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I've been playing IG for a few years, and recently felt the urge to field something a little more... robust. Something that plays differently. Something that won't inspire giggling from opponents when it rushes into assault. Something without a preponderance of "3s" in its stat line.

Thusly did I settle on Space Marines, and Black Templars in particular. Close combat? Check. Sharp color scheme? Indeed. Flavor of the month? No way. Perfect.

When I announced to my gaming group that I was buying a battalion box and BT conversion box to get started, a good friend, much to my surprise, gave me a pile of goodies, which you can see below.





This includes Helbrecht, Grimaldus and Retinue, a BT Batallion box from when they were first issued, the metal Sword Brethren, and some lovely little Forgeworld odds and ends.

I'm currently working on assembly, and will post more pictures as the squads start to take shape. I'm neither a master painter nor a gifted converter, so this blog will be pretty vanilla by Dakka's standards. I'm mostly hoping for some constructive criticism and a bit of motivation to keep plugging away at the army.

And just to get things rolling, here's a Battle for Macragge marine who has sacrificed himself as a painting test mini (still in the early stages of base-coating). One look tells me that a) my white paint needs thinning, and b) I need a lightbox. See? The blog is paying off already...



-Phlebas

I too traded in my IG for black templars. First thing I learned... prime the model black BEFORE adding the shouldpads. If you prime those white you will save yourself hours of painting time. Also, your white will come out much cleaner as you will have less coats of paint.

As for the white over black, thin out some fortresss grey and paint over the black. Use multiple coats if necessary. (I only needed one) Then use thinned out white to cover the grey. Much easier. (One of the best tips I have found on the gw website.)

Good luck with them, I would not trade them in for anything. I love them so much more then my IG.

Wow thats a good set of models you've got. They should make a nice start

The first model is a reasonable start. I can already suggest that you spray the pads seperately from the model then assemble it. This will let you spray them white and save yourself a lot of effort.

If you want to improve the black easily you could paint a very dark grey over the black then wash it with badab black as this gives a realistic black without much work. It will also prevent the white from overcontrasting with the rest of the model.

Well thats all I can say for the moment except I hope you keep uprdating as black templars are one of the best looking chapters imo

Good luck
4M2A

Assembly of the basic army is almost finished. I still need to get some terminators, a dreadnought or two, and, of course, at least one Land Raider -- but I've got enough together to have been trounced thoroughly in my first game this weekend. (There seems to be a slight learning curve after a few years of playing Imperial Guard, but that's all part of the fun.)

I've got about 1500 points assembled and based; it took a while in part because I was trying for dynamic/interesting poses. And yes, I'm a complete masochist -- the shoulder pads and bases are all attached and will be primed black with the rest of the model. After painting a few hundred IG troopers, white shoulder pads hold no fear for me.

A kneeling apothecary, ready to patch up a fallen comrade or remove his marine parts (whichever proves more expedient)


A trio from the 5-man assault squad, coming in for a landing


Some Crusaders, looking for opponents to beat on


More Crusaders


More Crusaders


The Standard Bearer up close


My all-plastic Emperor's Champion -- I wanted him to look more or less like the other regular Crusaders, with just enough bling to befit his status as vision-driven zealot


And my favorite pose of the army so far -- space marine kung fu for the win!


That's not all, but these guys are representative of their numerous brethren. Painting commences tonight!

-Phlebas

Some awesome work so far. Only thing i can say is with all those beautiful close ups you can see all of the not so beautiful mold lines.

For a purely gaming army its not necessarily a huge issue but it always looks twice as good when someone has taken care of mold lines when assembling.

Apart from that i look forward to seeing some paint on those models soon. keep up the good work

I'm a little horrified by the mold lines, myself. My lurking on Dakka has taught me two important rules of picture posting: trim the mold lines, and drill the barrels.

Apparently, it's time to visit the eye doctor, because I thought I was doing a pretty good job shaving off the excess. Closeups reveal all.