The Caecus Crusade

[Brother Christopher]

I'd vote for Assault Terminators. A very classic unit, just make sure to bling them up a bit ;)

[Marshal Vespasian]

Well I have to think about how to do that blingin up and I propably will have to buy some more shields then, but thats alright for me.

Do you have any good suggestions on how to add robes to them? I have held off of skulpting too many robes out of greenstuff up till now. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and do it and in a few robes they wont look horrible.

For my 'normal terminators' in lack of a better term I forcefully added the robes from the BT upgrade sprue. But those were Black Reach Terminators. Dunno if those are different in terms of how they convert to other terminators.

[Brother Christopher]

Robes from the BT upgrade sprue is one way. If I remember correctly, there is a tutorial in the BT resources thread. But to be hones, I imagine there can't be too much work involved - a few cuts with the hobby knife should do the trick (duh, I almost typed "hobbit knight" here... I need to see a chaplain AND an apothecary).

 

You could also look into the Dark Angel Terminators' torsos; there's some work involved, like removing their heretical iconography and one hooded head, but it doesn't look like much effort, to be honest.

 

Some time ago, I did some BT Terminator's I'm particularly proud of by copying tabards from the original PA Sword Brethren using green simple stuff moulds. Unfortunately, Photobucket (or a different site I used to host my images) deleted/blocked all my photos of them. If you have the models and some green stuff, I highly recommend - the result is well worth all the effort and allows you to completely bypass any troubles with actual sculpting.

 

There are also some third-party bits, if you don't mind going for loincloths instead of full tabards. For instance, Spellcrow even have Templar Tabards made for us in mind.

[Marshal Vespasian]

Oh I have several Spellcrow tenplar tabards on site. If the are alright for size I could use those and model the top part on, there is a tutorial on fromthewarp that I think at least looks doable. The loincloth part of the Tabard is what I find hard to sculpt myself.

Doing a mould could actually be a pretty neat way to do it. Did you just take a Block of Green Stuff and press the model into that?  My last upgrade sprue has been pretty much exhausted, but I think I still have 1 or 2 unused tabards with torsos kicking about somewhere. I could make a mold from that. I have had only limited success with using greenstuff molds, as I actually bought some for chapter Iconography.

For the last squad of terminators I did exactly what you describe: some small cuts with a scalpel and you had the tabards affixed. I'll have a look at some terminator sprues I think.

[Brother Christopher]

Regarding green stuff moulds: everything I 'learnt' was based on practice and a random tutorial I found online.

 

Making moulds saves you a lot of money since you can reproduce bits in large quantities once you have the moulds ready. It works well for ornaments, purity seals and tabards; you can even 'cast' 3D objects such as weapons, but that's a bit more tricky.

 

This is what I used to do (I haven't done any moulds in a long time):

- Apply a releasing agent on the part you want to reproduce - take a cotton bud or an old brush and spread some cooking oil on the part. This way, you make sure that green stuff won't stick to the original part.

- Take a chunk of green stuff and press it to the part you want to reproduce. If you didn't get it right the first time, you can either restart the entire process (i.e. remove the green stuff you applied) or simply add some more green stuff (usually, the connection doesn't show on the bits cast).

- Wait for the green stuff to cure and remove it carefully from the original part.

 

For press moulding, make sure that the mould is oiled up and press some green stuff in to fill the entire mould. Pay attention to one thing - avoid touching green stuff on the side which goes face-down into the mould with your fingers since your fingerprints may be visible on larger flat areas. To avoid this issue, roll green stuff in your fingers and before pressing it into the mould, flatten it against a flat (oiled) surface, a CD or a piece of plastic.

 

Instead of using green stuff for your moulds, you can look up blue stuff or Instantmold - these are reusable materials which don't need a releasing agent to work.

[Marshal Vespasian]

Hmm that does Sound pretty doable actually. I have thought about casting some molds for cloaks or vehicle insignia before anyways, but shied away from. It because I didnt want to do multipart molds.

Ill have a look at the different terminator kits, see what I like

 

 

So these are the dark angels Torsos I can quite easily convert, on the other two the iconography is scultped on in a way, that it is at the bottom and top of folds or in the case of the one with a sword on it just over the whole thing. The Robed head I can just drill out.

 

https://megabitzshop.com/Warhammer-40k-Bitz-Dark-Angels-Deathwing-Terminatoren-Torso-G-Front-Deathwing-Ritter-Robe

https://megabitzshop.com/Warhammer-40k-Bitz-Dark-Angels-Deathwing-Terminatoren-Torso-I-Front-Deathwing-Ritter-Robe

https://megabitzshop.com/Warhammer-40k-Bitz-Dark-Angels-Deathwing-Terminatoren-Torso-H-Front-Deathwing-Ritter-Robe

 

and the small bits I can cut/file off.

Now to find a bits shop that stocks all three of these, doesnt cost me an arm and a leg for shipping and to decide, which ones to take double.

