Hobby progress part 3/3 - Black Templars and Imperial Fists.

Black Templars:
 

These chaps were essentially lacking their Honour Guard and so I got ahold of two lots of Sword Bretheren (they look the part) and got to converting them up to resemble the Chapters finest. Mostly simple conversions to grant them power weapons. They also benefitted from a spare model I had left from the Imperial Fists update (see below) and gained the FW IF command chap as their Chapter Champion. (Templars have so many Champions it must be hard to keep track!) The two lightning-claw armed chaps were used as is/converted to have power fist and used as sword brothers to lead squads. In total the Honour Guard are 9, so 1 off the maximum leaving space for a Chapter banner bearer at some point. But that's not all, I have a Stormraven from Strike Force Ultra that has been gathering dust unassembled. As the army lacks any airpower I decided to use it to good effect as a ride for the Honour Guard. I also raided the bits box in order to grant the Dreadnought in the army a couple of extra arms to make it a more effective close-assault dread riding alongside the Honour Guard. 

Imperial Fists:

These chaps got the same treatment as the Salamander and Ultramarine Devastators in that I updated them to be on magnetised new devastator legs. However, as the vast majority of the army was second-hand, it soon became apparent that removing the existing devastators from their legs and making them magnetised was going to be tricky, as their previous owner had done a thorough job of ensuring they never broke at the waist. It therefore took a lot of 'gentle persuasion' (i.e, drilling, cutting, snapping and repairing) to achieve what should have been a relatively straightforward task. Also, I used the standard bearer from the FW IF Command squad to replace one of the Command squad (who would become the Salamanders assault Sergeant). Lastly, because I love the model I got ahold of the Polux model to use as a Chapter Master. God the SIgismund one is hard to resist also for a Templars Character. I have slapped a fair amount of paint on them to bring the a step closer to tabletop standard, but to be honest the main issue with them at present is the basing. I didn't even bother to put the devastators on bases nor paint the majority of them as they will need updating to 32mm in the future anyway - I'll add them to the list. You may also have spotted my new flying friend, who will feature in a post later this week along with 2 other additions to the Astartes air force.  

Where now?

Phew, that was quite the hobby push! Really happy to have gotten all the Marine armies up to date and to have no sprues sat in boxes anymore. That is of course aside from some Necrons, who will be the next project to move onto once Heresy is done and dusted. That and continuing with rebasing marine armies, including adding some ring adaptors to resin bases on the Iron Hands and Salamanders. (will post an article on that at some point) I'm keen to get some painting projects up and running also, which were derailed by painting up Dark Angels last month. With a Raven Guard game coming up next weekend I dare say I'll give them some fuss this week and post some pics at the weekend - maybe even a battle report. On that note I leave you with this pleasant chappy who is currently getting a lot of love. Cheers.