Black Templar Fanatics / Cawdor Gangers

These guys have been a long time coming, but I’ve finally finished some of my Cawdor models!

I spent pretty much all of April on sick leave after a minor surgery. During that time, I made it my goal to paint at least one mini. I thought these Cawdors that have been built since 2021 would be appropriate. They’re really cool models, each with conversions that I’m proud of, but for the longest time I couldn’t come up with a color scheme I liked. I painted a test model in ’22 in a red scheme, and while I love the red parts, the rest don’t work (sorry, it’s the only WIP shot of the model, without the “rest”.).

In the end I decided that I’d paint the gangers as fanatic rabble who tag along my Black Templars. I realized that if I’d paint the cowls white and the rest of the rags black or at least dark, the scheme would mirror the BT, who are of course black with white shoulders and chest. However, whereas the BT have blue highlights on their armor and a relatively clean look, the gangers would get gray-brown highlights and generally a more weathered look.

In addition to the black and white clothes, these guys had some interesting details to paint. The “repent!” sign was fun to do, as there was so much room, but it’s also a reminder that I should always start with the central letters. I usually do, but this time I was confident that I’d get the lettering even, but alas, the word was a bit to the left. I fixed it by adding the exclamation mark, which I don’t love, but it’s better than repainting the plank and trying the lettering again. The Molotov cocktail was a bit of an experiment, as I couldn’t find much reference for one, or a generic green bottle with liquid inside (I guess I just didn’t look hard enough…). The result is ok, though some more light/dark contrast could’ve helped (as it always does). Other fun details include the red “crusader seals”, the tilt shields, the yellow-and-red checkers and the yellow goggle lenses. These details and the color choices were used to further tie the Cawdor models to the Black Templars.

Like the cocktail, the bases were a bit of an experiment. Back when I put them together, I planned to paint them as white marble and all the details with “proper” colors. But, to unify them with my Templars, I decided to use the same palette and method as on their bases. The washes and drybrushing obviously don’t work quite as well on flat tiles as on sand and rocks, but I think they came out reasonably well. I did paint some of the details in colors other than orange-beige, as I thought they needed to pop out a bit. Going forward, I think I’ll build some gangers with a bit more sandy bases, like my BTs, and add a bit more details on the base of my BTs, like tiles and chains and such.

As for the bingo card, these models would’ve qualified for a number of squares, but I claimed the “unit with scenic bases” with them. I think they’re some of my more elaborate bases, with tiles, sand, chain and plastic and resin bits thrown in. “Unit” might be stretching it a bit, but at least there are more than one model.