Ehaley, I think?

Another Christmas gift I painted for someone, Ehaley, I think.  I actually had this model hanging around the house, I bought it previously just because I liked the composition.  The paint on the face is quite messy...I blame my 40+ year old eyes. :)

Wizard Lord on a Griffon

I can't remember the name of this model. It's a Warhammer Fantasy Empire model. I painted it as a gift for my mother, who said she wanted something painted by me. The wings were the best part to paint. Only thing I wish was that I hadn't fully assembled it before starting it. The dude and chest crest were hard to paint assembled.

Edit: the model is Wizard Lord on a Griffon.

Black Templar Vehicles

The last in my BT posts...until I paint more that is.

First we have the Stormtalon.  I like this model a lot more in person than I thought I would.  It's like a futuristic Blackhawk.  The side guns actually sit firmly enough in position that you don't need to magnetize them, but some of the guns have energy packs and ammo stores that would.

And last but not least, the Stalker.  Another vehicle where you can build both turret variants and sit them on top of the tank while playing, so I painted the Hunter options as well.

Ironclad!

Today we have my first Ironclad.  I LOVE DREADNOUGHTS!

Neophytes and Decals

A shot of the latest round of finished Neophytes.  Obviously I don't use scout models for these.  I want my Black Templars to have a medieval crusading army look, and while I don't mind Scouts on their own now that BT can take them, I don't want my Crusader squads with all their heraldry and cloth sci-fi'd up by sticking a bunch of scouts in with them.

My solution was to take Dark Angels models, carefully avoiding DA heraldry, and simply don't add the shoulder pads or back packs.  The result feels to me like a 'kiddy marine in training', which is exactly what Neophytes are. :)  For the back I cover the backpack connection point with scrolls meant to 1. hide this area, and 2. represent oaths of moment taken by the Neophytes in order to advance in their training.  Mostly these oaths are 'stand in front of the real marines and get shot'.  For shoulder pads I use the very small crosses from the Forgeworld transfer sheet.

Speaking of decals, I can't speak highly enough of the FW decal sheet.  I love the look of decals on space marine shoulders, but the default ones are simply too large to nicely fold over the shoulder.  I've tried multiple brands of Decal setter/melter, and different techniques, right down to shaving and cutting the decal, or painting over the result.  The solution appears to be: use a smaller decal.  Here is an example of one of the smaller FW decals, next to one of the regular ones.  I think it still looks great, and it goes on very easily, conforms perfectly to the shoulder pad with almost no work.  Keep in mind that the regular one pictured here is one of the nicer ones I've done.  A lot have slight signs of mangling due to the difficult process of attaching these things. :)

Forgeworld Decals

As promised, some more shots of finished Black Templar models.  These two rhinos come complete with many a Forgeworld decal.  I can't speak highly enough of the BT FW transfer sheet. The tiny script decals are a nice touch, and there are lots of variations, but the thing I like the most is having a lot of different sizes of the Templar cross.  The larger version pictured on this rhino is an example, but my favorite is the slightly smaller than stock one that goes on Space Marine shoulder pads much easier.  I'll show some of those soon.

I also discovered a new weathering trick.  I used one of the GW textured paints (the desert one) for the dust at the bottom of these rhinos and then dry-brushed that.  The grit adds some nice texture and makes the overall effect work better.

Some bonus shots of my Centurions, but now with decals and basing.  Again, those smaller crosses where a godsend in places where the larger ones don't fit easily.

Full Centurion Squad and more!

My silence has not equaled a lack of painting, but rather the opposite.  I had a big 40K Apoc game that I was trying to get my Black Templar ready for, and as a result I have a ton of things I can post.  I'll try to do one or two every couple of days for the next few week or so.

I'll start with my full squad of Centurions.  Not much to talk about here.  I really love the Forgeworld decals, but since these don't have them in this shot I'll talk about that more in a later update when I can actually show them off.  I did get to field these guys for the first time, but since they got wiped out turn 1 by a Flying Circus before I got to take a shot with them it's hard for me to comment on their performance.

Also, here is a shot of a work in progress, eHaley (sp?) from Warmachine.  No, I'm not starting a Cignar force, I'm painting this as a gift for a family member.  I love doing this as I get to paint a model I usually wouldn't because I'm always focused on building up one of my playable forces. I've always thought this was a beautiful model that I wanted to get a shot at working on.  With X-mas coming I have a couple projects like this I'll be posting.

First Centurion

Progress on my Black Templars, a couple more Crusaders and my first Centurion. No decals or finished basing yet.  Going to do that all at once on a ton of dudes.

Forgeworld Decals!

New Forgeworld decals for my Black Templar.  Holy crap this thing is big and covered in all kinds of crazy stuff!  It's the size of an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper, and has tiny scriptures and a decal for almost any situation.  Quite pleased with this one.

Building Templars

Mostly been doing a lot of building this week.  First up are the Vanguard Veterans.  I have to give GW props on all the new space marine models, the number of options not just in weapons, but posing, hands, ancillary equipment, it's awesome.  And the Vanguard Veterans are probably my favorite of all.

Pictured here with backpacks left off for painting.  I love the option of the left hand holding nothing, allowing me to put in an arm that looks like it's there for counterbalancing.  My only gripe is that they never alter the hands.  Pistols are always in the left hand, melee in the right.  I realize they likely do that for convenience, but it means I had to go to another kit to get a guy dual-wielding, and I would have loved one hammer in the left hand.

Oh, and then there's this guy.

Black Templars on Crusade!

Work has started in earnest on my Black Templars, and what's been interesting for me is I've learned several new tricks.  For an army that is supposed to be easy to paint getting them to look the way I want has required me to step up my game a bit.  Note that all the models pictured have not been based or been given decals.

I've learned that painting on your hand is a great way to get better control of how much paint is on your brush.  Honestly, I don't know how I've gone without doing this for so many years, especially with such thinned down paints.  I used to hate edging armor (well, I still do), but with this level of control I'm able to do a much better job of it.  No more dry-brushed Templars!  I must admit that when you can edge armor thin enough it looks better than dry brush techniques, especially when doing black.








This guy is a good example of some wet blending I've been playing around with for power swords specifically.  I've done almost no wet blending before now, but I'm pretty happy with the results.












Here's everything I've gotten done so far since picking up the Black Templars again: