AHPC 16: Black Templar Crusade Ancient

Joining my Black Templar army and toting a Black Templar war banner is this Crusading Ancient. He inspires his brethren to fight for their Emperor and shows the way, smiting foes with his super hot blade of smiting! 

Ineptus the Vexillifer!

A new model released last year specifically for my army, so of course I had to get one (what a sucker!). He was fun to do, though I did suffer a bout of 'analysis paralysis' on shield - with more than one chat with Reilly needed to get to there in the end!

Kept to the 4 colour "Zorn palette" to match the erst of my army

I also enjoyed hand writing all the prayer/inscriptions on both sides of the banner for extra 'drip'. I snuck a couple of decals in there to keep it interesting

Submitted to the "Empire" Bonus Round of AHPC 16 here:

https://analogue-hobbies-theme-rounds.blogspot.com/2026/01/empire-from-paulog-crusading-ancient-57.html

A little bit of OSL goes a long was and was fun to do!

The sum of my Black Templars modelling for the last 6 months now looks thus:

2 Crusading Squads, an Execrator, a Crusade Ancient and an Apothecary!

More Templars to join them!

AHPC 16: Black Templar Apothecary

I've loved this model since it came out, yet somehow never painted one despite the wonderfully evocative posing. 

Brother Euthenasius of the Black Templars

Having just extracted the progenoid from the deceased battle-brother at his feet, he contemplates in remembrance of his fallen comrade before it joins others dangling around his neck, speaking to other recent losses (and ultimately the complete futility of a grim darkness of a far future where there is only War, but I might be reading too much into that...)

Anyway, he joins my growing Black Templars force that I've been working on this year with my Crusader squads.

Painted like the rest of my Black Templars in the Zorn palette style using a combination of Apothecary White (what else?) contrast paint as well as experimenting with some make-up sponge dabbing techniques.  Details were painted separately and assembled at the end. Mars styled basing to match the rest of my BT army.

Submitted to the AHPC16 Challenge here:

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/12/from-paul-og-astartes-apothecary-9.html

More Black Templars!

I few months ago I confessed to starting some new units for my Black Templars army (which is still back in Australia) just to get the brushes moving again.

https://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2025/10/back-on-brushes-crusader-squad.html

I've now finished a second (melee equipped) crusader squad, who are ready for action.

I stayed with the fresher, brighter look for this look, and yellow weapon casings help a lot with that. Its been fun to experiment with the "magma" style effects on the power weapons too.

These 20 wrathful lads are led by the cool new Execrator (read Chaplain) figure.  

When playing Black Templars, you can never field enough Chaplains to chat Litanies of Hate and inspire Righteous Fury in the Brothers. I went with the master crafted power sword just because it looked cool, but he can take a hand flamer or master crafted bolt pistol instead.

Pretty cool model - tempted to get another and make him with different weapons

I spent a bit of time on him, keeping his colours muted to help make the sword pop, and then doing some different OSL effects where the sword glow reflects off his armour. Learned lots.

Just for fun, I entered him into local Honolulu painting competition "Iron Brush". No prizes but did make the top 10, which was nice. It was fun to really focus on quality output and new techniques.

https://other-realms.com/iron-brush-2025

Thats it for now, but expect more Templar love during the upcoming painting challenge

Until next time, Suffer not the Witch, Mutant or Heretic to live!

Hobby Notes

Undercoat Coat - Pro-Cryl Brown Black

Base Coat - thinned Abaddon Black, Corax Black, then heavy drybrush with Dawnstone

Silver: Iron Warriors, Nuln Oil, 

Golds: Belthazar Gold, Agrax Shade, Retributor Gold

Red: Mephiston Red, Thinned Reikland Flesh shade, 50/50 Mephiston / Evil Suns Scarlet

Leather: Vallejo, 

Basing (as per all my other Black Templars)

Martian Ironcrust Technical texture paint

Doombull brown

Tuskgor fur

Reikland Fleshwash shade

Drybrush Tusgor fur and Karak stone

Black Undercoat then Abaddon Black base coat

A trip to Japan

I had a quick work trip to Japan recently, a destination I love. This time it was Tokyo and I had a few hours to myself exploring. I try to walk around when possible, to find interesting nooks and crannies.

I also made a special effort to get to Warhammer Tokyo, the flagship store in Japan. It had some fabulous staff, a cafe, and some wonderful models on display. I particularly liked the Japanese posters and artwork - sadly these aren't available for purchase though!

Impressive Legio Fureans family portrait!

The Cafe was a nice addition, and somebody had fun with the menu (below)

Always wanted one of these - bigger than I thought!

The Red Angel

Just for you Reilly - bros together!

Really impressive Chaos Reaver Titan

This Warhound Titan was probably my favourite display piece (amongst tough competition!)

Other shopping highlights included:

Endless stores filled with Gundham of course!

I paint model soldiers so I don't throw stones at other people's hobbies, but a whole shopping district filled with these this was rather amazing

And of course, the one and only...

Tokyo Tower was a great perch from which to look down upon MegaCity 1. At 333m tall, it was inspired by the Eiffel Tower and was the largest free standing tower of its day

But anywhere in Tokyo by night is a delight

I always enjoy exploring the culinary delights too!

Whale - delicious!

Horse - also tasty, kinda like beef

And no trip to Tokyo is compete without a beer at the Asahi brewery! (with the beer froth cloud on top!)

or my new favourite hole-in-the-wall: BEERZILLA!!!

Yes, I bought one of the beer glasses to take home!

Thank you Japan - I'll be back for a holiday with Mrs Man Cave ASAP (she was super jelly!)