The Lycia Crusade: The High Marshal complete!

[Prot]

Wow. I love the subtle shoulder pad touch. It really brings it together. And great work on the 'tentacles' You have some real Doc Oc looking dudes there.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Very nice Urkh !!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on Master of the Forge Merlinus. Do the oversized skulls decorating his armor, commemorate victories over the soulless Necrons? I notice they don't have cogwheels encircling them, like the AdMech symbol most Techmarines bear.

[Urkh]

@prot, thank you! That is high praise coming from you! Spider-man is my favorite super hero, and Doc Oc is definitely the inspiration for my tech marine designs. I even have a Doc Oc poster on my wall! If you go to my archived thread (which SHOULD be linked my sig, but I haven't seen anyone's sig in a long time), you can even see that I named the original techmarine Doctavius.

 

@BBF, thank you!

 

@bjorn, thank you! The lack of cogs on the big skulls is mostly oversight, partly bits, and partly maybe not having enough room on the shoulder pad to make it a meaningful design. The goal was to try and use as many pieces from the Chonky Castellan kit as I could. Figured it wouldn't be much of a kit bash if I only used the chest and head! I didn't get an angle of it in these pics, but both large skulls are painted half white, half silver, in true admech fashion! We are fighting against the 'Crons though, so maybe eventually I will get some necron body part decor actually on the minis one day.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

It takes a lot of imagination to design that Techmarine. JAWESOME !!!

[mytimeprez]

 Very inspiring work! Really like that forge master. You’ve done the eternal crusade proud. 

[Gederas]

Love, love, LOVE that Master of the Forge. Stealing that for my own Crusade

 

How difficult was it to graft the parts together? Looks like you cut the Blanche Castellan at the waist and back?

Edited December 17, 2022 by Gederas

[Urkh]

2 hours ago, Gederas said:

Love, love, LOVE that Master of the Forge. Stealing that for my own Crusade

 

How difficult was it to graft the parts together? Looks like you cut the Blanche Castellan at the waist and back?

 

The cutting was definitely more stressful than the fitting together! You're correct that I cut the Blanche castellan at the waist and back. Merlinus's skull shoulder pad is actually a combo of both the castellan's shoulder pads, as I wanted to use the full skull for something else (which happened to be for his backpack). I did have to do some shaving on the sides of the chest so the servo arms would fit as well. I used quite a bit of green stuff to be able to make a flush surface for the chest to connect to the body/back of the Marshal. Some of the servo arms are a really tight fit, especially the ones by the backpack!

[Urkh]

It's been a while since I've done work on my templars, but I am intermittently working on the new Helbrecht mini as I work on my heretical other army. As such, here is a WiP pic:

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Urkh

[Brother Christopher]

Looking good so far. Also, the colour of -- what I'm assuming to be -- unfinished cloak and tabard works pretty well ;) It's not great, since it blends with the armour too much but quite refreshing enough to grab my attention.

[Urkh]

Everything here is just a basecoat and a wash. No layering has been done yet! The cloak and tabard will be white cloth, and the armor will be layered gold, then a light reikland flesh shade to brassen it up!

[Urkh]

Much progress on the high Marshal. Still have the servitors to paint and need to finish the base. Waiting till morning for the Stirland Battlemire to dry.  Some other minor details after that and he'll be done!

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for the update! It's already looking great. The golds are just stunning.

[Urkh]

Stunning, you say? Must make chopping off the heretics' heads easier.

[Urkh]

Finished High Marshal Helbrecht!

 

and a bonus pic of him.next to my old metal Helbrecht!

 

 

Up next: Grimaldus!

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Urkh

[Brother Christopher]

Well, that was definitely worth the wait. I particularly like the light-toned cape (with the red trim) and tabard. An interesting and fun take. The small crusader shields on the torso are also an excellent touch - I think I'll borrow the pattern for something of mine. One slight critique: I'm not a big fan of the shading on the cape. It appears that you used a wash which dried up with a crumpled texture (?). Or it could just be the photo. Regardless, I think that painting recesses on large cloth areas is quite tough.

 

Also, I must have a good Warhammer day because I don't find the old Helbrecht extremely rubbish next to the upscaled version. Even though he's significantly shorter (and without a scenic base), he looks quite decent - it must be thanks to your paintjob.

[Urkh]

Yah, I was trying something new with the cape. It came out a lot better near the shoulders than the actual back. White capes have always been difficult for me. I might have tried different colors, but I wanted him to be a faithful recreation of my original paint job.

 

The crusader shields by his shoulder and hanging off his backpack are going to be used as the company badges for Fighting Companies Ostia, Pherae, and Caelin. I wanted to tie his paint job into the crusade somehow, and he just so happened to have three of those badges on the mini. Coincidence? Or the Emperor's divine will? 

 

I'm glad you enjoyed both mini's paint jobs. The lil'brecht was actually stripped of his original paint years ago and then redone after my skills had gotten much better, as he is one of the first minis I ever owned. New-brecht was a load of fun to paint up and give me another shot at the esteemed High Marshal after years again of painting and skill increases.

