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With the looming approach of 8th edition I've made the truly bold and unique decision to start a space marine army. I've always liked Black Templars, though I wasn't a fan of their paint scheme. Black armor with white shoulders described about 10 different chapters, and the idea of doing a million edge highlights on black rhinos sounded gross.

I've decided to base mine as survivors of the Cadia campaign that have taken up the white armor as penance for their failure. They'll all keep the left pauldron black with chapter insignia, and will have the right covered in the names of the dead (aka tiny scribbled lines). I've got two test models done so far, and it seems like a color scheme I can keep up without going insane.


Probably going to run this guy as a sternguard. The bolters are all going to be painted the same reddish dark brown, which looks nice with the armor. White basecoat, brown wash, white drybrush, red wash, black wash. Waiting on some micron pens to come in before I start scribbling all over his pauldron.



This one's a metal sword brethren, I've got a few of these and really wish they'd been redone in resin. Lots of pointy cape and sword areas that paint will abandon at the first bump. All my bare heads are going to be old and weathered like him, the result of lots of harsh conditions and being old cranky marines. Any skulls or crosses are going to be red, just to break up all the white.


Comments/criticisms/condescension welcome, I'll be posting more as they get finished. Probably do a few more regular guys then maybe try grimaldus or helbrecht.

I'd change the cloak to a tan or black just to break up the color a bit.

Hey, this is an interesting and cool idea. I like the concept of the armour but I'd say the capes and tabards could do with being a colour that contrasts well with the new white armour. Perhaps a dark red could look nice and work with the trim you're using, though your bolters wouldn't stand out as well behind red tabards.
Perhaps also adding some silver to the bolters, like on the barrels and magazine and stem of the scope, etc, could bring them out a bit more.
And darker leather for the pistol holsters and gun straps and pouches, etc could also work nicely with the white armour.
This is all just my opinion of course and I like the scheme you've done so far, these are just things I'd add if it were me.
Keep it up and post more pics! I want to see how the project goes

I went ahead and gave the cloth a test sepia wash and it definitely looks a lot better. Breaks it up a bit, and the shadows aren't as harsh.

Yeah that's breaking the white up nicely. What does a Reikland Fleshsahde wash over it look like?
Another colour that could work is maybe a desaturated blue, maybe something like Thunder hawk

Reikland would be a bit too red for what I'm going for, unfortunately. And I want to keep the main color scheme limited to shades of white, with red and black as accents. The sepia works well since it matches with the purity seals.I might end up putting script on seals and all over the cloth as well, or at least some decorative trim. I'll try a little reikland in the deepest recesses when I get home later though.

Been a bit busy assembling instead of painting. Ordered a Templar conversion kit so I won't have to scrounge around for bits quite as bad. I was also going to pick up a set of third party peaked hoods like the old redemptionist models had, just for the zealous nutjob atmosphere they gave off. Unfortunately with a white paint scheme, that probably would have looked kind of awkward when painted...another idea ruined by racists.


I'd gotten a set of the land raider Templar comversion bits awhile back in a trade, and sadly the side doors are too big for rhinos. I did manage to shave down the front assault door and fit it on pretty well.

I'd also recommend shaving off the "teeth" on the bottom edge of the door, that'd help.

Lookin' good. I like the idea.

The teeth are kinda growing on me, honestly. Probably going to put some dozer blades attached under them with a couple heretic bodies strung up all Road Warrior style.

One reason I like Black Templars is they're a 'good guy' faction that you can really go hog wild on with the Terror of the Spanish Inquisition themes that exist in the Imperium. They love that sinister religious imagery like chaos marines love their spikes.

Yeah I like the teeth personally. Has a cool heavy duty armour plating feel

A couple Templar upgrade boxes came in so I've been cranking out the mans while the bits hold out. I wanted to make an Emperor's Champion doing the Star Wars poster light saber pose, but had trouble finding the right sword arm bit to point straight up. Turns out the best one comes from the actual champion model. It's weird that GW never really put out a marine in this pose, considering their artwork has them doing it all the time.


Here's a shot of everyone so far. Not pictured are a bunch of starter marines to fill out the ranks and scouts that I'm waiting on rules before messing with. How Templar stats end up in 8th will determine a lot of army makeup. I've still got plenty to paint in the meantime so there's no rush.

After a long break I'm back to painting dudes. Here's 5 WIP devastators.




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Done with the devastators other than bases. Tried to finish quickly just to make finishing the army a realistic goal. 5 down, about 90 to go!


Liberal use of a micron pen worked a lot better for freehand.


This was a pushfit marine so I couldn't use any Templar shoulders on him. The freehand turned out okay.


Think I used a chaos marine head on this guy. I messed up and did the weapons' shades on this squad in the wrong order before applying one of their highlights and they came out a bit darker than I wanted.


The lenses were Vallejo chrome with citadel spirit stone red over it.


Nothing much to say about this guy. Altogether I probably took about 6 hours from start to finish on this squad. Not going to base it til a few more squads are done and I can think of a good basing scheme for them all.

Very nice....

Finished up an Emperor's Champion. I decided to leave him black, that just seemed to fit better with what he represents, and also makes him stand out more as a Bad Dude. I also had a recipe for Black I'd been wanting to try out for awhile with nothing to test it on.



I'll probably go back and do some white freehand script on his armor, and maybe a decal for the banner. His black is a base of incubi darkness (an amazing shade btw) with turquoise (p3 meridian blue in this case) as a highlight, and a wash of drakenhof nightshade, aka dark blue. I like this one a lot because any mistakes can be fixed with p3 coal black, which matches the shaded color perfectly.

Love everything you're doing in here...and that's as a guy who hates Black Templars (well, i find them boring). I love white painted marines though, so well done!

I decided to do a shot of the ugly stage of painting, where the basics are all there but nothings been touched up, colors are running outside the lines, and no shades have been applied to camouflage the janky parts. A before and after shot of this and the finished models will show off how important those little details can be. I've found that the last page of the codex makes a passable backdrop to photograph against when nothing else is around..



This is a squad of company veterans with plasma and grav. I used grey knight legs to make them look a little more ornate, and they will also have a few spots painted gold to mark them out as important dudes who get to hold all the good weapons. I used a coat of nihilakh oxide for the plasma, though it will get a highlight later. Not really sure yet if I want to stick with sepia tabards or something fancier.


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Here's the vet squad more or less finished. Bases will wait til later, and I might throw some more highlights in there if I'm feeling masochistic.
I'm trying to finish the stuff that actually carries its weight in battles first. The vets, emperor's champion and devastators do all the heavy lifting while my crusaders mostly just stand on objectives. Thus these guys get color while the rest get to stay naked awhile longer.



I put an old Templar transfer on the sergeant that I'd found at the bottom of a bits box. It seems to be holding up alright sandwiched between a few layers of varnish.

Around 20 guys painted now, 80+ to go.

Threw up a giant image of all the painted stuff so far. Beware of opening it on your phone!

Very cool project and a good thread. I like how your Templars are progressing. I wonder if it might be better located in the P&M Blog section, though?

I hadn't really thought about it progressing to the point I'd need to stick it in the blog section honestly. I guess P&M is just for quick ideas and questions, and anything more substantial goes there? I can try and get a mod to move it.