The Neurode Crusade - Updates and Fixes to HQs and Elites

[Eberious]

Challenge accepted!   5 of the Emperors finest,  Templars in PA it is then. 

 

And yes to the shared Crusader badge. 

 

One question, do they have to form a legal squad, or can we just do 5 PA Templars. As I have a few of this and a few of that to do.

[KhorneHunter57x]

[snip]

While I still find GW's decision abhorrent,

[/snip]

 

Abhor the Primaris, Destroy the Primaris?

 

Count me in - because no true Templar would refuse a challenge.

[Brother Christopher]

Challenge accepted!   5 of the Emperors finest,  Templars in PA it is then. 

 

And yes to the shared Crusader badge. 

 

One question, do they have to form a legal squad, or can we just do 5 PA Templars. As I have a few of this and a few of that to do.

 

Awesome! Mix and match - just do the 5 PA Marines you need to fill any role in your army.

 

Why don't we have a thread for it?

 

A small Crusade Expansion should be fine for the moderatii... someone just needs to keep tab of it and change the initial post once in a while to see who has finished and who has not... that way we can even have a small banner for it for our signature... especially since the bloody skirts couldn't be  to have an ETL this year...

 

Maybe we could pm one of them so that this becomes official... Ace and Honda will definitely be jumping in on this...

 

A separate thread with a 'progress tracker' would be rad, but I don't feel like running it. I'm afraid that it might turn out to be too much of a burden. Badges are great stuff too, but again - this is something beyond me, I mean designing them. I simply wanted to find buddies to paint some troops and motivate others to work a bit on their forces :P

 

However, a thread to advertise the endeavour and post progress pics shouldn't be a problem, but I'm not sure about its usefulness.

[Marshal_Roujakis]

 

Why don't we have a thread for it?

 

A small Crusade Expansion should be fine for the moderatii... someone just needs to keep tab of it and change the initial post once in a while to see who has finished and who has not... that way we can even have a small banner for it for our signature... especially since the bloody skirts couldn't be  to have an ETL this year...

 

Maybe we could pm one of them so that this becomes official... Ace and Honda will definitely be jumping in on this...

 

A separate thread with a 'progress tracker' would be rad, but I don't feel like running it. I'm afraid that it might turn out to be too much of a burden. Badges are great stuff too, but again - this is something beyond me, I mean designing them. I simply wanted to find buddies to paint some troops and motivate others to work a bit on their forces

 

However, a thread to advertise the endeavour and post progress pics shouldn't be a problem, but I'm not sure about its usefulness.

 

 

Yeah I'm not so good at the organizational logistics of that too... I mean I can create a banner for those who participated and finished or failed similar to the ETL or the Crusade Expansion Banners... but that's about it... I'm not familiar at all on how to organize a painting event... but A Challenge is still accepted and will be met... I'll probably just start a thread so that people will know what's going on, but if the mods either want to put their weight into this or they ask us to just do this in private, then that's all good too...

[Brother Christopher]

My worries about the new fluff and the introduction of the new marines are now eased. The really positive thing about the little drama I went through was that I finally found the motivation to assemble some troops that were stacked in my cabinet for way too long.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1060229_zps0860hgfi.jpg

 

These Initiates are a part of a special detachment in my Crusade. One wields a heavy bolter, a weapon I wanted to add to my army ever since I've started it. I think that heavy bolters are the most fluffy and cool heavy weapon choice... but never had the bits or a practical justification to add one or two or four to my force, due to shortage of Marine resources. Now, howecer, I am determined to add four of each heavy weapons to my army and this dude is my first HB brother.

 

The other four Initiates will soon be joined by six more. They are special in that together with the reinforcements, they will form a squad of ten magnetised Marines. Each will be armed with a stock bolter which may be exchanged for any of the other light ranged choices (meltagun, plasmagun, flamer, gravgun).

[Brother Christopher]

A small update showing the progress on the Stormraven. Most of the front is done. I will need to redo the highlights (I want to make some of them smoother) and still add some colour to the details under the headlights.

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Storm%20Eagle%20and%20Fire%20Raptor/P1060230_zpsqelycuiq.jpg

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Storm%20Eagle%20and%20Fire%20Raptor/P1060231_zpsokgf4xqv.jpg

[The Spanish Inquisitor]

These stripes add a lot of personality to your stormraven, well done !

