Firstborn Templars

[Brother Christopher]

I've started working on a Storm Raven gunship. Since this will be the only official SR in my army, I've decided to paint it properly, including the interior. However, since no one cares about vehicle interiors once their done, since they are usually hard to access due to the size of the model and configuration of access points, I decided not to pay too much attention to it and opt for a relatively quick paint job. I managed to get this stuff painted in around 3.5 hours, where I've wasted half an hour on the yellow panel (hence, I didn't bother to get the other one painted in the same fashion). Needless to say that the results are extremely satisfying - I usually need between two and three hours to paint a Terminator and here, in the same time, I got such a large chunk of model done to a reasonable standard.

 

So far, I quite like working on the model. Subjectively, it definitely is one of the more fun kits I worked on (as opposed to, say, a Redemptor Dreadnough). Parts fit together quite nicely and the model appears to look way cooler that I expected. It got a lot of bad press over the years, but it's not bad at all. Sure, there are some dubious design choices here and there, but overall, I'd probably give it a 7/10. This also is why I decided not to extend the fuselage or introduce any other major alterations - considering my other, scratch-built SR, I figured that my Crusade deserves to have one legitimate SR, regardless of the silly top air intake and the servitor gunner.

 

Photos of the painted Storm Raven interior, preserved for posterity.

 

 

[Nostromo]

Time to pay your thread a visit again - i have missed so much.

And just too much to catch up with comments

 

I simply love the turreted land raider!

Actually, my memory stubbornly pretends i have even seen one with a predator turret in an imperial armour volume some 10-15 years ago.

 

Do you by chance know Cpt Magpies work?

http://www.captmagpie.co.uk/2018/08/pike-nose-land-raider.html

 

Besides your impressive scratch building, also your painting style keeps reminding me of my own results - but your details are better. So you serve as a constant impulse that points out which extra mile i could still go from the point where i am.

 

Even the hommage to the oldschool design strikes a chord in me - that all dates back to when i started (well, a few years later). Todays miniature quality may be higher - but that era had it's own charm and quality.

[War of the Eagle]

Great work and paint jobs here. Looking forward to seeing where your land raider Repulsor conversion gose. I have dome a few myself but love seeing others takes on it.

[Brother Christopher]

Time to pay your thread a visit again - i have missed so much.

And just too much to catch up with comments

 

I simply love the turreted land raider!

Actually, my memory stubbornly pretends i have even seen one with a predator turret in an imperial armour volume some 10-15 years ago.

 

Do you by chance know Cpt Magpies work?

http://www.captmagpie.co.uk/2018/08/pike-nose-land-raider.html

 

Besides your impressive scratch building, also your painting style keeps reminding me of my own results - but your details are better. So you serve as a constant impulse that points out which extra mile i could still go from the point where i am.

 

Even the hommage to the oldschool design strikes a chord in me - that all dates back to when i started (well, a few years later). Todays miniature quality may be higher - but that era had it's own charm and quality.

 

Thank you for browsing and for sharing your thoughts and memories! I know that you're making progress on your HALO-inspired flyer; however, I still need to catch up on that. The first months of 2022 are quite hectic, for different reasons.

 

I saw some of Captain Magpie's amazing conversion; I don't know what he has been up to in the last two years, but I'm familiar with his style!

 

Great work and paint jobs here. Looking forward to seeing where your land raider Repulsor conversion gose. I have dome a few myself but love seeing others takes on it.

Thank you for dropping a comment! I think that I'll get back to working on the Repulsor after I'm done with the Storm Raven. I'd love to see your work, brother! Please share link or refer me to your thread if you have them posted online.

 

***

 

As for the Storm Raven, I think I'm done with the fuselage and will be moving to paint the wings. I will still need to touch up some of the edge highlights that I rubbed off while handling the model (I don't have too much experience with painting vehicles, the last one I did was probably 3 years ago which feels like a different life when it comes to my attitude and skills) and add some metallic bits to edges to show some wear and tear and/or battle damage. But apart from that, all things considered, this stage is done to a satisfactory standard.

 

I feel the need to discipline myself and limit my inclinations to strive towards "perfection;" considering that I'm losing interest in GW's 40k and I still have around 100 models to paint, I can't be too preoccupied with minor stuff and should rather focus on having an aesthetically uniform army that I can proudly display. With this in mind, I sometimes feel that I'm putting too much work into my models. Sure, I'd love to have my marines and vehicles painted to a higher standard, but I can't afford it due to time limitations.

 

 

 

[War of the Eagle]

I wish I had stuck to a more uniform painting method for my Raptors army, while I love them all you can tell which ones where painted what year because my green mix is a bit differant every year haha.

