+ The Jericho Crusade + Sword Brethren Cometh!

[Acebaur]

Thanks FP. Yeah I've been trying to stick to bitz that will give the look of high speed motion.  I think the lantern will be ok unless I drop him :p   Question though, why didn't you just use a drill for the entire process?

 

 

@Mattias:  The 'ribbons' come from the Bretonnian Knights sprue.  I did cut the ribbon part off from the little shield that holds it in place so I could move it to the side of the shield so it looks more like it's in motion leaving the shield straight on the bike if that makes sense :lol:

 

On the scabbard, yeah i've found ways to reuse bitz in different ways so they don't all look the same because we have only the limited amount of them. The skull I think comes from the side of the storm raven's hurricane sponsons. I was just really careful when slicing it off. (I had to cut it off because to fit it to the storm eagle chassis it needs to go upside down)

[Firepower]

Thanks FP. Yeah I've been trying to stick to bitz that will give the look of high speed motion.  I think the lantern will be ok unless I drop him   Question though, why didn't you just use a drill for the entire process?

 

 

Because I didn't have a pin vice drill bit that big. :lol:

[Acebaur]

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/style_images/BCBlack/folder_post_icons/icon4.gif  Sword Brethren

 

 

Knight Sgt Gerard breathed in the incensed air as his brothers softly recited the Litanies the Chaplain had prescribed to them before boarding. After clicking his helmet into place he made a final check of his weapons.His relic combi-bolter’s golden plate glowed a soft orange in the dim red light of the drop pod.

 

As the countdown timer in his retinal display clicked to zero the drop pod was fired from the hull of the Invincible Zeal. The Sergeant’s grav harness and enhanced physique compensating for g-forces that would kill a normal man.  As the pod roared through the atmosphere, it’s thruster screaming, Gerard said a prayer to the Emperor as he prepared himself for combat. Seconds before impact the pods retro thrusters fired, slowing their descent and straightening the pod to land properly.

 

Within seconds of the pod slamming into the ground the doors blew open, grav harnesses releasing, and Gerard and his knights were deploying into the heart of battle. This is where a Space Marine is at his best, where his superior armor, weapons, physical strength and valor are amplified. Face-to-face with the enemy a Templar can utilize these advantages to crush the resolve of the enemy and ensure they are swept from the battlefield.

 

The first two heretics Gerard killed were dead before they could even realize what was happening. As the knights of his squad spread out into formation the staccato sound of bolter fire filled the air mixed with the blasphemous screams of dying heretics.

Without warning, bursts of lasrifle fire rained down on them from a nearby building. Gerard and his squad weathered the storm, their armor proof against the attack. Switching their fire selectors, the squad returned fire with a deadly salvo of Dragonfire rounds. Despite killing a dozen traitors, more of the enemy took the places of the fallen. The crash of falling rockcrete turned Gerard’s attention to their flank as an enemy Predator burst through the ruins of a nearby building.

 

“Reinhart, clear that building!”  Even as Gerard voxed these words Brother Reinhart and his combat squad with it’s heavy flamer were already moving into the building as Gerard’s squad moved to address the new threat. Heavy bolter and autocannon rounds stitched the ground around Gerard as he sprinted for cover. One of his brothers went down as an autocannon shell blew off his lower leg. But even this grievous wound could not incapacitate him as he took aim with this combi-melta and fired a blast that turned one of the heavy bolter sponsons to slag.

Gerard and the other Sword Brethren did the same and the tank’s fuel tank caught fire and exploded tearing the tank apart.

“Reinhart, report”

“All clear Sgt.”

“Good” Replied Gerard and switching vox channels “Invincible Zeal this is Squad Gerard, landing zone is clear. You may begin your landing”

 

 

Combat squad Gerard

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/Light%20Box%20Pictures/ebb32822-9599-461f-a94f-5e99f71a802b_zpse667c56a.jpg

 

 

