The Neurode Crusade - Updates and Fixes to HQs and Elites

[Brother Christopher]

You can never have too many Terminators! Nice. You're good at freehanding the maltese cross, and the script is nice too, very crisp!

 

Thank you! Years of practice, I've never bothered with transfers. Eventually, I will have 3 Terminators with each of the heavy-weapons.

 

I really like the quartered skulls! 

I'm always amazed by you imagination in devising interesting and convincing heraldry pieces 

 

Thanks mate! I feel that I don't have too many original ideas, but borrow other people's ideas. Still, I always strive to personalise my models so I appreciate your feedback - it suggests that I'm doing a good job! ;)

 

Very nice, great work on the purity seals.

Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. This means a lot, coming from such a skilled painter as yourself!

 

***

So I tried to cram in all of my models into the Rudsta display cabinet. There's definitely hope; the bottom is extremely cluttered, but I think that once I paint and base more of my models, I'll be able to manage the available space better and properly showcase my work. Or I'll just box some of the things up. Still, for now, as an ongoing WIP, this will have to do. I also hope that seeing the unpainted, unassembled or incomplete models will have a positive effect on my work!

 

Below are rough pics of the rough layout of the stuff.

 

 

 

 

[Brother Carpenter]

Nice display cabinet!

 

I've got to get myself something akin.

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks mate! I'm not a fan of IKEA, so I can't highly recommend the cabinet, but I'm also a reasonable person and I must say that for the price, it's a bargain. It is quite elegant, spacious (at least for a normal-person-sized army!) and doesn't feel overly flimsy, unlike many of their other pieces of furniture.

 

In the process of completing more models, I added sand to the bases of some of the more recent models. As I've remarked in the Knightfall thread, these bases aren't properly finished yet - in the future, after sealing them with a spray-on varnish, I intend to add some static grass, turfs and maybe bigger rocks.

 

So, here's Helbrecht:

 

 

The Games Day Thunder Hammer Captain (now with a backpack!):

 

 

As well as a bonus, an updated paint job on my Emperor's Champion. I couldn't bear to strip my original paint job (I probably finished the model around 2012) - after all, he took part in many a battle and was a very important part of the process of forming my army.

 

 

 

 

And since I photographed the models and had them on my desk, I figured I'd take a group shot of the commanders:

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The classic models are well-painted and detailed. I commend your efforts.

[Prot]

Very nice work! The Helbrecht cape is a great touch. Those classic models bring back a lot of fond memories, and they still hold up today.

[Brother Christopher]

So, I am extremely busy this week. I am doing the Emperor's work and earning credits and glory through due professional diligence (what else can a Marshal do in times of peace?), but my attention keeps turning to my Crusade.

 

Getting the display cabinet turned out to be one of the best hobby-related things that could happen - being able to arrange my forces (even in the rough state that they are now) helped me get the full picture of where I am and where I need to go. After some deliberation, I found myself to be at peace with my collection and with myself. I think I can quite confidently say that the collecting stage of the Crusade is over with some caveats (I would probably like to add another large dreadnought). What really helped me realise that I don't need anything else is that I passed on a great opportunity to buy the old, OOP Terminator Chaplain - while being a cool model, I don't need another Chaplain - two in TDA will do!

 

I am currently in the process of acquiring one ancient crusader model - I don't want to spoil it. He's ugly, he's pretty much pointless, but he's a Templar!

 

Further decisions and conclusions: the bikes are here to stay. I'm not getting rid of them. I will most likely be getting rid of my Neurode Pattern plasticard Rhinos. I mean, it is a bit of a shame to basically discard perfectly usable models but currently I don't feel like working on them and I don't consider the time and effort required to finish them worth it. The upside is that I learnt a lot while working on them and employed many skills developed on that project to my Thunderhawk. Presently, I feel that only a major rules incentive might sway me in favour of working on them. I might use them as part of a diorama for my Thunderhawk, though, alongside other abandoned plasticard projects.

[Brother Christopher]

So, it seems that after a couple of weeks, I'm finally returning to the hobby and this message board.

I got ill for the first time in probably 4 years and it was quite brutal, especially due to persisting fever. What was basically a silly infection had put me properly out of commission for 4 days and it took me another two weeks to recover, including a professional recovery. Being a freelancer (in Poland) definitely has its drawbacks under such circumstances.

Apart from the general havoc, this wreaked in my private and professional life, apparently, I missed the end of Knightfall and failed to submit my models for the People's Choice part of the event, which was a major bummer. Still, I suppose it doesn't matter that much considering the awesomeness and fierceness of the competition.

