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In 2006 I bought my first White Dwarf ever and on the cover was the new Chaplain Grimaldus release in support of the then new 4th edition Black Templars Codex Supplement. I was hooked and two days later I returned to the local shop and bought the beginnings of my first army, a Black Templars starter force. Little did I know then that 15 years later and many armies since I would be coming full circle by picking up a copy of a new codex supplement and starter army.


My very first space marine circa 2006, not a lot of skill at highligfhts and shading yet but I made up with it by painting tons of detail


Creating that first army is still the most fun and creative Ive felt in 15 years of this hobby and it was all new.
(thats a hardware store pipe endcape drop pod for those of you wondering how we managed drop pods before an official model was made

Surprise, heretics!

That army is all but lost in the warp now, I believe I eventually sold most of it to a friend but as I was searching through my bits box after opening the starter army while planning my new project I stumbled upon a lost relic from that crusade.


my old Dreadnaught's holy banner. Some dirty heretic has removed the chapters sigil for some nefarious reason but it's still mostly intact. This will have to play a prominent role in my new army in some capacity.

Started building the crusader squad first and they have already managed to "procure" a new ride from one of my other armies. time to paint it black.


The Dreadnought, doing dready things


I also had a lot of primaris "greyshields" sitting around in a box that will be pressed into service of this new crusade


First squad of the crusade passes muster. my goal with this project is to recreate much of the original parts of that army with their closest primaris counterparts. I started with these Hellbasters to really get a feel for my paintscheme and how
I wanted to paint my blacks. Having some experience in the printing industry I wanted to and create a "rich black" which is usually a layered mix of all 4 CMYK colors in various percentages to create a deeper black that has color variation but doesnt read as a dark grey to the eye.


its hard to see on camera but the basic idea is:
black basecoat
heavy dryad bark brown layer
warm grey edging and highlights
red contrast paint on the bottom surfaces
ahrimatic blue contrast on top surfaces
black contrast in recesses
very light grey to pick out extreme edges

i have a pretty freeflow painterly style that sometimes doesnt photograph well up close but the end result in person at least and one im pretty happy with is a rich deep black that simulates envorinmental color reflecting off of it.