Optimates Crusade - Templars by 36Nights

[ThirtySixNights]

Brothers and Sisters of Dorn, the time has come for me to finally share my crusade. After many years of purging xenos, witches and heretics my boys in black need to see the world wide web.

 

++ Background on me ++

 

I've been playing 40k since 2003 and I started by playing chaos and then white scars briefly as I wanted glorious melee units but I wanted them to be loyalists. I bought my first Black Templar box circa 2008 and found quickly that i lacked the discipline to paint a whole army. For years my models lay sidelined and I occassionally came back to the hobby to add new lumps of gray plastic. Now I've returned with many evenings where I'm enjoying winding down by painting or reading new rules and fluff.

 

++ Background on my force ++

 

Motivated initially by a dislike of painting white shoulder pads, I wanted to have a force of entirely Veteran Black Templars, painted as per the 5th edition codex. I speculated on having a small crusade made up of only the Marshall's best. Whatever fluff based reason, the main force of my army is painted as veterans, with the exception of some vehicle pilots. My army also includes a small number of marines and other units who specialise in shooting, and to justify this I've painted their right hands crimson to signify respect for the devastating way CF use the holy bolter as many members of the crusade spent time deployed to support a nearby crippled company of Crimson Fists and have been inspired to adopt their fighting style, bringing depth and character to the way my crusade does battle.

 

Currently my force consists of the following.

 

- 30 Marines with Close combat equipment, 3 meltas, 3 powerfists and 5 with bolters.

- 5 magnetised Castellan/Marshall/Sgt equivalents, who can be armed and equipped in any way.

- 1 fixed bolter Castellan.

- 1 Jumppack Chaplain

- 1 Rhino

- 1 LRC

- 1 StormTalon

- 1 Techmarine

- 1 Ironclad Dreadnought

- 1 Drop Pod.

 

Currently about 40% of the force is totally painted and the rest remains at various stages of completion.

 

Here's an image directory of my painted forces, with a focus on 4 recently completed models.

 

Old army shot (I used 3D printed 32mm base extenders and added a lot more to the basing since this shot)

 

https://gdurl.com/rByAH

 

Techmarine & dred

 

https://gdurl.com/8YHb

https://gdurl.com/wCl5

 

Chaplain

 

https://gdurl.com/16ud

https://gdurl.com/ECg7

 

Bolter Marshall

 

https://gdurl.com/DR6j

https://gdurl.com/4XMd

 

Slash Marshall

 

https://gdurl.com/mJjEc

https://gdurl.com/Doj2

 

New army photos

 

https://gdurl.com/gia43

https://gdurl.com/CpUL

https://gdurl.com/wLge

 

Sword brother from aobr

 

https://gdurl.com/xnA0

 

Stormtalon

 

https://gdurl.com/2Hss

https://gdurl.com//NiLZ

 

I'm going to try and use image links to keep loading times and bandwidth low, but I can embed if it's neccesary.

 

I will come back to this main thread and add some additional image links to ensure people are able to preview all my various models as they are painted and completed. I also want your feedback, so please tell me if you'd like to see any of the following.

 

- Detail on how I paint my models

- Full background and fluff on my Crusade

- Battlereps

 

Thanks all, hope you like my models!

Edited August 18, 2019 by ThirtySixNights

[Lippy]

Looking good,

Love that Chaplain and SlashMarshal!

[ThirtySixNights]

Fellow crusaders, I come with a brief update on my army progress.

 

I've gone ahead and completed the arduous task of magnetising all the bases of my models in preparation for a magnetised army transport solution. Here's a shot of them all stuck to a metal sheet as well as showing quite clearly just about how many crusaders I've got left to paint before I can progress to the LRC, stormtalon and drop pod.

 

https://gdurl.com/wLge

 

I've also painted myself a bit of a kitbash, he will be a sgt in one of my many veteran squads.

 

https://gdurl.com/xnA0

 

Finally, my weekend progress includes the largest base I've ever done in this style, if anyone has any suggestions for what on Earth my basing style is in planetary terms that would be great! I've also had to paint my little stormtalon pilot before I could permanently entomb him.

 

https://gdurl.com/2Hss

https://gdurl.com//NiLZ

 

This means now all my basing for the army is completely finished and everything is ready to paint. I'm already theory crafting lists but I've got to wait with the others until our supplement drops! (We deserve our own let's be honest)

[SydonianDragoon404]

Cool stuff man. For a second I thought this said the "Opiates Crusade" and I had a laugh about it, but yeah man super cool models. 

[ThirtySixNights]

Hey guys, I was messing around with getting softer lighting. (literally used a pillow case).

 

I want to get some better quality images so I can get some real feedback about my painting, here's my result. I really want to know how I can take this to the next level from you people!

 

 

Also I've just finished assembling my emperor's champion model! Looking forward to painting that soon!!

[Marshal Vespasian]

I like him.

Since I am not the most accomplished painter myself I always feel inadequatr when givung advice but here goes:

 

I feel like you Fall into the same trap as I do on a lot of models namely doing All the models in the same Gold colour. Maybe try mixing in a bit of brass or steel/silver.

You could go for a gemstone effect in the gems. Base them in Red and go up to a Little white dot as a reflection. Then glosscoat.

If you want your Highlights to be Finger, try to go over them with your basecolour again

 

 

That being said: He looks pretty cool. I have the same Model (mine is still a metal one) and I use him as often as I can because I love that guy.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Chaplain looks great!

