Black Templars Commission.

I don't get very many commissions, mostly because I charge quite a bit of money. It's not that I'm all that great a painter, I can think of a dozen guys off the top of my head who are better than me and it is not that I am fast, because I am slow as molasses.  I charge a lot for two reasons. One, it takes me a lot of time to do them and time is one thing I have very little of.  My time is worth a lot of money to me. And two, every commission I do is done to a standard that I myself would be proud to put on the table.  Every model gets tender Jawalove and a piece of me, sometimes literally, goes into each unit I paint.  I only do one quality level, high. There are plenty of guys out there who do economy level work for the customer on a budget. Black Matt, Goatboy and Blue Table Painting to name three. They are all great and I have sent business to them all.  But every once in a while I get a guy who wants to splurge and asks me to do a job that I want to do. (I don't accept just any job.)

So here is my newest commission!  We will call him Frank. Frank wants a Black Templar army. He asked me to design him a competitive list, build it and paint it.  He asked me to make them stand out, be unique and look great.  I quoted him my standard high prices including some options and he didn't bat an eyelash! My kind of man.  :)

I will be painting:
3 speeders
10 termies
15 crusader marines
3 razorbacks
1 Land Raider Crusader
1 emps champ
1 marshal

He sent me some demon bits to add to the bases of some of the models, gave me some guidelines for what he wanted, then opened up the rest to my creative whim.

I decided to start with the terminators and painted up a test model to serve as the basis for the rest of the army.  This is still a work in progress but very close to finished.


I had forgotten how deceptively hard templars are to paint.  Im using the tried and true Codex-Fortress grey highlights. But man, they are unforgiving. The slightest lapse in concentration and boom a botched line. The black contrast makes every imperfection glaringly obvious.  I need to go back into this guy and clean up his edges.  I went with red helmets and shoulder pads, highlighted up to orange.  I am using the same dark base I use for my Blood Angels but am bringing the highlight up to a Fiery Orange, then toned down with Baal Red.  The bases of these models are my line of Jawabases called Industrial Ruin.  I'm not sold on how I painted it though, I'm open to suggestion here guys.  The claws are just blue for now. I had to balance out the bright orange highlights.

Here is a pic of 5 termies in progress.


Here are some more pics.



So there you go!  I will post more pics as I get more progress.  I will also see if he wants me to paint him a banner like this one.



More to come...

Jawaballs

14 comments:

HuronBH said...

I think the the bases need to be lighter to balance the dark colors on the model and add interest and contrast to the models. Reds and Blacks do this okay, but a good bright desert base with heavily scratch and light but dulled (sand blasted) with a bit of orange rust metallics would probably go a long way to enhancing the mini.

dzer0 said...

When painting black models I find it easier to start with a gray primer and use a series of washes to create the highlights and shadows.

It takes a little bit of practice, but the breadth the process provides is actually much greater than just priming black and highlight with codex gray. I think the depth of the colors is much more interesting as well.

This was my inspiration: http://www.the-vanus-temple.com/?p=1365

Jawaballs said...

Yah I love his stuff. Some day I will play around with working dark from grey.

Michael Hogan said...

Honestly, I like a combination of the black with grey highlights and the dark greys worked up to the "black". A washed over grey with semi-extreme highlights just before the last wash hits the edges can really make the model pop, in my opinion. Either way, I think the highlights are crisp enough to make the models look fantastic. Excellent blending (or what looks like blending at least) on the reds. Did you use metallic paints on the metal parts? Maybe you could try some NMM on them to make the eagles a bit more dull. I think it would tie in with the rest of the model a bit nicer, but I have no clue.

I can't wait to see what you do with Dark Eldar and Grey Knights paint-wise once you free up enough time to mess around.

Jawaballs said...

I have had the DE in the back of my mind for a while now. Not sure what I will do. They won't be black though, and red is a little played out. We will have to see!

Michael Hogan said...

I personally love the dark armor (or near black) with a hint of either teal/green or blue. I'll post up a picture or two of what I am talking about.

Stolen from Legio Minimus:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hVZcagPD1ZU/TLzOXcAo-OI/AAAAAAAAANI/9mE1VMH2-KA/s1600/WarriorTestFront.JPG

My own old-model Incubi -
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_d0K-XqHHSeY/TNMn7ZJ8-KI/AAAAAAAAAUc/EH8HT_uV_e8/s1600/IMG_0631.JPG

I hope you get the idea. Just extreme highlights in the end, really. I'm not sure of any "real" Kabal color schemes for Dark Eldar, only the ones in Soulstorm which have probably been updates since.

Unknown said...

For your bases, I'd add a little more grey into the mix for the "gravel". To me gravely, rubbley ground is more grey than brown. Other than that loving the colour scheme so far and can't wait to see the rest of the army painted up.

Drew K said...

Chris ill be in Ny on saturday you wanna game? 2,000 points?

Jawaballs said...

I will be at Mechanincon Anderw, and commander, good idea, let me play with them and check back later.

Drew K said...

o I forgot...my bad

Unknown said...

how much would you charge for this (small commission)
vulkan he'staan
land raider redeemer
5 hammer termies?

Jawaballs said...

Triso email me, jawaballs at hotmail. you are looking for salamander colors i assume?

Anonymous said...

Try using a .05 Micron pen for the scroll text. I find it 1000x easier to use and better results than the brush tip.

Unknown said...

WOW I like the red...not to fond of the black but to be honest Black IMO is hard to do. But I love the reds.

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