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I've decided to get back into 40K and I am redoing some of my old collection. I've decided I want to run Black Templars, but I am hitting an indecisive snag with the painting:

As I test paint my first few figures I've realized that there is a lot of black. A lot, as in overkill. I love the black armor, but then when my guys are holding black guns and chainswords, it's just too much black on black. I tried a few different colors on the weapons and decided on either a dark red or Brass. The red doesn't stand out, but looks rather "meh" an is uninspiring, the Brass has a strong contrast and has a Baroque feel to the look, which sorta fits with the Gothic theme but I am not sold on it.

Another idea I've had, was I saw some art that showed Black Templar's with a white faceplate on the helmet and I really liked that, though I am not sure if I want to do all my troops that way. It's a very imposing look and I was going to reserve it identifying my Veterans and Sergeants (Sword Brothers) but realized my army has so few of those it won't really show off the look and I am already using robes to pick those special guys out.

I was planing to go with the traditional Black Templar's white on black scheme, though I have also been considering the idea of a red on black scheme, which I think would look really good with Brass weapons. All my Black Templar decals are the black crosses, so I'd want to use a brighter red to give good contrast. I figure this heraldry would just represent a different crusading Black Templar force.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I've not been able to find many pictures of alternative Black Templar schemes.

Well the upgrade sprue they make is very good.

Lots of stuff you could use. Pads, and weapons etc.

I have upgrade parts, that doesn't help me with choosing the details of the paint scheme.

I know. I just thought it might help if you knew a good source of bits that fit them perfectly.

The idea of bronze. Or metalic trim does contrast well vs the black..

It also is effective as a shoulder pad trim.
Red cross. Metal trim. Black pad.

Metalic on the helmet visors can work. Bronze and black can look fearsome.

Add as many detail parts to EVERY marine you have to break up the black.

I would go with a bright gold or bright brass shoulder trim and the gun.

and paint some guns in a nice blood red like on sergeants or vise versa with the metalic.

purity seals can add a ton of red details on things too.

also red wings on black iron crosses. random knee pads in red or quartered.

or if you want to go off the deep end you could always invert the colors. so white templars with black trim or whatever

I went with a golden shoulder pad trim to break up the black. Also have a decent amount of bleached bone robes and purity seals to break it up also. Painted my terminators helmets white and my vet sgts have white helmets as well. I also chose bolt gun metal with mithral chain mail hi lights for the bolsters and chain weapons.

The gw basecoat gold is good. Makes a good layer to apply a bronze, or wash the gold darker, rose, or such.

You can adjust it to suit. Or base for a bronze, brass etc.

 Swordbreaker wrote:
As I test paint my first few figures I've realized that there is a lot of black. A lot, as in overkill.

Have you considered *GLOSS* black? The natural reflections on gloss black are very different from satin, to say nothing of matt.

Also bright red weapons and bright silver metal, both with a brownish wash for contrast.

As you get the gloss for "free" if you're dipping, you might check that out.

Red breaks up the Black Templars well, and using bone for the robes can add a bit of warmth also.







You could also incorporate checker patterns and/or heraldric markings to further break up the black to add some colour

Well, here's one of the problems I face: I am getting back into 40K using what's left of my collection that didn't get sold off or *gasp* thrown away. So I am stripping and repairing a lot of older basic marine models.

I have *some* Black Templar bits, they are mostly being saved for special models (ex: Sword Brethern). Since most of my models are already glued together, I risk breaking parts if I dissemble too much even *if* I had the Black Templar shoulder pads. What I do have is a massive stack of decals.

Dreadclaw69 I like the red and black, but as I said, I lack the shoulder pads and I do want to use the cross iconography which limits me to the black cross decals.

JohnHwangDD I had considered that, but I have seen gloss Black Templars in person and I don't care for them.

After some messing with a test model, I think I going with the traditional black armor with white shoulders and black crosses. Since these are basic Tactical Marine models I am going to paint them with white face plates on the helmets as I think that makes them more distinctive and interesting, plus I saw that in some fan-art and it looked really menacing. Boltgun casings and sword hilts/engines are painted Brass with the rest of the weapon in black. This provides a good contrast of colors yet avoid the clash of using too much metallic. I'd post a picture but the test model is just a sloppy quick paint up.

OK, if you don't like gloss, then you need to paint Very Dark Grey Templars that shadow down to blackest black shadows, with slivers of white highlights.

Definitely, you need the white shoulders. And bright red eyes, possibly OSL effect.

Purity seals etc are your friend for Black Templars.

Also, you could add a colour to represent their Fighting Company/Marshal's Household.

 Swordbreaker wrote:
Dreadclaw69 I like the red and black, but as I said, I lack the shoulder pads and I do want to use the cross iconography which limits me to the black cross decals.

Why are you limited to the black cross decals? You could have one shoulder pad with the decal and another with scripture, or even heraldry to tie into their crusading theme.







If you have a family crest you could also use that for inspiration.