NiftyVTs Black Templars

[NiftyVT]

Well, I got sucked into the Templars. Army box ordered and I threw in a Chaplain on a bike so I could get the free special mini. The Templars should go well along side my Blood Angels.

 

I really hate painting black armor so my plans for the paint scheme is to do a dark black metal similar to my Necrons (see signature) but I want them darker and I am not quite sure how I am going to do that. Maybe an extra acrylic black wash over the black metal before I do the oils, maybe add a little black to the initial metal color (but mixing for the base coat is iffy when it comes to matching later) or maybe a different silver for the highlights/drybrush. I will have to do a test mini for sure.

 

Not sure when the Army box will get here but the special mini and the Chaplain should be here soon.

 

Plans for expansion are basically just all of the new minis that have been previewed and not much beyond that for the time being.

 

I am looking forward to putting together some nice grim dark Templars.

[Marshal Reinhard]

Welcome to the Eternal Crusade, brother!

[Urkh]

Welcome to the eternal crusade! I originally read the thread title as "Nifty vs Black Templars"

[NiftyVT]

So I got/found my first BT mini. I rummaged around and pulled out my old school Land Raider Crusader. Classic BT! This is the original one with metal bolters, assault cannons and grenade launcher things. This might just be my only none primaris thing that I add to this force so fingers crossed that one day primaris marines can ride in it. If I get tired of waiting I guess I could pick up some thunder hammer termis and I already have a termi chaplain that doesnt have any chapter markings so it can do double duty between my Blood Angels and BT.

 

Its been in this state for . . .years. . .

Untitled by nifty, on Flickr

[Marshal Mittens]

For the land raider, Termie Chaplin + Termies are still good this edition, and while teleporting is still better in 99% percent of games, they can ride in a Land Raider, and its a cool way to use it. I personally use a LRC + Termie Chaplin + 5-7 relic termies in one. TH/SS are better, but relic termies look awesome. Edited October 16, 2021 by Marshall Mittens

[NiftyVT]

For the land raider, Termie Chaplin + Termies are still good this edition, and while teleporting is still better in 99% percent of games, they can ride in a Land Raider, and its a cool way to use it. I personally use a LRC + Termie Chaplin + 5-7 relic termies in one. TH/SS are better, but relic termies look awesome.

 

Yeah I do like some terminators. If FW still sold the BT termi shoulder pads and shields I would order them now but they dont so I am kind of meh on the generic termis. Maybe the Spellcrow shields would be enough to spice them up but I really want shoulder pads too. 

 

I did order a bunch of cool stuff from Liber Deamonica to spice up the Redemptor and future assault intercessors/Bladeguard and maybe mix into the Army box crusader squad.

[BayOkuz]

Welcome to the Knights of Dorn!

[NiftyVT]

Welcome to the Knights of Dorn!

 

Thanks for the welcome.

 

If you all havent seen any of my other threads I have an extensive backlog of minis dating back to 2nd ish edition and I tend to rummage around when bored and find things of interest. Like the guy below. I did a quick paint job on him and he is my first official addition to my Black Templars. Appropriate dont you think?

 

Sadly my Inqubi darkness highlights seem to have completely disappeared when I matte varnished him! O'well I rarely do go backs so I am calling him done. BTW thats a 25mm base, yeah, the old metal assassins are tiny!

 

Untitled by nifty, on Flickr

[NiftyVT]

I got my Army box in today but it was strangely missing my Chaplain on Bike and Sarg Castus. When I looked it up on my account it just said that Castus will ship inside 180 days. . . well, it just shipped today! So, thankfully, I wont have to wait half a year for Castus and his Chaplain friend. 

 

I want my Templars to be special so I have started looking through the sprues and brain storming conversion ideas. One of my favorite parts of the hobby is building and converting so I am looking forward to the build!

[BitsHammer]

Welcome to the Eternal Crusade! No finer time to start a Crusade then when a new book releases!

