Black Templar army complete with pics

Hi folks,

These chaps have been sitting in a box for some time now and with the advent of a new (and a bit unexpected) release, the time was right to give them some love. The majority of this army was built from a rather neglected BT Ebay lot, which I have stripped, ressaembled etc etc and so the army has been a real labour of love. Some of the elements were bought in good second hand condition and just required a few additons, but aside from the centurions and stalker, very few parts of the army were bought brand new. Here's a slot by slot breakdown of the army:

HQ

First up is the Marshall, who I will be running as a Chapter Master with a shield eternal and thunder hammer. He is made from an old AoBR captain but with a BT head, chest, accesories and banner. The storm shield is a FW BT terminator one and suitably massive to represent the shield eternal. The TH is from the new vanguard kit.

The captain (Marshall) is made from a Captain Draco I got from my FLGS for £2 only missing the sword. Add one banner and a dark angel sword and he's all good to go. The Ltd ed Emperors champion I got included in the aforementioned  EBay lot as something of a surprise (he wasn't visible in the pictures) and is a beautiful model.

The chaplain is made from various BT and command squad parts, with a metal vanguard plasma pistol arm and chaos marine (beserker?) head. The crozius is also made from BT vehicle plaques glues back to back which worked rather nicely. Lastly for HQ, there's a command squad made mostly from Command squad parts and BT upgrade parts, mostly noticable from the tabards. The standard bearer also has a metal CF upgrade helmet. 

 
Elites

The elites section is full with a dreadnought, some terminators and some vanguard. The dreadnought is converted from an AoBR dreadnought, with some venerable dreadnought parts and even some old epic spares added to make him more unique. He is mainly intended as fire support for the rest of the army as it advances. The Terminators are the standard variety and are all customised using GK paladin helmets, BT upgrade parts and some greenstuff BT robes to make them fit with the rest of the sword bretheren. 

The Vanguard are mostly just normal assault marines with some customising, such as adding BT symbols cut from drop pod insignia (which handily curl up to roughtly the right angle as you trim them off) and various other parts, including a power sword from the metal terminator captain. Of special note is the sergeant, who has both small ball bearings drilled into the legs to look like heresy armour, a ravenwing head, a games day captain thunder hammer and a scratch built storm shield (as does another of the vanguard).

Troops

The meat of the army, there are 50 models in this section. 10 are older metal scouts with monkish haircuts added by greenstuff. 20 are the BP/CCW initiates to accompany the neophytes as 2x 15 man crusader squads. The sword brothers have tabards and the two models armed with power fists are older metal models converted. The remaining 20 models are each 10 initiates strong and are designed so one model can either be armed with a heavy or melee weapon. 

Of note is the fact that my bits box is now fairly empty, having adorned all the Templars with taabards and loincloths. I also cast a load of crusader seals in greenstuff so that each model in the army would have at least one. 

Dedicated transports

I have one dedicated rhino and another which can be swapped out for a rhino or razorback. Of course, it wouldn't be a black templar army without a land raider crusader, and thus this painstakingly refurbished beauty came to be. There's a lot of adornment, including a removable flag and shields to be painted with the crusade markings. (which incidentally will be the St. George cross seeing as I'm from England)

Fast Attack

This section consists of a beautifully painted land speeder I picked up in my FLGS which only needed minor repairs. A bike squadron with some modifications is also present. Those modifications namely being the addition of drop pod icons to the rear of the bike as well as the usual adornments. 

Heavy support

This section is composed of new releases, namely devastator centurions and a hunter/stalker. I magnetised the loadout so that either turret could be used (note the smoke and firing missile on the hunter). The centurions were heavily converted, altering their legs poses and waists to make them more dynamic. The chest weapons were replaced with vents and the forearms reconstructed to hold the secondary weapons. Very pleased with how they turned out. 

And so the army is finished, primed and ready to paint. Anything else I would like to add in the future? Predator parts to swap in for the hunter parts would offer some variety, and some proper sword bretheren models to use as honour guard for the chapter master would be nice to convert. A second land raider crusader wouldn't go amiss either.......