The Neurode Crusade

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for dropping a comment, I appreciate it!

 

Hopefully, I'll post the entire squad painted tomorrow or the day after that. Right now I only need to finish the helmets and shoulder pads.

[Brother Christopher]

The squad is finally done!

 

Regarding my Delta Squad, I'm postponing work till the new Codex/Supplement drops - I want to have backup bodies for proxies and what not in addition to the... sigh... new Primaris kits that I will most likely buy.

 

For the time being, here are my most recent squat marines:

 

 

I'm particularly happy with this one; he seems... more neat than the others:

 

 

An old, updated model:

 

 

 

 

[Brother Christopher]

My weekend was turned upside down (ah, the perks and drawbacks of being a freelancer) so I didn't get to do as much painting as I wanted. This is what I'm working on now - just wanted to share this with you.

 

 

For all those younger and/or newer players, these are some pewter veterans as well as a Games Day 08 Captain that I got largely thanks to GW current pricing policy :D Years ago paying PLN 100 for a character was pretty much unthinkable (metal character models were around PLN 30-40), so getting a "limited" model for PLN 80 seemed like a bargain. I mean, I'm pretty happy with getting him, but the model probably deserved a better painter. Still, inanimate Space Soldiers can't be choosers ;)

 

Painting these models is pretty fun - they have some original detailing on them. At the same time, by the Emperor, I like the idea of pewter models but painting and handling them isn't that great due to how the paint is fragile and susceptible to chipping before the model is sealed.

[Majkhel]

Those are lovely sculpts! Current GW range only recently started to move closer to their level of personality in my opinion. And mostly outside Marines' armies.

[Calibanite Knight Angel]

I absolutely adore those old Space Marine Veterans, and I think it will be awesome seeing you bring them to life! Also love to see the rare event exclusive miniatures! Can't wait to see the end results!

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you guys for dropping the respective comments ;) I think the models appear quite cool and unique because they have little bits of details that weren't used in the plastic rank-and-file kits, such as thigh chains or the parchemnts on shoulder pads and unique weapon designs, such as the Games Day Captain's thunder hammer or the whacky power axe that really grew on me once I got the model (I've never been a fan of it!).

 

Now, after so many years, I kinda regret that I didn't buy these veterans when they were in production and easily available. However, back in those times I didn't consider the models I got as collector's items, but as game pieces and on a student's budget, I didn't really need expensive dudes while I could get cheaper plastic equivalents. Same goes for the myriad of Chaplain sculpts. On top of that, didn't expect so many things to go OOP - I considered Space Marines to be a constant and a safe bet. Unfortunately, I was quite badly mistaken :D

 

I am really looking forward to sharing my progress with you; hopefully, in a day or two, I'll post photos of fully-painted models. As of typing this, I finished the Captain and am almost done with the three 'Veterans' who just need some final touches (shoulder pads, scribbles on purity seals etc.), plus I need to arrange for some backpacks for the entire lot. So I'd say I'm around the 80% mark with these.

[Brother Christopher]

Photo update:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I only need to add some backpacks and add another layer of varnish to remove some of the gloss. Since these are metal models, I decided not to wait and applied a hefty layer of satin varnish to protect the paint.

[Urkh]

I like the last guy the most. Maybe it's the beaky head, maybe it's the pose, maybe both. I feel his character oozes from his model more than the others. All are great though!

 

My only gripe is I wish the loincloths were brought up in tone a bit. They're really similar to your parchment, and feel less like cloth. But I'm just being picky.

 

Really love seeing freehand crosses though! And the writing/crosses on your parchment is A+.

 

Good work!

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you for your feedback! I basically used the same painting technique as usually for parchment and cloth, but it turned out to be a bit different than it does. Maybe it's because I didn't use as much wash as I used to in an attempt to build the darker areas in recesses more gradually. I might revisit these models in the future, but I'll leave it for the time being - I want to see and compare how they are like next to other sealed and properly finished models.

[Majkhel]

Where was Gondor? 
Crusading, I believe :D

Well done!
Loving the extra work you put into the parchment texts and illuminations!
And captain's face came out really, really well!

