+ 2020-11-03+ Artwork

[ST.Lazarus]

The tranquil star system named after the famed saint Lazarus started seeing increased activity of the brutish space ork raiders scouting planetary defences and falling upon the pilgrimage crafts of the faithful. The governing cardinal Thietmarus LXXII requested from Ultima segmentum command at Kar Duniash to send reinforcement to his world to protect the 17 billion loyal souls. The response came in the form of an astra militarum battlegroup 3 million strong compromised of the Dniepr armoured guard’s experts in mechanised warfare.

The small forces of Orks that had made planefall was quickly dealt with in the deserts outside of the gleaming white hive cities and the men and women of Dniepr was hailed as heroes. Then for reasons unknown to the citizens, relic keepers, priests, deacons and even the cardinal himself disaster struck, as the Cicatrix Maledictum spread across the galaxy and a wall of darkness fell between the Cardinal hive world of Lazarus prime and the divine light of the Astronomicon. In the coming year fear and panic gave way for terror as long range scans of the star systems edges showed an org fleet approaching, not mere raiders willing to settle for loot and plunder. This time it was full blown Waaagh. The small system defence fleet made a brave last stand in high orbit trying to protect the worlds space station. As the people of the world turned their eyes to the night sky they could watch as the explosion of the Deodate class space station turning the night for a short moment into brightest day. As darkness retuned the fiery streaks of the space Ork landing crafts descended thru the atmosphere.

The armies of Dniepr was still planetside and the Cardinal had reinforced the veterans with millions of conscripts. Barley trained but driven by an unshakable faith in the god emperor of making blessed be him on holy Terra. The white towers of the hives were reduced to rubble and the dust of the desert settle in the ruins. After 3 years of fighting a gridlock had been reached, the Orks had taken a defensive posture as their slaves scourge the ruins for material to build bigger war machines, the astra militarum units spent after horrible fighting limited itself to brief combat patrols to seek out survivors and find holes in the ork defences to be exploited when opportunity present itself.

The Human spirit was still intact. As the nights feel mass was still held in the crushed cathedrals, defiled Basilicas and broken mausoleums. The hymns of the faithful could be heard in the cities crossing the no man’s land giving hope to the slaves captured by the Orks uniting the people of the shattered world as a prayer for deliverance.

I am the light, the light in void; who looks to me will never be lost.

I am the light, the light of heaven; who pray to me will never die.

And as you pray, remember me, my body broken on the throne: my life was given to set you free, and I'm alive for evermore.

- Ego sum lux; hymn CDLXXXII the book hope saint Cecilia the blind

Captain-General Sergeius of the Dniepr armoured guards didn’t expect deliverance when the vox servitor announced that a messaged had been received from a unidentified ship at the edge of the system. When the voice honed from wars on a hundred different worlds came thru the vox link Sergeius felled to his knees and thanked the god emperor.

Lazarus command, This is castellan Tancrède of the Black Templars we are the knights of Dorn, the vanguard of the Lazarus crusade! We will cleanse the invaders of this world with our righteous wrath and restore these holy places. Imperator in fidem est aeternum!

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This thread marks my return to 40k, I left around the end of 4^th edition due to disappointment in the rule system. After that I have played a whole bunch of other games including games set in the 40k universe as I have always loved the setting itself. What pulled me in to begin with was the fantastic 3^rd ed start box front cover featuring the black Templars, the flames of my interest were fanned with the war for Armageddon and codex City Fight all the way back in 2001.

What I have seen so far 8^th editions have the makings of something great so I have set three goals to archive for this project to fulfil what I wanted as a boy but didn’t have the skills or means to archive:

1: Make a Black Templar crusade that invokes John Blanche black Templars.

2: Make a supporting Imperial guard army in the vein of Armageddon steel legion.

3: Create a ruined gothic city to fight the enemies of mankind in.

My plan is begin with a mainly infantry force featuring the new primaris marines backed up with dreadnoughts, and scouts to fufill the roels of Neophytes. I look forward to sharing this journey with you all and hope you will enjoy it.

My armor is comtempt, my faith is zeal, I'm a weapon fated to fight forever in the eternal crusade.

- Brother Georgius

The idea is to keep the colour scheme limited to mostly black and white with gold as the main accessory colour. I will have a theme of holy relics going thru the entire army where the dreadnoughts themselves are walking reliquaries. The green Maltese cross is the crusade badge for the Lazarus crusade and will be included on all models in the army, here it’s free-handed but I will replace it with a transfer decal at a later stage. Later during the coming week I will try to post another dreadnought and some Neophytes, after the release of 8^th edition I will focus on converting the characters and get some test marines done.

Edited November 3, 2020 by ST.Lazarus

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Contemptor.

[Pearson73]

Contemptor's looking very nice.

[Honda]

Welcome brother, your return could not be better timed!

