# Unxpekted22's Black Templars



## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

UNXPEKTED22's BLACK TEMPLARS


Their ship floated in orbit far above us in the night sky, its black hull glistening from our home world's star still coming around the bend. we could heat their impending march. We could hear the hum of their armor. They had no need for silence, we were doomed. We dared not shoot yet, for every round would be hoping for a miracle, even at point blank range. When we turned the spotlight upon their first numbers, we stared at the Emperor's wrath incarnate. In black armor they were Death, with great shoulders of white they were Purity, with crimson eyes they were Oath, but for our point of view, those eyes were Hate. They were the Black Templars, those of _The Crozius_, the strike cruiser that never halts in its Eastern Fringe Crusade. There was no divine intervention for me, luck, pure and utter luck, is the _only reason_ I still live. They leave some alive to spread the word of their fury, so that a single strike cruiser's forces can enact the preliminary stages of purging throughout an entire sector before they even step foot on the next world's soil. They have little regard for the codex, they are no tools of mankind, but only the Emperor's will. Even in death I will not forget, the image that spotlight unveiled before me.


























This thread goes in order of time of painted, so these on the first page are not my newest. I have many that are older than them but I dont know if I'll ever add them here, probably not much point really.


A quick list of my army's iconography: (my main opponent is a necron player, so I have included some stuff for that, and why terminator basing has necron parts hehehe)
boltgun metal knee pads-defended an objective against overwhelming odds
holy censors (hanging lantern things) - outstanding ability to lead brothers in prayer and motivation, are known amongst the fleet to keep everyone's head straight in difficult situations.
robes/cloak/cloth - have tutored a neophyte who successfully went on to become an initiate.
crossing yellow scythes -fought side by side with members of the scythes of the emperor SM chapter.
bright blue dots - each dot represents and equivalent of 10 tau killed in the Revenge of Tria'Vaa. Battlesuits were considered equal to 5 tau infantry.
black and white checkers - each white checker stands for an ork warboss killed.
bronze/gold elbows with templar cross- soon to be sword brethren.
sword brethren - color scheme differs form the BT norm.
White crosses on the knee pads - have successfully charged through necron gauss fire and sent many lesser necrons back to their graves on multple occasions. warriors, immortals, flayed ones etc...
templar cross on the helmet - killed a higher being of necron. destroyers, periahs, lords.
silver or boltgun stripes on legs and/or midsection - has killed an innumerable amount of lesser tyranid forms, gaunts, gargoyles.
red stripes on helmet - has killed a particularly tough or problematic tyranid synapse creature.


(this is all subject to change of course, it just helps me out with them as characters and such for my fluff and RPs. I'm using it as a reference for me to remember as well as any of you.)




five assault marines:



































Some other initiates:


















I posted the pred a while ago in the regular modelling forum. in a future post on this thread I'll show the vehicles. pred rhino fixed up dreadnoughts, and hopefully I will finish my vindicator. I doubt i'll have my LRC done for a long time.


I still have to put my assault terminators together and paint them too....


So far I have built and painted:
grimaldus & retinue
Emperors champion
marshal/castellan
7 terminators 1 with cyclone missile launcher
2 assault terminators
techmarine with servo harness
5 sword brethren
2 dreads (AoBR)
1 venerable dreadnought
ten assault marines (five metal)
ten neophytes
~60 initiates including standard bearers, special weapons, apothecary etc..
1 rhino
1 predator annihilator class
1 landpseeder
1 bike

built or base coated:
vindicator
land raider crusader
razorback
2 attack bikes
3 assault terminators
1 rhino
Helbrecht
2 terminators with assault canons

I have, but are not built or painted:
6 initiates

things still on the list to get:
more rhinos
more razorbacks
two more preds
maybe some more landspeeders
5 more assault terminators
most likely more marines


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## Azwraith (Apr 23, 2009)

awesome looking really good i saw Odin in there.. what a champ haha

i like that you have named eveyrone.. +rep


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## ElTanko (Mar 4, 2010)

Very cool how you have named them all, its a good idea!! I really like the Vanguard sergeant in white, it really stands out, very nice. Nice use of all the Templar upgrade parts, they really make a hell of a lot of difference.

ElTanko


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## subtlejoe (Sep 23, 2008)

+rep on the basis you've actually named everyone in the army.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

lol yeah Azwraith i took a few names form the rps we've been in.

thanks for the compliments as a whole im glad you guys like the fact i have actually taken the time to name them all haha, it helps with the individualizing i talked about in the post a bit. Still need to name that new guy.

oh and to eltanko's comment, i am really glad i chose to do that as well. As the squad leader i would say yeah he definitely stands out, i had never painted a white model before so im pretty happy with how he turned out.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

the predator:












































is there a way to make the transfers not look so obviously like stickers in when bright light hits them?


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

my WIP Vindicator. built and base coated. It will prob be taking me some good time to finish it. during this time i will also be working on several initiates.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

I have put my new video log up, click the link in my signature to view it. I will also be putting up new pictures soon.


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## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

Look forward to the pictures.

In answer to the transfers question, I normally dilute a matt varnish and put it on the area where its going then apply the transfer using a dry brush to squeeze out the excess varnish. After that I just paint neat varnish over the top.

It stops there being any air behind the transfer and seals it on good and proper.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)




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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

I got a land speeder built and base coated, hopefully pics soon! Still haven't painted that vindicator though


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

the land speeder is finished, but I did not pay as close to detail as i normally would. I mainly just wanted to get it finished. You can probably tell how out of practice I am at painting the templar cross. I was a fool and tried to paint them on the shoulders _after_ gluing them in their seats.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

some new models, god I work slow. Hopefully some improvement however.




















































































Brother Romulus

























definitely didnt get those wheels very smooth...

Brother Rayne

































some conversions, got the idea from another heresy user


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Some really nice work going on here. Some of the free hand on the tabards is excellent. However it really is being undermined by the bases of the individual marines. I always found that writing on bases makes models look very childish unless printed properly. You seem to have veered away from this with some of the later models though, but the bases could still do with some work.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

thanks for the rep, and yes I agree with the bases. I have only recently (so only a few models) have actual basing like the sand and grass and stuff. Its taking some practice but I think I'll get there. definitely looks better than the plain brown. I've really been working on the highlighting a lot as I used to just drybursh everything with boltgun metal.


oh and I just realized I hadn't added Grimladus into this thread yet:


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## CLT40k (Jun 18, 2010)

Like the freehand work... is may be the lighting, but they seem a bit shiny... + Rep for nice models.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

thanks for the rep, and yeah it must be the light because the initiate with the axe and bolt pistol I didnt spray or paint any kind of varnish on at all. i think its the badab black wash thats covering him.