Knight Sgt Gerard

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/Light%20Box%20Pictures/201a27de-1d9c-44ac-93c1-2244dbff7728_zps9f9df84e.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/Light%20Box%20Pictures/1ee25ba7-e3bd-4e98-a0d8-0231e7285cca_zpsb37d42aa.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/Light%20Box%20Pictures/ee05d1b1-8215-424e-acab-14d9ac938b5f_zps3d6ed020.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/Light%20Box%20Pictures/7b3b5f73-2fa4-4400-ac87-a524661394a2_zps19da5d4e.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/Light%20Box%20Pictures/IMG_0328_zps88bcd13_edit_1416529497348_zpsfuvkppp3.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/Light%20Box%20Pictures/IMG_0331_zps27282cc_edit_1416529853465_zps6k9upffg.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/Light%20Box%20Pictures/IMG_0333_zps152012c_edit_1416530259231_zps2dqmvcyz.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/Light%20Box%20Pictures/IMG_0337_zps27f6fa4_edit_1416529645827_zpskoxp7mob.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/Light%20Box%20Pictures/bd8f2626-c1d0-4e18-a0d5-556fb0e7d9e0_zpsde47f6e7.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/Light%20Box%20Pictures/69570b6b-fd72-42aa-844c-1232a6a96801_zps426e229d.jpg

[Firepower]

You are learning well.  But there is forever more.

 

The metals are very thick in some places, and a bit messy, straying outside the prescribed color-by-numbers lines.  There are still issues of decal film showing around the edges.  The gray highlights are good, but a touch messy in places.  The muddy tabard seems a bit odd, being the only one, and having no mud even on the feet of the same model.

 

The reds are deliciously vibrant and controlled, and the cream is very smooth.  

[Marshal Mattias]

Nice posing and kit-swaps, they certainly have character and your introduction definitely brings them to life.

[Brother Christopher]

Firstly, I have to say that I really like the pictures you took. The background is nice, so is the "crispness" of models. And now to the Sword Brethren: that is some nice stuff. You managed to capture the flavour of our chapter. There's something great about the reds, too. Cool combi-meltas (is the one on the last brother a conversion too?) and chainswords - I never painted the ones from the BT upgrade and now I regret. They look fresh.

[Acebaur]

As always Firepower, you are ever the critic :lol:  Can you be more specific the metals? Specifically where I strayed outside the lines?  I'm not seeing it.  I agree some of them could do with some more shading, like the scope on the Sgt's bolter. In person it looks fine, but when you blow it up with 24 megapixels :p  

 

As to the mud on the tabard. He was the first one I painted as a test of the method of painting the tabards. His tabard is torn and ripped at the bottom and I didn't really know what else to do with it so I tried to make it look old and dried. 

 

 

The combi in the last shot is an actual combi but I converted it to have an ammo box like the sternguard guns. (same with SB 1 and 2)

[Firepower]

The metal on the squad leader's gun, especially on the melta side, looked like there was a lot of spill over.  Also, is the chipping on the front of the melta barrels deliberate?

 

Of course I'm a critic.  I can't let you lot get lazy.  What kinda Chaplain would that make me? :P

[Acebaur]

I'm not seeing any spill over. I painted the cables going to the melta canister black, maybe that's what you are seeing?  To the barrels, initially I didn't paint the chips intentionally but then I thought it looked pretty cool.  Do you think it would look better all black?

[Acebaur]

So it's been a long while since I updated my Crusade, but I have not been idle. I've been doing a little of this and little of that, including stuff like painting the assault squad that you saw my tutorial for the shoulder pads.  But probably the coolest thing I've been working on is my new model for my Marshal, Christoph Ramius. 

 

I picked up one of the FW Praetorian command squad packs(the one with the TDA and PA guys) and have been slowly converting the TDA guy to be more "Templarly"  While he currently doesn't have a lot of bling on him that will come later when I go to paint him.  Most of my time has been prepping him for magnetizing and I'm finally at a point where I can field him in multiple configurations. I hate flesh heads so the first thing I did was convert a new helmeted head for him. This is what took up most of my time with him as I went through 2 test heads before I felt confident enough to chop up the head I wanted him to have.  The fit is so tight that I had to use a PA head and even then I had to cut away a large portion of the back to make it fit. I've also added a bottom half tabard. I didn't want to cover up the awesome chest sculpt he has so I just went half with him. 

 

On to the pics!

 

Here is the "idealized" pose. Basically what I would run him as if points were of no concern. I'd probably use that Sword as the Burning Blade, though technically it could be a Relic blade as well but I've found the relic blade to be underwhelming, even on a marshal.)