[Brother Carpenter]

I really love the helmetless guy's face. Goid work.

Id wish my faces turned out so well.

[Brother Christopher]

Where was Gondor? 

Crusading, I believe

 

Well done!

Loving the extra work you put into the parchment texts and illuminations!

And captain's face came out really, really well!

 

Usually the things I scribble on my Marines are pretty random. Gondor here is a reference to the olden days when - for reasons details of which I sincerely don't remember now - my primary force was the Dol Amroth Crusade, before it was renamed after my home town, with a sort of adequate German Teutonic-sounding name. It had probably a lot to do with my LoTR phase back then. Having remembered about that, I now feel like adding more LoTR references here and there. After all, it's still a book that has a special place in my heart.

 

I really love the helmetless guy's face. Goid work.

Id wish my faces turned out so well.

 

To both of you, thanks for the appreciation for the face! After all these years in the hobby, I still don't feel to comfortable painting those and this Captain must be one of my better works. For the first time I took WIP macro close-ups to inspect my progress and it paid off. The extent to which a macro lens helped made me consider getting a magnifying glass.

 

I also think that I should maybe get more skin-toned paints... I currently have a total of one which I mix with a white or black paint to get other tones - I imagine that a flesh-toned wash would work miracles, but I always seem to forget about it when I buy supplies.

 

[Majkhel]

I also think that I should maybe get more skin-toned paints... I currently have a total of one which I mix with a white or black paint to get other tones - I imagine that a flesh-toned wash would work miracles, but I always seem to forget about it when I buy supplies.

Nah, unless you want a consistent look across a larger number of models, I think you're better off with one paint and adding red, yellow, white, black, brown or purple to your heart's desire in order to get new shades. 

Worth remembering that:

- white makes the flesh tone look lighter but also paler

- yellow makes it lighter but also brighter than white

- red will add vitality

- black will darken, but also desaturate

- purple will shade, but keep the saturation

[Smoke Frog]

I can't imagine how long it took to paint in all of those tiny checkers on the marine's powerfist 

 

Well done on all the detailing and tiny writing! 

[Brother Christopher]

 

I also think that I should maybe get more skin-toned paints... I currently have a total of one which I mix with a white or black paint to get other tones - I imagine that a flesh-toned wash would work miracles, but I always seem to forget about it when I buy supplies.

Nah, unless you want a consistent look across a larger number of models, I think you're better off with one paint and adding red, yellow, white, black, brown or purple to your heart's desire in order to get new shades. 

Worth remembering that:

- white makes the flesh tone look lighter but also paler

- yellow makes it lighter but also brighter than white

- red will add vitality

- black will darken, but also desaturate

- purple will shade, but keep the saturation

 

 

My dear, thank you! I am happy and ashamed of not being aware of the way colours affect colours; I mean, now that I read what you wrote makes perfect sense from a 'colour theory' perspective, but I have never thought of it and stuck to using white (or bone) and black. The desaturated flesh tones are quite suitable for Space Marines who probably don't get too much exposure to sun on starships and with their helmets on (they probably don't get too much time off for sunbathing).

 

I can't imagine how long it took to paint in all of those tiny checkers on the marine's powerfist 

 

Well done on all the detailing and tiny writing! 

Thanks mate! For the chequered patterns, it took me literally 40 minutes. I wanted to take a 15-minute break and there I was 40 minutes later. I sometimes wonder why I do what I do for models that probably won't ever see the tabletop, but with this guy, I was deep IN THE ZONE. The funny thing is that I never planned on doing this; then I painted just a small section, noticed that it was a bit off (not as "parallel" to the imaginary line splitting the fist in half) and decided to "mask" that defect by expanding it to the bulk of the exterior of the fist.

[BayOkuz]

Brother, Well done

 

And, How did you make the parchaments? Those look awesome!