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## Azwraith (Apr 23, 2009)

i think your newest minis are a vast improvement a lot cleaner and just really nice

i do like the old style but i feel like you tried to put to much onto each mini.. but the newest termi/bike and speeder look realy really good.. cant wait to see whats next


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

2nd assault terminator: Brother Cassius.


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## Zacharus (Nov 10, 2010)

Abrahm looks awesome especially the detail on the cloth on the front! +rep


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

The first few models where a bit rough but I can see your skill improving as you move along! Keep it up. The termies are looking nice!


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## xenobiotic (Jun 7, 2008)

:bye: Hi, Unexpekted22!

I figured I'd pop by and add a few thoughts on your progress since we discussed the terminator in PM.

First of all I'd just like to point out that I'm going to be posting my feedback about what I'd think could improve your painting/miniatures - the things I'm saying are my personal reflections so you can use them or leave them be if you don't agree with me.

I'd like to say that you've progressed quite a bit since you started this thread, just compare these marines with each other:
















You've started to add more highlights to the miniatures, making them pop more and giving the eye well needed places to focus at (I find that looking at a miniature with just black & white can strain the eye) and your colours appear to have much better coverage and look more even now (perhaps you've started to water them down a bit?).

Highlighting black is pretty though to do so keep at it because training will make you better at it. Remember to try to make them as small/thin as possible, you want to suggest the shape to the beholder - not push it in their face. If you think the highlight is to "bright" you could try to wash them with Badab Black, washes have saved me from having to repaint highlights many times over by now! 

(If you want to try something new with the highlights further down the line you could try to wetblend them to get a nice gradient on the edges, but that's hardly something you NEED to do.)

There are a few mould lines showing on the axe of the bottom miniature, try to keep vigilant when cleaning the miniatures because the mold lines will always be apparent with paint on and it can ruin a miniature. And since you have drilled out the barrels, which makes a world of difference to me, a forgotten mould line stands out even more!

Another thing that strikes me on these are the metal areas. On the first 5 marines they look blotchy and uneven and on the second one they look flat. A wash of Badab Black (on Silver) or perhaps Devlan Mud (on Gold) on them would bring out the details. Remember that sometimes it's better to do two thin layers of the same wash than one thick layer. Metallics need that extra definition and a wash is the easiest way to obtain it (remember this on your terminators as well - the shield details and the hammer and such).

And as a matter of preference I prefer not to have names painted on the base edges unless the lettering is done stylish and detailed (such as roman lettering for example). It's hard to pull off and I see that you have avoided it in the recent miniatures. I find it better to use parts of the miniature to "type" things like names on, such a scrolls on armour. 

When it comes to writings and other freehand work all you can do to get better at it is to look for inspiration (images, examples, imagination) and try to replicate something equal to that. Try it for a hundred times if you need to and you'll have learned a few tricks. Remember to keep the paint thinned down when doing freehand work - it's nigh impossible to do freehands with thick paint!

Now let's go on to your more recent miniatures, the terminators!
















Just between these two miniatures I can see a noticeable difference in your highlighting. The first miniature has some thick strokes, on the shoulderpad in particular, which lowers the overall look of the miniature. The highlighting on the red parts of the shoulderpad looks very good in comparison, but I usually find that red is an easier colour to highlight!

On the other hand you've made a beautiful banner for him and the eyes are looking really good (I see that you've carried those eyes over to the other terminator, perhaps you should do all your eye lenses in those colours from now on to get a more coherent feel on the army?).

I feel that the metallic areas on the top terminator looks unfinished, perhaps try out my wash suggestions above for the shield details and the hammer, remember not to use to much wash at once.

Now to the bottom terminator, which you spent quite a lot of time to paint! Let's start by saying it shows! Pretty much all the details are better on this particular miniature. The metallics looks like they have been washed(?) and the highlights are very good compared to your first attempts at it. I also see that all your smaller details (skulls and emblems) have highlights which makes them pop and heightens the overall look of the miniature.

It's hard to see the details of your stone-checkers pattern on the right leg in these pictures. From the looks of it there is a visible "granite" feel to the lighter areas which are nice. Checkers squaring is a pain in the arse to achieve and to make it that small must have been a challenge. I'm not sure if there is any way I'd improve upon it at this moment (but I recommend you to experiment as/if you try it on other miniatures). I do however think that stone effect would look even better on a storm shield for example (without checkers pattern, just the stone effect + emblems of the shield in your usual colours) and do the checkers pattern in normal black/white on other details - but that's a purely personal preference.

Finally, about the purity seal scrolls! The scribble/text on them looks very nice but the papers themselves look flat - are you washing them in some way? Do you highlight them? Because they look like they could use something like that before you add the scribble to them. Again just to make them pop better and give them a bit of a shape.

I hope you could make something useful out of all this rambling and that I didn't send you into despair.
Keep the updates coming!


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Thanks for the comments zacharus and djinn24! Abrahm will probably always be one of my favorites even if he ends up being one of my lesser painted models. 

And thank you for your time xenobiotic I appreciate it. Let me start by saying for almost my first full year of painting I had myself believing I could pull off good models without washes or much highlighting. I used to drybrush thin layers of boltgun metal all over, which actually I still maintain can have a nice effect. If you look at my grimaldus model for example i think it made his armor look very realistic, but hey that's just my opinion on my own model haha. In short, yeah I'm definitely still getting used to the art of highlights and washes.


One or two people either in this thread or on threads I put up in the modeling section pointed out the blandness of the bolt pistols and other metal parts and such. I have since went back over a few of my models like the marine in the second pic you have there and . I applied another thin layer of badab black seeing as one hadn't been enough, and then did some thin chainmail highlights afterward and I think it looks much better. 

Oh and yes I have started to water down my paints, another thing I used to think I didnt really have to do.

Its funny you say red is an easy color to highlight because that is the first color I discovered highlighting for, and on my own in fact without reading about it or anything first. Whereas the black I looked at a bunch of tutorials for later on. Highlights on black are a bitch! haha the lines are so drastically noticeable it takes forever getting every single one right and looking through my newest terminator pics I see some I need to attend to already.

for the eyes it is a debate I have had with myself for a long time now. I started for a long time just doing red on everyone because that seemed to be the most common color. I discovered the blue after seeing some black templars on a commission painting website and gave it a try on the veteran assault marines. When I did the AoBR guys I decided to experiment with red blue and green and decide which I liked best but came ot no conclusion. My current solution has been to at least keep the eyes the same per squad. So for example all of the assault terminators will have the blue lenses.