I like the "neurode" on the flank. 

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks lot for the comment! I'm still not happy with my painting skills, so I make up shortcomings by trying to add 'character' to my vehicles and infantry.

 

I'm also quite pleased to report that the Stormraven is almost done. People sound more convincing when they offer a percent, so I'll also give it a go: The project is about 85% finished. This means that the fuselage + main wings, including the engine housing, as well as weaponry is painted. Tomorrow I want to make the highlights finer and cover up some minor flaws. That will leave my only with the 'small' wings (front and tail stabilisers) and some alterations to what I already did, like the canopy. I'm quite surprised how smoothly and quickly the painting went.

 

After I'm done with the flyer, I'll proceed with the five Initiates I pledged to paint.

[Honda]

Your SR is shaping up quite nicely. The stripe on the fuselage turned out nicely.

 

ONWARDS!

[Brother Christopher]

Ah, the red words of motivation! Thank you Brother Honda! I am looking forward to finishing the model and sharing it with the Black Templar community.

 

Afterwards, I'm going to paint me some Squat Marines :P Finally, I'll have a heavy bolter in my force.

 

PS/BTW: With the info about the new Edition, I decided to redo my scratch build Land Raider (link for those of you who didn't follow my progress) into an actual Spartan. This is motivated by how good a LRC appears to be, and I already have two. I really struggle to find it in me to field a Phobos-pattern Land Raider in any game (the Lascannons are cool, but +6 transport capacity, which I assume a LRC will retain, is way cooler) - to be honest, two LRC should suffice, especially that they will be able to carry multiple units. Top that with a Spartan... Wouldn't that be exciting?

[Golf33]

Stormraven is looking good. Great job on the stripes!

 

Can I suggest a little more work on the canopy? Use some dark blue and black ink washes to make it a lot darker at the top, and blend in a little white or very light blue to lighten the lower edges just a little bit. Something like this: https://spikeybits.com/2013/07/the-skys-the-limit-painting-cockpit-canopies.html (I would go for something darker though, to match the overall dark tone of the model).

 

When finished give it a coat of gloss varnish to add depth.

Edited May 23, 2017 by Golf33

[Brother Christopher]

Be sure I'll do something with the canopy. To what end, I don't know. But I'm definitely not that satisfied with what I have now. thanks for the link, the stuff in it looks great and the article seems to be useful. Now I just need to implement it.

[Brother Christopher]

Apart from being depressed about my favourite genocidal sci-fi setting changing into something I'm not certain I like, I also painted some of the Initiates. I'm beyond the halfway point in the painting process and I hope to have them ready by Wednesday. How will this resolution pan out, I do not know. But I'm steadily working towards the goal. It's good to see progress!*

 

*But it's also depressing, to look at your pace of work and comparing it with the stockpiled infantry and vehicles you still need to sort out. Maybe I should sell some of my stuff. That would be the rational thing; however, I find that Templars are too often though of as irrational. Maybe this has something to do with people mistaking it with our zeal.

[Brother Christopher]

Photo update on the progress:

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1060312_zpsam6ofptl.jpg

 

The minuscule resolution is there to hide the depressingly awful quality of my today's painting :P (it appears that scheduling hobby time after a workout isn't such a great idea after all).

 

What's done? Well, most of the stuff. Blacks, highlights, base layer for the pauldrons, main layers for the tabards, the one guy's face. What's left to be done? Refining the highlights, painting purity seals, belts, and heraldry and highlighting of the pad trims. Oh yeah, and the weapons.

[Brother Christopher]

Advice required!

 

Brothers, assist me!

 

So, you may know that I've built a Stormraven from scratch and am in the middle of painting it. Now, I got a new idea resulting in a problem. The question is: should I keep the original design inspired by the legendary Thunderhawk (picture 1) with the T-shaped tail wing and additional small front wings/stabilisers, or perhaps should I remove these additional part and give the model a sleeker profile (picture 2)? (there are also other variations available, like no front wings, but T-shaped tail).

