The second unit of my Black Templars Crusade following the Terminator Squad shown a bit over a month ago, is now finished. Or at least, legal. These five Crusaders will no doubt be reorganised in the future, but they’re now a functional squad.
The first of their number is actually the first Black Templars model I ever started painting. Sometime around 3rd edition and Codex: Armageddon, there was not actually a Black Templars sprue available yet. There were, however, separate metal shoulderpads, and so that is what he was outfitted with. The sword is actually a Space Wolf blade, with the wolf-skull cut down to a human shape and size, and the tabard is one of my very early efforts with greenstuff/kneadatite.
As can probably be guessed, his Sallet-style helm with its Panther crest, and the banner arm originally came from the Empire Knightly Orders kit, which sadly appears to have been a casualty of the Age of Sigmar. It is (was?) a great kit, that not only made some great looking knights, but was a goldmine for kitbashing and conversion, particularly for forces like the Black Templars. One day this guy may be promoted to Chapter Ancient, though more likely he’ll be this squad’s Sword Brother as the banner is cool but not really blinged out enough to be an Astartes Company Banner or equivalent. Maybe I’ll have to hang a bolter from his backpack?
The other four members of this squad – and four of the other five on the painting desk – are essentially more “rescue marines”. Bought from (I think) eBay any number of years ago, assembled and with a spattering of mostly-black paint on them but not especially cleaned up, they sat for years until earlier this year when the impending release of 8th made me look through the various bits boxes and random junk I’d accumulated for 40k figures that deserved a resurrection.
The shoulder pad script either says “Dorn” in honour of his Primarch, or “Dorm” in honour of his sleeping arrangements. You be the judge! I’ll worry about more detailed squad numbering and designation once I’ve got the next five or fifteen of these guys done. Considering only five are even built, it could be awhile.
The Black Templars, despite being on my “list” of armies to build and having some very cool models are a back-burner force. I had 10 models built, plus the 6 terminators. Once these are done, there’s an Emperor’s Champion that’s also built and primed. After that I might attempt to get them up to the “2 squads, a hero or two and a dreadnought” level, maybe adding some Sword Brethren via using them as a palette cleanser, but I’ll most likely be concentrating on my “main” forces to get the Minotaurs, Dark Angels and Iron Warriors up to speed before revisiting the Templars with any level of “Army Building Seriousness”. I’ve also got similarly small forces of Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Flesh Tearers and Ultramarines to get to “completed small force” status. Not to mention my Adeptus Arbites!
For now, I hope you enjoy them. 🙂
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Very nice sir. Black templars were my first ever space marine models. Long gone now.
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I wonder if the IRO Crusade might return one day? First Loves and all that?
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Haha. Maybe. Stranger things have happened. I never thought I’d have a Tau force for example.
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Tau! Dirty fish-men! You need some Templars just for balance purposes, and so when you host games there’s someone to fry up the fish!
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Haha. I’m guessing you don’t like the Tau then? They’re not my favourite but I do like the overly stylised look. Plus they make good target practice for my other factions.
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I don’t mind them actually. They have a cool, unique-to-40k look. I’ve got a decent-sized army of them collected to build and paint in the future, but the Imperium is my first love, and the Black Templars are notoriously xenophobic, so I’m just staying in character. 😉
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Haha Got ya. Well allow me to do the same… Join us my misguided imperial brother, we welcome you. Or feel the sting of my Kles’Tak.
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I love the banner!
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Thank you! It’s simple but works very well for the Templars (and convinced me to use Transfers for the rest of the army after freehanding it!)
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Very cool. I always liked Black Templars but at the same I don’t like them because they are so tied in with 3rd edition 40k. I’ve always been tempted to do an army but I just can’t bring myself to betray 2nd edition like that!
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Oh come on! You’ve got Primaris marines! Black Templars would be easy to mix in with 2e rules as well. Just mix your Tactical, Assault and Scouts together, forego psykers and the rest writes itself!
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In 2nd edition Black Templars were a codex compliant chapter with dark blue bolters and the company colour displayed on the chest eagle; Mike McVey painted one for codex Ultramarines!
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Just checked out my C:UM and while it’s true, you’ve got to give the 3rd edition reboot of them the edge in visuals, interest and gameplay. And SO MUCH red on that UM Razorback throughout the book!
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Definitely… the Blanche artwork for the cover of 3rd edition is easily my favourite piece of colour art of Space Marines. I have a couple of others in black and white I like better but that is definitely a great re-boot and a great piece of art per se.
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You could always paint a single Tactical Squad of them to ally with/incorporate into your Ultramarines force. There’s nothing that says Crusader Squads need to have mixed weapons, and 10 men with bolters (and some bling on the Sergeant/Champion) is perfectly acceptable whether you’re playing 2nd, 3rd or 8th!
I plan to do that very thing with a few forces – basically painting projects to wrap into a RT-era-style “Crusade Army” – which was written as a number of relatively small detachments from many chapters combined to make a “crusading” force for a specific purpose without any of the participating chapters needing to deploy a significant amount of men or materiel. I wish I could recall which WD it was in, but it’s always mentally stuck with me.
My standard mental “template” for it is 2 squads, 1-2 heroes and a Dreadnought (I picked up quite a few AoBR ones when they were cheap) or Rhino or Razorback, etc. For some chapters, like Imperial Fists I may only do one squad.
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I remember the article and I probably will do that to be honest. Black Templars are just too cool to resist forever!
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That’s the spirit!
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Love the black and white colors – a treat for the eyes!
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Thanks Mark. It’s nice to paint models with different kinds of colour balance. These guys being pretty saturated overall give some really nice strong contrast.
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Nicely done mate – just enough red to balance the starkness of the black & white, and that really is a great banner bearer! Excellent 🙂
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Thank you Alex. I’d like to keep the red to a minimum overall on these guys, but adding just a little really does make for an effective spot colour. Unsure how I’ll handle it on my Sword Brethren at this point, but I’m sure I’ll figure out something…
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