Those checkers took a long time especially since it was a curved surface, keeping them even was hard and I wasn't entirely successful, but I think it was definitely good practice with color layering. Next time I will have to try and keep it thinner though as some close up staring reveals quite a bit of chunkiness. 

And finally you're right about the paper/scrolls. But its to my surprise actually as I thought I had those down well. I do wash them with gryphonne sepia, but I dont highlight them before hand, or after. What do you highlight bleached bone with? white?


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## xenobiotic (Jun 7, 2008)

I guess it's actually a good thing that all the things I took up wasn't news  the forum must be working wonders!

About the highlighting and painting in general it's often the things you realise yourself that sticks with you and you keep doing and perfecting. Tutorials are great as a pointer in a general direction (as are comments on the forum) but you have to experiment with what you like yourself to come up with your own solutions, which is of course what you, and all of us actually, are doing all the time.

About the scrolls you could try:
Bleached bone
Wash (Gryphonne Sepia or maybe even Devlan Mud)
Bleached bone highlight (perhaps even Bleached Bone/Skull White 50/50)
Scribbles

Or you could try:
Dheneb Stone
Devlan Mud wash
Bleached Bone highlight
Scribbles

And experiment from there.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Alright so I've been practicing a bit with the cloth painting improvements, as well as metal highlighting. I think I have the metallic highlights down. the robe definitely looks more exciting than the way I used to do it, however, it is pretty messy right now in my opinion but I think it is at least a good step in the right direction.

Didnt really do anything exciting with this guy just trying to get as good as I can with just regular stuff at the moment, granted he like many of my templars, has some specific BT pieces.

Brother Travis









Let me know what you think.


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## xenobiotic (Jun 7, 2008)

That miniature looks interesting. The lenses have a glowing quality which is a nice touch! The cloth looks loads better then previously, as you go along you can try make the shifts in colour more subtle (like a gradient rather then sharper lines) - but I think that comes with experience and trial and error.

You're highlighting looks good, perhaps a bit thick on the knees (but as usual highlighting black is a bitch).

Comparing the metal on this miniature (the metal you can see at least) with the first you posted it has progressed a lot and it makes a noticeable difference for the better!

You must be a happy Black Templar player now that you've finally got an equipment upgrade in the FAQ? 

Keep at it!


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## CLT40k (Jun 18, 2010)

Looks great! One bit of advice is to look at how you're doing the purity seals on his robe... They don't seem to have enough contrast with the cloth.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. LINK 

The lenses are looking really top notch... the little dot of lighter red makes a world of difference and looks better than the white in earlier models. (FYI, I just learned that bit myself)

+ Rep for the model... 

Awesome progress though... Especially looking at the first model.


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## Bane_of_Kings (Oct 28, 2009)

Looks nice, love the models .


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## TheReverend (Dec 2, 2007)

Mate, i love everything you have done with these, very characterful indeed! and that's what an army should be. 

I agree with many others though, your later models are definitely looking better. Just cleaner and crisper. But don't stop doing all the free-hand on the tabbards, that looks awesome.

I especially liked the venerable dreadnought. I love that mini and you've painted yours really well. 

Your army is everything i'd want my Black Templar army to be if i were to start one (nothing will drag me away from my wolves though...)

+rep

Rev


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

thank you for the rep and comments! I am trying to work more consistently so I can get started on my dark eldar....but seeing the beautiful standard that eldar models seem to set, I want to make sure I'm really good before venturing onto that project (Though I'm sure I will always hold my fearless templars closest to my heart...wouldn't want to let a dark eldar near it anyway lol.)

So, I guess I'll try to finish up those terminators. Then again, I have some vehicles who have been begging for a paint job for far too long...

edit* also thanks for pointing out the update for the BT rules! haha somehow I hadn't seen it yet.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

First off, I have been working WAY too slowly. I still have several vehicles I have only base coated and a friggin dark eldar army I want to get started on. Ugh, so much work that I choose to do! haha. I'm enjoying the end products though. 

I have had some recent brain storming on my army's fluff. I had a whole bunch written up in the original works threads, and the stuff at the beginning of this thread and the name...I feel like scrapping it all and starting over, changing some of the names on my older models. I have realized it is kind of hard to _really_ have my _own_ black templar army. Like the other big chapters, they have fluff thats pretty much set ins tone by GW and the fact so many people play them and whatnot. The bit of BT fluff that gives me room for creativity is the fact that no one really knows how many marines they have, though its supposed to be around 6000. The title of this thread may be their fleet name, but they are still BT in the long run. In my original works I call it the eastern fringe crusade. 

I have a time line of my army's events that is very accurate to GW fluff dates and large events as well as my main opponent's army and my RP threads that I GM. So I'll probably keep that but I think maybe they should have one battle barge, or even just a strike cruiser rather, that would make more sense. A strike cruiser and maybe a frigate or two. Whatever the ship become its name shall remain the same, _The Crozius_. Anyway, more on that later.

This is Brother Balanor. I am very frustrated right now because I had a BT upgrade kit special sword piece that its a stylized sheath (the same that is on the model earlier in thread named christeph, and I was going to put it on Balanor's back between his shoulder and power pack because I felt like since he is carrying a plasma gun (and the fact he is a Black Templar) he would want to carry a close combat weapon in case it failed him or seeing as it is a rapid fire weapon, would have no time to fire it during a charge. But I thought I had been finished with him for like an hour before I realized I forgot about it and once you hit that whew finally! I'm done state you dont feel like going back. I really like the way he looks without it anyway so I said fuck it I'll just add the sword to the next brother in line.

As for the next brother in line you will see I am still working on improving my skills at painting the robes/cloth. My next templar shall be my personal son who holds the namesake of my favorite custodian in The First Heretic, Vendatha, the golden guardian who acted upon his duty and honor in the face of impossible odds and did not stand for heresy when the astartes around him did, who was the one who tried to stop...the first heretic. So I hope I can make him look worthy of the name.

But for now here is Balanor, let me know what you all think. BTW, I found this awesome helmet for him on some random sprue I had. Anyone know what set this helmet is from? Hell for all I know its off the tac squad kit and I just have always overlooked it. I think it might be from a command squad box a friend gave me a long time ago, which has had its pieces go to MANY of my different models and so it has been eaten by my used but not depleted sprue stacks. 


















































sorry if that seems like too many pics I couldn't decide which were best, but I did cut some of the ones I took.

I'm coming for you xenobiotic


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## Master of Sanctity (Nov 11, 2010)

Great progress on your Templars, you continue to improve your painting skills, I look forward to seeing how they progress down the track. Keep working hard.


