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Cheers guys! Hopefully the paint job does it justice. I'm intending on going with a very classic BT scheme, lots of Black, touches of white and very little red. One thing I am intending on doing is the maltese cross on the helmet thing, I'm not sure which GW staffer did it years ago, I want to say Dave Taylor but I'm not 100% sure. That is actually one of the reasons why I'm changing his helmet to a normal one, makes it easier.

@SDKFZ: Cheers mate, hopefully the rest of him follows on in a similar fashion.



Well the rest of his parts arrived today and here he is all ready for painting. I have decided to actually keep that head on him. Guess it's time to basecoat him now isn't it.

Feels good to be finally applying paint this guy. His helmet is all done, complete with cross on the face as promised:



This is what his body currently looks like (not finished obviously):



And he needs a base:



I'm doing both his and the Marine Exemplar's at the same time since that kind of makes sense.

Painted those two bases today and finished off some of the smaller details on his body and backpack. Arms are next, then the shoulder pads. The shoulder pads are going to be interesting part actually as it's there that I have a decision to make but more on that in a minute.



and a size comparrison so you can see what he is looking like compared to the rest of the squad:



Is it just me of is he not actually that much bigger than the others...

Anyway on to the decision. At the moment that banner is just white, I'm intending on putting a cross on it but I'm not sure whether to make it red or black. Once the sheild (which will be black with a white cross) is on I'll be able to get more a reading of what color to go for. The decison I have to make is how to paint the shoulder pads, fluffwise these are the options:



Now obviously the Chaplain, Apoth and Neotype are out. That leaves Initiate, Assault Squad and Sword Brethern. Personally I'm not a huge fan of the idea of making him a SB as the way I have modelled him is pretty plain compared to those guys so that leaves Initiate and Assault Squad. Do you think the red rim of the Assault Squad would work with maybe a black cross on the banner or the black rims (with probably a red cross), I have a feeling the black rims might be a little too monochrome when combined with the rest of the squad. That's my concern atm, too much black and white. And I mean technically he is "Assault" since he is armed with no ranged weapons. Thoughts?

Looking really good ! My vote is for the assault squad, color wise I agree that more red would look nice to integrate him to the squad. And fluff wise he could be historically attached to an assault squad and have been recruited to the warband for his melee skills, but not use a jump pack as it is not adapted to inquisitorial subtlelty. (Even though as a power armored giant fanatic can only be so mush subtle ^^).

Funny how the priest integrates well with the squad. The color scheme is different, but because of his mix of religious-medieval and scifi stuff he still belongs.

Well that was my two cents, I must leave now, I shan't stay longer on a blog with so many followers of the corpse god ! Keep up the good work !

I'm glad you've said that because it's going to be red, first layer has been laid down tonight since I got the sword and shield done today (sorry for the bad pics, it is midnight here).





Shield is very plain atm which I'm still thinking about but every time I look at that helmet I like it just that little bit more. The cross on the face plate adds a really good focal point to the mini I think.

The templar sign on the helmet is totally bad-ass. Excellet work.

I love the custom heavy bolter backpack, its really cool.

D

@evildrcheese: It looks good doesn't it. Whoever first came up with it a genius. I can't actually imagine how it would look without it. The HB Backpackis actually really easy to do, like mindbogglingly easy. It's just magazines and a chopped up backpack stuck together really.

So shoulder pads are red and are glued on:



Only one major thing left to do now and that is decide on the color of the cross on the banner. Two options obviously:



Red or black, which one do you guys think looks better? My brain is a bit fried at the moment!

That guy is really coming together nicely. Big love for the faceplate. I like black for the banner cross.

Put my vote in for black

Looking frakking good ! Voting black too, as it is so templar specific, and the current red looks sufficient to match the team's dress code.

So.... I tried to paint a cross, the best of the 3 attempts was this:



Soooo..... he doesn't have a banner anymore! Yay! I personally think he looks better without one anyway, a little more practical as well!



Guess I better get onto the next one now!

Hell yeah, he does look bad ass. Yeah, banners make sense on the battlefield, but in an inquisitorial warband, it might prove a bit cumbersome.
Since you were able to pull of a really nice cross on the helmet, a solution might have been to reduce the size of the cross and add religious templar writings and purity seal on the rest of the banner. But I agree, you can and should call it complete and get on to the next Astarte.

While I lament the passing of the banner, the final version is pretty darn awesome. Reminds me of the cover of 3rd edition.

 KernelTerror wrote:
Hell yeah, he does look bad ass. Yeah, banners make sense on the battlefield, but in an inquisitorial warband, it might prove a bit cumbersome.
Since you were able to pull of a really nice cross on the helmet, a solution might have been to reduce the size of the cross and add religious templar writings and purity seal on the rest of the banner. But I agree, you can and should call it complete and get on to the next Astarte.

This is also true. I did consider having the =][= on it instead like the Templar was carrying Speare's symbol but that didn't quite seem to sit right with me. If he was a GK then sure but not a Templar.

 youwashock wrote:
While I lament the passing of the banner, the final version is pretty darn awesome. Reminds me of the cover of 3rd edition.

Yeah it's a pity but I'd rather have this than a badly painted banner. That'd really ruin the whole warband I think.

The varnish is just drying on him and I'll try and write up some fluff for him tonight. In the mean time:



Now the original plan was for the Heavy Bolter marine to have a servo skull to reload his weapon for him instead of a servo arm of being belt feed. I tried to sculpt a mechdrite holding the clib but it looked terrible so I went to the bits box and was forced to rethink things. That is the result. He will be on his own base, purely because I've already done a base for the other marine and don't feel like doing another one that could fit the two of them. Plus I think that looks better. Anyway, he obviously needs a lot of GSing but the basic shape is there.

