Scott Edwards’ Black Templars

Scott Edwards has sent in quite a few things to the What's New Today inbox, and recently he's been working on some Black Templars, a Space Marine Chapter we've not featured for a while. They were so well done, it only seemed fair to give them a full post of their own. Here's what Scott has to say about his army and how he uses them on the battlefield.

Scott: What inspired me to paint the Black Templars was the Space Marine Battles novel, Helsreach, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (my favourite in the series). While I was reading the book I was thinking 'I've got to paint myself some of these guys'. The Black Templars were just awesome in the story and totally killed a horde of Orks when they got the chance. When Grimaldus was on the battlements before the battle started, and got all the Imperial Guard chanting, it was really inspiring stuff.

Well, unlike the Black Templars in the book, I have as much tactical skill as a drunken Ork. For what it's worth, I normally mount the Sternguard (which represent my Sword Brethren) in the Razorback so they can nip around the battlefield to unload nasty volleys of fire on anything and everything in sight, then mop up anything that's left standing with the power fist. The two Crusader Squads tend to find cover or hold objectives while giving support fire for the close-combat Crusader Squad (mounted in the Rhino) and the Assault Squad. I love these two squads as I don't need any tactical skills to speed them forward and assault at the first chance. There are plenty of chainswords and power weapons in there to make mincemeat of almost anything!

Anyway, about the models...

I start with an undercoat of Chaos Black, followed by highlights of Codex Grey and Fortress Grey for the edges of the armour. For the cloth I went for quiet a dark look to go with the black power armour. To get this, I based it with Dheneb Stone then washed it heavily with Badab Black, and then a Devlan Mud wash. I then highlighted up from that with Dheneb Stone, Bleached Bone and a 50/50 mix of Bleached Bone and Skull White.

I wanted the white areas to be really pure and bright, to stand out from the dark cloth and armour, so I based it with Dheneb Stone then used multiple layers of watered down Skull White. I really enjoyed painting the faces on the models without helmets. My favourite guy is the one with only half his face left - he must have come across something nasty before he could cleave it in two with his chainsword...