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## xenobiotic (Jun 7, 2008)

unxpekted22 said:


> I'm coming for you xenobiotic


Coming for me? :blackeye: Whatever have I done to deserve that?

I think the helmeted head is from the sergeant/special/heavy weapon sprues that comes with the tactical squad box (and possibly some other box as well, I can't remember right now). The skull on the forehead is meant to symbolize the Iron Skull from the codex chapters (but it's a nice addition to any squad member just to diversify the look).



> The Iron Skull is the Codex Astartes insignia for the Sergeants who command Space Marine squads, and is displayed on the helmet and/or shoulder pad of the Marine as a sign of his rank. Generally accepted convention is that a red skull device is used to represent it. It is awarded for the display of true leadership.





> The Iron Skull is an ancient design and the Codex designated insignia for a Sergeant. The classical convention is to represent the Iron Skull in red. It is displayed on the shoulder pad or helmet. The Honor is also awarded for good leadership skills.4


And about your painting pace I think the most important thing to remember is just that you're having a good time with your hobby whether or not it's going quickly.

About the fluff I can't really comment seeing as I have little insight into the structure of the Black Templars, but it sounds good and all to me.

*About the miniature:*
Your highlights on the black armour are progressing nicely, they are not as thick as they once where which is good. There are a few areas that trouble me however, some of the highlights on the backpack are still pretty think (around the vents in particular), I know it's nitpicking but since you're coming for my anyway... 

At the same time I have to mention that I think the highlights look a little bright and "busy" around the head, I'm not sure if they are too bright (which could be the photo taken with light falling on top of the head) or if it's the actual paint that's to bright. If it isn't the photo I would probably have tried to tone them down just a tad (just run some badad black over them or something similar).

Another thing that strikes me is the metal areas on the helmet, they look unshaded and bright. It might be my own preferences but I'd probably hit them with a wash to give them some definition.

:so_happy:


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

thanks MoS!

And indeed xenobiotic, I will need all the detail I can get to reach your level. Come to think of it I didn't wash the helmet. whoops! good eye. I could prob do that today. I dont have a nice place for pics set up like I do at my house. That might help get some glare out. Also, I'll trim down those vent highlights. I really tried to make the knee lines thinner this time though haha, I think I did so successfully. 

But as I commented on Mos's log thread, his black and white tones are so much smoother than mine. I need work on that, but I can't say I do the four coats of watered down chaos black and skull white either so....


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## xenobiotic (Jun 7, 2008)

Hehe, now I understand your fanatic ramblings with mention to my name :drinks:

Overall, your highlights are much better now, it's just some areas that are troublesome, it's the pain of doing black armour I guess. I know that back in the days when I did black marines I had a lot of trouble getting them right and I haven't tried since.

I realised I had forgotten to mention your freehand icon, which looks good, it's a spot on the miniature that lends itself well to freehands. However it looks like the colour has come on thick there (at least that's the way it looks in the pictures). I guess doing a white freehand on a black surface will require a lot of layers.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

xenobiotic said:


> Hehe, now I understand your fanatic ramblings with mention to my name :drinks:
> 
> Overall, your highlights are much better now, it's just some areas that are troublesome, it's the pain of doing black armour I guess. I know that back in the days when I did black marines I had a lot of trouble getting them right and I haven't tried since.
> 
> I realised I had forgotten to mention your freehand icon, which looks good, it's a spot on the miniature that lends itself well to freehands. However it looks like the colour has come on thick there (at least that's the way it looks in the pictures). I guess doing a white freehand on a black surface will require a lot of layers.


For the free hand tbh I was just glad it actually came out in the shape I wanted it to :laugh: I have only slightly ventured into the world of freehand work in the past. I am pretty good with iconography like on my venerable dreadnought's leg I suppose. But yeah getting that shape took some time and as usual more layers than I would have preferred, and that icky white pigment is a real pain in the ass. I need to start watering it down more, but I hate the chance of it running at all because it will show up on the black like crazy.

Onto Brother Vendatha. This is the first time I have _really_ tried to get realistic looking battle damage on one of my Templar's armor. I dug out some plastic with the exacto knife painted in boltgun metal, did a wash of badab black, added chainmail highlights to the edges and such, did another coat of badab, then followed with a light amount of devlan mud. How does it look? should I add more of something?

This is also my first time using the dheneb stone/devlan mud combo for paper/cloth. I am trying it out on the little purity seal on the leg there. I have done the initial stone layer and a pretty heavy wash layer on accident. I am trying to figure out if I should highlight with dheneb stone as well. suggestions?


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## xenobiotic (Jun 7, 2008)

I think the damage came out well, looks like old and grimy holes. I'm particularly fond of the ones on his left shin armour. And to be honest I think you have more layers in that damage then I usually give my miniatures damage.

Now, if you dare you could add some paint chipping as well  to the edges of the shin armour in particular, using a sponge/blisterpack foam. I've only tried that once on black armour however (on my Baal) and I'm not sure it came out well.. So you'd have to ask someone else for input on that (which colours to use and how to detail it after it has been sponged on). 

About the purity seal I'd highlight it with Bleached Bone and then do my writing in whatever colour I prefer at the moment (I've found pure chaos black to be a bit on the sharp side so I'm trying out dark brown colours at the moment). If you'd like it to pop even more you could do a fine highlight with Skull White as well.


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## Master of Sanctity (Nov 11, 2010)

Looking good there unxpekted! Like xenobiotic said, some highlighting with bleached bone and a hint of skull white would do nicely! Also a dark brown or chaos black watered down a lot will do nicely for the writing, depends on the look you are after.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

xenobiotic said:


> I think the damage came out well, looks like old and grimy holes. I'm particularly fond of the ones on his left shin armour. And to be honest I think you have more layers in that damage then I usually give my miniatures damage.
> 
> Now, if you dare you could add some paint chipping as well  to the edges of the shin armour in particular, using a sponge/blisterpack foam. I've only tried that once on black armour however (on my Baal) and I'm not sure it came out well.. So you'd have to ask someone else for input on that (which colours to use and how to detail it after it has been sponged on).
> 
> About the purity seal I'd highlight it with Bleached Bone and then do my writing in whatever colour I prefer at the moment (I've found pure chaos black to be a bit on the sharp side so I'm trying out dark brown colours at the moment). If you'd like it to pop even more you could do a fine highlight with Skull White as well.





Master of Sanctity said:


> Looking good there unxpekted! Like xenobiotic said, some highlighting with bleached bone and a hint of skull white would do nicely! Also a dark brown or chaos black watered down a lot will do nicely for the writing, depends on the look you are after.