 

Heres a link to my Armys thread. I have a Repulsor on the Last page and a Repulsor Executioner a couple pages back converted from Landraiders.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/366520-the-flying-15th-raptors/page-6?do=findComment&comment=5805819

[Brother Carpenter]

NIce check pattern, 

One point of critisicm, I personally would have extended the checks to either the bottom of the flat piece of fuselage, to meet up with the raised section of the fuselage, or to the front. Now it feels kinda hanging there. Just my ocd speaking here.

 

I love the interior. Nice yellow panel, makes it pop.

 

Keep it up.

[Brother Christopher]

I wish I had stuck to a more uniform painting method for my Raptors army, while I love them all you can tell which ones where painted what year because my green mix is a bit differant every year haha.

 

Heres a link to my Armys thread. I have a Repulsor on the Last page and a Repulsor Executioner a couple pages back converted from Landraiders.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/366520-the-flying-15th-raptors/page-6?do=findComment&comment=5805819

 

Oh, right - I'm familiar with your work! However, I must admit I didn't recognise you. Maybe you've changed your avatar recently?

 

Either way, thanks for sharing. I wouldn't care too much about the different hues of green. I mean, I know how annoying it can be for you, but for a third party won't be bothered by that. I think that despite the differences, you have a very recognisable and consistent style and that's what matters.

 

NIce check pattern, 

One point of critisicm, I personally would have extended the checks to either the bottom of the flat piece of fuselage, to meet up with the raised section of the fuselage, or to the front. Now it feels kinda hanging there. Just my ocd speaking here.

 

I love the interior. Nice yellow panel, makes it pop.

 

Keep it up.

 

Thanks for the comment. As for the pattern, I wanted it to be something different - that's why it doesn't go all the way down. Having said that, I'm not entirely sold on it and might extend it by another row of squares, to the raised section which houses the V-toll engines. But I'm leaving this decision for later - once I'm done with the wings.

 

It turns out that I don't have that good of an imagination Some ideas are clearly better than others, which also sometimes becomes apparent after a while.

 

[War of the Eagle]

Ah yes I did change my Avatar a month or so ago. And thanks, they do look good all together on the table top but had a couple people point it out and now im self continuous haha.

[Brother Carpenter]

I wish I had stuck to a more uniform painting method for my Raptors army, while I love them all you can tell which ones where painted what year because my green mix is a bit differant every year haha.

 

Heres a link to my Armys thread. I have a Repulsor on the Last page and a Repulsor Executioner a couple pages back converted from Landraiders.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/366520-the-flying-15th-raptors/page-6?do=findComment&comment=5805819

 

I't just differences due to age of the armour, lighter is older and more weaterhed due to sunlight/radiation ect.

Mix it up in the squads and you heve proof of reinforcements.

[Brother Christopher]

An update of the progress on the Storm Raven. Since the last update, I managed to complete the fuselage. The remaining parts are not yet assembled or primed. I intend to magnetise the weapons and I expect that this'll take me some time since I don't feel like doing it now.

 

And some details:

The grey/silver dust from drybrushing, especially evident in the last photo, isn't that visible in real life. I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback!

 

I was considering painting an emblem of some sort on the wings; however, I think I'll leave the stripes without any additional ornamentation. Maybe I'll paint some heraldry/crusader shields on the engine housings, but I think that the chequers and simple stripes will work just fine.

[Brother Carpenter]

Very nice looking.

Love the cockpit details.

Stripes are looking exellent.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Wow, your painting is so crisp and regular - I can't believe how consistent your line width is for the highlighting.  Great job so far!

[Brother Christopher]

A bunch of OOP metal scouts/neophytes.

Apologies for the photos - I wanted to take them today, but should've paid more attention to lighting, which turned out to be too strong and resulted in rough highlights, muddling parts of the models. I will retake proper photos one day, after I'll finish the bases, too.

Group shot:

Some close-ups:

All Matlese crosses are hand-painted; it's been a real bother, I'm not a big fan of painting those on scout armour shoulder pads and it shows:

I really like the ammo belt on this guy; I've went for blue and red shells, like in Turok 2 (and probably many other games) ;)

First attempt at a camo cloak:

Please note the little half of a Maltese cross on the shotgun and the rolled camo cloak on the back of the sniper:

[Brother Christopher]

1998 (?) OOP metal Captain / Marshal with power sword and a ridiculously large scabbard:

 

 

[Brother Christopher]

Castelan Draco - from what I understand, a limited release available in GW stores during the 3rd Edition introduction of the Black Templars

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I think you are correct - I remember this guy being around in my early days in 40K.  He looks great.

As for the old captain having a big sheath for his sword, while that may be true it still isn't big enough for it.

[Brother Christopher]

On 8/30/2022 at 1:08 AM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

I think you are correct - I remember this guy being around in my early days in 40K.  He looks great.