I don't know what that is but I like where it's going!

Some kind of servitor?

D

Sergeant-Initiate Ferdinand of the Black Templars Chapter – Adeptus Astartes



At the age of 212 Terran years Ferdinand is considered middle aged by Astartes standards and yet still maintains the vigor of a younger man. Like many of his Chapter he is extremely pious and devoted to his faith; praying 3 times a day and when not in combat or training he can often be found with a copy of one of the holy tomes in hand studying.




That is not to say that he is more monk than warrior, his list of battle honors speaks for itself: 200 years of service in the Emperors name, non commissioned line officer, Slayer of the Ork Warlord Redtoof the Bloody and Savior of Gilgamak’s Landing. A fearsome and brutal fighter he wields a sword and shield similar to the knights of old terra (abet a power sword and storm shield rather than simple steel) his armor is made up of the MK’s 6 and 7 variants which is unsurprising given the Black Templars roving nature. As appropriate for an “Assault Marine” his shoulder pad is rimmed in red rather than the black of a standard “Tactical” marine. Ferdinand has served tours in both roles and is equally comfortable in both however while serving with Inquisitor Speare he prefers to take the fight to the enemy and instead leaving fire support to Brother Halix of the Marines Exemplar. The relic upon his backpack is a minor Chapter relic entrusted to him and bears the skulls and femurs of two Inquisitors whose names have been lost to history.




How Ferdinand came to be seconded to Speare’s retinue is unknown however it is speculated to be an old debt between Speare and the marines of the Hultupman Crusade (a small crusade force whose members often wear a while chapter symbol across their helms). How it was that it was Ferdinand who was chosen is also unknown but given the lack of any heraldry on his storm shield of robe it possible that is due to some crime or shame that Ferdinand is atoning for. What is known is that Ferdinand has been serving with Speare for some 12 years and is honor bound not to return to his Crusade until the stain of Icarus Var has been removed from the sector.

Spent the majority of my day today working on my Tau, painting 4 Devilfish hulls at once makes slow going!, but I did find some time for GS work on the serv:



He is starting to get places, still need some cleaning up to be done but he is coming together. I can foresee a headache in the near future with the middle of his chest though because that would be the perfect place to put a Marines Exemplar chapter symbol marking him out as a chapter serf. That's not going to be fun as it happens to be a skull. Ah well I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

Looking good. Could you cut a plastic skull in half and put it on the chest?

D

That's pretty much the plan, I've done it before and it's doable obviously. Can just be a bit fiddly at times. That'll be a job for tonight, final touches and that. Then I'll get onto painting the two of them together. Then it should be the end of the OH portion baring any unexpected minis that crop up second hand and I think "I must have it!".

That chapter symbol wasn't as much of a pain as I thought it would be. He's now ready to be base coated and away we go on the painting side:

For something that i threw together from bits from the bits box I am pretty dam pleased with how he has turned out. Much better than I expected that's for sure. Also working away on the marine himself, here are his arms:

They are slowly getting there, couldn't get anything done on the weekend but did manage to get some get some stuff done today:



Also... oops:



Seemed wrong that the ME is the only one that gets a Chapter Serf so the BT gets one as well. Pretty simple job really, one of the henchmen from Inquisitor Rex, not really adding anything to him except probably some BT specific purity seals and removing some of the detail so it looks a bit more fitting.



Probably going to be black robes, white hood and red scabbard. Will get onto it after the ME is done.

Cool. Looking forward to see how the serf turns outs.

D

Red for the shoulder pad was the right choice, in my opinion. I also think you could throw a splash of red on one or two other models to tie everything together 100%

Looking good, yeah absolutely makes sense that each Astarte gets at least one support serf, it highlights the size difference. Really cool ideas for the first two designs, did you already thought of the third ?

 Fifty wrote:
Red for the shoulder pad was the right choice, in my opinion. I also think you could throw a splash of red on one or two other models to tie everything together 100%

Yeah I'm glad I went with the red, frames the head I think, draws the eye to it. There are splashes of red on the other members of the Hereticus team, some more, some less. The Xenos are a completely separate team.

 evildrcheese wrote:
Cool. Looking forward to see how the serf turns outs.

So am I! The ME serf is done, he just needs a dullcoat and his fluff but I will wait untill I have his master done so I can post them as a pair.

 KernelTerror wrote:
Looking good, yeah absolutely makes sense that each Astarte gets at least one support serf, it highlights the size difference. Really cool ideas for the first two designs, did you already thought of the third ?

I agree, I mean they would be limited use on the battlefeild really, the ME's is just a loader and the BT's is really just a waterboy! Fits the fluff perfectly though. I was wondering when a quesiton about the third would come up. He will be for the Xeno's team actually, well he's not part of it but he is serving in the same conflict but will be running with the IG force I'm doing after I finish my Tau. Basically the one surviving marine left when the Imperial forces are fighting for their lives. I'm currently tossing up between either Raptors or Raven Guard. I'm leaning towards Raptor Legion and going for some sort of messy snow camo on his amour. Yes that's right, camo on a SM, heresy! Not on a Raptor it isn't!

One last picture for tonight. He has arms (and a big power knife!)

Turns out that scabbard wasn't so much of a headache after all, simple solution being:



Works perfectly. Just got to wait for the GS to dry and then some paint.


And update on what he is looking like, shoulder pad detailing to go, painting that scabbard and pouch and then reattaching that backpack.

Nice work. Nothing says bad-ass like carrying a heavy bolter one handed.

D

Indeed Dr, that is probably a decent melee weapon too ^^ !