PATemplar

Black Templars and Crimson Fists

I got some to use for exactly this same reason along with a set of FW bodies to mount them on. Yes itwill be an expensive squad but I think its worth it. I'm also leaving the Fist icons on them and treating this squad as havingvery honored chapter relics as armor. These are for sword brethern not just every newly minted initiate out of his carpace/neophyte armor. At least thats how I am treating it, they are your figures so I say go for it. In a chapter with 5 to 7 thousand or more brothers(I know that's the old fluff, but I'm sticking with it) we'd need to maintain and use every suit of armor we had probably.

The Chapterhouse pads I've used were the first one that Acebaur put the link up for. Their paint job on it is pretty crappy. As far as the sculpt for that particular one, it isn't any sloppier to clean up than any of the metal GW BT pads that I've got tons of. It just adds abit of variety to an army that shouldn't look all cookie cutter the same. I love those Spellcrow shields and know I'm going to have to order some. Also thinking that the new FW Imperial Fist Contemptor dred is a needed purchase to use as a venerable suit that's been around since our founding. It would justify leaving the fist on the chest and as it already has a cross on its left leg it wouldn't need much more Templar bling but one of those Spellcrow shields would look spiff on its shoulder.

Since their website has come back up I'm assuming Chapterhouse Miniatures has managed to get the courts to allow them to sell stuff again. I've gotten some of their metal shoulder pads that are listed on their site as " studded pads". They make great left shoulder pads as they are studded and have chains wrapped across them with a small shield also. Great for sword brethern or any Templar brother you want to show some heraldry on. Converselly their knight shoulder pads have nothing Templar or knightly about them in my opinion.

Having spent yesterday reading the Imperial Knight novella and then last night looking thru the codex and companion books, I began to wonder how there are still Knight households in existance? The codex and companion talk about the Knight suits/machines being products of the Dark Age of Technology created to help colonist settle on the far flung worlds and that these machines later became war machines. It also indicates that the secret to making these suits is still lost to those Dark Ages. That's where both my question and the problem lies. In the novella it becomes clear that the Mechanicus provides support to all the Knightly Houses by training Sacristans to maintain and repair the machines. The Mechanicus is also willing to provide sensor and weapons upgrades to those Knight Houses allied to it but doesn't indicate anything about new machines/suits. Again , following the codex that technology to create whole machines seems lost which is admittedly a little hard to fathom as the mechanicus still turns out new titans even if the new titans aren't as good as their more venerable predecessors. Given the losses in Knight Suits/machines that are mentioned in the novella that House Cadmus had experienced before the start of the book and during the book it's impossible to believe they'll be around long or if the kinds of losses they've had are typical how there are any knightly houses still in existence 10,000 years post the HH. Basically it talks about how Cadmus had lost over 70 Knights in a previous campaign on Gryphonne IV vs the nids which was about 3/4 of the Household. They answer the Mechanicus call for aid in the novella with their remaining Household strength of about 24 machines and lose at least about a third of that vs the nids during their providing aid to the mechanicus in the story. There is also a freeblade who's the last survivor of attacks by the nids on its homeworld in the story. Given these kinds of losses of suits/machines unless new ones are made which it doesn't say is happening, there shouldn't still be any knights still around or at least not around for long. Even given that some suits may be rebuilt after having been killed with their pilot/rider, there's still lots of suits being destroyed behind hostile lines or just completely obliterated that won't be able to be recovered and rebuilt. Anyways, I was just wondering what folks thought about this and the corner it seems that GW has painted itself into by not indicating that the mechanicus could still make new suits for the Houses and not just settle for equipment upgrades on the existing suits?

I've got both the codex and the Knigpht Companion book and all the mechanicus aligned houses have predominantly red armour paint schemes although one house is mixed red and white armour. The Imperium aligned houses and the lone freeblades have a much greater variety of paint schemes.