Project Log: The Emperor's Champion, Part 10

It's been a long road, but my Emperor's Champion project is finally complete!

Primus Invidicus, Redemptor Dreadnought

Magnus isn't the only model to cross the Rubicon Primaris. The dreadnought Primus Invidicus has also been upgraded to a Redemptor.

Project Log: The Emperor's Champion, Part 9

Big-scale Magnus is finally finished and ready for paint!

 

Project Log: The Emperor's Champion, Part 8

Finishing up the champion's equipment–

Project Log: The Emperor's Champion, Part 7

With the Champion's body finished, it's time to tackle his accessories...

Project Log: The Emperor's Champion, Part 6

When we left off, I had shaped some styrene card to form the hanging portions of the champion's tabard. Time to finish sculpting it all...

Project Log: The Emperor's Champion, Part 5

Here's a look at how I scaled up the detail from my little Emperor's Champion to the Inquisitor Scale marine.

 

Project Log: The Emperor's Champion, Part 4

This time out, I finish off the little Emperor's Champion, and put some more work in on the big guy.

Project Log: The Emperor's Champion, Part 3

I made a big chunk of progress on the Emperor's Champion this week. Here's how things are shaping up...

 

Project Log: The Emperor's Champion, Part 2

I've made a lot of progress on my Emperor's Champion conversion:

Project Log: The Emperor's Champion, Part 1

Magnus Romero, The Emperor's Champion was one of the first models I had painted for my Black Templars when I began collecting the army back around 2001. As much as I love this model, it's starting to show its age, and its time to upgrade him to Primaris status.

 

New Resin Industrial Tech Arm and my Techmarine Conversion

The new Industrial Tech Arm from Skull Forge Scenics is available, and I've used it to finish my techmarine conversion:

 

Heavy Metal Thunder

This week I knocked out my squad of Vindicators, finally putting to rest one of the longest running backlogs in my painting queue.

 

Upgrading the Black Templars

As I've been playing more 40K, I have been taking the opportunity to upgrade and finish some of my Black Templar units:

 

What's in the Project Queue, April 2018

This week's post is a mixed bag of projects that I'm working on, including the recently finished squad of Space Marine scout snipers:

 

 

Black Templars, Heavy Hitters

I've been busy with terrain table commissions for the past few months, so I've been neglecting my blog. There hasn't been any time to work on personal projects– My Morghasts and Hexwraiths haven't been languishing on my work station.

All the rumors of a new 40K edition have gotten me thinking about my Black Templars. Maybe I'll be able to pull them out of retirement. At any rate, since I don't have anything new to show you, I decided to update the gallery with some of the models that are lacking detail photos.

 

 

Lexicanium Calistarius, Space Hulk Librarian

The Space Hulk Librarian is complete!

 

Since the Black Templars don't employ the use of psychics, it would not have been appropriate to model a Black Templars Librarian. I still wanted the model to relate to my marines, so I settled on their father chapter, the Imperial Fists. (Both the Black Templars and the Crimson Fists are second foundings, descended from the Imperial Fists.) I figured the Templars might work in tandem with an Imperial Fist Librarian at the behest of the Emperor.

The model itself didn't require much in the way of conversion sculpting. There was a surprising lack of Blood Angels embellishments, and the right shoulder pad was completely blank. Perfect for sculpting an Imperial Fists icon! The rest of the sculpting went into touch-up work where the detail on the plastic kit had been smoothed out to avoid undercuts in the mold. There was no need to put him on a round 40mm base as he wouldn't see action in my 40K Templars army; I simply used some styrene card to patch up the gap in the back of the base and cover the Blood Angels icon.

 

 

The Imperial Fists chapter colors gave me the chance to paint something outside of my regular pallet range of blue-grey, black, brown, bone, and red. I dig painting yellow armor (at least, I always think I do until I actually start painting it). Black lining is an exercise in tedium, but the end result is so striking that I can't help myself. Thanks to everyone who offered tips on my Facebook page; I'll experiment with some of those techniques and see if I can save some time (and eye strain) on the next one.

 

This is not my first Imperial Fist model, though. Waaay back in the day, I painted this guy for Games Workshop. I used mostly the same techniques– A light undercoat, yellow, and a bit of orange for the wash; then meticulous black lining and a white highlight line, with light yellow over that for the brightest highlights possible.

 

It was based on Games Workshop's image of this Pre-Heresy Imperial Fist. I recreated it down to the last rivet, using styrene card for the extra armor plates and crenelations on the shoulder pads. The elbow and knee pads were cut to match the shape, and the head and feet were taken from older, metal models to match the helmet style and the crenelation pattern on the feet.

 

The model appeared in White Dwarf #300 as part of this spread of Pre-Heresy marine chapters. Looking through the magazine brings back fond memories of the good old days at the Glen Burnie headquarters.