[ThirtySixNights]

I bring to you, new painted Templar goodness. I've begun the process of replacing my terminators storm sheilds with the forgeworld variant, along with tidying up the highlights and brightening the dull colours I painted many years ago, not my best work as I did rush to get them tabletop ready, but I still like it. The others are almost finished and will deliver a squad pic shortly.

 

 

[vossyvo]

Really nice work, enjoyed browsing through the pictures and linked images.

So much edge highlighting involved, you've done well to get through it all and keep a high standard.

 

Chaplain will be fun to get onto the table top with the new rules.

The FW storm shield looks great, I'm also working on some BT storm shields at the moment, waiting for the parts to come in.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The thunder hammer wielding Terminator is well done. Excellent work.

[Marshal Vespasian]

:cuss yeah love the Red helmet with green eyes.

Fw stormshield are always awesome

 

Really cool base too

Edited August 23, 2019 by Marshal Vespasian

[ThirtySixNights]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I'm planning to get down and busy with my remaining 10 or so initiates this week.

 

After getting more proficient with painting white using my new recipe, which is:

 

1: At least 3 thinned layers of wraithbone

2: recess shade with agrax earthshde.

3 1 thinned layer of Pallid Wych Flesh avoiding the recesses

4. Edge highlight with white scar.

 

I am thinking I might want to have some standard painted imitates instead of all sword brothers, as the white looks very nice and contrasting..

 

If anyone has any suggestions as to how I can make my paint job more interesting, am thinking lots of crusade badges, crosses and holy texts and scriptures to make them look very busy!

 

Otherwise, have a great weekend, I'll be posting the completed terminator squad soon, along with batreps coming.

[Marshal Vespasian]

I have glossed over your latest post, I'm sorry, so here some random (hopefully useful) thoughts:

 

I feel you on the point of wanting some more initiates. It's kind of weird, but after painting lots of elites I feel like there is a distinct lack of white in my army. Which actually may or may not be true.

 

On the topic of white I went to:

Airbrush VGC Ghost Grey (It's really just a very light grey, celestra is the gw equivalent) accent with white.

Wash the whole thing with abteilung 502 oilpaints starship filth.

 

The key point is to let the colour cure for at least two days before attacking it with mineral spirits. Or you could just gloss varnish it and go for the oils immediately.

I am completely in love with oil washes. Don't think I'll us acrylics a lot anymore tbh. The Starship filth leaves some dirt particles on the shoulders and does a very accurate pinwash, but it does no coffeestaining and doesn't overtly tint the whole thing. It's a dark grey, if you added in a bit of brown it might work very well for the more aged/yellowish white you want to us.

 

If you want to go for battledamage on your crusaders try sponging on some reddish brown or metal colour to break up the black. All in all I have to say I get what you are saying about black becoming monotous but on the other hand I feel that, with having a bunch of robes in our armies some squads arent really THAT black. because most of the guys is covered by a cream coloured robe. You have a bunch of reds on your army so for crusade badges maybe try something with green an blue accents as a split complementary to red. That you can freehand on heraldic shields / banners / kneepads.

[ThirtySixNights]

Hey thanks for the feedback all! Got a great update for you.

 

Firstly the fully painted terminators as promised.

 

 

https://gdurl.com/qSuX

 

Then finally a few action shots from some battles I did this weekend. One against some xenos and the other against a guard force 'obviously heretical' both battles weren't done to their conclusion, but I was an edge ahead in each and learnt a great deal about this edition and what units to deploy in future to be more effective.

 

Hope you guys liked my action shots! I'll let you know soon what else is coming and also a few 'new to me' goodies that I purchased from an old time BT player!

 

Thanks Guys, hope you all had a great weekend!!!

Edited October 13, 2019 by ThirtySixNights

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Terminators.

[ThirtySixNights]

Hey Guys,

I've done a lot in the last few weeks, unfortunately very little of that was painting.

It did take a long time to finish these two models though, please give me your feedback, I really put a lot of time and effort into these because i want to improve my painting!

 

StormTalon!

 

https://gdurl.com/BUjC

 

Emperors Champion!

 

https://gdurl.com/aT1o

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your models are well done.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

They all look great really like the Stormtalon!

[Medjugorje]

Cool stuff man. For a second I thought this said the "Opiates Crusade" and I had a laugh about it, but yeah man super cool models. 

thats their business-  the enemy need this after they get smashed

[Marshal Vespasian]

I like the way you did the Black sword. Very nice

[ThirtySixNights]

Working on some sternguard! They've spent time with their crimson brothers, and learnt the ways of the bolter, and painted their gauntlets red in acknowledgement!

 

Also being practicing my freehand crosses.

 

 

[Marshal Reinhard]

What crusade was that some Templars painted their fists red after having fought together with CF? The CF for their part took on wearing the cross. Vinculus?

 

Always loved that piece of fluff and this feels like a nice throwback to that

[Marshal Mattias]

Really love your  Sternguard; the freehand is great and your eye lenses are 

 

What crusade was that some Templars painted their fists red after having fought together with CF? The CF for their part took on wearing the cross. Vinculus?

Always loved that piece of fluff and this feels like a nice throwback to that

 

Declates 

[Brother Carpenter]

Nice freehand crosses.

I still can't get them right after +15 years of hobbying

[Marshal Vespasian]

Practicing freehand crosses is a good justification for being too lazy to buy New pauldrons with sculpted crosses ^^. There is the double x Trick but I always :cuss it up on the third or fourth bar.

 

As the models go: very nice paintjob. The Red gloves fit fantasticly with the Red pauldrons of swordbrethren.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Marshal Vespasian