 

Honestly, of the three primaris marines I've painted (my Marshal with the necron base, Merlinus, and now Helbrecht), I've had a blast painting all of them. Hopefully Grimaldus is just as fun.

 

After that though, I'll be focusing back on firstborn marines to get these sprues done! I do still need to buy bikers for Kent, Sain, and Lowen (all cavaliers), and a box of centurions for Wallace (a knight) as a firstborn. I'm thinking making Matthew (a thief/assassin) a PoLC guy from my veteran boxes. Then Erk (mage) and Canas (druid) will be the only characters before the half way point of the game that I won't have represented somehow. (My landspeeder squadron will represent Rath (as an archer on horseback), and my Stormtalons represent Florina and Fiora (as Pegasus knights). As Erk and Canas are both magic users, I've been having issues deciding how to represent them, since we play Black Templars and don't use Librarians. Making them be librarians by rule, but converting them to look like chaplains might be what I do, but I would have to use the standard space marine detachment. Speaking of which...

 

This brings me to another issue I have been pondering. Eliwood is equipped with Durandal, The Burning Blade. This is a relic used from the vanilla space marine codex. It would also suck if I would have to use a vanilla detachment to get that relic on him to run him in a way that represents him fully. I would like to use a BT detachment as often as possible, but it might mean I would have to run him with his MC power sword (rapier, for fluff). Time will tell.

[Brother Christopher]

15 hours ago, Urkh said:

Yah, I was trying something new with the cape. It came out a lot better near the shoulders than the actual back. White capes have always been difficult for me. I might have tried different colors, but I wanted him to be a faithful recreation of my original paint job.

 

Don't worry about it, though. I think the approach you've taken is great and white is difficult to paint.

 

15 hours ago, Urkh said:

Honestly, of the three primaris marines I've painted (my Marshal with the necron base, Merlinus, and now Helbrecht), I've had a blast painting all of them. Hopefully Grimaldus is just as fun.

 

They do look fun to paint. That's why it's so ever tempting to get one or two HQs to just paint, not add to my proper force, but paint. I've been eyeing the EC who harasses an or for a long time ;) Having said that, Grimaldus seems to be the most uninspired of the BT character line-up. His servitors are great, though. I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun with painting him :)

 

Regarding the plans for your Crusade, it's pretty clear that you've got everything sorted out and given it much thought.

 

15 hours ago, Urkh said:

This brings me to another issue I have been pondering. Eliwood is equipped with Durandal, The Burning Blade. This is a relic used from the vanilla space marine codex. It would also suck if I would have to use a vanilla detachment to get that relic on him to run him in a way that represents him fully. I would like to use a BT detachment as often as possible, but it might mean I would have to run him with his MC power sword (rapier, for fluff). Time will tell.

 

If I were you (and this is a recommendation from the very bottom of my heart), don't worry about the rules. It might drive you mad. The thing with GW is that they constantly change a lot of things, introduce new rules and take back old ones. You never know what you'll end up with in terms of gameplay and you'll 'waste effort' on trying to match the WYSWIG of your models to their whims. Take for instance power weapons - they used to be a single thing, then they split them into different types (swords, axes, maces, etc.) and now it appears that they'll be the same thing once again. I'm glad about this in terms of rules but it doesn't affect my hobby a bit since I spent a lot of time trying to ensure that I have the right numbers of the individual power weapon types.

 

Don't worry about the sword ;) It's not even clear that the currently available vanilla and BT relics will continue to exist in the new iteration of the game. And if they do, that's fine to use a rapier with this-or-that BT sword's rules in the BT detachment.

[Urkh]

Regarding eliwood's sword: yah, I know I shouldn't stress about it, but I sucks that there is currently actually a burning blade in 40k to represent him, and I may no longer gain access to that.

 

At least it is all magnetized so I can do whatever.

 

Regarding power weapons: I am SOOOOOO happy they are becoming just one profile again. Now I can easily make power lances for certain characters and not have to worry about explaining to an opponent what kind of power weapon they are. 

[Brother Christopher]

1 hour ago, Urkh said:

Regarding eliwood's sword: yah, I know I shouldn't stress about it, but I sucks that there is currently actually a burning blade in 40k to represent him, and I may no longer gain access to that.

 

I know the feeling and been convincing myself not to think about it so I'm also sharing this knowledge. At the same time, fixating about these kinds of details is an integral part of the hobby. But, let me reiterate: don't stress about it - the rules are out of our hands. And since you've magnetised it, there's the added GW-proofing ;)

 

1 hour ago, Urkh said:

Regarding power weapons: I am SOOOOOO happy they are becoming just one profile again. Now I can easily make power lances for certain characters and not have to worry about explaining to an opponent what kind of power weapon they are. 

 

Despite my slight annoyance at GW for all the time I wasted trying to shuffle weapons for my models, I am also delighted that they appear to be curbing some of the 'bloat' - a single profile for power weapons is a welcome change. I'm just curious what they'll do with, say, master crafter power swords on Blade Guards. But sorry for going a bit off-topic.

 

I'm glad that you'll make extra use of this change by having a peace of mind with the power lances! To be honest, I forgot that they used to be a thing (in 6th?). They're a very thematic choice for BT bikes.