The Neurode Crusade

[Brother Christopher]

It's a relic of the armoury, nothing to do with the taint of Chaos (well... to be completely honest, nothing apart of some leftover triangles/arrowheads along one of the trims that apparently I failed to remove completely). By the way, I need to do some research on chainaxes in general; its kind of sad that this extremely cool weapon is so strongly associated with Khorne or the brutish Orks and chainswords or eviscerators aren't, despite that in principle they serve the same purpose.

[DarkCrusader93]

I love the chain axe did you get it from a forge world kit or the khorne berserker kit? Thinking I may add a few to my crusade.. Great work on the free hand Brother far better than my attempts!

[Brother Christopher]

I can't say for sure, but I always assumed that it was one of the Berserks'; it was plastic for sure and the hand/glove looked kind of.

[Brother Christopher]

I am delighted to report that I finished painting my last batch of Marines, including the Standard Bearer and Chaplain!

 

 

The lighting claws guy, pictures of whom I haven't posted:

 

 

 

You can find photos of the individual Crusaders in previous posts.

 

And now for the Black Templars Chaplain. This poor guy has probably suffered a lot, being an old, forsaken OOP model; however, I hope that I managed to restore him to a glorious (or decent?) state. What do you think? For me, I'm quite pleased and had a blast painting him (despite that he reminded me that I can't get white right, but well - I turned down my painting expectations to my tabletop+ standard).

 

 

 

 

[TheOneTrueZon]

The freehand cross on the inside of the Chaplains cloak is such a nice touch!

[Marshal Wolfhart]

To me these look really good. I'd recommend washing the bone parts on the chaplain with something boney (i use thinned down seraphim sepia and liek the results), otherwise it's a wonderful model! Keep it up!

[Brother Christopher]

For my next project, I decided to restore some of my older Marines. This is a squad of Assault Crusaders I painted approximately during my 2nd stage of painting, when I bought a pot of Codex Grey and embarked on the long and unrewarding journey that is edge highlighting.

 

 

 

They aren't bad; the colours are pretty okay, but the highlights leave much to be desired by my current standards; they are simply too messy. The most worrying discovery I've made is that apparently back then I didn't bother to base coat the models, so most of the blacks is the undercoat. I thought about stripping paint of all my earlier unsatisfactory models, but I suppose that I don't need them as up to my current standards to take such drastic measures. A simple restoration and update must suffice, even if it means that they here and there the paint is thicker than should and the minis aren't as 'good' (if I may say so) as my current work. After all, they served me well on the battlefields of 5th edition and are a reminder of the process I have been going through.

 

Things to do: 1. attempt to tidy up the grey lines, 2. paint the black undercoat black for a black more consistent with the current colour 3. add more shading and highlighting to colours. I also might paint the inside of the nozzle blue, for more variety, but haven't decided yet.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Assault Squad.

[Brother Christopher]

I've updated the first of the the jump pack Marines. I don't like to post close-ups since they make me feel quite uncomfortable. Photos reveal too much and lay bare the inadequacy of my technique, which might be especially embarrassing when it comes to upgrading previous work. While the photos are as ruthless as ever, I am quite satisfied with the result.

 

Whereas the photos are what they are, from a 'normal' or 'tabletop' perspective, the model looks way neater than it used to, (probably) largely to the matte finish. The edge highlights are a compromise between my today's standards, maintaining some of the original work and time I'm willing to invest into this kind of work. I think that they appear to be more smooth and controlled than before.

 

I've touched up the matallics and added more colour to the reds. Apart from extremely minor touch of paint, I haven't fiddled with the Maltese crosses on shoulder pads. they have to be as they are; the risk of doing more harm than good to an surface already thick with paint wasn't worth it.

