I decided to start with 3 humble models, that are assembled (or reassembled, as they were bought in "as-are" condition, second hand at an auction, what forced me to introduce a number of modifications, including the added "power cords" at the back) and ready for priming. A funny thing it that looking at photos on a screen often reminds that I have a leaky memory: this time, I've forgotten to drill the barrels in the hurricane bolters. Apart from this, I think the models are ready for priming and, ultimately, for the ETL competition.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160725_zpsbkrxpr4a.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160726_zpspiwnxqui.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160727_zpsxxbuoaxz.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160728_zps8r0xducn.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160729_zpsahswxiwu.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160730_zpssrkj8oul.jpg

 

[Brother Christopher]

Despite that I prefer living on Terra in the 21st century to what to what it might be in 41st century, as a young adult I still have much going around. And despite that every minute of my existence is not devoted to a tight schedule of prayer and purging the unclean, I still have many (admittedly more mundane) duties to fulfil. In consequence, difficult choices have to be made and my hobby, to my great disappointment, consistently suffers from neglect. Currently, I hope that might change in 2 years, when I'll be bound only to a 'regular' job which should save me some time, as currently I'm also working on my PhD.

 

The above is my word of confession and excuse and is followed by my plans for the immediate future. So, firstly - the ETL. As always, I'm making a vow to get into the competition. The initial vow is 3 centurions from the post above, who are now primed and ready for painting. I feel kind of bad for missing out an opportunity to paint more units in relation to the competition, but I also do not like to make promises I know I might not keep (and despite my devotion to the knightly principles of the Black Templars, I am an extremely slow painter and I can't afford for my daily routine to suffer because I need to and badly want to paint some soldiers).

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1160731_zpsfbob69bh.jpg

 

In addition to the ETL, I'm currently working on an assassinorum task force, a kitbash/conversion project based on some cheap Eldar guardians. The assassins are just so cool (especially the Culexus) and I want to have them as auxiliaries to my force, but I'm not that keen on spending too much money on them. I might pledge them an out-of-competition vows, though I firstly need to have something done with them. This is also rather troublesome because I feel I'm 'wasting' time on something else than a tangible input to the Black Templar's cause for the ETL, but at the same time I want to see if I'm any good at converting/kitbashing things to a reasonably satisfying end. And, above all, the competition should not limit what I want to do.

[Brother Christopher]

Greetings brothers! I have returned after a long, long time. It seems that I had experienced a crisis of vocation lately. Its primary source appeared to have been a frustration with myself, with my inability to find time and will to pick up my brushes and do some painting (largely due to my love-hate attitude to the Witcher 3, which is an amazing game, both in terms of narrative and gameplay, as well as being extremely time-consuming). Also, I've been feeling overwhelmed by the pace of my painting progress with consideration of how many models I hoarded over the years. Also, painting black seems so time-consuming and unrewarding and, after having tens of black marines done, tedious. And on top of this, there are my disappointing painting skills, which further fuel my frustration.

 

Another thing that added more bitterness is the lamentable state of the game which, in my opinion, is close to unplayable (by saying this, I rather mean that I cannot see how the game may be enjoyable for a casual game with 'random' people, as most of my playing buddies are no longer into 40K). With no tangible incentives (like the prospect of playing or the prospect of having most of the miniatures painted), I felt quite hopeless. Luckily, the Emperor's light reaches even the darkest corners of the galaxy and guides those who even to a small degree remain true to His work.

 

The said crisis had been quite severe, as I even considered one day abandoning Warhammer altogether and selling my collection. Luckily, I'm a practical man and I soon realised that over the years I have invested too much time and effort and heart into the hobby to leave it now, like a treacherous coward!

 

Having said that, there is little hope that I'll do much this year, as the upcoming semester is going to be tough. Nonetheless, I managed to get back to my ETL centurions - the models were declared completed (which was a chore), but as you can see I did not even bother to post pictures of them in this thread. Shame on me. But I am going to fix this soon, hopefully today, after I add some colour to these guys.

[TheOneTrueZon]

The struggle is real Brother. Sometimes you need to take a step back and get to basics. 

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for the reply and breaking my (sad) post combo!

 

I've FINALLY managed to complete my revamp of the ETL Centurions and take some photos. In the previous post, I've mentioned that I got a bit sick with painting black. That is why I decided to liven the Centurions up a bit and add other colours here and there. I must say, I'm not sure about the final result (I suppose they turned out a bit motley), but having a chance to use other colours a bit more than usually was most certainly refreshing.

 

I'm also trying to hasten my painting, mostly by trying not to pay that much attention to highlights. As always, there is room for improvement, but it has to wait for a couple of years and until I'm done with the majority of my remaining forces.

