Firstborn Templars

[TheArtilleryman]

Nice work as usual! They look great, and honestly don’t look like you are cutting corners at all.

 

I definitely agree about that philosophy though. Sometimes you have just got to get them done! I originally set out to paint all my guard at the highest possible standard, but I soon realised it was never gonna happen and I am so glad that I went ahead and speed painted them. Not to the point where it looks like a 5-year-old did them but definitely not my “best” work. Now I am so much happier that they are just finished and knowing how fast they can be table-ready makes me want to do more.

 

My t’au, however, that I am currently working on, I am committed to making as good as I can. This has, however, resulted in me wanting to stick to the 1000 points I have, and when they are done they will stay as a skirmish force.

Edited March 14 by TheArtilleryman

[Firedrake Cordova]

The Bladeguard came out nicely

 

I think the banner came out well.  There's a tiny bit of over-painting at the top of the wings, although it also looks like it might be a bit of a pain to correct? I think the scroll-work on it looks fine. It looks like your army's accent colour is red, but I think that might have over-powered the yellow of the Aquila if you'd done that?

[Brother Christopher]

15 hours ago, TheArtilleryman said:

They look great, and honestly don’t look like you are cutting corners at all.

 

That's the trick! That's all part of the me streamlining the process and a result of finding the golden mean.

 

The models below are probably my 'peak dedication' and some of the 'best models' I've painted:

 

 

 

I think that the models I paint now aren't that much worse but it takes me half the time I needed for these. It's mostly to do with the way I approach edge highlighting: back then, I really wanted the slightly exaggerated look resulting from hitting every possible edge with a brush. Now, I do most of the highlighting by drybrushing, refining and only at the end adding a precise line on some edges.

 

In result, there's a lot of dust/residue from the drybrush not really apparent (or even visible to the naked eye).

 

Similarly, I have a very streamlined approach to most of the metallics or seals. That's why I'm talking about cutting corners.

 

15 hours ago, TheArtilleryman said:

I definitely agree about that philosophy though. Sometimes you have just got to get them done! I originally set out to paint all my guard at the highest possible standard, but I soon realised it was never gonna happen and I am so glad that I went ahead and speed painted them. Not to the point where it looks like a 5-year-old did them but definitely not my “best” work. Now I am so much happier that they are just finished and knowing how fast they can be table-ready makes me want to do more.

 

I totally get what you mean. And the approach you're describing is that much more applicable to 'horde armies.' With an adult life, I think it's nearly impossible to paint a mainline 40k army to the best of your abilities since the game sizes have grown to the extent of needing tens of models. Nobody ain't got time for that when you have to spend ~8 hours at work and have other chores :P Personally, I think that Marines now became a horde army, as well. Yet here I am and want to get all my dudes to be relatively consistent.

 

15 hours ago, TheArtilleryman said:

My t’au, however, that I am currently working on, I am committed to making as good as I can. This has, however, resulted in me wanting to stick to the 1000 points I have, and when they are done they will stay as a skirmish force.

 

And here's another similarity between us: I'm planning to do this with my Primaris Project. It's going to be a test of my skills and also an opportunity to try something new out.

 

15 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

The Bladeguard came out nicely

 

Thanks!

 

15 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

I think the banner came out well.  There's a tiny bit of over-painting at the top of the wings, although it also looks like it might be a bit of a pain to correct?

 

You're right, I'll maybe try to fix this.

 

15 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

I think the scroll-work on it looks fine. It looks like your army's accent colour is red, but I think that might have over-powered the yellow of the Aquila if you'd done that?

 

My thoughts exactly. And there's going to be plenty of room for red on the front of the banner.

 

***

 

This is where I managed to get today. The red at the top is almost done and I'm quite happy with it, I guess.

 

For the middle part, I think I've finished the background: I wanted to get a gradient similar to a landscape after dusk, with the lighter parts at the bottom lit by sunlight rather than a burning world (a bit of optimism, right?); perhaps to symbolise the unending struggle against the Tyranid menace?

 

The Marine is going to be black; the Tyranid purple, I guess, as a homage to the many games against my mate who had some leviathan Tyranids, For the wings, I'm not sure, but white-ish should work well, given that the scrolls will be beige.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Sounds like a solid plan, and looks like a good start

[Bouargh]

Such a great homage to a great illustration!
 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Brother Christopher]

Not much to report since this day was pretty brutal, in terms of real-life, work-related things.

