The Neurode Crusade - Updates and Fixes to HQs and Elites

[BayOkuz]

 

 

EDIT: Right now, I'm not sure how to proceed with the armour, specifically 1. I could leave it gold or 2. paint some details (like the soles ob boots, rims around knee pads, should pad trims) silver. The former option seems more appealing since it's more faithful to the classic artwork; the latter seems more interesting from the hobby perspective.

The former actually looks and sounds more appealing, also could be more fun making it.

 

But greatjob anyway brother, nicely done!

[Brother Christopher]

Oh, thank you - I hope that I won't disappoint with the final delivery, though I don't feel too comfortable with painting this amount of gold. I really should have practised on a plastic or metal model first.

 

And thanks for the feedback - I'll go with the all-golden armour with minor silver details.

[Majkhel]

Hey Critopher, what are your steps for this gold? Very importantly, what are you using as a shading colour?
From the artwork you have provided, the aim would be to have a "warm" gold effect and for this, a pure silver edge highlight is not a good idea imo as it cools the effect.

The simplest receipe for gold I have is to use:
1. whatever base gold you have (I personally even mix a little bit of brown to my gold of choice - Scale75 Elven Gold - as it's rather light)
2. wash with a red (or red-brown) wash like Reikland Fleshshade. If it is a GLOSS version, then its even better as it will not dull the shine of the metallic paint
2.b (optional) selective wash with a brown wash to the deepest recesses (and to mute the shine a bit if you were using a gloss-type red wash before)
3. highlight edges with base gold or a mix of base gold and silver. 

[Brother Christopher]

Once again, thanks Majkel for you painting advice! I will make sure to apply it in the future, for instance, when painting my Helbrecht model(s)! I've been using Agrax Earthsade as a wash for gold; I'm not a particularly conscious painter and, I admit, I have significant gaps in my assortment of paints, a Flesh wash being one of them. I know how it should work in principle and it's at the very top of my purchase list; I just haven't been able to get around to going to Jana Pawła square for casual purposes for four months now.

 

Over the weekend, I finally had some time to play video games. Over an online session of Civilization VI, I managed to do some work on the Emperor. I updated the armour by warming it by adding a thinned-down, almost wash-like layer of Gehenna Gold (that was a beer-induced idea, but it worked!), painted the burning blade and the cape.

 

The photos are still over-exposed, but at least I had some degree of manual control over the white balance; that's why the tint of the armour corresponds better to what it is in the "real life". The actual colour, when not exposed to a direct source of light from my desk lamp, is a bit warmer and deeper; however, I figured that since this is a WIP photo, I can't bother with using a tripod and prefer to show you a sharp photo whose colours a bit off to a blurry one, with better reproduction. I really need to get around  to doing or buying a lightbox for my photos.

 

 

The Burning Blade. This is my first warhammer-related effort when it comes to painting a flame effect (the first one was for a board game and it didn't turn out great) and I must say, I'm quite pleased with it! Since I don't have a proper orange paint, I used a mix of red, white, black and yellow for this. My idea was to have a bright-yellow, almost white, blade and a mix of reds and orange for the flame bits.

 

 

 

And finally, the cape. At least with reds, I have had some experience and felt quire comfortable painting these. I added more layers of shading than I normally do with my Firstborn marines, and I think it turned out and well. Also, after some deliberation, I figured I'll go with metallic details (I considered going for non-metallic yellow, but gold and silver worked out just fine).

 

 

Let me know what you think!

 

I must also admit, that painting this model - while playing Civ VI - was a blast. The quality of the sculpt, paired with my amateur, self-taught and - probably - outdated painting techniques makes me feel that the model virtually paints itself. It takes far less time, concentration and effort than painting my Black Templars and - I feel - that the results are very satisfying and adequate. Can't wait to finish the whole mini.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

You're a skilled painter.