[Brother Christopher]

@BayOkuz - Thank you! For the parchments, I more or less improvised so there's no recipe to share. I used three paints: Ushabti Bone, Corax White and Abbadon Black, as well as a wash of Agrax Earthshade; I applied bone as the base colour, painted over the recesses with a mix of bone and black, highlighted with a mix of bone and white and finally applied Agrax Earthshade, very sparingly, along the edges and into recesses.

 

Crusade update - end of August and the beginning of September

 

This week I didn't do much progress; I focused on a different kind of painting - my missus decided that we should renovate our apartment and in my off-work time, I painted walls in our living room and hallway. It's funny that it took me considerably less time to paint two rooms than a squad of Space Marines

 

Having said that, I made some conceptual progress. In an attempt to reorganise my army and, consequently, reduce the time I need to finish painting, I decided to get rid of some of my spare marine bodies and either sell them or give them away. Right now, I have 8 marines less to paint, which is a considerable time saving (I don't care for the 'wasted' bodies since I bought most of them second-hand). I'll be keeping them for now, at least until the new Codex is released, just in case my collection doesn't cover some particularly good/interesting builds.

 

Plans for the future - plasticard scratch builds

 

I also conceptualised what I'll be doing in the area of my plasticard models. Since I'm losing interest in 40K and feel like moving on to other things when it comes to modelling and hobby efforts, I don't want to invest too much time into 40K vehicles. That is why - with a heavy heart - I am determined to scratch (no pun intended) my second scratch-build Land Raider and my Caestus (at least until I change my mind). Instead of proceeding with those, I intend to redo and readapt some of my earlier works, namely my Rhinos (https://imgur.com/gallery/piP3X) and the first Land Raider (https://imgur.com/gallery/eZKXT0O). Since I finished them, I learnt a lot about using plasticard and want to improve on some of the design choices as well as execution. In particular, I'm not happy with the Land Raider tracks and sponsons. Currently, I'm toying with the idea of adapting the models to be count-as tracked Impulsors and Repulsor. I have a couple of ideas how to proceed and how to adapt some of the Primaris vehicle features into my existing work.

 

I also bought 4 sets of heavy bolters for my scratch built Thunderhawk. Because of this, I am considering reviving the project sooner than I intended.

 

Primaris additions to my collection

 

I am also annoyed with GW - this time because in one-two months' time, I will have bought the new Primaris models ;). And I'm crossed with myself because I am very much curious what they'll have in store for us. On principle, I tend to avoid pre-release hype building, pre-orders and what-not. You also know my stance on the whole Primaris thing, so abandoning my beliefs and buying into GW's new products doesn't come lightly to me. However, I have two good excuses.

 

Firstly, many years ago, way before 8th edition, I vowed to buy new Black Templar stuff. I'd argue that such a vow takes precedence over my refusal to buy vanilla Primaris marines and support the business of a company whose policies I don't agree with. After all, my unwillingness to get new models wasn't based on "nerd rage" or an active boycott of GW's products. The main reason was a realisation that I had had around 180 models to paint and I shouldn't get more stuff. Sure, there were auxiliary reasons - such a sense of disenchantment resulting from the fear that my current collection will become obsolete, as well as a regret that I invested in a somewhat inferior product* that I haven't touched after purchasing, while I could spend that money to get newer kits and spend the hobby time on those kits.

 

Secondly, this year, I managed to chew through a reasonable part of my backlog and now my collection is more or less under control. For example, at the time of typing this, I 'only' have around 30 power-armoured marines to paint (compare this to around 80 PA models when I realised that I have a problem and enough is enough). That is why I feel that I made some room for new additions to my collection and keep it manageable.

 

I also hope that GW won't spoil us too much with new kits. I feel comfortable with adding up to 30 models. With this limit in mind, I wouldn't like to miss out on too many models.

 

Status of Primaris Marines in my collection

 

Regarding the Primaris Crusaders and Sword Brethren, they will not be an official part of the Neurode Crusade - said crusade is set in the pre-Primaris era. The new models will be something additional, an opportunity for me to work on modern kits and paint something different - just a fun side project to my main force. That is why I'll keep on denying that the events of Gathering Storm happened and consider the new additions as upscaled regular marines and not Primaris per se. I am also thinking about trying a different paint scheme - maybe quartered black and bone livery with red robes/tabards. Either way, I must admit once again that I am looking forward to whatever will be available for our brand of marines.

