From DavidL - Black Templar Terminators and Land Raider (45 points)

As the finish line looms closer, I finally at least manage to put some points on the board towards my Black Templar project. I'd hoped to get through my entire Templar list this Challenge, but so it goes.

I've always had a soft spot for the 40K universe, but most of my gaming in that setting has been via Epic-scale engagements. For various reasons, I never got into 40K proper back in the 90s. I've nearly gotten into it a few times over the last 10 years, but I lacked a project that really fired my imagination.

That changed when I discovered the Black Templars. I love their look, I love their lore. In a gothic sci-fi universe, they are the most gothic of all. I used to field an Empire army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and I think the Black Templars come closest to capturing that same visual aesthetic. I was additionally pleased to find out that Forge World offer a variety of resin and brass-etched "add-ons" to properly pimp out one's Templars in grand gothic fashion.

What we have here is one of the centerpiece units of my Templar force: five Terminators and their Land Raider Crusader transport.

The Terminators are kitted out with custom shoulder plates and shields from Forge World; for their helmets, I swapped in appropriately knight-like pieces from Puppets War (gotta love those third-party Eastern European conversion companies!).

As befits the Eternal Crusaders of Righteousness, these guys are positively festooned in purity seals. (I love purity seals.)

And then there's the behemoth that is the Land Raider Crusader. This thing took almost as long to build as it did to paint! Coming off of painting WWII tanks, which are usually no more than 3-5 pieces total, it was a bit daunting assembling this thing, with its dozens of parts.

Size-wise, it's truly massive - probably the largest vehicle miniature I've ever painted.

Once again, lots of nice additional details courtesy of Forge World.

I'm quite pleased with how the black turned out on both the Terminators and the Crusader. I used Andrea Color's "Black Paint Set" (as I did with my Soviet sailors in my last entry) and the kit worked great both with the brush and airbrush (although the rather viscous paints needed a lot of watering down for the latter).

I'm going to knuckle down and get one more entry in before the closing ceremonies, so I won't say cheerio just yet...

Superb work David. I've always had a soft spot for the Black Templars as they have such a classic colour scheme and brutal aesthetic about them. I really like your use of white as an accent to accentuate the helmets and weapon casings - it looks very sharp. Your Crusader Land Raider is a wonderful centerpiece as well, especially with those marvelous Forge World add-ons (to which I'm going to add a few more points as I know how fiddly those things can be). Again, great stuff David!