As for the old captain having a big sheath for his sword, while that may be true it still isn't big enough for it.

Thanks for pointing this out and further ruining the model for me ;) Luckily, he's already painted!

After a well-deserved holiday break, I decided to ruin my Redemptor Dreadnought in an attempt to convert it to something more to my liking. What annoys me a bit about what I'm doing is that I'm undoing my work and making everything harder than it should be. To be honest, I've been toying with the idea of changing/converting a Redemptor dreadnought ever since I saw the model; I haven't been completely sold on the fat ankles, the "pot-belly armour" or the design of the arms. However, neither of my gripes was problematic enough to dislike the model; after all, it's the only Primaris kit I got so it clearly shows that I liked the original kit.

Having said that, I must confess that I never liked the absolutely vanilla way I put it together and I struggled to find a fitting pose for it. I probably should have adjusted the legs somehow to make it more dynamic (maybe running?) or heroic (standing on a tactical rock). Luckily, in a rare and strange purchase fit, I got a cheap second Redemptor already assembled and posed by someone more devoted and/or talented than me. This pushed me to try and "fix" the original design so that I'll have one vanilla Redemptor that l like and one customised Redemptor that will hopefully be an upgrade on the original.

Keep your fingers crossed! I do hope that this conversion project will be a success... Otherwise I'd have ruined a relatively expensive model ;)

[Brother Christopher]

After the initial anxiety over ruining the model, I must confess that so far I'm managing to implement my ideas to a satisfactory level. While I'm also being quite impatient to share the result of my work thus far with you, I think that I should still wait a bit to have something more tangible to properly showcase. Don't get me wrong, I've already spent a lot of time changing the legs (probably too much!), but it's still very much a work in progress. 

The process is so time-consuming because of my lack of design skills (I improvise a lot and do a ton of dry-fitting before cutting out layers upon layers of bits; I'm using .25 mm plasticard sheets to build up the proper thickness of the altered bits, as well as to be able to produce some nice, Space-Marinish details). I started with the "greaves" and "knee pads" which are tricky since they are rounded bits; plasticard is best for creating flat surfaces and the typical boxiness of Space Marine designs.

In terms of my general plan, I want to keep the older (i.e. which bring to mind old dreadnought designs) features of the model while de-primarising it a bit. The vague idea is to end up with a model that resembles a super-sized Castraferrum Dreadnought, while incorporating some of the Heresy Dreadnought features, as well as the vanilla Redemptor.

For the greaves and knees, I'm heavily borrowing from the FW Dark Angels Leviathan Dreadnought, with the shield-shaped "knee pads" and greaves extended all the way down to the "feet" (unlike the vanilla Redemptor, with it's bulky and rounded "calves").

[CaptainFrederickson]

I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of your work on this. It sounds very cool.

[Brother Christopher]

On 9/23/2022 at 6:23 PM, CaptainFrederickson said:

I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of your work on this. It sounds very cool.

Thanks for the the comment! I hope not to disappoint and - promise - to post pictures soon!

The legs are almost ready - I finished all the plasticard work. I'm waiting for the putty to cure and should take photos of the finished thing tomorrow.

I really suck at using Milliput, though. I probably should've waited half an hour or so for it to cure a bit so that it has a consistency close to green stuff - of course, I forgot about that and waisted a lot of time and, what's worse, I'm worried that I ruined a bit of my work... Or I should've used green stuff in the first place. I opted for Milliput since it's harder and easier to sand. I'm anxious for tomorrow, but also excited to see how it turned out and to be able to share photos.

I also mutilated the torso by removing the front-mounted storm bolters / missile pods.

[Brother Carpenter]

Looking foreward to the redemptor. I need to build mine from the new bt box so i need some inspiration.

Fwiw the redemptor does not have the primaris keyword, so youre safe.

[Brother Christopher]

5 hours ago, Brother Carpenter said:

Looking foreward to the redemptor. I need to build mine from the new bt box so i need some inspiration.

Fwiw the redemptor does not have the primaris keyword, so youre safe.

Good luck with that! To be honest, I didn't like the experience - it turned out to be too fiddly for my taste (fiddly in the wrong way). But the finished product is worth the effort! I highly recommend that you assemble him so that one foot stands on a tactical rock or other kind of elevation - it's a simple thing to do, but adds a lot to the model's appeal, IMHO.

And thank the Emperor it's not Primaris ;) This allows me to salvage the integrity of my Crusade... at least for now ;)

Progress is better than expected. The model is coming along... amazingly. Apologies for the brag, but I am surprised how well I was able to 'mould' the layers of plasticard to realise my vague ideas for the design so far. I am genuinely surprised by what I was able to do, especially before soiling everything with Milliput. I think I've put around 8-10 hours into altering the model's legs so far.