In terms of hobby-related stuff, I added seals to my display cabinet to make it a bit more dust-proof. By design, the generic cabinet has quite large gaps between its individual parts (4-5 mm), which is suboptimal for its contents, especially considering that I share a room with two xenos chinchillas who take dust baths  I'm sure that the added seals will help with this since right now the only remaining cracks and holes are quite insignificant.

In the coming weeks, I plan to work on some silly, OOP marines like the Games Day 1998 Captain, the OOP Sergeant with Power Maul - a model I remember that I used to love and find pretty unique, Castelan Draco or the first version of the Emperor's Champion. In other words, a whole bunch of classics that haven't aged that well and are rubbish models by today's standards. Handling and working on these guys makes me think about the corner I've gotten myself into with my uncontrolled, pre-Primaris buying... Man, things could've been way different now  Regardless, the Crusade continues! ;)
 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Brother Cristopher

[The Pounder]

Glad you’re on the mend.

 

Looking forward to more of your work!

[Brother Christopher]

A quick photo update of the two OOP models that are more or less finished:

 

1999 Games Day Captain with a slightly customised backpack and some kind of Primaris Bolter:

 

 

 

 

And a Metal Sergeant with Power Mace:

 

 

 

 

Better photos to come in the future!

[The Pounder]

Great work Brother Christopher!

 

You’ve made me feel all nostalgic. Thanks for that!

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for leaving a comment! More nostalgia-inducing stuff to come with other OOP, clumsy, dwarfish marines, such as the 3rd Edition Emperor's Champion or Castellan Draco. However, despite what I expressed in one of the earlier posts, I'll be taking a break from painting infantry. Yesterday, I started work on the interior of an original Storm Raven - I want to get that done to see if my skills improved for the purposes of painting larger things. I forgot how satisfying painting vehicles can be. Since I don't work to a super-top-quality standard and want my models to look nice from a distance (and to a layperson!), I'm having a lot of fun with doing a lot of dry-brushing and whatnot.

 

I finally have some time to add a comment/disclaimer to my earlier post.

 

As for the Games Day 1999 Captain, since the model is so old, I figured I'd go with an old-school paint scheme, too. Someone claimed that the model in the picture below was the first reference to Black Templars - that's why I went with a blue gun and green chest eagle - it does feel out of place in a modern BT army, but I think that we should also have some fun and pay homage to the more colourful and less serious past iterations of 40K

[Brother Christopher]

As a follow-up to the remark in the previous post, I managed to get the interior of the Storm Raven done.

 

Since this will be the only official SR in my army, I've decided to paint it properly, including the interior. However, since no one cares about vehicle interiors once their done, since they are usually hard to access due to the size of the model and configuration of access points, I decided not to pay too much attention to it and opt for a relatively quick paint job. I managed to get this stuff painted in around 3.5 hours, where I've wasted half an hour on the yellow panel (hence, I didn't bother to get the other one painted in the same fashion). Needless to say that the results are extremely satisfying - I usually need between two and three hours to paint a Terminator and here, in the same time, I got such a large chunk of model done to a reasonable standard.

So far, I quite like working on the model. Subjectively, it definitely is one of the more fun kits I worked on (as opposed to, say, a Redemptor Dreadnough). Parts fit together quite nicely and the model appears to look way cooler that I expected. It got a lot of bad press over the years, but it's not bad at all. Sure, there are some dubious design choices here and there, but overall, I'd probably give it a 7/10. This also is why I decided not to extend the fuselage or introduce any other major alterations - considering my other, scratch-built SR, I figured that my Crusade deserves to have one legitimate SR, regardless of the silly top air intake and the servitor gunner.

Photos of the painted Storm Raven interior, preserved for posterity.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by Brother Cristopher

[Urkh]

How long until your templars kill the elves that live in your backdrop?

[SWORD BROTHER RYAN]

I like the look of the SR so far. I did one several years ago where I detail painted the entire interior going off of a military-style scheme (tan bulkheads and green seats and detailed screens/buttons). Overall, the whole model was done in less than 8 days. I know it gets a lot of bad reviews, but I've always quite liked it. Keep up the good works!

[Brother Christopher]

So, it's been a while - I'm still working on the Storm Raven, but between work and other stuff (as well as the geopolitical situation and its consequences), I find it difficult to focus my attention on painting the model. On top of that, this is the first vehicle I've painted in 4 years and I feel like I'm learning to do that. It's been a roller-coaster of emotions, that's for sure. My initial excitement about getting the base colour smooth and even evaporated after I did the highlighting. Edge highlighting on such a big model was very rewarding when I worked with broader strokes, but got somewhat frustrating when it came down to finer details. Planning the freehand livery was fun until (albeit time-consuming) until I decided to start painting after 10 hours of mental work to discover... that I didn't paint something the way I intended and I have to figure out how to fix it (I think I'll roll with what I did not to build up more layers of paint).

