Paint My Black Templars Army — Commission Painting by a Dedicated Warhammer 40k Studio
From a single Marshal to a full 2,000-point crusade. A Black Templars commission painting service built for collectors who want a display-grade army and gamers who want their crusade on the table without burning a year of evenings.
A crusade deserves more than a basecoat
There is a reason the Eternal Crusaders attract the most obsessive painters in the hobby. Black armour is unforgiving. The cloaks, tabards and parchments demand real freehand. The white shoulders have to read as bone, not chalk. The swords have to feel like relics. Half-painted Black Templars look worse than half-painted anything else — and a Black Templars army painted with care looks better than anything else on the table.
That is the entire reason this service exists. If you've typed "paint my Black Templars army" into a search bar, you've already done the math. You don't have six free months. You don't want a Warhammer army painter who ships you slap-chopped models that all look the same. You want a Warhammer 40k painting studio that treats your crusade as a project, not a batch.
Bierzo Art Studio is a full-time commission painting studio specialising in Warhammer 40k armies, with Black Templars as one of our signature factions. Every crusade we deliver is painted by a single lead artist, photographed at every milestone, and shipped with the kind of insurance and packaging usually reserved for competition pieces.
A tournament-ready crusade — without losing a year to batch painting
Tabletop+ Black Templars commission painting designed to survive matched play and still photograph well on social media.
Three-colour minimum is the floor, not the ceiling
Every model leaves the studio with proper black zenithal layering, edge highlights, contrast cloaks, weathered metallics and pin-washed armour. No slap-chop shortcuts.
Durable varnish stack
Two-stage gloss-then-matte varnish protects edge highlights and freehands. Your Sword Brethren survive bag transport, dice, and the occasional bumped table.
Magnetised weapon options
Crusader Squad bolters, pistols, neophyte options and Land Raider sponsons can be magnetised so your list stays legal as the meta shifts.
WYSIWYG and clean basing
Sergeant markings, squad numbering and consistent textured bases — so judges and opponents can read your list at a glance.
Foam-cut transport ready
Optional foam trays cut to silhouette so your crusade ships straight from the studio into a tournament bag.
Locked-in deadlines
If you have an event in eight weeks, you'll know on day one whether we can hit it. We don't take work we can't deliver on schedule.
A display-grade army worthy of the Eternal Crusade
Display and competition Black Templars commissions for collectors who buy fewer models and expect each one to hold up under a loupe.
True NMM gold and steel
Non-Metallic Metal on relic blades, reliquaries and Marshal armour trims — painted in full opaque layers, not glazed shortcuts.
Hand-painted heraldry and freehand
Templar crosses, chapter banners, oath scrolls, Latin script and crusade iconography painted freehand at a scale where transfers would never read right.
Genuine OSL on braziers and plasma
Real Object Source Lighting projected onto armour and surrounding models — not a blue smudge under a glow weapon.
Coherent army-wide narrative
Battle damage, dust transitions and basing tell one story. A crusade that has fought through volcanic ruins reads the same on every model.
How a Black Templars commission works
A repeatable seven-step workflow refined over years of full-time Warhammer army painter work — so you always know what's happening to your crusade and when.
- 01
Brief and quote
You send your list, references and tier. We come back with a written quote, schedule and milestone plan within a few working days.
- 02
Deposit and scheduling
A 30% deposit locks your slot in the queue. You receive an exact start date and delivery window.
- 03
Assembly and prep
Mould lines cleaned, gaps filled, pose adjustments, magnetising and sub-assembly so every armour panel is reachable for the airbrush.
- 04
Priming and zenithal
Airbrushed black-into-grey-into-bone zenithal — the foundation that gives Black Templars armour real volume instead of flat black.
- 05
Colour, freehand and metallics
Cloaks, tabards, chapter heraldry, freehand crosses, NMM or TMM metallics, oath papers and weathering — all painted to the agreed tier.
- 06
Basing and varnish
Custom textured or scenic bases, edge-painted rims, two-stage varnish stack, and final touch-ups after assembly.
- 07
Photography, sign-off, shipping
Studio photos of every unit. You sign off in writing. Foam-cut packing and tracked, insured worldwide shipping.