I am sure that I mentioned this in the past, but people who visit these threads come and go, and I'm sure that new users stumbled upon my work.

Many years ago, I picked up plasticard scratch building as a cheap way of adding expensive models to my collection. Initially, I strived to build the models so that they are as close as possible to the original. Over the years, the attitude changed dramatically and presently, plasticard scratch building and/or converting serves as a way of adding my own ideas to existing designs. While plasticard isn't the most malleable medium, with my lack of sculpting skills (or better, 3D design skills) I continue to explore the possibilities it offers. While time-consuming, it also is extremely relaxing and satisfying.

What I'm happy with:
- the way things fit together, despite the irregular shapes;
- the extent to which I was able to adapt the design of the Leviathan Dreadnought's greaves to a Redemptor;
- the shield-shaped knee pads;
- the Maltese cross on the one side.

What I messed up so far:
- over-spilt glue; my excuse is that the pieces are too small ;) I also expect that it won't be that evident once the model is primed and painted;
- the inner bottom part of the front greaves that almost touches the 'toe'; I'd have liked more clearance there, but also couldn't achieve it while maintaining the more-or-less symmetrical design of armour;
- applying and later sanding Milliput, but I hope that after I apply some paint, it'll all look better than in the photos, which --hopefully-- exaggerate everything due to magnification.

What I'm worried about:
- how the modified legs will go together with the tors, specifically if the entire model won't look top-heavy; that's the worst part with converting things 'on the go,' without being able to visualise it beforehand.

If you have any feedback, do let me know.

[Brother Christopher]

  

I made further progress. Unfortunately, this time it became more evident than ever that I lack the imagination to do custom stuff. I have ideas - some of which are good - but can't really visualise how they'll turn out and fit the bigger picture.

 

Inspired by others' conversions, I set out to make the the model more like the classic Dreadnoughts, but also consciously decided to use aspects of the heresy aesthetics. At the same time, I also wanted to keep parts of the original Redemptor. The legs turned out great, but very similar to a Leviathan. Granted, I didn't want a single-piece leg armour (I felt it'd look silly on the larger Redemptor) and wanted to keep a separate greeve and 'knee' pad.

 

Most of the Castaferrum flavour was supposed to come from the top; however, I didn't pay enough attention to notice that the top parts of a Redemptor and Castaferrum Dreadnought share only superficial similarities and are in fact totally different, most importantly the Redemptor's middle section (with the sarcophagus) is higher than the side armour panels.

 

Furthermore, I decided not to construct the entire arms from scratch and opted for an extensive conversion of the Redemptor's original "shoulder" armour. The end result is... well, I'm not totally sure about it, but there's not much that I can do at this point.

 

Here's a work-in-progress photo.

 

As you can see, I decided to extend the armour, while retaining some of the Redemptor's design. I also kept the notch, whose position was determined by the shape of the Redemptor's armour. I'm not sure about the said notch, but it'll need to stay. I thought about filling it in and ending up with an arm similar to a Contemptor, but the converted shoulder housing will extend beyond the silhouette of the model, when looking at it's profile.

 

 

The pictures below with the circled bits illustrate what I'm referring to above.

 

The version that I'll probably go with, with the notches:

 

 

An illustration of how the symmetrical, Contemptor-style 'shoulders' would look like:

 

 

 

In retrospect, for the more Castrafferum-inspired look, I should've built the entire bit, to make it more sloped, like on the classic dreadnoughts:

 

This is what I mean by my lack of imagination. I had an idea, but failed to visualise it's execution properly and predict the issues it created. I mean... I hope you won't find it to be bad, but I had hoped for something different. What's done is done, though. I will not be redoing this and will have to change the underlying idea - now the model will simply be a Neurode-Pattern Redemptor.

 

The 'shoulders' aren't done yet, too. I have some other ideas. Let's hope that they'll work well this time. I plan to extend the armour on the rear to have some exposed bits, like on the classic Dreadnoughts and Leviathans, I believe. Here's a WIP shot of the extension:

 

 

 

In the spoiler tag, you'll find some random WIP shots documenting what I did with the 'shoulders.'

 

Spoiler

 

Arms removed:

 

 

 

 

An example of my exquisite sculpting skills; as you can see in the photos above, I quite successfully managed to trim the excess:

 

Also, I'll soon have to deal with the most stressful part of the process - find the right pose for the model.

 

I'm considering a defensive stance, something like this:

 

[DaBoiKyknos]

Nice customisation on the Redemptor! 

[Razblood]

Spent the past couple of days reading through this thread, can't believe I've never come across it before!?!

 

Excellent work all round and I respect your resistance to the primaris scourge, having done a primaris army I can honestly say that firstborn are just way more fun to work with.