Hmm, I will look around for some blister pack foam try it on some sprue plastic and see if I can get a result I like. As for the writing I have been using bestial brown on parchment colored pieces for some time and I think its the best out of all I've tried those being black (yeah too prominent imo) scorched brown graveyard earth and some gray colors. Fortress grey and white work pretty well on red parchment. I only tried that with a couple models on the first page here though.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Just for fun, here are the first three guys I ever painted, got them in the painting starter set. :victory:










This was before I even had the codex so I didn't know they were supposed to have the 8 point star on both shoulders. I think one of their shoulders took me like three transfer stickers before I was content. 

And as much as this termie sucks, I love his banner (did it with pencil) and little gun flare lol not to mention How I thought I could get away without basing properly by painting shades of brown and green on the base


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Amazing looking back on what you used to do and what you do now.

OK your painting is getting a tonne better, but I still see mold lines and sprue damage, on the gun and shoulder pads it sticks out the most. Also the edges of the shoulder pads look like they could use some attention as well. They seem like a minor filing down would do them some good.

On the cloth, if you start with the base tan and in the dips start building up a highly watered down dark brown and build up that way, you will get a much smoother transition. Don't get me wrong, it looks good but I think you are ready for your taste of blending and those are normally the easiest things I have found to blend on.

The battle damage looks great, but just remember not to over do it. 2 or 3 tops per model is all you should have unless they are small and part of a series. The chips should be light grey, almost covering the entire thing with silver (3 edges of grey should still show), that normally makes a nice chip in the paint.

Also if you want a sand blasted look, let me know. There is a neat tech floating around for t hat .

+rep for unx for the painting dedication and xeno for the great words of wisdom.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

djinn24 said:


> Amazing looking back on what you used to do and what you do now.
> 
> OK your painting is getting a tonne better, but I still see mold lines and sprue damage, on the gun and shoulder pads it sticks out the most. Also the edges of the shoulder pads look like they could use some attention as well. They seem like a minor filing down would do them some good.
> 
> ...



Aye, blending is something I have been trying to prepare myself for, reading on how to do it well and such. I suppose I should start to try and incorporate it soon. This guy I'm on now has a robe so some of the damage on his left leg will be hard to see, which I now find unfortunate since I think thats the one xeno thought looked the best. arg haha. I've only been able to avoid blending so long because of the black armor... but I NEED to get some practice with it before I start my dark eldar.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Well I decided to jump right to it for blending practice.

I started with the browns. The circle in the middle was my first attempt, the one below it by second and the third is the brown in the bottom right which came out errr ok. Then I tried to see if I could do anything with black, didnt get very far. My first attempt at the blue turned into a mess but my second blue attempt I think actually came out pretty well. as always any additional advice or tips is appreciated.


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Just went through your log Unxpekted and it is really quite incredible how much your skills have improved in the last year. It is really kinda cool to see a log like this were the improvement is so noticeable. 

I will leave the mold line comments to djinn as he is the mold line nazi, but I will give you a few pointers on blending.

The biggest thing that you need to remember with blending is using multiple stages of color progression. The more colors you use along the spectrum the smoother the transitions will be. Keep your paints very thing, almost to the point of translucency, and leave small bits of the previous color layer showing. Your attempts above show some really good application of the technique especially the blue in the upper right hand corner and the bottom middle brown. What I would suggest would be one more transition color to each side of the mid-tone, one dark and one light, but on the whole you have the gist of it. Just take your time with it as blending is not a fast technique. 

I look forward to following along with your progress so keep up the good work.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Thanks for the support and advice midge. Some of the colors are actually hard to tell which is closer to another. I was staring at bleach bone and dheneb stone today trying to figure out which is closer to white. I think most of the other colors I have are easier to tell though. Should at least the one model done tomorrow, gotta figure out how to use green stuff as well, which fortunately I found a good tutorial for on here.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Alright, Vendatha is done! But boy was it a lot of effort. Gonna be kind of pic heavy just because of the number of things I'd like to point out. I am sad to say that he took me probably like 18 hours or something ridiculous like that. I'm not sure because I worked on him bit by bit over the past week and half or so. Somehow he took me as long as my dreadnought?? Guess because I tried a bunch of new things. My completed assault terminator took me about 10 if I remember. I'm just glad I got this guy together as close to the way I had envisioned him as I have, and also considering I almost ruined the model completely trying to get him in this pose. Believe it or not it was real pain in the ass to get him in this pose, I got glue residue all over the chest and everything but I think I managed to clean it up enough to where its not too noticeable.

I am taking the best pics I can without my good camera or lights that are at my house, which is a few hours away driving. So Hopefully these are good enough. Does the white or green background look better?

So the new things I tried were the following:

The battle damage on the legs. 

A more proper caked dirt look on the legs as well as the robe

Continuing my attempt to improve the look of the robe/cloak whatever it is haha. Better than the previous one with the dark decorative lines?

I used the more common combination of dheneb stone and devlan mud for the parchment on his lower right leg for the first time, finally having picked up some devlan mud, in comparison to my usual bleached bone Sepia combination. I think both look good and it would be best for me to use them interchangeably rather than always one or the other.

I really envied the utter smoothness that Master of Sanctity (the heresyonline user) is able to get with his templars, especially the white. So, I went ahead and tried his method out on the shoulder pad. It worked really, really well but it took me much more than four layers. I wasnt sure exactly what consistency of water/paint to use though so I started safe by going light. I thought Maybe I wasn't spreading it around enough because it kept sinking into the edges. I just kept filling up the shoudler pad with each layer until it looked good so I dunno I'll keep working on it.

Not too much free hand work here, I have done the checkers on a few models before so that wasn't too hard. I thought about how to get that nice metallic shaving look that a lot of good Ork painters put on the checkered sections of the big klaws and guns and stuff, but I had already spent enough time on this model so just kept it simple.

Problems that I see myself: Some areas are still looking too thick. I water the paints down and use very little at a time, probably too little since I took so long. But I get really OCD and go over lines again and again and then all sudden I realize I've gone too far and there's no going back without fucking everything up. So, some of the highlighting still looks like shit, but some of it looks much better I think. Heh.

The Mold lines really pissed me off haha. I filed the model down to what I thought was enough but discovered after I began painting, and for some reason even if its just base coated it almost always seems to become a problem in the final appearances. So, A lot of problems with this model unfortunately I think came from bad preparation. This is why I have been trying to stick to simpler poses recently haha.