 

As you can see, I still haven't managed to make bases for these guys, but this will wait until I'll take the sand out to base more of my marines. Also, maybe I will also add in the future some DIY power cables, as these models were bought from the aftermarket, and the original parts are missing, as you can see.

 

Below find some pictures.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Neurode%20Crusade/1%202_zpsqw1lp12f.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Neurode%20Crusade/2%202_zpsr4uwbavv.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Neurode%20Crusade/3%202_zpsjkkmutjc.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Neurode%20Crusade/2-2_zps4dkwo8ll.jpg http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Neurode%20Crusade/3-3_zpsrzi1cobb.jpg  http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Neurode%20Crusade/3-2_zpsfssqz4va.jpg

 

[AndrewChristlieb]

Awesome work. I really like how you used those shoulders to do some more elaborate designs.

[Lippy]

I love the graffiti style shoulders!

and having all that extra colour on there definitely gives them a lot of character. I bet it was a lot more fun to paint them up than just the standard black white and red...

 

However, although I think they do look snazzy, The blue chequered plates do make them feel a bit Orky to me. Not a criticism though as I think they look great!

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment. I thought I needed to use the large area for something special(-ish). Also, I badly wanted to ues the bluish colour, hence the chequered areas. Now that I come to think of it, I suppose they do look a bit Okry. The intention was to make them knightly, as knights used to ride caparisoned horses into battles and during tournaments, and caparisons (in my mind) are often ornate, colourful and in a chequered pattern.

[Lippy]

Yeah man, as I said, not a criticism, I like them.

And totally see the Caparison Comparison..

The blue's also a  nice colour and complements the grav blue

 

I guess it's way I associated the chequers within the 40k/miniatures realm as being on Orks... having said that, my models have chequered bases which totally represent a tiled church floor (so hope i've not now spoilt my own models for myself!! )

[TheOneTrueZon]

The chequers for Space Marines go way back as well, let it not be forgotten...

 

http://i.imgur.com/onWxvR6.png

[Brother Christopher]

Haha, I love those old models. The miniatures back then (in times I had had no idea that there is a thing like Warhammer) create an atmosphere of a more carefree hobby which is now long gone due to GW becoming more bloated and corporate. Thanks for posting that model!

 

And today, I just dropped by to mark that there is progress with my warhammer (I find posting online to be a significant motivator). I've redid the techmarine gunner, pictures of who you can see below. With this trainee of Mars, I figured I should sort out my other semi-completed techmarines (my equipment-heavy -- when I look at him now, I do feel that I overdid him -- MotF, who lost two of his servo arms and my regular techmarine, who does not have a based done yet) - so more red-heavy updates are to come this week.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Master%20of%20the%20Forge/P1040264-Edit_zpsv4s5bnws.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Master%20of%20the%20Forge/P1040269-Edit_zps8vesj77n.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Master%20of%20the%20Forge/P1040271-Edit_zps17dhzw7u.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Master%20of%20the%20Forge/P1040274-Edit_zpsxvpbp1i7.jpg

[Marshal Mattias]

He is looking great, nice work! I really like your quartered scheme, came out really well. *steals idea*

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks! I'm glad to hear you like it and want to try it out too!

 

As for the colour scheme, I'm trying to make each and every marine in my force somewhat individual. And with techmarines (considering their training on Mars and affiliation with the Machenicus), I suppose there is even more room for personalisation. At this point I don't how much of what I assume is true, but I 'remember' reading something in Codex: Black Templars about how techmarines are torn between their loyalty to the Chapter and Mechanicus - the selected colour scheme is supposed to represent that. Accordingly, some of the techmarines in my army are all red, while others, despite their devotion to being technicians/engineers, want to display their true chapter colours more, hence a mix of reds and blacks (and in reality, I just want to try painting different things out).

[Brother Christopher]

Here's some progress: some more shots of my over-the-top Master of the Forge and the Techmarine with his Thunderfire Cannon.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Master%20of%20the%20Forge/tfctechmarine_zpsk3tdgow7.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Master%20of%20the%20Forge/tfctechmarine2_zpsfkk8vszk.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Master%20of%20the%20Forge/MOTF1_zpsecrjcxnw.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Master%20of%20the%20Forge/MOTF2_zpsyo9fwbbv.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Master%20of%20the%20Forge/MOTF3_zps6rcsejxe.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Master%20of%20the%20Forge/P1040309_zpstwp3zbk4.jpg http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Master%20of%20the%20Forge/P1040300_zpsoirlzcqe.jpg

Edited September 29, 2016 by Brother Cristopher