[Majkhel]

GREAT WORK! Seriously!
That gold wash/glaze did wonders to bring back the gold feel! An inspired idea! I think your're firmly there now. And by the Throne, do not belittle yourself for the techniques you're using

Lovely effect on the burning sword. I had an immediate old-school D&D art vibes in my head, when I saw it.
The cape also came out really, really nice. I like the deep almost blue shades. And it was a good idea imo not to mix NMM and metallics on the same model. It's not like its a bad idea by itself, its just it often looks awkward. Mainly because with NMM you set a point(s) of light source in relation to the model, while metallics reflect whatever light source is available at the moment. And they not always match each other. 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Majkhel

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for the feedback and reasurance on the NMM/Metalic bit!

 

Concerning my painting, I've been pretty content with it for two or three years; however, I'm just aware that a lot has been going on in the are of painting and I just haven't been paying any attention to it. My skills are entirely based on general tips I found in books published around 4th and 5th edition - Youtube is full of video in which -- I'm sure -- people are using paints that I haven't heard of or airbrushes or even Contrast paints that, for that matter, I haven't even touched. However, there's a chance that with adding the new Templar releases, I'll try and experiment a bit, watch some stuff online and learn something new.

 

Here's a photo drop showing my progress on the Emperor model. This time I made sure not to over-expose the photos, to better show the work and details:

 

I wanted to say that the armour is done, but it isn't - after taking the photos, I realised that I didn't paint the exposed chain mail which shows right above the knee pads; I think I'll go with non-metallic black or nearly-black grey metallic colour for that bit.

 

Body / armour without the cape:

 

 

Some details: the inside of the lightning claw:

 

Filigree on the outside:

 

Yeah, a freehand chicken "eagle" bust:

 

Leather straps, front and back:

 

 

And the assembled model - work completed so far:

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, I still need to paint the chain mail bits, the head and the two-headed eagle (which makes a total of three heads, I suppose).

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I'm impressed with the many details you included.

[Brother Christopher]

I'm impressed with the many details you included.

Thank you! Admittedly, most of them were already there, I just needed to paint them so that they were more clearly visible.

 

Update on the state of affairs connected with the new Supplement release.

 

Apologies for the long post. I spent a lot of my time, energy and attention to thoroughly consider the matter and I wanted to share my conclusions with the broader community. This was pretty hard, too - being torn between my desires and reason. After all, who here doesn't like new models? ;) But I feel in my case, reason prevailed, too a large extent, due to my concerns about my mental well-health - I have some weaknesses, but I've managed to pinpoint and define them, so that I can be more wary.

 

I must admit that I found the last two weeks were very interesting with regard to hobby-related stuff on a couple of levels. It was a mix of emotions, mild hype, mental gymnastics followed by my yet deepest introspection into what 40K means to me. The bottom line is this: the new additions to the Primaris and Black Templars line-up will not – regrettably - find their way to my army through my voluntary purchases*.

 

The subsequent reveals of characters and the launch box were okay – I really enjoyed the commotion in their aftermath, especially on B&C. I actively avoided reading GW’s articles and focused on the pictures. I am definitely not the target audience for this social-media-driven gibberish. As for the kits themselves, I guess they are fine in general. I like the Sword Brother and Marshal from the Launch Box a lot, Helbrecht is particularly cool and both the EC and Grimaldus with his retinue are okay updates, paying homage to earlier kits and artworks. The revealed Black Templars are definitely some of the more characterful miniatures in the Primaris line-up. However, with how the Sisters of Battle and new Chaos miniatures look, I was probably expecting something more in terms of design. Unfortunately, I don’t share the general optimism others appear to have about the to-be-released.

 

On the one hand, there are my subjective nit-picks. Firstly, I’m not a fan of Mk X armour in general and the BT bling didn’t help much in terms of armour variety. Secondly, I don’t like the tabard/apron going under the chestplate; I also think that the chains are way too thick – I’d prefer if they were like on the old, pewter models; instead, the designers went with the clunkier (but better-defined) chains from the plastic kits. On the other hand, there are more objective complaints I have that I find off-putting. I am really annoyed with the lack of poses in the teased kits, especially the pairs of clone Neophytes and Initiates bodies. Unfortunately, there is also the similarity between the EC and Grimaldus. All of this seems to be another missed opportunity. The old, metal models weren’t perfect, too – I’ve never been a fan of the second iteration of the Emperor’s Champion, but for their time, they were pretty cool and they aged relatively favourably. I’d really like to have the limited edition codex, though.