Anyways, here are the pictures:











































































Brother Vendatha, renamed in honor of the Custodian who would not stand idly by while the XVII legion tolerated foul heresy, and in spite of the overwhelming odds against him, took action to stop it. This Vendatha, brother of the Black Templars, has shown merciless wrath against those who dwindle in heresy, bringing fanatics back to their knees, praying for their life and forgiveness for kneeling before the Dark Gods. His skill and vigor in close combat is hard for even his peers to match, charging into combat with maddening fury and even more maddening silence beneath his mouthless battlehelm. Never faulting in the face of overwhelming odds or heretical worship got him his nickname, which soon became an official name change. He could not feel more honored to carry the name of one of the Emperor's finest, even if he was not a fellow Astartes.


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## Hammer49 (Feb 12, 2011)

The black templars look superb. Look forward to seeing more!


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## HorusReborn (Nov 19, 2008)

I like the Tabard alot man. The hard lining is great as it's not too thick and is straight and not sloppy, well done!


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

I am with Horus. Excellent model mate. The only thing that stands out to me, and it is very small mind you, is when you look at the rear of the model, you can see the back of the tabard on the torso. That cloth is so much lighter than the cloth exposed in the front even though it should be in shadow from the back pack. Maybe another layer of Devlan wash on it would add some shadow. Other than that excellent work mate.


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## Master of Sanctity (Nov 11, 2010)

Looking superb! Like I said before every new model you post up keeps getting better and will only continue to! And don`t worry about taking a long time to paint a single model, I take frustratingly forever to do mine, it`s the result in the end that counts. I especially like your work on the robe, well done. The only thing I suggest that is purely personal preference is some weathering or blood stains on the axe to go with the rest of the model, that is unless he has a nice new shiny replacement one.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Midge913 said:


> I am with Horus. Excellent model mate. The only thing that stands out to me, and it is very small mind you, is when you look at the rear of the model, you can see the back of the tabard on the torso. That cloth is so much lighter than the cloth exposed in the front even though it should be in shadow from the back pack. Maybe another layer of Devlan wash on it would add some shadow. Other than that excellent work mate.





Master of Sanctity said:


> Looking superb! Like I said before every new model you post up keeps getting better and will only continue to! And don`t worry about taking a long time to paint a single model, I take frustratingly forever to do mine, it`s the result in the end that counts. I especially like your work on the robe, well done. The only thing I suggest that is purely personal preference is some weathering or blood stains on the axe to go with the rest of the model, that is unless he has a nice new shiny replacement one.


Thanks for pointing that out midge I definitely just overlooked that haha. 

I thought about adding some blood stains but yeah that went inot the I've already worked on this giy for a long ass time already and Iw as afraid I'd mess it up. I haven't tried to do blood stains in a really long time come to think of it. The only reads I use are red gore and blood red, and the scab red seems to be the biggy in making realistic blood marks.

thanks for the comments everyone, glad I'm still improving.


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## xenobiotic (Jun 7, 2008)

Trying out new techniques always takes the most time the first few attempts, it'll just get quicker and quicker with each time you do it (like pretty much everything else in life). The important thing to remember 

There is a slight discrepancy between the backgrounds, both are good in their own way.

The white background helps bring forth all the colours in the miniature and gives me better contrast between the black and the white (better white balance?). The highlights looks less bright in those pictures. The gradient in the background is very soothing for the eye.

The green background has the light more spot on the miniature which makes your highlights very bright (almost to bright) and therefore brings out any error present more. The bright illumination in these pictures also changes the way the metallics appear (they look a bit flushed out and unfinished).

I think your cloth blending is progressing nicely, you've definitely stepped it up a notch with this miniature - you should keep doing what you've done on him, just refine your methods and get experienced with the procedure. 

About the parchments it's really up to you which way you go - after all it's your miniatures. A variation on them could be a nice way to show that different purity seals are of different age (paper changes colour with age) which combined with all the other details that flesh out each templar could make them more interesting.

The white on the shoulderpad looks good in the picture. I know myself how hard it is to get a good white coloured base. There is actually such a thing as having watering a colour to much making all the pigments end up in the recesses which aren't where you want them since after 4-5 layers you're losing details in your miniature. People sometimes talk about "milk consistency" which I find to be the thinnest mix you should use (and then 4 layers or so as Master of Sanctity has said),

I think the highlights on the legs look superb, specially with the weathering applied on there as well. It makes them soft and not so prominent to me when I'm looking at the picture - compare them to the ones on the backpack and you'll hopefully see what I'm saying. I might be looking at it from the wrong way though, I guess I'm also a painter that prefers soft highlights or gradients which colours my opinion in this matter a lot.

About the moldlines I think it's a matter of spending time with the miniature, paint does make them pop out and as you slowly progress you have a lot of time to notice them compared to if you had done a quick paintjob.

The checkerspatter on the backpack is a nice detail which adds a lot of flavour!

Other things:
The skull on the backpack looks like it could use another highlight (could be the green pictures flushing the colour out with the bright light though).
The sheath on the back looks undefined, I'd add a layer of one of the darker washes (devlan mud perhaps) and maybe rehighlight the edges after that. Same goes with the silvertip for the sheath and the gold handle for the poweraxe.

Keep 'em coming!


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Finally! I've been working on this sucker for the past two weeks. 

I'm not sure where I got the motivation to finish it seeing as I dont enjoy painting vehicles nearly as much as I do infantry. Maybe because I'm not very good at free hand work yet. I think its more because I find them on the tedious side though. Are there enough lines to highlight on this damn thing?

Nonetheless I am very happy to have him finished. Now the only vehicles I have built that aren't painted are a rhino razor back and the vindicator (still).


Alright so onto the details of the model. I honestly don't think it is anything special, but I defintiely consider it to be a good table top standard at least. there was just too much surface area for me to really concentrate on every detail.

I believe I actually placed the hurricane bolters in the wrong spots...It was my first time building a land raider and didnt even notice that other peoples crusader models have them on the side doors further forward until it was base coated (so glue was well dried by then).

Some other mistakes: Some spots you may notice are too heavily spray painted. you can see the grainy look of the black. Its not too bad though I dont think. I had already glued in the side doors when I remembered I had a black templars upgrade sprue with pieces specifically for land raiders that I probably wouldnt get another chance to use any time soon. So unlike the hurricane bolters I did feel the need to rip the side doors off and replace them with the black templars versions. I think it was a good decision. There are some bumpy cut up spots around the doors 
(had to pry them off with a file) but the increased individuality and coolness factor was well worth it. 

my codex gray was running kind of low and drying up really fast. Mixing it with water helped of course but it still just wasn't flowing as smoothly as I would have liked for such long edges to cover So my highlights are sub-par for the most part. Along with the fact as I mentioned before that the model was an overwhelming amount of highlighting on black. I got most of the accidental shakes of the brush but not every little bump.