 

 

On a funny note– While looking for that image of the Pre-Heresy marine, I stumbled across my model from the White Dwarf photo on someone's Deviant Art site. The person was claiming to have modeled and painted it himself. I say that it's funny because he was using the same clipped model asset from the magazine (you know, the photo that used to have my name right next to it?) and the quality of his other models by comparison was, shall we say... lacking. It was an older post from about 5 years ago, and (other than my comments calling him out on his thievery) there didn't seem to be any recent activity on his page. Still, there's no expiration date on being an ass-hat.

Here are some more shots of the Librarian. One image with detail insets for the gallery, and the full shot from which each detail pic was pulled. Even though Librarians typically wear blue armor as the symbol of their office, I really wanted to paint this model with yellow armor to make him stand out. The blue is represented on his shoulder pad.

 

 

 

And with that, the Space Hulk Terminator challenge is complete! 12 marines in 12 months, converted from Blood Angels into my army's chapter. I made an effort to replace every detail removed with an equal embellishment across the entire line. All the bases are magnetized so I can use them in my 40K army and swap them onto squares for use in the Space Hulk game.

I keep toying with the idea of making a 30K Pre-Heresy army. It would obviously be the Imperial Fists– the Pre-Heresy version of the Black Templars. The Betrayal at Calth board game has a nice selection of Pre-Heresy marines, but I already have two sets of Dark Vengeance marines (with all those Terminators!) so I can't really justify buying more, especially considering how rarely I get to play these days. We'll see what the future (or rather the past?) holds.

'Til next time!

Sergeants Lorenzo and Gideon, Brother Scipio, Space Hulk Terminators

The last of the Terminators are finished! This has been a year-long journey, and the end is in sight; only the Space Hulk Librarian remains.

Brother Scipio

I feel like I've been saying this about every Terminator, but this guy required the most work to clean up his legs. Scipio is the marine who is kneeling and (for some reason) tearing up the floor. Since I've been removing all of the models from their plastic stands and putting them on traditional round bases, Scipio's floor bit had to go. That meant a major reworking of his hand and foot.

 

 

The entire toe was resculpted and the purity seal was widened to cover the irregularity on the back of his leg.

 

The underside of the shin grieve was easy enough to smooth out, but the fingers on his power fist needed to be completely redone. Rather than sculpt them, I cut the fingers from another Terminator and glued them in place with a little putty work to cover the join. I wasn't sure what to do with the hand, and at the last minute added a skull (it was just the perfect fit) as though he was collecting a trophy or perhaps the remains of a fallen comrade.

 

 

On the shoulder, I managed to salvage the existing skull, and then sculpted the cross around it. Surprisingly, Scipio didn't have very many blood drops that needed to be removed, so he required the least amount of "touch-up" sculpting.

 

 

 

 

 

Sergeant Gideon

Both of the sergeants had Blood Angel banner icons that I replaced with icons from the Black Templar upgrade sprue.

 

 

The storm shield proved to be a challenging resculpt. I needed to remove the skeleton and wings, but I wanted to keep the banner running around the edge. It was a four-step process: First, I sliced and scraped away the plastic details. Next, I used putty to smooth the surface of the shield. Then, I sculpted the cross. Finally, I sculpted the parts of the banner that go over top of the cross. The small skull below the cross is the head of the original skeleton that I carefully sliced away and then glued in place on the finished piece.

 

 

 

I think Gideon had the most pendants that needed to be replaced. In this photos, you can see which ones have been replaced, either with plastic Templar and Terminator parts, or sculpted over with putty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sergeant Lorenzo

I was dreading this model the most, but once I looked at him, there really wasn't that much work to do. I think the cape makes him look more complicated than he is.

 

 

 

He only had one pendant that needed to be replaced, and actually had two Templar cross icons on him already. Other than a few small skulls, the challenging sculpting went into replacing the Blood Angel icons on his leg grieves with Templar half-crosses.

 

The blood drops on the cape were sliced away and replaced with a circle of putty, into which I pressed a small tube to create an inner circle. They were painted like gemstones with a gold mounting ring. By this time, sculpting a cross and banner on his shoulder was old hat. The model needed to be primed in parts so I could ensure coverage in the recesses under his cape. He was then assembled and the join in the cape puttied and primed again. His chest plate was left separate for painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With these three, the Templar Terminator conversions are complete! They all fit perfectly on a display stand in my cabinet. I have been adding each one as I finished him, and seeing the dais gradually fill up with the Terminators has been like watching America's Next Top Model, except in reverse. And with less bulimia.

 

 

The spot in the middle is reserved for the Space Hulk Librarian. He wont be a Black Templar, though, for obvious reasons.

 

 

Coming up, I'll have a tutorial on the process I use to paint my Templars.

'Til next time!