[NiftyVT]

Welcome to the Eternal Crusade! No finer time to start a Crusade then when a new book releases!

 

Thanks!

 

So my Liber Deamonica order 1 of 2 is on the way (I made order number 2 today because I decided that I wanted ALL the things!).  I also ordered 1 of each Templar transfer sheet from The Mighty Brush which I got the tracking number for today. I also have the Redemptor dread built out as far as I can and he is now waiting on the Liber Deamonica order to come in. Next up is to build the characters and get all of the infantry legs on bases.

 

Come on postal people around the world! 

[NiftyVT]

First up on the Army build log is the Emperors Champion and Marshal. The Marshal was straight forward. I kept hearing lots of axe because it looks cool (ie like the old metal mini) or the sword because of the relic and thats kind of Black Templars thing. So, I decided on both via magnets. He has huge wrists/vambrace/gauntlets so I could fit some decent sized magnets in there that are plenty strong enough to hold the weapons orientation . . .or stick the spare one to the side of his arm so I dont loose it.  I am still debating on what head to use. I have some Liber Deamonica stuff on the way so maybe one of those.

 

The Emperors Champion was significantly more involved. I have seen something similar posted elsewhere but I wanted to make mine different and I really liked the Emp Champs orginal hands. The one I saw used the sword brother arms and hands and just swapped the upper part of the sword out with the Emp Champ sword. I also used the sword brother arms but where I changed it up is I also used the Emperors Champions original hands, which made it a mess.   Using his hands meant that I had to cut the sword apart (blade and grip) and twist it into the proper blade orientation that I wanted (with pins). I also carefully carved the chain off the sword grip and attached it to his wrist shackle where the Sword Brother arms had a little indent to attach the non-Emp Champ sword chain. This involved me accidentally breaking the chain and then having to painstakingly and carefully bend my two separate pieces so when I glued them together everything lined up. The shoulders dont line up all that great so they also got pins. Then in order to get his head turned properly I carefully carved out the built in single direction joint and then used a pin to help support. Next up is some simple filler green stuff work.

 

Shoulder pads are always going to be separate so I can airbrush the white (I will actually be using some type of really light grey). 

 

Untitled by nifty, on Flickr

[NiftyVT]

I am having a ton of  fun building things out. Currently on the bench along side another Chaos Knight is this guy. Of course there is a reimagining of this art work in the Codex (almost one to one) and I have seen other conversions of this ancient using the Sgt Castus mini. All of the takes I have seen have given him a throw back look and I want mine to be different (and I have hundreds of 'old' marines kicking about) so I am going full on Primaris for him. With some help from the 'Marine Meat' sculpt from Liber Deamonica this is my progress so far. Only thing I need is a powerfist, preferably from the assault intercessor box. I have tons of old marine fists and they just dont look right to me. Shoulder pad is blue tacked on for now.

 

Untitled by nifty, on Flickr

[TheOneTrueZon]

With some help from the 'Marine Meat' sculpt from Liber Deamonica this is my progress so far.

 

How do you like the bits you got from them, their site is hit & miss on showing actual prints next to their renders. Looks really nice from your image but wanted to know if there's anything else you can relate with your experience ordering from them - ie long turnaround / lots of cleanup / etc

[NiftyVT]

 

With some help from the 'Marine Meat' sculpt from Liber Deamonica this is my progress so far.

 

How do you like the bits you got from them, their site is hit & miss on showing actual prints next to their renders. Looks really nice from your image but wanted to know if there's anything else you can relate with your experience ordering from them - ie long turnaround / lots of cleanup / etc

 

 

So far everything has been really well cast, they are not printed. The dreadnought/Tank armor, close combat weapons, marine meat, helmets and shoulder pads needed basically zero clean up besides the pour gates (which are well placed) and very minor mold lines here or there (also well placed). The backpacks needed a little extra mold line removal but nothing terrible. The tabards look good but the details are super tiny so painting will be interesting and I had a consistent air bubble in one specific tabard design that deleted part of a skull (I will be carving out the rest of the skull, but nothing really lost look wise imho). The little extra trinkets (called Accessories v1.0) look great but were 'fun' to wash due to their tiny size but I managed (pro tip have a very fine mesh drain cover or wash and rinse in separate plastic tubs to prevent loss down a drain). Also, very little clean up and the pour gates are well placed on the Accessories v1.0.

