Only …four years(!) after I last worked on my Black Templars, I’ve finally been able to grit my teeth and complete the last five of my “original” batch of Templars. Out of these models, I only actually assembled one of them – the overdone guy with the powerfist and requilary. The others are (were) all “rescue marines” – assembled and (very) roughly painted Templars aquired via eBay who I got hold of, cleaned up, restarted, eventually changed the bases from 25mm to 32mm and then let sit for an embarassingly long time until I recently bit the bullet and forced myself to get them out of the backlog and into completed model land. Aside from the central model, the others have had arms reposed as they popped off over time, and I also popped out the head of the Swordsman, as he was looking straight ahead and it just looked odd. Much better looking where he’s pointing that blade!

There’s no special reason they took so long. Just the whole edge highlighting of black power armour is something that I find a bit draining. Not just black power armour, but black is one of the ones that can be a bit more obvious if you don’t get your blends right, so they remained easy to put to one side, despite wanting to get ’em done for literally years. I’m now ever-so-slightly on my way to having them as a small but playable force, with a squad of Power Armour and a squad of Terminators done. Just need a hero, a dreadnought and a vehicle, though I usually like my “2 squads” thing to be two Tactical squads, so there’s that, I guess. I will need to build and paint a second Crusader squad and then I can have a bit more fun with them. I might need some advice on what to build in terms of model equipment as well – Túbal? I should dig out all of the other BT stuff I have completed and do a little group shot before building any new ones.

A bit of freehand script for these three.

These models also happen to be the ones I was “supposed” to be painting over the New Year’s period when I instead got distracted and ended up painting a bunch of my Mentor Legion instead. Now that these five are done, I’ve gotten out a few more of my Mentors and have started working on those as my next set of Marines, aside from a few character models for various Chapters and Legions that sit around, getting a bit of attention here and there.

I’ve previously mentioned Ann’s the Summer Solstice Painting Challenge , but I guess the difficulty for me is which single model is my best/favourite? I do like both of these two quite a lot, but then again there’s another pair of models I also like quite a lot (next post). I mean, even out of these two I’m not sure which I like more. Mister Fancy-Reliquary-Fist, or the guy with the Powersword and the Templar Combat Shield?

Huh.

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. 🙂