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/40K/Marshal%20Ramius/20150217_224839_zpstx9jp8i9.jpg

 

 

Here is the config I'm most likely to run in games. Chapter Master, Shield Eternal, TH, TDA. For 235 points he's a beast in CC and I know multiple Templars on the forum here run this loadout with great success. Note the choice of shoulder pad on the TH side. I plan to paint the shield in the colors of my Crusade badge to be sort of his personal Heraldry.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/40K/Marshal%20Ramius/20150217_225013_zpstwtx4zid.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/40K/Marshal%20Ramius/20150217_225030_zps5luwxbpz.jpg

 

As you can see in this pick his arms are fully magnatized(shoulders and wrists on the pieces he came with) so I can swap out weapons like the 30K gun in the pic. (No clue what I'd use it for, Primarch's Wrath maybe? Even though it looks nothing like a bolter).  

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/40K/Marshal%20Ramius/20150217_225334_zpshqkje2az.jpg

 

I did the magnets to have the same polarity as the ones I did for some of my assault TDA so I can use their weapons too, like these LC's

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/40K/Marshal%20Ramius/20150217_225219_zps06laxgwr.jpg

 

 

Finally, all of the magnets have the same polarities, for everything. So that means that I can switch the shoulder pads around to get different poses.  I won't post all the rest of the pics I took, but if you want to see some of the other poses he can do you can look at my photobucket gallery of him here

 

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for sharing. Great work, the Marshal looks amazing. Can't see anything wrong with him, maybe apart from the fact that he's not painted.

[Marshal_Roujakis]

I planned on having both of the arms on my Marshal (which is the same model type) magnetized... but it would stop me from equipping the "cover Shoulder" cape... so just wrist magnets for me :D

[Acebaur]

I think I do plan doing a cape, but atm I'm not confident enough in my greenstuff skill to try. If/when I do make on for him though I had always planned to do one in between his shoulders. 

[Psykic_scribe]

I think I do plan doing a cape, but atm I'm not confident enough in my greenstuff skill to try. If/when I do make on for him though I had always planned to do one in between his shoulders. 

 

Highly recommend a cape if you have a spare marine to test on. They are not as difficult as you might expect and have the time to roll out GS really thin.  I am no expert on GS modelling, but my Brethren all have cloaks (in my gallery).

 

Challenge accepted?

[Acebaur]

Challenge Accepted!

 

I definitely want to add a cloak, but just need some practice first. I want to keep the arms able to be fully magnetized so I won't do an over the shoulder cloak.  I was thinking something along the lines of the DW Sgt seen here http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Dark-Angels-Deathwing-Terminator-Squad.

 

I could potentially just acquire that bit but not sure if it has enough motion for the more dynamic pose the mini has compared to the DW guy.  I'll have to do some research on how the cloak would be flowing based on his pose. Anyone with any insight into this?

[Marshal_Roujakis]

I would say that:

 

"Let the Tabard be your guide ..."

 

Seriously, you used the tabard with the wind effect on it so why not just follow it through and have the cape flowing through the same direction as the tabard?

 

The back part of that armor also has some sort of power housing/cooling vents and fan so you could just attach the cape under there.

 

I used chains on mine to highlight the point that the cape is embedded through the armor via the chain links which is latched under the vent housing... but my cape is also an over the shoulder one so it might have different results compared to yours...

 

here's my cape:

http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/o622/Marshal_Roujakis/New%20Templar%20Box%202014/DSC_0231_zps6051b0f3.jpg

[Acebaur]

Good call Roujakis, and thanks for the advice. I'll let you guys know how it goes when I start. Been doing some research and it seems like it's not terribly hard, just need to practice.

 

Shifting gears a bit, another project I've been working on(thinking ahead for the ETL :D) is to create some Centurions. I've had a hard time deciding what I wanted to do about them. On the one hand, I love the idea of them. A hard hitting unit that pours out gobs of close range firepower that tears apart anything it touches fits right in with my idea of how Templars wage war. On the other hand the unit itself makes no sense. Why would Marines wearing the greatest armor man can create step into an exosuit to fire big guns? To me that has always been the job of the Tactical TDA. They carry large vehicle weapons so why not Grav cannons?  The nail in the coffin is their stupidly overpriced miniatures and I decided it was best to make my own. 

 

So with my rant over with, here is what I'm planning. I'm getting some 50mm bases and using my extra AoBr TDA bodies.  I plan to put two TDA on each base(to represent the 2 wounds) and will probably magnetize them so I can remove one when one suffers a wound.  For the Hurricane bolters I'll just use the storm bolter arms on the two regular Cents(I'm making a squad of 3 to start).  \

For the Grav Cannons I order a couple of sets of these http://maxmini.eu/conversion-bits/ballistic-weapons/displacement-cannons-guns-bits I'll use the power sword Sgt arms from AoBr with all the bitz cut off and the cannons affixed to the underside. 