- 08
Aftercare
Reinforcements, replacement bits and minor repairs after transport are handled in-house for the life of the army.
Techniques behind a Black Templars commission painting project
Black armour is the single hardest base colour in miniature painting. Get the transitions wrong and every Initiate looks like a black gummy bear. Our pipeline starts with an airbrushed zenithal in three values — pure black in the recesses, a neutral grey across the panels, and a warm bone hit on the top planes. That shading survives every subsequent layer and gives the army its signature volume.
On top of that base we glaze in cool blacks for the recesses and warmer blacks for the highlights, then edge highlight in two tones. The result reads as genuine black armour from a metre away and as carefully sculpted volume under studio lights. It is the same technique used by every serious Warhammer 40k painting studio that takes Black Templars seriously.
The white shoulder pads, tabards and cloaks get the opposite treatment — warm bone-into-pure-white layering with subtle ochre weathering at the edges so they feel like real cloth, not printer paper. Templar crosses are painted by hand on every shoulder; freehand scripts on oath papers are painted with a brush, not printed on transfers.
Weapons are where the army earns its display tier. Power swords get true NMM steel with cool reflections, plasma coils get genuine OSL spilling onto adjacent armour, and chainswords carry battle-damage chipping. Metallics on relic weapons and Marshal armour are painted in opaque NMM gold rather than glazed over a metallic basecoat — the difference is what separates a paint my army service from a real commission studio.
Bases tie the crusade together. We work in volcanic ash, ruined Imperial cathedrals, snow, or whatever battlefield your chapter is currently crusading through. Rim colour is consistent across the whole army. Two-stage varnish protects everything for years of gaming and transport.
Frequently asked questions about our Black Templars army painter service
How much does it cost to paint my Black Templars army?
Pricing depends on the unit count, tier (tabletop+, display or competition), and how much freehand heraldry, OSL and conversion work you want. A typical 2,000-point Black Templars list painted to a strong tabletop+ standard usually lands in the four-figure range; a full display army with NMM swords, OSL braziers and hand-painted scrolls is quoted higher. Send your list through the quote form and you'll get a detailed, line-by-line estimate within a few working days.
How long will it take to paint my Black Templars commission?
A Combat Patrol box is generally 4–6 weeks. A Combat Patrol-plus reinforcements list takes 8–10 weeks. A full 2,000-point crusade typically runs 3–5 months depending on tier and current queue. Competition-grade single characters can take several weeks on their own. Once the brief is approved you'll receive a written schedule with milestones and WIP delivery dates.
Can you match an existing Black Templars scheme I've already started?
Yes. Send high-resolution photos of a painted reference model and we'll match the black recipe, metallics, weathering and freehand style so new units blend seamlessly with the army you already own. This is one of the most common requests for ongoing Black Templars commission painting projects.
Do you handle assembly, magnetising and basing as well?
Yes — full assembly, mould-line cleanup, magnetising weapon options, gap-filling, custom basing and scenic plinths are all part of the service. You can send sprues straight from the box; you do not need to glue a single model yourself.
Where do you ship and is the army insured in transit?
We ship Black Templars commissions worldwide from Spain with tracked, fully insured couriers. Each model is foam-cut to its silhouette and packed in shock-absorbing cases — the same packing we use for competition pieces flying to Games Day events.
Can I see work-in-progress photos before final delivery?
Always. You receive WIP photos at the end of every painting milestone — sub-assemblies, base colours, weathering, freehands and final assembly. Nothing ships until you've signed off on the final photos.
Do you paint other Imperium armies as well, or only Black Templars?
Black Templars are a specialty, but the studio paints the full Warhammer 40k range — Space Marines successor chapters, Adeptus Custodes, Astra Militarum, Adeptus Mechanicus, plus Chaos and Xenos factions. If you want a black-armoured crusade led by the Eternal Crusaders, you're in the right place.
Send the list. Get your crusade painted properly.
Tell us how many models, the tier you want, and your deadline. You'll have a written, itemised Black Templars commission painting quote — plus a realistic schedule — within a few working days. No templates, no batch quotes, no surprises.