Can I paint an Imperial Knight in Black Templars colors?

[MadGamerAK]

Hi, so I play Black Templars. If I were to buy a knight, would I paint it as a black templar, or is it painted its own way?

[N1SB]

It's painted its own way, but you raise an interesting point.  The Imperial Knights are nobility, would be their own households, officially not part of any Space Marine Chapter.  They'd have planet fiefdoms and everything, that's how they funds having something as expensive as a Knight mecha.  They'd have their own heraldry or colour scheme to reflect that.

 

However, and this is where you raised an interesting point, Black Templars are traditionally crusading; they're not stuck on a homeworld.  The Imperial Knight pilot may have spent more time traveling with the Black Templars than living on his own world.  It may have been generations, they might know the Black Templars better than their own worlds!

 

So you can have Knights that, once had their own distinct heraldry, but are slowly adopting symbols and iconography from the Black Templars from their battle honours.  This gives you the best of both worlds so you can literally choose, more than other Chapters, of a Knight household that HAD its own paint scheme, but is ADOPTING Templar symbology.

 

The closest equivalent I can think of right now are Knights very closely aligned with the Mechanicus, who look mostly Mechanicus now.

[MadGamerAK]

Thanks!

 

[AutumnEffect]

The Obsidian Knight is a famous Freeblade (wandering knight) that is basically in Black Templars heraldry if you were looking for something canon.

[MadGamerAK]

Good to know, thanks.

 

[Brother Tyler]

It all comes down to your approach to playing the game.

 

If you prefer to follow a strict interpretation of the lore (i.e., taking an "historical" approach), there are no known Houses whose livery resembles the Black Templars Chapter, and only one official Freeblade whose livery resembles the Black Templars Chapter. You could always create* your own custom House, or you might use a Freeblade, as suggested above.

 

Alternately, you could just not worry about a strict interpretation of the lore and paint your Imperial Knight(s) to match your Black Templars.

 

Either way, do what you want. After all, there have been many Imperial Knights painted to match/resemble a variety of Chapters over the years, including @Jarl of Wulfen's Legion of the Damnedesque Knights and @rgr_maddog's Space Wolves Knight.

 

* "Creating" your own custom House/Freeblade doesn't require developing a complicated and comprehensive article. It might be nothing more than saying "This is House [insert House name here]/[insert Freeblade name here] and their livery strongly resembles that of the Black Templars."

[MadGamerAK]

Thanks, I'll probably just make my own house.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

You choose the paint scheme for your models.

 

Here is my approach to the IK who are fighting on a jungle death world against a plague zombie horde:

 

https://ibb.co/album/nR7tJf

 

 

 

 

[Marshall Bretton]

I have done this and it looks good. My lore reason was that during the scouring Sigismund found a knight world that had been destroyed by the traitors. They found a single knight wandering the ruins hunting down traitors. As he was the last of his house he asked to accompany the templars on their crusade. Over time he became a part of the chapter with various debts of honour owed etc. when he got old he asked for the chapter to let him train a successor which they did and the tradition has continued for 10000 years.