 

But I managed to finish the middle section. The face of the marine/angel in the middle is pretty hilarious and the wings are not great but that's largely my fault. Working on second hand models is always an adventure :/ It turned out that I didn't remove the old paint well enough. I though I did, but probably there was paint mixed with glue which formed an almost latex-like layer that only became apparent after I started painting. I tried to remove some of these ancient layers but failed to do it properly; I were also apprehensive about damaging the existing paintjob (like I did just under the large scroll on the right).

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Urgh, that sounds frustrating.  (my pet peeve is finding a mould line I missed half-way through painting, and trying to work out if it's better to remove it and patch up the area, or leave it)

 

On the plus side, you're making good progress on it, and I'm sure it'll look great on the tabletop.  

[bloodhound23]

I’m also gonna switch my highlighting to dry brushing. Check out my weapons in my WIP- same problem. They took forever. I think your drybrushed command squad looks great. 

[Brother Christopher]

2 hours ago, bloodhound23 said:

I’m also gonna switch my highlighting to dry brushing. Check out my weapons in my WIP- same problem.

 

Oh, if you need to paint more than, say, 30 models, I highly recommend the drybrush method. Doing it the 'proper way' will drive you crazy :D Also, drybrushing often gives you finer lines (especially on the more modern kits). I think the specs of 'dust' and or residual brushstrokes (that often are not visible to the naked eye) is a good trade-off.

 

Having said that, for my Primaris Project, I think I'll do proper highlighting. However, that project is way smaller and I really want to push my skills to the limits (or see how good I can actually paint).

***

In other news, I took a break from the banner and did some more custom models.

 

I even managed to finish my two Scout Sergeants/Elite Scouts/Elite Neophytes (sic!). I'll get back to the Ancient now; I think I fixed the issues with the residual paint and hope to kick back into gear.

 

After my various purchases, I found myself left with two scout torsos but no legs. Since I weren't able to find legs to buy anywhere, I figured why not give this a try.

 

 

 

Initially, the shouty-guy was supposed to have a power fist, while the stern-guy was supposed to dual-wield a gun. After subsequent changes of rules, as well as many frustrations with customised models, I figured I shouldn't bother and just gave them chainswords. Both models are fitted with a magnet in the gun arm so I can given them other weapons - pistols, combis or whatever. I admit, the poses are a bit clumsy now, but swapping the guns for pistols should help with that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, I am relatively happy with these. I mean, combing power armour legs with a scout torso could've goon way worse than it did :P

[Terminatorinhell]

So good, I like how the faces came out. Very expressive. 

[TheArtilleryman]

1 hour ago, Brother Christopher said:

 

Custom scouts - great idea! I think these work really well with the power armour legs, especially the kneeling guy with the older mark greaves. 
 

Got to agree about the faces. This is something I really struggle with and the faces I paint are pretty hit and miss. These are great.

Edited March 19 by TheArtilleryman

[Firedrake Cordova]

Well that's a neat idea ... reminds me of the mixed squads in Codex Armageddon  

 

It'll be interesting to see what they look like with the pistol arms  

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for the positive feedback! To be honest, I'm a bit surprised how well the faces turned out. Painting them, I felt like i levelled up since the last time I tried to paint. It was an absolutely uncanny feeling.

 

The thing is that I probably should get a hobby magnifying glass; I feel that at this point in my life I just might have enough brush control to paint faces properly but I need to take breaks to inspect what I'm painting. I'm using a magnification lens/converter for photography to take a closer look at what I'm painting but I don't have any 'handle' or 'stand' for it to magnify and paint at the same time.

 

4 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

Well that's a neat idea ... reminds me of the mixed squads in Codex Armageddon  

 

Mixed squads, ah, the times. So I did mixed armour :P

 

4 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

It'll be interesting to see what they look like with the pistol arms  

 

I'll make sure to snap a couple of photos when I'll be taking photos for the next progress update.

[Brother Christopher]

So, continuing on an amazing streak, despite some struggles, I still find to do some hobby-related stuff each day. For the last two days, I've been working on the complete set of weapons for Centurions.

 

The work is a bit tedious due to to sheer amount of wargear to paint (24 pieces!!) but I feel like it's the best time to get about doing it, before my hobby-momentum is lost.

 

However, I must confess that I feel a bit bad about myself since I've decided to cut corners and go with an almost all-metallic finish for the weapons. I usually paint some elements of the weapons' housings in different colours but 24 pieces of wargear is a lot (even more so that I don't trust GW to keep rules for Centurions around for too long). But for these, it's almost all silver metallic, obviously with some accents (gold skulls, teal or blue power coils, etc.). I spent one hobby-session basecoating them gunmetal grey and one drybrushing with silver and painting gold and copper details. The next stage is to paint the colour details and then pray that drenching the stuff in washes will make all of this okay-ish.