 

Over the last two weeks I also convinced myself to get all the kits (the tragic part is that I have spare hobby money, so I can afford to buy every new release and some other stuff on top of that), but ultimately came to the conclusion that I shouldn’t and, consequently, won’t do it. I really didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to convert and paint some new, better-proportioned models. However, GW messed things up for me. The teases are taking too long and the hype-based marketing doesn’t work for me at all. With where I currently am in the hobby, I need to know what I can buy and when. Plastic miniatures are not a TV series or a film – I shouldn’t be waiting for the next reveal to be announced on social media with a release date that is either “to-be-determined” or “to-be-announced”. I’m too old for this kind of stuff. I don’t need hype to convince me to buy things, I need hard data so I can plan my purchases and work. I know that I am prone to manipulation and spinning out of control with things like this. What I mean is that I found myself wasting my time planning all the new additions, even though I don’t know what’s to come, and the number of Primaris miniatures kept on growing. Upon reflection, the conclusion is clear – I still haven’t learnt to be reserved about my army-planning. It would therefore be unreasonable to get more (Primaris) models, while I still have my soon-to-be-obsolete squat-marines to convert and paint. At this stage of my life, I’m at least smarter as not to repeat the mistakes of my past and allow for the pile of shame to grow larger and larger. One has to be moderate!

On the plus side, I’ll keep my personal integrity and the integrity of my army. The Neurode Crusade will remain a decadent, Firstborn crusade, set in simpler times before Cadia fell. I will keep on focusing my time and efforts on the things I truly enjoy about the hobby and the setting, and this should be a consolation for missing out on the new models.

 

I don’t know when I’ll finish my stuff and where I’ll be then, but today, I feel that I don’t need more Black Templars at all. If I was to invest in more GW miniatures, I think I’d go for some funky, colourful Age of Sigmar stuff instead.

 

*If someone decides to gift me with a box of Black Templars, I won’t mind it. It depends a lot on GW’s release schedule and whether they’ll make it in time for my birthday or whatever happens during the winter holidays.

Edited October 1, 2021 by Brother Cristopher

[Brother Christopher]

The Emperor is finished. I will take more photos when I'll get around to doing something about his base, along with other troopers.

 

[Marshal Reinhard]

Regal.

[Brother Carpenter]

Nicely done Edited October 6, 2021 by Brother Carpenter

[Bjorn Firewalker]

His Immortal Majesty is beautifully painted and detailed.

[Brother Christopher]

Many thanks to all of you! I had a blast painting him, it felt like a really nice break from black armour and I kinda wanna try painting something else. Alas, my heart is with my dwarf Black Templar and I'd really, really like to finish painting my collection. It's only a pity that it takes me this long I will have been done with it after they are relegated to Legends or otherwise made quite obsolete

 

Still, when I don't see my models side-to-side with superior sculpts, I am very happy with them - including those pesky pewter sculpts. Right now, I'm working on another some Terminators who will be followed by (I think) the last batch of Devastators, i.e. four more models.

 

On the topic of the new BT releaes, I think it's a pity that GW included shotguns in the upgrade kit. I really like some of the accessories and heads, but I'm afraid that the inclusion of shotguns will elevate the price of the kit. Also, personally, I feel that including an upgrade like this is sort of wrong - shotguns, as an option, should be included in the Crusader Squad box.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Brother Cristopher

[Brother Kraskor]

I really like the tone of gold you've achieved, matches the red accents nicely. And very convincing fire effect. My favourite bit of him has to be the cape though! I can almost hear it rippling!

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you for the kind words, Brother Kraskor! I appreciate you liking the fire - this was my second attempt (the first one being some Fire Imps for the Descent 2nd Edition board game) and I feel I got lucky with it since this was all improvised!

 

I must add that I can't wait to share my progress on more Terminators (two with lightning claws one with CML). I somehow went quite heavily into red details and I feel it worked out pretty well so far. Since today is my birthday, I'm planning to take a day off and maybe devote it to my Crusade - I'm thinking either painting or tallying my troops and taking the annual army photo just to help and visualise where I stand in terms of progress.