 

*After much deliberation, I figured that I'm quite torn on Primaris aesthetics; thanks to their larger size and better proportions, they are more appealing to look at. At the same time, I greatly prefer the design of the older armour marks. There are some nice models in the range, but I am definitely not happy about the uniformity or rather the lack of variety; the different breastplates, knee pads and helmets of the older marks really work for me.

 

Thanks to each and every one of you who suffered through my channelled thoughts and an update on my progress and plans for the future.

Edited September 3, 2021 by Brother Cristopher

[Urkh]

I feel you brother. I'm currently sitting on around 40 marines I need to paint myself, and an emperor's champion is just sitting on my table 85% done. Primaris (as well as year's end) is coming and I am going to need to put in some serious work if I'm going to get it all done.

 

In regards to primaris, when you eventually start them, would they be a new chapter with similar aesthetics, or just a different crusade painted slightly differently? I was personally thinking about making them a different chapter, but now I'm thinking of making a primaris only fighting company, that was literally an entire company undergoing the Rubicon while the other's are fighting on the planet. I think there are a lot of options, and we just need to find ones that don't irk us.

 

I'm sad to hear your motivation for the game is waning. I try to keep upbeat about it myself, but atm, I have near no one to play with due to time restrictions on all of our parts. It can be a real bummer and really zap that painting motivation right out of you. I hope you either find something that kindles your flame the same way as 40k, or that the emperor fills your heart with vigor and hatred for our enemies. In all things, remember to have fun! I will still look forward to whatever updates you post.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Don't beat yourself up if your inspiration is waning.  It will come back around.  Take some time off and wait until you feel the inspiration again.  I didn't paint anything from March until August this year.  I got back into raiding on WoW. Now my batteries are recharged and I'm back into painting.

[Majkhel]

Parabellum is right with the approach to motivating oneself :)

On the Primaris aesthetics - I'm with you on that first looks into the range tend to give that impression of blandness. However now after over a year with them, I envisage them more as a clear canvas for a resourceful modeller with a vision.
You want them to look modern and tacticool? You got it.
You want to embellish them to baroque proportions? Also perfectly doable. 
You want to use them to create upscaled firstborn? Go for it. 

They are still plastic, so cut and re-postion them them to your heart's desire adding firstborn bits like helmets, pauldrons, backpacks or weapons. Limitations of their out-of-the-box poses can be overcome and they can push to explore new areas.

You might want to check fantastic works by Apologist (link), Marcus (link) and others to see what wonders they do recreating firstborn from long-gone editions using Primaris kits ;)

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks guys for the upbeat replies ;) Let me clarify what I meant by saying that I'm losing in 40K - I am not very much into the myriad of new stuff that is going on - there's just too much of it, spanning from Codexes, campaign books, novels, through social media activities such as teasers, trailers and hype-building before new releases, to animations as part of Warhammer+. That's a bit excessive for my taste since I have a lot of professional work and other leisure activities and each day only has 24 hours.

 

Then there's the thing that when you go deep into, 40K isn't really that interesting - to a large degree, it's a bit repetitive and lacking nuance for my taste. I've always enjoyed 40K as a setting, though, but I've also always preferred looking at the bigger picture, from a historian's perspective, rather than from the point of view of people actually taking part in some of the events. Reading summaries or limited accounts of battles and campaigns and historic events have always left me wanting to know just a bit more and this feeling, a mix of excitement, frustration and mysticism was what captivated my imagination the most. Adding depth and detail, fun on the surface (since it alleviates some of the frustration of not knowing), rarely worked for me.

 

Then there's actually playing the game. I can't actually get around to doing any gaming largely due to my strange mental block: I struggle to put fun lists together  because my miniatures aren't finished. And it annoys and distracts me that, for instance, I'd like to field 10 Hammer and Shield Terminators that I have, but I can't do that "mentally" because only 6 are painted. That is why I now exclusively focus on getting at least some of my miniatures done so that I can freely and comfortably use the models that I bought and theoretically have available at my disposal. So in a sense, I want to end with painting 40K stuff to move on to other things and be finally freely able to use the units I want in my games.

