Have you ever had an inkling that maybe, just maybe, you’ve bitten off more than you can chew? When time is a factor, do you ever look to use up every second? Well, Games Workshop were very kind in sending me the brand new Black Templars big daddy, High Marshal Helbrecht himself, and I decided to push myself a bit more than I normally would with this one. Here he is:

Now, on first viewing, going by the image above, it perhaps doesn’t look too OTT. The glowing sword (the biggest thing I’ve ever tried to make glow) sticks out perhaps, and you might get a hint of some writing on the inside of the cloak there. It’s perhaps fancy, but maybe not so fancy. Give it a minute.

One thing you may also notice is the lack of the little dude shining Helbrecht’s sword (saucy) and in answering where he is, I may as well also cover off my thoughts on the miniature. “Miniature” may not be the word – he’s huge! I hear some are already calling him “Hunk-brecht” and no wonder. Proper massive. That right there is a base size usually used with Dreadnoughts. I really like the little dude wiping the sword, but he didn’t really seem to fit with the idea of the power sword being on – I imagine even a servitor would feel the pain of trying to clean a burning power sword. So I’ve reserved him for a later project which will hopefully be fun. I of course kept the guy carrying the combi-weapon because it gave me a laugh when I thought of Helbrecht getting annoyed when that servitor gets shot. “Really? Thanks, guys. Thanks. Just great. Now I’ve got to carry the damn gun myself – do you know how heavy this thing is!?” etc.

But in removing one of the servitors, I unbalanced the piece, I felt. It’s such a faithful and lovingly made interpretation of the Mark Gibbons piece, I felt I needed to keep some balance there. And then I had the idea that just took this whole piece a little too far…

Well, you had to expect it at some point, right? I mean, I don’t think there are many John Blanche box covers I haven’t painted now, and this was a glaring omission that I have thankfully corrected. In fact, I finished painting that up literally an hour or so before penning this blog, and I can still taste all the Averland Sunset I was licking off my brush. The banner itself is taken from one of Forge World’s Heresy command sets with the hand trimmed off at the back. I thin pinned it into the base and there’s a bobble of greenstuff underneath it still curing and giving it a little more stability.

I should say, my favourite part of the above shot is actually the blue glow I managed to get on the lower leg there, behind the sword. OSL is still something I need to practice but I think I nailed that bit of it, and I did get to practice several times across the mini, with varying degrees of success. The candles on his backpack are glowing, but i think I made the orange too strong, and the lantern glow might be a little weak but I was thinking that blue flames actually don’t emit much light… maybe I was overthinking that. Overall though, I’m quietly happy with how the lighting effects are going here.

And the cloak is all in latin and there is a whole message in there about the Emperor protecting and the Black Templars killing aliens and heretics… the usual stuff. The font is called ‘Ancient’ if you’re looking for similar.

I’m probably going to revisit the sword at some point to smooth out the transitions a bit but I’m happy with the colouring of it all. The armour was all painted in silvers and then stained in a blend of Guilliman Flesh and Nazdreg Yellow that had been thinned down a fair bit. Oh, and for Helbrecht’s skin I used a base of Ungor Flesh as a midtown because I’m really enjoying that paint at the moment.

There are a couple of cop outs on the mini. The little skull that’s painted in the banner’s round bit at the top – that was going to be a Templar cross but I need a lot more practice painting those before I commit to that design being front and centre on any mini. And I was going to do a load of latin on the back of the banner too but I was burnt out by the time I got there. And I was probably going to do some writing on the gun as well, but I got a red I really liked and didn’t want to risk cocking up and having to redo it. And speaking of the combi-melta…

I think this little dude became my low key favourite bit of this mini. I’m really happy with the dead skin tone I achieved using Rakarth Flesh, which I then washed with a diluted Carroburg Crimson, and then I brought the light areas up again by moving up through Rakarth Flesh to almost pure white. He’s such a characterful little dude.

I just had to run and get this photo (excuse the sketchy base rim there – not sure why that’s happened) because I completely forgot about the field of skulls that’s on the back of his cloak. And you get a nice view of the Servitor of course, but really, it shows I’ve taken things too far when I have to run off and get a photo of the cloak because I forgot it was even something I did. There is a vague attempt at a soft grain pattern in there but I didn’t go too far with it as then I’d have to do the whole cloak and I quite like the slick brown look it has.

All in all, this was a hugely fun mini to work on. It’s a great tribute to the character, the army and the illustration by Mark Gibbons. I’ve got a few little bits to touch up on it still like I said, but I don’t have the time to fix all of that just now so you’ll have to settle for a 97% done Helbrecht. Maybe 97.5%. He’s an absolute beast and a must for any Templars force.