 

However, despite all the mess-ups, things are going fine - not as fast as I planned, but fine. I've split painting the model into 3 main stages:

- fuselage;

- wings and landing gear;

- cockpits and armament.

 

I think I'm done with edge highlighting and painting metallics on the fuselage. Tomorrow, I should start working on the smaller details and the livery. I decided to go with something relatively simple - a wide red stripe with either white or tan narrow stripes on both sides on the wings and on the weapon housings; in order to add a bit more red, for balance, I also wanted to import the stripes onto the housings for the front V-toll engines whose base colour was supposed to be black... and here's where I've messed up, since I've already painted them with a "base" layer of grey to help me get a more consistent targeted light colour. I don't feel too comfortable with painting the layer over with black (I fear that the grey base will show), so I'll maybe go with a white (or tan) - red combination instead of the white (or tan) - red - white (or tan) combination. This seems like a reasonable workaround.

[Brother Christopher]

A small photo update; this is what I've decided for my SR: white housings for the front V-toll engines and a chequered pattern on the sides.

 

 

 

 

Given my limited experience with painting vehicles, I'm quite happy with how this develops. It won't be perfect, but I think I don't need it to be.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Brother Cristopher

[Marshal Mittens]

It's looking good, love the checkers!

[SWORD BROTHER RYAN]

Those checkers are fantastic! (I would love to know how you got them so even) I love the direction you're headed. Can't wait to see more!

[Brother Christopher]

I'm really glad you like what you're seeing! I hope not to disappoint with future updates.

 

For the chequered pattern, I helped myself with bits of masking tape to get the base grid. Once I had that, I tried to do my best with filling in the individual squares with paint. The results would've probably been way better (the individual squares would be more sharp/defined) if I kept on using the masking tape for the entire thing; however, I didn't feel like devoting that much time to this bit ;)

 

Last week felt like it was all about painting, but nothing 40K-related. I finally finished painting the walls in my flat as a part of a refurbishing project. Professional matters together with the temporary reorganisation of the flat (i.e. putting all things from two rooms into one room and living, sleeping and working there), i.e. the mess, wasn't particularly inspiring for doing hobby related stuff. But I am glad that's over and I even applied a base coat to the wings yesterday. I'm hoping to do some major progress this week.

[Pearson73]

Those chequers are great, so striking.

[Brother Christopher]

I'm super glad you like it! I also hope not to disappoint with the finished model, once it's done.

 

Progress update: there isn't anything to tangible to share :( Between different real-life stuffs and the lousy state the game is, in my opinion, I'm struggling to find the motivation to paint as much as I had hoped to do.

 

Over the last two weeks, I opted to spend my free time doing other things: hiking, processing some of my photos or grasping the opportunity to play some board games with my friends.

 

My biggest problem right now when it comes to 40k is that I don't like GW's business model. There are way too many red flags for me in the way they're heading, and - the way I see it - the company is assuming a similar approach as AAA video game developers, which isn't great for the player/consumer. This combined with my many other responsibilities, I stopped following anything Warhammer-related and... it turns out that almost extinguished my interest in the hobby (i.e. painting). The game in its current state is too convoluted and unrewarding for my liking, so for the miniature gaming experience, I'd opt to play board games instead, anytime. And without the gaming incentive or the prospect of growing my army, I struggle to find the zeal to reduce my existing backlog.

 

Gloomy as the above may sound, this - paradoxically - does not mean that I'm feeling down about my army. I just think that I need to take a healthy break and return reinvigorated to paint the models, maybe in time for 10th edition... or, if that doesn't work for me, there's Grimdark Future from onepagerules which seems like the more accessible game (a casual, simple framework creating an excuse to use my models for gaming). Despite the voice at the back of my head telling me that me collecting Space Marines was a mistake (once again, mainly because of how the game is and how GW handles things), I don't remember when was the last time I felt so good about where I'm at with the hobby.

 

As part of figuring the above out, I decided not to sell my Imperial Knight (it should be a nice centrepiece model and it just looks like a fun model to paint). In order to make an informed decision about this, I put the darn thing together to make sure how it looks "in person." And guess what, seeing the model with the shoulder pads, head/helmet and arms on changed my optics on it and made me change my mind from "I'm gonna sell it, the model isn't that great" to "wow, who'd have thought - it's quite dope." The best thing is that I bought it all those years ago for a quarter of its current price. I also painted the metallics on the Storm Raven's wings (i.e. engines, v-toll engines and some greebles here and there).