Edited May 17, 2019 by Marshal Vespasian

[Sword Brother Adelard]

You can also use blue stuff for moulds, I've had some success with it, it's a kind of heat set remouldable material. I think it was Honda who introduced me to it.

[Marshal Vespasian]

I might actually give that a go if I can remember to buy some when I order stuff for my army next.

[Marshal Vespasian]

Finished a landspeeder along the way:

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Speeder is well done.

[Marshal Vespasian]

Here I go finishing my last non-ETL model, the honored Ancient Brother Logengrien has been roused from his slumber:

 

[Marshal Reinhard]

LOVE that cross. 

[Marshal Vespasian]

Glad you like it!

 

I was super set on doing that, because I hoped it would look great and center the eye on the head of the model. In my view it did exactly that and I am glad I did it.

Even if I had to shell out 10€ for 4m of Airbrush masking film that I will propably not need in the future, but such is life.

[Marshal Vespasian]

Alright after managing some Real World things: where did our etl outpost escape to? I have finally pretty much assembled my pledge and want to start airbrushing later today. So I need to post that stuff. Edited June 24, 2019 by Marshal Vespasian

[Sword Brother Adelard]

It's in the Adeptus Astartes sub-forum. The one above us. We don't get our own outpost as we don't have our own codex anymore.

[Brother Christopher]

I've been offline for too long. The Dreadnought is beyond awesome on the scale of great looking Templar war machines. It's a breathtakingly beautifully painted model.

[Marshal Vespasian]

Thank you very much, especially coming from a painter as talented as you are, that is a great compliment.

 

My first ETL vow has made huge progress this week. I will have some models to show soonish I think.

I made a huge mistake though and didn't think to airbrush on the basecoat of black armour after zenithaling, thinking I'd just do it later by brush. Which Was a disaster that cost me half a day. Heat must have fried my brain or something.

Edited June 27, 2019 by Marshal Vespasian

[Marshal Vespasian]

Alrighty then! Greet Chaplain Augustus the Mourning, Keeper of the Bones, Lord of the Sepulchral Spires, Castellan Florian and The Swordbrethren Terminators of Squad Gotthardt:

 

 

 

 

Some more detail:

 

I am like 70% happy. I had to move while painting an my new painting/airbrushing setup is not optimal, especially the lighting is kind of iffy when its dark outside so some Highlights came out less than optimal. Also for some reason I decided to do the Black armour after doing All the Detail work via airbrush. And I should have done a second layer of matte varnish after doing gloss for the oil wash on the white parts.

Not really sure on the oils on the robes also, but very happy with the helmets.

I could have also been way cleaner with removong the dark angels iconography.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I see you put a lot of effort into your Templars. Excellent work.

[Brother Christopher]

You should be at least 90% satisfied with what you have there ;) Then again, I don't know much about painting techniques in general since I'm sticking to my upgraded recipe for Black Templars from the 4th edition books (Codex: Black Templars and How to Paint Space Marines) and have never even touched an airbrush. With this, I can sincerely only say that I like what you painted, but can't properly "assess" the quality. Great models. Personally, I'm not a fan of GK helmets, so that's probably the only thing I'd change on the Castellan.

 

The slight issues you take with your minis is what I'd call "the painter's liberty" - you know what you did wrong and know what could've been improved. But honestly, revisit your work in a week or a month and you should feel better about these minis because the memory of the mishaps will fade.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Are the Terminators based on Deathwing ones?

[Marshal Vespasian]

Yes they are. Further breakdown:

 

Grey knights heads, deathwing torsos minus the chaptrrspecific Symbols and cloaks from the chaos terminator lord kit as well as the exalted sorceror kit.

 

 

I am not sure about the gk head on the castellan myself I have to say but I was overzealous and had glued it in so that was that.

Guess I am just mad at myself for making some stupid mistakes along the way while painting this squad. There is nothing wrong with the tried and true gw way of painting marines. Especially when done as clean as you do it. I am trying to branch out a bit and try other things but I am also realizing that I am not a Fan of 100% realism and Do like a certain amount of "Comic style" in my plastic spacemen

[NeuronFlux]

I am not sure about the gk head on the castellan myself I have to say but I was overzealous and had glued it in so that was that.

I like the helmet a lot! I did a converted model (Emperor's Champion) with that helmet :) 

 

[Marshal Vespasian]

Won a 1250 tactical escalation game vs alpha legion today.

It ended afte three turns with just some cultists, a sorceror and some 6 csm remaining.

 

Highlights:

- two Crusader squads defeating warp talons in melee with help from my emperors champion and a Chaplain respectively.

- my dreadnoughts blowing up two helbrutes in one turn and one of them then splattering a chaos lord in terminator armour on overwatch (after failing miserably with auspex scan)

- my marshal and EC splattering a squad of khorne marked chaos terminators between them. Sword Master indeed. [even though technicly its a hammer]

Edited July 13, 2019 by Marshal Vespasian

[Brother Christopher]

Sounds like a smashing game. Great to hear that people are able to do heroic deeds in glorious melee combat ^TM with our rather humble units!