 

 

Spoiler

Here's a quick photo snapped with my phone.

 

 

I am torn here: I'm aware that I'm '"wasting" a lot of the details here and should go for non-metallic elements (usually black or red in my case), but it just seems like such a big bother to do so. I'm trying to convince myself that my adopted approach is not that bad since the all-silver finish should contrast well with the black armour and that this is the way I used to paint weapons for my vehicles in the early years (if I recall, in the 4th edition Codex: Black Templars, most bolters were simply silver) but these explanations do feel a bit forced; as such, I'm feeling a bit dishonest and guilty about rushing these.

 

On the other hand... that's really A LOT OF DETAIL to paint. And I want to get it done to a tabletop+ standard.

 

I'll post some photos after the weapons are done.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I think they look fine for tabletop standard.  I suppose if it irks you, you can always come back and paint the casings later, given that they're going to be magnetised? 

 

Would it make it any easier psychologically if you did the heavy bolters in on go, worked on something else for a bit, then did the lascannons, etc?

[TheArtilleryman]

I think they look good how you’ve done them and I wouldn’t worry at all about using a different colour. They work just fine this way.

[Terminatorinhell]

You could always revisit the weapons later. Maybe starting with painting what you know gets more game use? 

[ZeroWolf]

I'll echo other comments here, they look good as is, but you can also go back to them later if you want. Painting is an additive process afterall 

[Brother Christopher]

Come on, you guys! Giving sound, reasonable advice that's probably good for my mental health? :P Nah. In a very 40k-fashion, I'm leaning towards martyrdom.

 

In my attempt to finish the entire Crusade, I want to try a new approach to motivating myself by the carrot and stick approach, focusing more on the stick part. Just like I'd imagine a bloated bureaucracy of a backwater Imperial world works, it was decreed that I furnish these Centurions, preferably before month's end. While I could reconsider the decree, it takes time to process the request by the various smaller bodies and by the time they might consider implementing the necessary changes, the thing will be done.

 

I'm not saying for sure that I won't revisit the models in the future but, at the moment, I am quite determined to finish painting the models to a satisfactory standard and leave them (hopefully, to play with them in x-years' time). After all, especially knowing me, I could be updating my models ad infinitum and I don't have that much time. I want to paint the remaining >50 models and I still need to update around 30 - that's a lot of work on the Templars themselves.

 

And I now have the small Primaris force on top of 5 board games that I want to paint.

Edited March 22 by Brother Christopher

[Brother Christopher]

So, all in all, this was... actually fun. I've already forgotten the trauma of base coating these. After the initial tedium, the process was quick and fun. It took me the 3-4 painting sessions just because of the number of weapons.

 

For what it's worth, I think they came out pretty nicely. What do you think?

 

[Terminatorinhell]

They came out really well. I like the blue accents. I actually have a squad of centurions to work on myself. I have to convert them in the style I want. I dug them up from storage a few months ago. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

I think adding the additional detailing makes them look much better, and was definitely worth the time 

[Rusted Boltgun]

Whilst I agreed with the 'add detail later' approach, the extra detail have really added to them. Getting into a groove helped, I'm sure.

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks! It also turned out that for my other squad of Centurions, painted 3 editions ago, I went with a very similar approach (i.e. mostly dark silver + details). It's silly of me that I haven't thought to check it before starting these.

 

I've also managed to almost complete the banner. I forgot about adding some scribbles on the colorful rectangles at the bottom and I can see a couple of places that need fixing in the photos but overall, it's 95% ready. As you can see, I went with a dark grey pole and silver ornaments. I'm quite happy with how scribbles on the scrolls turned out. Also, I always find it surprising how detailed these old sculpts are; there's always a lot to 'discover' while painting, that isn't apparent (or I'm just blind). I remember that painting old Helbrecht was an amazing journey of discovery. So was this banner.

 

What I'm not happy about is the way I removed paint from the banner, an issue I mentioned earlier, which kinda ruins the 'wow factor' under magnification. For example, the heads of the yellow aquila, placed towards the top of the banner, are quite fuzzy because of the unremoved paint residue but I didn't dare to try and fix that particular bit.

 

Regardless, it took me a while but now I can almost say it's done. I suppose that finishing the bearer will be a walk in the park now.

 

 

[Terminatorinhell]

Phew that banner detail is more than I dare to try lol... I have one of the old plastic command squad banners I've put off painting. Partly because I have no idea what to put.