Things I like: I am pretty happy with the free hand that I actually tried. I would have loved to be able to paint an epic pair of angle wings across the top and draping down the back but I cant even draw that on paper so...I didnt attempt it after all that highlighting was already finished on the roof. I think the many small details over all add a lot to the model. The lights, crusader seals/parchment, chains, frag launchers on the front/smoke stacks I think all came out well. I think I did a great job highlighting the guns and metal parts.

And let me just mention that I falling in love with devlan mud very, very quickly. that is one hell of a useful wash....it smells awful though haha. It just seems very versatile. It looks good on everything badab black looks good on and more.

Anyway, let me know what you all think, but like I said I'm just glad to have it finished :smoke:

Land Raider Crusader '_Faith_' 
(pics came out a little pinkish for some reason. I think they're alright though.)


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

_damn photobucket.... had to hop on another image hosting site for this one._

Another initiate I had been working on, his name is a bit more greek than the rest, Empedocles. Well, I guess thats about as greek as you can get.

Anyway, I think I did well on him overall. I am very keen on how the cloth and metals turned out, definitely got some more practice with that and veered from my more usual bleached bone with red scrolls over top. For the msotpart I think the highlighting is alright but it looks like I fucked up the shoulder pads a bit, the 8 point stars at least. Might go back and trim those down.

Any thoughts on the bullet damage to the shoulder? I'm not sure about it I like my leg damage on Vendatha much better.

Brother Empedocles


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## Fallen (Oct 7, 2008)

i love the broken sword.

looks great, how have i missed this thread?


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Looking good mate. The broken sword and drawn combat knife make a very dynamic pose!

As to the bullet hole. It looks just a little out of place in my opinion as it is the only battle damage that he has, but that is more of personal thing than an execution thing. Overall I think he is looking great.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Fallen said:


> i love the broken sword.
> 
> looks great, how have i missed this thread?


thanks! and as for how you've missed the thread well...:dunno: I dont post as much as I should though thats for sure.



Midge913 said:


> Looking good mate. The broken sword and drawn combat knife make a very dynamic pose!
> 
> As to the bullet hole. It looks just a little out of place in my opinion as it is the only battle damage that he has, but that is more of personal thing than an execution thing. Overall I think he is looking great.


I think you might absolutely be right about the battle damage. I thought that myself after looking at him some more. One it sticks out a LOT because its on a white section of armor, and two, yeah its the only one. I know it is easy to slip into having done too MUCH battle damage as well so thats probably what I was thinking at the time. not sure If I'll find the time to work on him more with a bunch of others to get done but if I do I'll probably cut another chunk out of him somewhere heheh


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## Hammer49 (Feb 12, 2011)

The templars look good. The battle damage looks good, just not enough of it to carry the effect off.


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## Cypher871 (Aug 2, 2009)

Well, I can only see the last initiate you posted up and he looks really nice. Might I suggest you take advantage of your personal Gallery on Heresy and upload all your photo's there. That way you will never lose your photo's to the vagaries of a hosting site. :good:


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## Oodles (Feb 24, 2009)

I like him! Props on the sword! Never has that crossed my mind in my conversion day dreams! The robes highlights are nice and not too bright. I do think the highlighting on the right leg indent/rectangle thingy is a bit thick. It looks like you filled in the recess almost. I point it out because i have soooo much trouble with it. Everything else is Primo!


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Cypher871 said:


> Well, I can only see the last initiate you posted up and he looks really nice. Might I suggest you take advantage of your personal Gallery on Heresy and upload all your photo's there. That way you will never lose your photo's to the vagaries of a hosting site. :good:


A good idea. All my pictures should be back up soon whenever that site finishes doing its maintenance, I just dont know how long that'll be.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Alright my pictures are back!

I have finished my razorback.

Getting some more practice with the vehicle side of things I suppose. After doing the land raider this seemed to take no time at all.

points of interest:

- I took some members' advice and used a darker highlight, and tried to aim for where light would actually hit, but I still find this difficult in general with vehicles. All sides are an equal point of reference really where as infantry I have a better idea of where I aim it to be viewed from, where the source of light around it is supposed to be. I used adeptus battlegray for the highlight instead of codex gray.

- some front panel areas look like they have a bad thickness to them. I tried to give it a weathered look while not adding mud like colors to it and such, more fo a warped hull but still black or at least a hull that has been weathered but the adepts at least painted it again.

-The battle damage on the side. I think it looks pretty believable, maybe a bit odd the way it is construed, something I need to work on after how my last initiate turned out as well. I think my method of painting battle damage is good but my placement is not consistently good. 

-on the roof edges are long pieces of sprue bits. I did the same thing on my predator as a means of showing it had the extra armor war gear upgrade. I think it looked good before so I did it again, and I like it again. Plus it will make them match better. I also did the same thing with the text on the sides with my pred but unfortunately I painted my pred back in the days when I drybrushed with boltgun instead of highlighting.



This turned out to be the best place in my room at the moment for pictures, its where they turned out the best at least. The lamp I use to paint up close just created too much contrast in shadows for pictures. Camera on my phone has a hard time with vehicles as well in terms of focusing on everything equally. So, my apologies but on a couple of them I went ahead and sharpened the picture a bit so it was less fuzzy.


Razorback, designation: _Bishop_


































closer view of the battle damage










And closer view of the las-canon turret. More specifically, a close up of the lenses. I think I have improved on my lens painting ability. My placement of the brighter shades and white dots seems much more on-point than they used to.










And here is a pic with both the razorback and the land raider to give an idea of what my army looks like on the table in terms of coherency, with the vehicle side of things at least.









The pred from earlier in the thread:

















Need to go fix up those transfer stickers at least. Still looks pretty good overall though in my opinion and I think it blends in well with the raider and razorback. One of my two rhinos is painted as well, but I dont seem to have any pictures of it anymore.




I think some heavy weapon guys are up next. In case you couldn't tell I'm a fan of plasma weapons, both on the table and for painting. I have a devastator box (just for fun really since BT cant use dev squads. I can put them in crusader squads individually though.) So I'm planning on making two plasma canon guys, two las-canon guys and a heavy bolter guy. I have a heavy bolter model already so I would have two of each. I have plenty of melta running around in my army as it is so no multimelta guys, and I already have three missile launcher guys so none of them either.


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## dark angel (Jun 11, 2008)

Your painting has improved in leaps and bounds, when compared to the first bunch of models. I particularly like the scripture on them, a very Templar-esque look. Plus rep mate, keep up the good work.

Edit - Bollocks, gotta spread it around first.