 

v. 1.0: v. 1.5:

 

v. 1.0 v. 1.5:

 

v. 1.0 v. 1.5:

 

v. 1.0 v. 1.5:

 

I guess that the extra work put into these is worth it, unrewarding as it is. The entire squad should look nice and blend in with the 10-man squad I painted one or two years ago.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The axeman is well done. Is that a Holy Orb of Antioch at his side, or a generic melta bomb? (I expected Holy Orbs to be gold-plated, but I understand if it was painted over because stealth was necessary for the completion of the axeman's mission. "Victory at any price," after all.)

[Hawklynn]

That is a generic melta bomb. Our Holy Orbs are a sphere shape with a maltese cross on the top.

[Brother Christopher]

Indeed, just a regular melta bomb. Back then, when I assembled this squad, I were heavily inspired by Dawn of War 2; hence the beakie helmets (when I started, these things were rare, that's why only four members of the squad have those) and melta bombs.

[Hawklynn]

This right here is why highlighting terrifies me.

[Brother Christopher]

It is kind of bad, but I force myself to stick to it since I've already committed to this style of painting, following the now probably ancient guidelines in Codex: Black Templars and How to Paint Space Marines. The only undisputable good thing about me choosing black marines is that I am a Black Templar today. Other reasons for choosing the army don't really hold water; it turns out that black isn't the easiest colour to do (when I started, I knew only about white and black primers - black primer + some metallics, red eye lenses and white pads = a painted Black Templar is what I used to think) and it's easier to get a satisfying table top standard with other colours. For this reason, I am considering painting a couple of squads red to denote their special role in the Crusade's structure and take a break from doing black with grey edges, but am hesitant to actually do this. To make sure that this is something that is not a tempoirary whim and is a good idea for my fighting companies, I'm holding back on this for a month. If after this time expires I will still see Red Templars in my Crusade as a good idea, I'll goo for some red Veterans and Terminators and write (or at least conceive) some fluff explanation.

[Brother Christopher]

The squad's retouched! I call the project a success and am now more positive about redoing the rest of my older Marines. The extra effort was worth (it was, right?). I'm sure they'll look great in an army photo... when I'll finally have enough stuff to take and post one

 

 

 

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Assault Marines. Does having crosses on both pauldrons mark them as Crusader Squad members?

[Brother Christopher]

In my book, all Templars display the Chapter Cross on both pauldrons (the exception being ornate shoulder pads). These are members of an Assault Squad or, if the game demands it, Vanguard Squad; either way, a part of a fast formation, as designated by the red shoulder pad trims.

[Brother Christopher]

With the Blood and Zeal challenge that I haven't participated in (for good reasons, though - I assembled most of my models in December and January and ended up with [almost] nothing eligible for the challenge), I feel pretty bad about what I'm doing hobbywise at the moment. Still, my project was to some degree motivated by the challenge - I scoured my cupboards for models which are still in sprues. I failed to find any, but counted and organised my Rhino chassis and came to the conclusion that I need one more. This led to conclude that I'm one Rhino short. Instead of buying one more plastic tank, I decided to take a break from my recent 'regular' hobby activities and get back to scratch building... this time, two custom Rhinos. Paradoxically, I didn't want to buy anything more from GW (at least until the "fix" what I find "broken" in the game), but I couldn't pass up the opportunity and ordered a super-cheap Razorback with 3 turrets and extra bits of an auction (a relapse, apparently - I managed to keep my nerd shopping addiction for a long time!).

 

I've started last Friday and wanted this to be a "speed build" - two tanks in a relatively short time. This means I'm taking some shortcuts and skipping some of the detail I could potentially do. I had one major setback along the way, but am on-track now with the project 70% completed. Most of the pictures I have at the moment are random bits and pieces, however. I'll post some more appropriate photos later.

[Brother Christopher]

Excuse my double post, but here we go:

 

 

 

 

The new Rhinos are roughly the same size as GW's; they appear larger due to the different track profile. The "main hull" is exactly the same as GW's original; the tracks are roughly the same length, but are significantly higher (to the extent as something cut manually may be "exactly" the same as something injection moulded). I decided to take this approach to the tracks because they're way quicker to build than the standard ones; I don't have to bother with the wheels and this alone is an enormous time saver. I would probably not start the project if I had to get the wheels and inside of the tracks done.