 

I think that in the near future, I'll want to write an introspective and (for a change) well thought-out post about my 10-year experience with the hobby and where I'm at now. Overall, despite the many mistakes I've made that resulted in me being quite miserable at times, I don't regret having a Black Templars army and I'm not going to quit, even if this means that my 5th edition force will have been properly ready once it's delegated to Legends in 11th edition ;)

[Brother Christopher]

Welcome back, Brothers! After a very long time (over a month), I picked up my brushes today and made some progress on the Storm Raven. I intend to work on it a bit tomorrow and recommence regular hobby work next week.

 

I've also noticed that traffic in the BT subforum - especially in WIP threads - has been sort of slow recently, so I'd like to contribute to maybe changing this. For now, with no photographic evidence, this is a token contribution, but you've got to believe me that I actually painted something... It's just not yet ready for sharing!

 

It saddens me greatly that as the Black Templars community here at B&C, we don't seem to be zealous enough when it comes to hobbying; however, that's also understandable. In addition to many different reasons, such as real-life stuff or the spike in BT popularity that also appears to be a thing of the past, these kinds of forums, as the B&C, are losing popularity to other platforms. Regardless, I'd sure like to see more of your works - maybe they'd inspire me to make progress on my forces!

[Marshal Reinhard]

Welcome back, Brothers! After a very long time (over a month), I picked up my brushes today and made some progress on the Storm Raven. I intend to work on it a bit tomorrow and recommence regular hobby work next week.

 

I've also noticed that traffic in the BT subforum - especially in WIP threads - has been sort of slow recently, so I'd like to contribute to maybe changing this. For now, with no photographic evidence, this is a token contribution, but you've got to believe me that I actually painted something... It's just not yet ready for sharing!

 

It saddens me greatly that as the Black Templars community here at B&C, we don't seem to be zealous enough when it comes to hobbying; however, that's also understandable. In addition to many different reasons, such as real-life stuff or the spike in BT popularity that also appears to be a thing of the past, these kinds of forums, as the B&C, are losing popularity to other platforms. Regardless, I'd sure like to see more of your works - maybe they'd inspire me to make progress on my forces!

Surely it hasn't been that long since I updated......... Blimey, last time was last year! And it was a post about how I'd acquired a fair bit of the new kits but no actual modeling photos of any of the new stuff since the first sword brother and emperor's champion.

 

And you're pretty accurate about the platforms thing, as I've actually been making some weekly (well, every other or third week) updates on instagram. I was intending on making an update when I finish the absolutely humoungous refitting project I got under way, that is updating all my pre BT release marines with new bits, but at this point that's just pushing things up yet further. So even though my stuff is all primaris, you've motivated me to make an update in my own hobby thread here.

Edited May 25, 2022 by Reinhard

[Sir Clausel]

I myself have assembled my entire collection of BT so far and shown pictures of it in my thread. I have also painted all the black armor but the rest of it is not painted. Im waiting for my Duncan paints to arrive. Then i will get to painting trust me! And post some pictures of course :p

[Brother Christopher]

You know that I didn't want to hasten or berate anyone, right? ;) I just feel that things have slowed down a bit, but that's perfectly fine and more than understandable.

 

So, as for my painting plans for today... yeah, about that... Being a freelancer doesn't help. You can start a day with ambitious plans of splitting your 8-hour work day 50:50 between work and 40k and you end up working for 10 hours. However, I have a good excuse, since I'm taking the rest of the week off and had to reschedule things. Unfortunately, this means that I won't be doing any 40K either since I'm going to travel and can't bother to take my paints with me.

 

These circumstances pushed me to do the absolute minimum of what I planned to do with my Storm Raven today and post some pictures as a motivation to continue work.

 

The metallic parts were painted back in March. Yesterday and today, I did the rough edge highlighting and the stripes; I intended to clean up the edges today, before posting pictures, but with no success due to time restraints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my second attempt at something similar, that is large/long stripes on vehicles and, I must say, I'm quite pleased with the results. Admittedly, the paint is a bit thick in places and the edges aren't perfectly smooth/straight, but for my purposes and my standard of painting, I couldn't be happier with the results.

 

Initially, I planned to add a free-hand emblem of some sort on top of the stripes but now I feel I'll leave it as-is, that's how pleased I am. The combination of the surprisingly clean white and vivid red looks quite stunning* in real life and I'm afraid that adding more ornaments could overdo the effect or ruin it altogether.

 

On top of that, there's plenty of other surfaces for potential freehand ornaments.

 

*With the caveat that I haven't seen any such similar paint job done professional (maybe with an airbrush) in person and only have my earlier attempts to compare this with.