[SWORD BROTHER RYAN]

I've been looking forward to what you do with this model since you pictured it way back, and I'm impressed! Great work! Can't wait to see the finished base on him.

[Brother Kraskor]

Always good to review the troops, have them out on parade I say! It's the Marshal's birthday after all!

[Majkhel]

Happy Burn-heretic-day! :)

[Brother Christopher]

Always good to review the troops, have them out on parade I say! It's the Marshal's birthday after all!

 

I figured that I'll take a photo once I'm done with painting the models that are started and/or almost done to also have a good overview of the number of models that a. are painted up to my current standard, b. are not painted and/or require assembly, c. require an update of the paintjob. This means that I should be get around to doing that in 1-2 weeks' time, probably.

 

Happy Burn-heretic-day!

Thank you! But I have to say, for people outside of our hobby, this would've sounded peculiar :D

 

The Neurode Crusade has three new battle-ready additions to its roster.

 

 

Since I finished these models on my birthday, I decided to leave a little reminder of that - every Terminator has a number "31" on their armour to show how old their Marshal was. I must admit, I could've planned this ahead and chosen better models. I'm not a fan of the LC Terminators sculpts - I feel it's difficult to assemble them so that they're not in repetitive or awkward poses. To combat the repetitiveness, I've blinged these guys up with custom-made stuff - I think that the lanterns turned out half-decently! Still, the guy on the right... well, suffice to say that I could have done better. He looks a bit like he wants to kill a moth or like he's startled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Urkh]

You're much more creative with your detailing and decorations than I am. I like the yellow block on the side of the CML. Good stuff!

 

And happy birthday! If I do the same as you for my birthday (in about 2 months) I'd have to write 33!

 

"Aren't you a little young to be a black templars marshal?"

[Majkhel]

Well done! Lovely details :D
I like the '31' numeral (post 40 here :P ) and the Katiusha reference among others

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you, brothers! What can I say: I really enjoy personalising my troops. It's probably largely due to the inspirations I took during my early and forming years in 40k when - I feel - free hand scribbles of various kind and more advanced stuff on vehicles used to be showcased more than today, with a move to less busy paintjobs. Right now, post-Indomitus, it appears that through transfer sheets some of that attitude gets reintroduced to official models, though. However, I must admit that these memories of 3-5th edition models and resources (Codexes, the How the Paint Space Marines book) might be false since much time has passed, but they had left an impression on me and, as such, remain as the core to my approach to Black Templars.

 

"Aren't you a little young to be a black templars marshal?"

 

I sometimes feel I'm too old for this stuff. With today's experience, I wouldn't have gotten into 40K or at least not to the extent I did. However, despite my better judgement, I'm not a quitter and I badly want to have a painted army to showcase, one that I used to dream about and that I actually bought, but have greatly neglected. Thank the Emperor for Primaris releases that helped me put an end my purchases and actually start assembling and painting models.

 

Motivated by Brother Kraskor's earlier post (and taking advantage of some free time), I took a photo of the entirety of my power-armoured forces. This was very helpful since I organised units into 'squads' and documented the model composition of the same - I think it is going to be an indispensable aid in planning my future work.

 

Edited October 13, 2021 by Brother Cristopher

[Brother Kraskor]

A mighty Crusade indeed!

[Brother Christopher]

Being in the final stages of planning of my force, my attention shifted to the Neurode Crusade's armour. I'm planning a Land Raider/Repulsor conversion project (more on it in my thread in the WIP section of the forum), but I have a question to the more lore-savvy Templar brethren - do you think that 4 Land Raiders is enough for a Space Marine force of around 300 marines (~40 with Jump Packs, ~50 in TDA) or should I consider getting more for flavour (then again, real-life storage of the models begins to become an issue)? In addition to the LRs, once the army is complete, I will have 3 drop pods, ~15 Rhino-sized vehicles (8-10 of which will be transports), 2 Storm Ravens and a Thunderhawk.

 

EDIT: I remembered that there was this image of the whole UM Chapter structure which shows that the entire chapter is supposed to have ~10 Land Raiders. If this is by any means indicative of the trend, 4 for a BT Crusade seems more than adequate. Then again, the image always seemed to me to be a bit conservative.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Brother Cristopher