 

This is my second attempt at building this pattern of a Rhino; the first one was years before and turned out to be quite a mistake - I didn't scale down the blueprints and ended up with a way larger vehicle. Still, I used the tank as a Vindicator and came up with some background information on why it's larger than the standard Rhino chassis.

 

 

 

What do you think about this simplified profile of the track sections, similar to that of a chimera, land raider or other imperial vehicles?

[SWORD BROTHER RYAN]

I, for one, actually like the profile overall. I'm a purist at heart, but that's cool, especially since you didn't have to pay an enormous amount for it (other than time spent creating).

 

Looks great, and completely passable. I envy your skill. I wish I had access to plasticard and blueprints to do something of that nature myself, but alas, I'm quite sure my skill would be found wanting. I'll just live vicariously through your excellent work!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The "mini Land Raider" looks good, but why are its rhomboid tracks still reversed, like the Raider's? British WWI heavy tanks had rhomboid tracks so they can cross trenches; reversing the rhombus means instead of climbing out of a trench, the tracks will bury themselves the way a knife would when thrust into the ground, immobilizing the tank.

[Ray_K]

Finally caught up on this thread. I love your paint Scheme, very nice use of accent colors. I saved a few pictures to shamelessly rip off as inspiration while I'm painting my crusaders up. I look forward to seeing more of your stuff!

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you very much! For the time you've committed to perusing the pages of this thread and for your kind words. Reading that my work serves as inspiration for someone else is very motivating and... well, uhm, inspiring! As always, I'll make sure to post something when it's done.

[Brother Christopher]

I'm happy to report that there's progress on my Rhinos; what remains to be done are the weapons and some minor detail. They should be ready next week.

 

Building these reminded me how much I like building models from scratch and got me thinking "how should I waste my time now." Apart from some already scheduled projects, I'm considering building a super-heavy vehicle (probably this year). But I can't figure out which one. I'm counting on your feedback, brothers.

 

I'm considering either building a Thunderhawk or a Fellblade/Falchion (a custom tank using their chassis, later referred to as Fellblade, for convenience).

 

I started building a Thunderhawk years ago; this is also something that got me into scratchuilding in the first place. I managed to build and paint the interior of the troop/cargo bay. It also is an iconic craft and was the only super-heavy unit for Marines back when I got into 40K.

 

A Fellblade is a cool-looking vehicle which is more useful n the battlefield. It does not have the capacity to transport troops*, but offers superior firepower. It also appears to be a quicker and easier build; however, it's lacking the "classic" feel of a Thunderhawk which was featured in the works set in 40K which got me into the hobby.

 

* This is an important thing here; I've grown up with the concept that Space Marines don't really depend on super-heavy vehicles. They are a force for special tasks and surgical strikes; they also excel at more direct missions (i.e. in-you-face approach to combat) where their super-human traits become more relevant, and this is where transport vehicles come into play. The Stormhawk interceptor, for instance, is somewhat a denial of my understanding of SM warfare and for this reason I didn't get the model, which I must say I like (what I'm meaning to say is that air superiority is for the Imperial Navy and other elements). This philosophy is also visible in other SM vehicles - they are small, easy to transport using Thunderhawk transporters and other aircraft and most of them boast room for infantry. So the trouble I'm having here is that I like the looks of a Fellblade to the extent that I would liketot have one in my collection, but it doesn't fit well into my notion of a SM army. The Thunderhawk, so crucial for rapid deployment, does.

 

Would anyone like to weight in and help me make up my mind? A cool "new" tank or an iconic SM vehicle?

[SWORD BROTHER RYAN]

One word...

 

THUNDERHAWK!