 

Similar to your crusade, mine is themed around the forces that fought at Helsreach, especially those that were at the final battle of the Temple of the Emperor Ascendant. So, Templars, Steel Legion*, and Sisters, along with some dock workers.

 

Your crusade is off to a great start, now make Dorn and Sigismund proud of you!

 

Cheers,

 

 

* I don't have any of the original metal SL, but Mad Robot miniatures makes some excellent looking SL. That is where I intend to source mine.

[ST.Lazarus]

A blessed relic, said to be the bones of Lazarus himself carrying the icon of saint Phye. legend says that she pick up the black sword to defend the emperors champion Theodricus from the forces of the arch enemy during the battle for Burea in 472.M37

As my force will a have a high number of dreadnoughts too "tank" damage for my infantry forces techmarines withe servitors to provide anti tank fire support will fill a vital role.

I hade hope to be able to show you some more things but i'm waiting for some deliveries still.

[Eberious]

Nice free hand lettering. 

[Othniel's Blade]

The wings' feathering is perfect.

[Honda]

Love that relic and I agree, you lettering skills are ace.

[ST.Lazarus]

A bit of a WIP of my cenobyte serivtors represented by a trio of faitful taking inspiration from the monks in the artwork;

At first I was thinking of giving them hoods but I will be saving that idea for my scouts.

[Pearson73]

Nice idea for the servitors.

[Firepower]

Not bad, but perhaps jamming some guitar string or something else techy into them would make them fit better into the role of servitors or general 40k dregs?

[Honda]

Agree, I think your idea for servitors is pretty cool. I may borrow it...for a friend. :)

[ST.Lazarus]

I have been assembling the infantry and characters of the crusade during the day and to reward myself i decided to finish painting the relic carriers. In the coming days I should be able to show of the first painted squad of crusaders and my Emperors Champion.

I also decided to redo the shoulder of my dreadnought to test out my new transfers.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive.

[Eberious]

All of the yes!, always wanted to include a whole bunch of the WHF Flagellants for flavor. Might just get on that once I've done a chunk of my current work load.  

[Pearson73]

The green cross is working nicely, different to what we usually see on Templars.

[ST.Lazarus]

Crusader squad Heldrun reporting.

Thought for the day: There is no cowardice in faith.

@Bjorn Firewalker, Thank you I appreciated it!

@Pearson73, Thanks It's a nice bit of kit and a pleasure to paint. I wanted to avoid the classic red/white crusade badge and have something that tied into a theme of saints, I think Lazarus also works well as a theme to a dreadnought heavy force.

@Honda, Thank you Brother I hope to wear the black cross with pride and audacity, I'm using anvil miniatures for my guardsmen and I'm super happy with their quality. I can strongly recommend them. I'm not really a freehand painter, favouring transfers but freehand becomes so much more easier when you have a good reference to look at.

@Eberious, I'm quite happy with how it turned out, I hope to have some other big models soon to make some more on soon.

@ OthnielsBlade, The trick is using Vallejo model: Dark sea grey, it's one of my favourite colours as it have a very "natural" grey quality.

@Firepower, The plan at first was to use heads from the Skitarii rangers but I decided to use these heads instead as I wanted to paint some hair and save the vanguard heads for another purpose.

[ST.Lazarus]

How can a man be happy if he cannot serve his lord with his whole heart?

A vision came to me while painting some hellblasters...

[BrotherAtrox]

How can a man be happy if he cannot serve his lord with his whole heart?

 

A vision came to me while painting some hellblasters...

 

Now we're talking my kind of Primaris marines.

[TheOneTrueZon]

That is glorious to the Nth power. Great inspiration, for I crack open the box tonight and begin plotting many works. 

[Custom Hero]

Nice execution on your vision. The model positively flows with forward movement. Keep it up!

[Pearson73]

Nice pose.

[Marshal Reinhard]

Looks like he could be a Primaris Emperor's champion. Not entirely sold on the GK head, but the pose is rock solid.

 

Also really like individual heraldry of each marine in the squad above.

[ST.Lazarus]

My only regret is that I have but one life to give to the eternal crusade.

- Brother Codnor

@BrotherAtrox

I don’t know yet if I’m going to use the Primearis rules or the models will just be “truescale” regular marines. I’m really looking forward to seeing the Codex as right now the Primaris units seem over expensive and underpowered.

@TheOneTrueZon

The Dark Imperium boxset has a lot of potential, I have Black templarfied two Lieutenants and a Captain, I just don’t want to show them yet as I’m trying to focus on getting the line units done first.

@Celestial Guardian

Than you, I appreciate it.

@Pearson73

Thanks, I took my inspiration from the Black Templar codex cover.

@Reinhard

I’m using Grey Knight head for all my characters and I’m happy with the looks so far. The heraldry is a fun distraction, also I used to be a diehard Bretonnia player so it comes natural so to say…

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Contemptor looks great!