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

I agree with Dark Angel completely. Your painting has improved by leaps and bounds over the course of your log! The new razorback looks great and definitely fits in with the other vehicles you have done already!


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

thanks DA and midge much appreciated!

I have already gotten a good ways into the first las-cannon marine. Here's a picture! Looking at the model in person I feel like the highlights look really good but in the pics they look a little thick still. Thought I was finished with them on the main body here but may have to try and trim some more. 

There is a single bullet damage mark on the back of the right leg and then there are the scratches on the chest, trying to avoid what happened with my last initiate's battle damage and going back to what I did for Vendatha until I can figure out how to make bullet wounds look good on other areas besides the legs.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

My first las-cannon marine. Was more of a bitch to put together than I thought he'd be, missed a couple mold lines, transfer stickers were annoying as usual.

I did some more detail on the chest and head (since the above post of him) just to realize most of it would be covered up by the arms and gun haha.

But I'm pretty happy with him overall. Some of the highlighting is shit and honestly I think thats because I had to take a break form painting for two-three weeks because of final papers and exams and stuff. Guess painting miniatures ain't exactly like riding a bike...

Brother Ignatius:


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## Hammer49 (Feb 12, 2011)

Nice work on the las marine.


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## spanner94ezekiel (Jan 6, 2011)

Nice work, especially on the vehicles! +rep


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Another sweet looking addition mate! I really like the green lenses on the lascannon, the really stand out and add a lot to the model.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I have finished my second las-cannon marine. I was able to complete him in about half the time as the first and with much less trouble gluing him together but that comes naturally from having built one already.

I skimped on details in terms of individualizing him, but I only plan on having the two las-cannon marines in my army so he will already stand out quite a bit. Also, in spending less time on such details I ended up with a highlighting job that I am much more satisfied with than the previous las-cannon marine. 

Brother Ditrius:



































And next on the list is a pair of projects I am very excited about. The two plasma cannon marines. I have been waiting to paint some plasma cannon guys for a LONG time. one of the coolest looking marine builds in my opinion.

I have put together the first one and having learned form my two las-cannon marines I will be doing the lesser detailed on FIRST instead of second so I dont make as many mistakes on the one I want to look the best. so the first one I want to look good of course but he is mostly practice for the second one, which I am hoping to do my first real basing project with as well.

Here is the first one atm. I think I glued it right and filed every thing down pretty well, missed some on the las marines so not trying to have that happen again.


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## Kharnas (Oct 24, 2009)

Scary Impressive work man, probably the best templars I have seen to date, including mine, infact mine just scored a date with teh stripper....and not the leggy kind.

+rep


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## Master of Sanctity (Nov 11, 2010)

Great to see things are still progressing along nicely! Keep up the good work!


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

I have actually finished a couple more models but am having trouble with my camera....sigh. the little plasma cannon dude in the above post is done, as well as another close combat guy.

Finally getting started on my dark eldar soon as well. I have the paint scheme figured out now so hoping to get some good progress on the first warrior tonight.

I'd love to just finish my black templars first but painting so much black for so long argues otherwise.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

I really like the concept of adding honour marks to your warriors with relation to how well they do in battle. I might need to adopt that for my imperial forces or chaos army depending on what i work on next. I'm not completely sure how i managed to not see this log before..maybe i'm just going senile in my old age.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

GrimzagGorwazza said:


> I really like the concept of adding honour marks to your warriors with relation to how well they do in battle. I might need to adopt that for my imperial forces or chaos army depending on what i work on next. I'm not completely sure how i managed to not see this log before..maybe i'm just going senile in my old age.


Well thank you. Painting definitely got a lot more fun when I found ways to enhance the character and story telling part of it. I strayed away from sticking to as strict of a symbol code but I think that came with me getting better over time. 

I wouldnt be surprised if you've missed it becuase I update it very sparingly


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

Nice looking Devastators Unxpekted. As Midge said, those green lenses just make the model stand out so much more, good chioce on the color!

Hope you get the Camera issue resolved, looking forward to seein gyour other models finished.

+Rep mate.

Regards,
DoE


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Well its been a long f***in time but finally have some more stuff to put up here. 

The first guy is the little plasma cannon dude that was still gray in the last update. I tried to keep him fairly simple, trying to focus on getting pro at the basics and didnt want to get carried away with a model type I have never put together before. The cord from the cannon to the backpack has a bump or two but that seems to be very hard to avoid with the marine devastator models. I didnt do as well on the eyes as I would have liked, might try to brighten them up a bit later. I am really happy with the plasma cannon. Probably the most tedious bunch of up highlighting ever on the front of it, and I am also really happy with the blue on the weapon. Paint on the back of his right shoulder came out way too thick and blotchy.



































Just noticed the transfer sticker there had come up a bit again while I was taking the pictures, agh! haha.



This next marine is kind of all over the place. I'd say this is my standard now for taking my time but not too much. Some of the highlighting is weak, a bit more rushed than some of the previous models I have put on here. There are some dings and dust I didnt notice while adding last minute details becuase he has been on the game table a few times. Eyes arent too great. Still good practice for the black highlights and cloak blending that is a never ending path of getting better at.

I have no idea what the little doodle is on his right leg becuase I just let my hand do what it felt like, so it really is just a doodle that looks like candy cane swirls....but I really like it for some reason.












































Overall I think both of these models are very table top worthy, but thats not exactly what I'm going for. I thought I'd ahve way more time to paint since being done with college but that jus hasnt been the case. I hope now that I ahve gotten over the bump of getting started again it will continue.


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## Josh101 (Dec 16, 2011)

Looks great, superb painting:so_happy:


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Well after hardly painting at all for months I finally managed to finish this fella.

I definitely don't think he is much of an improvement from the last one, if at all, but as I have realized before painting skill isn't much like riding a bike. It certainly starts to diminish without practice.

Nice to have another one done in the squad though, for sure. Oh, I also still need to obtain some of those new paints I suppose.


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Well this was fun:


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Pretty snazzy collection there man!


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## unxpekted22 (Apr 7, 2009)

Completed my other two bikes. simple but effective paintjobs I think. I just wanted to get them finished haha. Helbrecht's on my desk and base coated, so maybe he will get finished as well.

Oh I did use my bottles of micro sol and micro set for the first time on these guys, though I did paint one of the emblems on the sword wielder. Nonetheless, the transfers did in fact go on smoother than ever. They still are reflecting the light pretty heavily but it still appears flat to the surface rather than the sticker outline being obvious or anything like that. I probably used too much of one or the other.


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## gearhart (Oct 18, 2011)

stunning job mate! i love black templars and you sir do them beautifully! keep it up!


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