 

As for keeping myself motivated, for the last three months I've been at the very peak of my motivation (at least that I can remember). I spend every moment I have to spare on 40K and I get ridiculous amounts of satisfaction from doing hobby-related stuff. Sure, there's always this lurking feeling that it's all pointless since the future of regular Marines is uncertain, but I try to ignore it and not care - I just want to take a photo showcasing all of my fully-painted and based crusaders.

 

On the Primaris aesthetics - I'm with you on that first looks into the range tend to give that impression of blandness. However now after over a year with them, I envisage them more as a clear canvas for a resourceful modeller with a vision.
You want them to look modern and tacticool? You got it.
You want to embellish them to baroque proportions? Also perfectly doable. 
You want to use them to create upscaled firstborn? Go for it. 

They are still plastic, so cut and re-postion them them to your heart's desire adding firstborn bits like helmets, pauldrons, backpacks or weapons. Limitations of their out-of-the-box poses can be overcome and they can push to explore new areas.

You might want to check fantastic works by Apologist (link), Marcus (link) and others to see what wonders they do recreating firstborn from long-gone editions using Primaris kits

 

That's what I'm planning on doing - as you nicely put it, use them as a canvass and maybe bring some of the Firstborn feel to them. I'm not sure, however, what the future holds - I mean, maybe dedicated BT Primaris Marines will be different enough that they won't require excessive converting. Having learnt from my previous mistakes, I know that I will want to keep the collection under control and the potential repetitiveness shouldn't show. I am also quite determined to try and redo at least some of the lower legs - knee pads and shin guards since I'm not a fan of the collar-looking bit on the standard Tacticus knee pads.

 

In regards to primaris, when you eventually start them, would they be a new chapter with similar aesthetics, or just a different crusade painted slightly differently? I was personally thinking about making them a different chapter, but now I'm thinking of making a primaris only fighting company, that was literally an entire company undergoing the Rubicon while the other's are fighting on the planet. I think there are a lot of options, and we just need to find ones that don't irk us.
 

 

I need more info on GW's part - I need to see the models and the size of the release to make my decisions. If/When I buy them, I will surely treat Primaris as "upscaled Firsborn" (disregarding Primaris lore) and treat them as, hopefully, cool-looking miniatures. If I actually go for the different paint scheme, it will be a custom livery for a Black Templars crusade/fighting company - I intend to be faithful to the original second-founding Chapter.

[Brother Christopher]

Before moving on with next projects, I figured I need to check my bits box and see what I can do and what I can't do. With the bulk of my power-armoured forces organised into neat squads of threes and fives, I needed to manage my jump pack forces. For me, the best way of going about doing this is taking a photo of the entire force - such a visual aid really helps me organise the units I have.

 

The Neurode Crusade has / will have a total of 35 Jump Pack rank-and-file Marines with a variety of weapons as well as 3 count-as HQ models - a Chaplain and two /cheap/ Lieutenants/Castelans with bolters and a melee weapon, based on my old Marines whom I struggled to fit into the force organisation chart for the main infantry force but whom I did not want to dispose of (after all, they have been painted for a long, long time and excelled in combat, back when I used to play regularly in 5th edition).

 

Here's the photo of all 38 Jump Pack and to-be Jump Pack Crusaders:

 

 

The force will consist of:

• 5 metal VV models, including 1 relic blade, 2 power swords (1 with plasma pistol) and 2 chainswords;
• 10 plastic, fully-painted chainsword models (1 plasma pistol);
• 5 models with swappable weapons, magnetised at the wrist;
• 4 models with two pairs of lightning claws;
• 2 models with flamers, including an old, tiny, oop metal sergeant;
• 2 models with a power axe;
• 2 models with fist-based 'exotic weapons': 1 with a power fist (an old, tiny, oop metal sergeant); 1 with a lightning claw;
• 4 models with one magnet at the shoulder and one at the wrist (for a potential total of 4 configurations of a lightning claw  / power fist and a storm shield);
• 1 go-to Lieutenant/Castelan, wargear and/or magnetisation TBD;
• 1 metal Chaplain, ruined with a cool-looking, yet sub-optimal power fist;
• 2 backup Lieutenants/Castelans with a bolter and chainsword / power sword.