For the Sgt, I'm using a regular TDA and the Sgt TDA from AoBr. He will lack a storm bolter and instead have a grav cannon and use one of the old targeter looking things from the metal TDA from days of yore to represent the Omniscope. 

 

My only question is on whether I should use some of the shields and TDA bitz to bulk up their armor to help represent T5 or if I should just go with normal looking TDA. 

 

Here's a pic of the mini's prepped and waiting for bases and cannons! 

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/40K/20150220_231934_zpsdptnph63.jpg

[Marshal Reinhard]

I would lie if I said I haven't considered the idea of making counts as centurions by using terminators, though it never occured to me use two on a base, so each terminator has a grav cannon and a stormbolter, together counting as 2 grav cannons and a hurricane bolter. Pretty ingenious. I will like to see how these bad boys turn out

[Psykic_scribe]

 

 

 

Challenge Accepted!

 

I definitely want to add a cloak, but just need some practice first. I want to keep the arms able to be fully magnetized so I won't do an over the shoulder cloak.  I was thinking something along the lines of the DW Sgt seen here http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Dark-Angels-Deathwing-Terminator-Squad.

 

I could potentially just acquire that bit but not sure if it has enough motion for the more dynamic pose the mini has compared to the DW guy.  I'll have to do some research on how the cloak would be flowing based on his pose. Anyone with any insight into this?

 

Rather than buy, a GS cloak would enable you to flare it out well behind the minature, to get the dynamic you are seeking. Marshal_Roukakis has the right idea on the attachment. If you are worried about supporting the flare, some wire or plastic rod could be pre-positioned out of the body, with the cloak laid/enbeded on to it?

[Acebaur]

So I thought of a cool idea to make a large lantern for something like a bike or vehicle and thought I would test it out on my Chaplain biker(because really, who else deserves one more?)

 

My only thought is it might be too long of a chain. Thoughts?

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/40K/20150227_221314_zpshgsdpcir.jpg

[Metic]

that looks awesome! but I agree a little too long. maybe cut one link out, should do the trick!

[Marshal Reinhard]

If itd be scraping the ground when not pulled back by momentum, then it is probably too long

[Firepower]

Looks fine, but I would try to think of something to show the join between the chain and the bike. Normally I'd just stick a purity seal on the end, but the chain is so thick that it would look pretty goofy, I think.

 

If itd be scraping the ground when not pulled back by momentum, then it is probably too long

 

I don't know exactly why, but I really like the image of this.  Gives me a pre-Cage Ghost Rider vibe, for some reason.  Could be because of a black bike with fire and chains, and a rider with a skull for a head.

[Acebaur]

I think I will shorten the chain as it feels a little long to me still.

 

Firepower: For the joint between the chain and the bike, I'm using a bit of the one of the links cut down to act as a spike. It's kind of hard to see in the photo though.

 

In other news I've started working on my Stormtalon again.(the hold up was I had no primer ) and I'm continuing my work on converting it to look better. I've mocked up the wing/engine assembly on the model and I think it looks really good with the extended tail.

 

I plan doing away with the ridiculous assault cannon mounting(Who puts landing gear on a weapon mount?!?). Instead I plan to put either just the cannon's themselves with half of the rotating disc part. However, the cannons are not very detailed as they are normally mostly concealed. So as an alternative I'm thinking of using two LS assault cannons instead. They are far sleeker and more detailed. The landing gear will move to the underside of the nubs that the secondary weapon pods mount to.

 

Speaking of the secondary weapon pods, they are rather bulky looking and add to the bad effect the assault cannons give in the stock config. So, I have thought of a couple of options. One is to only use them when using missiles and convert the two intake vents on the front to accept the bolters and LC's. Alternatively, (and also much easier) I was thinking about just simply swapping the sides and inverting them. This makes the curved part curve into the upper body instead of hang below it. I think the effect is quite noticable.

 

Here are some mock up picks. Keep in mind that very little is glued on, most of it is just blue tacked together.

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/40K/20150301_161617_zpsrtftoi3j.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/40K/20150301_161544_zpswfsvyilc.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/40K/20150301_161137_zpsxgs3svrw.jpg

 

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/Acebaur/40K/20150301_161345_zpskulhtqu4.jpg

[Marshal_Roujakis]

I see Link and Vader in there... what are those witches doing so close to your Templars? :p

 

I like what you did in there... but how is it going to land now?