One of the reasons I don’t have the time is because I am heading off to Salute today at London’s Excel. I’m looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces, splurging on basing accessories and big minis I probably won’t get around to painting, and having a weekend of board gaming fun and boozing with some old friends. I hope you too have a wonderful weekend, and if you see me at Salute, do wave hello – I’ll try and remember to pack the Heresy and Heroes hoody so you’ll know who I am. I’ll leave you with one last image of the banner, and until next time, Onwards (to Salute)!

Well, I am a lucky boy. I was thrilled when Games Workshop decided to send me the new Black Templars box because, well, what a box! What a range. After all that time in the wilderness for Black Templar players, their faith has been rewarded with a killer set of miniatures and this box contains the first of them. That’s why I decided to focus more on the miniatures than the book (though don’t worry – that’ll get a look too). But I didn’t have much time on my hands, so the question was; could I paint up the new Emperor’s Champion to a nice standard in two evenings. Effectively six hours. Well, here’s the answer:

That’s not bad, right?! I knew I couldn’t aim for “display quality” (which is a phrase I hate – if you painted it and you’re proud of it, it’s display quality; don’t listen to the haters) so I leaned into ‘simple but effective’ and saved the special stuff for a couple of small spaces. These are the basic steps, but if you want more detail, just pop a note in the comments. 🙂

Building and basing went quickly and a black undercoat went on (obvs). Then, when that dried, a thin layer of Abaddon black went down all over. I didn’t have the time to spend hours doing fades and intensely accurate edge highlighting, so I went for a fast and freer approach. I also went down the Rhinox Hide/Mournfang route to make it a bit warmer and the browns lend themselves to the look of the Templars (that cover art was very fresh in my mind). When that was all done, a layer of thinned down Black Templar all over the model to a) soften those highlight transitions, and b) give the armour a ruddier look (I knew I’d be doing a bit of weathering here and there so this would tie in nicely).

I then did the reds, which started as a Rhinox Hide/Mephiston Red mix, then moved through Mephiston Red and eventually up to Evil Sunz Scarlet. I would have done a bit more work on the texture but I had no time so once I was done, a glaze of thinned Blood Angels Red went down.

The leathers happened next, followed by the white. The latter started off as Celestra Grey, and then once a couple of coats had gone down, I started blending in White Scar until a pure highlight was applied to the tops. Seraphim Sepia helped to grime them up a bit. And that was night 1 done – it was a whirlwind!

Night two started off with the metallics. The benefit of my system is that all metallics are painted using the same paints (Leadbelcher, Iron Warriors, Iron Breaker and Abaddon Black) in a sort-of TMM style (usually a lot more care goes into it) and then you use contrast paints to stain these. So for both gold and silver areas, it’s the same thing until the last step. Before that though, the sword got my customary weathered bronze look.

That was the busy work done and now I got to have some fun. First up, using Altdorf Blue and blending it gradually with White Scar, I created the glowing areas – his eyes and the lantern at his waist (which I wish I’d taken a better picture of but hey ho – it’s not that pretty). It’s not the most perfectly blended out OSL, but considering I had about half an hour, that’s not bad. Then, I decided it would be a good idea to keep up my skull-painting practice as I decorated the tilting shield. Maybe it’s a bit of a cop out for me, but I think it fits the theme quite nicely, and again, time was an issue.

Now I needed to do a bit more of that weathering. I sponged on some Skavenblight Dinge across the the armour which gives a nice, subtle effect. I then accentuated this with a few delicate scratches using the same paint. Then, just for some variance and to help the weathering stand out more, I applied some more light scratches using Dawnstone.

That was the model done, but then the base needed doing. I used greys initially to build up some character and then a thinned Flesh Tearers Red was applied all over to give it this its Red Velvet colouration. Then some skull painting, a couple of little tufts, a quick clean up of the base rim and it was done in record time!

I was exhausted at the end of this. Sure, if I’d had a week with it, maybe things would be a little more fancy, but given that I can take a month to produce a mini sometimes, I was very happy with how this came out. 6 hours! Usually by that time, I’ll have done half of one leg!

A word on the miniature itself too – it’s a stunner. I love the He-man pose, and because he’s Primaris now, he’s a proper beast in terms of size and scale. And it’s a refreshingly simple miniature in terms of sculpted detail. Often, important minis get bogged down with 9 billion fetishes and blemishes but I love how simple this piece is and it’s up to the painter how much detail to add. Love it. And the rest of the box is pretty special itself. Maybe a squad of Sword Brethren would have been better than the Dreadnought, but who doesn’t love Dreadnoughts? All in all, I’d call the whole thing a massive win.

I hope you liked the whistle-stop tour through my last two nights of hobby painting. It was a blast and you can look forward to seeing more about this box on Heresy & Heroes soon. Onwards!