I'd like to believe that with this number of "fixed" models, as well a good mix of magnetised bodies, I my force will be relatively future-proof and I'll be able to adjust them to current trends. When it comes to magnetised wargear, I should have between 15 and 20 storm shields (including some right-handed ones), 9-10 thunder hammers, a good selection of pistols (which are pretty much useless, but it's nice to have those, nevertheless) and backup power weapons (at least 3 of each).

 

I must say, I'm not a huge fan of magnetisation. It's a great - nay, indispensable - solution for gaming and purchasing purposes (with sometimes 1 item of a given weapon per box), but in terms of modelling, magnetised weapons are too fiddly for my taste. That's why I also have a 7 customisable magnetised non-jump pack marines, just in case; they are an addition to a good selection of models, mind you; I allocated at least 5 marines to have each of the special melee weapons (TH, PF, PS, LC, PA), 2 marines for each of the old-school combi-weapons (excluding grav) and 3 marines for each of the shooting special weapons (grav, melta, plasma, flamer).

[tvih]

For marines magnetization isn't all that fiddly, at least if you mean that the weapons don't stick to the model securely enough. With Sisters etc it's more problematic because you have to use smaller 2mm magnets, but with marines you can easily use 3x1,5mm N52-grade neodynium magnets in most cases (when magnetizing the whole arm and not at the wrist), and they're very strong. I've magnetized basically all of my oldmarine Templars, though some of them still have older, weaker magnets (even 2mm ones) which are indeed annoying. The CF Primaris were nice in that no need to mess with magnets much since there were no options to magnetize for them, since the only "multipart" unit I so far have is one box Inceptors. I promised myself I'd stop the magnetizing madness while building those, but with the Sisters it's partially come back after all...

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for the advice, tvih! I'll definitely take a closer look at the grade of the next batch of magnets I get. The fiddlyness I'm experiencing mostly results from me using 2 mm magnets for wrist-mounted weapons. They are okay - I never had to worry about accidentally losing a piece - but not perfect - it's too easy to reposition the weapon when handling the miniature.

 

Wow, it's been an extremely hectic couple of weeks, with what appears to be a moment of culmination this week. With time stretched so thin, I didn't go about doing any actual painting. However, to keep myself sane and keep my mind of work for just a brief moment, I've been doing a lot of 40K thinking and planning. The idea of getting rid of my 17 bikes comes back like a boomerang... I really should start painting them to have no excuse for even considering selling them. After all, a Crusade needs some cavalry, and for the fast attack element of my force, I only have Jump Pack Infantry, 3 Land Speeders and 2 Ravens and Talons. So the three squads of bikes should be an okay supplement to that.

 

It seems that I will take a break from painting black and, for my next project, start working on my Emperor of Mankind Celestial Knight model. I'm sure I won't do it justice, but I don't really care :D Today, I bathed him in soapy water and plan on gluing the major bits together. If time allows, I'd also love to undercoat him.

[Brother Christopher]

Here's the progress I've made on the Emperor of Mankind:

 

 

 

And below are photos of earlier stages; frankly, when looking at the photos, I prefer the flat Gehenna Gold look. I must note that this is my first attempt at painting gold armour; my earlier experiences were limited to details on miniatures. I hope that the difference is due to the pictures that were taken on auto settings at different times (with random white balance and overexposures):

 

Before painting:

 

Copper base coat:

 

Gehenna gold layer; not highlighting:

 

 

Let me know what you think. I'll reserve judgement for tomorrow. Right now, I'm not a huge fan, but at the same time I feel that I can't do much about it - I won't risk stripping the model (I don't trust paint removers and resin).

 

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.

Edited September 16, 2021 by Brother Cristopher