 

Picture 1:

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Storm%20Eagle%20and%20Fire%20Raptor/P1060334-2_zps2dswls0w.jpg

 

Picture 2:

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/Storm%20Eagle%20and%20Fire%20Raptor/P1060335-2_zps74wmjsaw.jpg

 

Anyone?

[AndrewChristlieb]

It looks much better with the stabilizers.

[Marshal Mattias]

No changes, Thunderbaby!

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for the feedback and getting me back on what appears to be the right track!

[Marshal Wolfhart]

I just had a look at the new FW Thudnerhawk... just doesn't seem right without the T-shaped fin :P

[Brother Christopher]

+ Random update on a new task +

 

Having (almost) completed 5 ranged Initiates, I decided to take on a more Templary task and assemble and paint some chainword-wielding brothers. Some time ago I bought for a silly price a second-hand squad of 9 Assault Marines (and some regular troops, including a grav gun, a multi melta, as well as an apothecary). I wanted badly some 'running legs' for my regular Initiates and because of the price was good I made the purchase. Well, now I don't see this decision as bargain...

 

A funny thing with buying things at online auctions in as is condition - usually you buy good/decent stuff and sometimes you don't. My purchase is an example of the latter, luckily one of the few in my long Warhammer career. The models were glued with an unidentified substance, probably something NASA uses to mend their spacecraft. Whatever the glue is/was, it damaged some of the models and is impossible to undo - the plastic parts break before the bond.

 

However, you know... the price was exceptionally good. And now I set off on a quest to give these guys a new, proper lease of life. I removed whatever I could; I stripped most of the paint and now I'm off to mend the damage I did and Templarify them. For starters, I'll work on a squad of six.

[Honda]

Definitely picture #1 and if that kit was available, I'd sell mine and buy three. Brilliant job.

[Brother Christopher]

In my last post, I wrote about starting a renovation process of some (ruined) running Initiates. Here's a photo update of what I managed to do so far:

 

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k260/krj_38/crusaders/P1060341_zpsjzbqmvsq.jpg

 

Some necessary repairs were extremely extensive, like replacing the entire top torso and collar in two models. As you can see, I've added a lot of green stuff bits: tabards, crusader/purity seals, crosses; as well as some chains here and there. I also want to experiment and paint the two Marines with bare breastplates (second from the right and second from the left in the photo) as if they have tabards with the Imperial Aquila. I'm curious how this will turn out.

 

In general, I'm rather happy with the progress - when done, I'll have a unique squad of running Crusaders, which will add more variety to the regular 'squatting' poses. On the other hand, the residual paint, as well as my (lack of) green stuff skills make me worried about the quality of the painted models. That is why I'm looking forward to doing more work on these, but at the same time I'm quite concerned. The most important thing here, I suppose, is to bear in mind that I've already compromised quality by buying these at a 'bargain' price.

[TheOneTrueZon]

I would say that you are most definitely NOT lacking at green stuff skills. Those look awesome. Those details look clearly defined. Keep it up!

[Brother Christopher]

I would say that you are most definitely NOT lacking at green stuff skills. Those look awesome. Those details look clearly defined. Keep it up!

 

You know that most of the parts (especially the bottom tabards) are made using press mould, right? What I wanted to complain about are specifically my sculpting skills, which are virtually non-existent. I get annoyed each time I try to add the torso part of the tabard or make the corrugated (if it's the right word) part of the suit under the armour that is visible in joint areas. But luckily I decided to make an investment and bought Instant Mold and have been capitalising on the purchase ever since.

 

I'll probably take and post some pictures of the more complete models before priming.

[Bruder Jakob]

 

I would say that you are most definitely NOT lacking at green stuff skills. Those look awesome. Those details look clearly defined. Keep it up!

 

You know that most of the parts (especially the bottom tabards) are made using press mould, right? What I wanted to complain about are specifically my sculpting skills, which are virtually non-existent. I get annoyed each time I try to add the torso part of the tabard or make the corrugated (if it's the right word) part of the suit under the armour that is visible in joint areas. But luckily I decided to make an investment and bought Instant Mold and have been capitalising on the purchase ever since.

 

I'll probably take and post some pictures of the more complete models before priming.

 

 

They turned out nice!

What molds are you using?