 

It took 2ish weeks to get them via airmail (standard shipping) which I think is reasonable (east coast USA). They also shipped my orders individually bagged and bundled in official Russian plastic soap bar boxes  or slightly larger plastic lunch containers depending on what I got (ie very well packaged with zero broken bits).

 

Personally I like the helmets and shoulder pads the best. I got every single helmet/shoulder pad set that was Templar looking and they all look fantastic. The dread armor is also really cool and is what prompted me to make my first order and I threw in 1 set of shoulder pads and helmets to make me feel like I was getting my shipping worth. Then once I got them in I went back and ordered every set. 

 

If you browse their facebook page there are examples of some of the bits built out.

[NiftyVT]

Sooo....I  kind of, maybe got another BT army box at my FLGS today for 50% off. Paid off to get up early for their black friday sale.   They set up a bunch of tables either 50% off or 75% off and then just pile them with stuff (board games, Magic, gundams, random other things from a huge variety of game systems etc.)and you just have to get lucky. Last year I didnt get anything but this year I got there early to get near the front of the line.

 

And I finally got around to picking up the Space Marine codex and the Blood Angels supplement because they had a decent additional discount on everything else in the store.   Plus I got a box of assault intercessors. Mainly because I need the powerfist for my ancient conversion but I think I might make them into running Intercessors with the left over bolter arms from the Crusader squads!

 

Fun times! 

[NiftyVT]

Zero progress here. I had a drain pipe decided to break. . .under the slab in the basement. Which is, of course, where my hobby area is, all my book shelves, media room, home gym etc. So the past week+ I have been boxing up tons of stuff and moving it all upstairs. Slab has been cut, pipe has been repaired and now its time to get the floors re done. Waiting on insurance to do whatever it is that they do so we can get the restoration company started on the floor and drywall. Fingers crossed that I can get everything back together by the new year and then maybe actually get in some hobby time. I did set up a TV tray up stairs so I could build but I havent had time to actually do anything.

 

Edit Update: Slab has been beat up, plumbing has been fixed. Now waiting for the insurance company to get us some $$ so we can get the basement put back together. I was able to start some more assembly work upstairs on my makeshift TV tray hobby area. Working on 10 assault intercessors (that might turn into something else) and 5 Sword Brothers that will probably turn into Blade Guard Vets using the Liber Daemonica shields. The first step of getting all the legs and bodies assembled is done. Now I just need to figure out who gets what armament. 

Edited December 22, 2021 by NiftyVT

[NiftyVT]

Back in action! I got the first marines base coated via airbrush with black metal. Dark Mech is my current priority but I whittle away on the Templars when I need a little break from the Mech.

[Khornestar]

2 minutes ago, NiftyVT said:

Back in action! I got the first marines base coated via airbrush with black metal. Dark Mech is my current priority but I whittle away on the Templars when I need a little break from the Mech.

Nice, take some pics for us! 
 

Home repairs etc. all taken care of?

[NiftyVT]

7 hours ago, Khornestar said:

Nice, take some pics for us! 
 

Home repairs etc. all taken care of?

Yeah, the big stuff is done but there is always some sort of honey do list for the house.  I put up a pic in the Dark Mech thread. 

Edited October 1, 2022 by NiftyVT

[NiftyVT]

Sorry folks but my Blood Angels and big robots (knights/titans) are taking priority for 10th. A bunch of my unbuilt Templars and some of my built stuff is being converted to sweet BA. Heresy I know but . BA have been my favorite since I started this madness at the tail end of 2nd.