MECHANICUM - A few more Knights

Around the same time as I bought my Warlord Titan last year, I also bought the Questoris Styrix Knight. He has sadly languished in the FW bag for almost a year, but now he stands tall (well, kind of hunched) and ready for paint.

And some of you might remember this guy. A couple of years ago I built this Knight Warden, an homage to the Epic Knight Wardens of ancient times. My conversion was based on the excellent work of Clarence Harrison. But some folks weren't too happy with it. I took a number of suggestions on board, and decided to add a few things that people hadn't suggested.

I wanted to get the feet and legs feeling a lot more like the original, although not a direct copy). I spoke with my friend (and long-time follower of this blog) Jake Schneider, who digitally sculpted the toes, footplate, and greaves that you see in the photos. Jake sent me the files, and it took a little while to get printing sorted. Once I had some great 3D prints (thanks to another friend, Joe) I sent everything off to be molded and cast. I received everything back from the casters a few weeks ago, and now I have started the process of working out how to attach everything : )

This is not the final arrangement of all pieces. I have a few more things to do. I just felt like letting you know that things were finally progressing : )

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - The Knights of House Taranis

Continuing my "clearing the decks" approach to my hobby recently, I have finished off another three Imperial Knights to now take my 30K House Taranis Knights up to five (also known as a "Half-Rudge" of Knights*). Just a quick post today, as I have to run soon, but please post any questions you might have in the comments below : )

Above is my Baron Prime - Forge Master Tacitus Agrippa, riding his Knight Gallant, Olympicus Rex. 

Baron Agrippa's bodyguard is Ser Baledin Lange, riding his Cerastus-Knight Lancer, Shield of the Omnissiah.

This is Ser Maarku Radcliff, riding his Knight Crusader, Torrent of Fire.

I have also made the battle cannon of Torrent swappable for a thermal cannon, incase I feel the need for additional close range devastation ; )

In this shot you can see my 30K-era House Taranis crest. I've described the retro-creation of the crest in an earlier post, but can't seem to find it at the moment. I'll link to it when I can find it.

And here's the Torrent's right shoulder markings. Again, the Taranis icon has been retro-fitted for 30K use. These two 30K decals are both custom jobs from Fallout Hobbies. They arrived on Thursday, and I'm very pleased with them indeed (although Ron is probably cursing me a little). Anyway, head on over to the Fallout Hobbies site and check out everything they have to offer!

Here is Ser Vadik Faustino, riding his Knight Paladin Deus Malleus. This was actually the very first Knight I painted for myself : )

And finally, you can see Ser Tanner Malcom, riding his Knight Errant Ignis Mechanica.

I hope you like them : )

Cheers

Dave 

* Paul Rudge was the first person to put together a collection of one of each of the Knight patterns available, caused the Internet to dub such a collection or gathering a "Full Rudge" of Knights. 

Mechanicum – Three more Knights are close to walking

I’ve decided to take a little break from my Mad Max cars for the moment, and try to clear a few other projects from my plate. The Vorax were the last project I cleared, and now it’s on to the next three Imperial Knights.

I assembled them all at the same time, or at least put them into their various sub assemblies, so that I could go for a little batch painting on their various sections. First were the legs, with my standard drybrushing: Tinny Tin, Gun Metal, and a light drybrush of Vallejo Model Air’s Aluminium, my new go-to bright silver. This was followed by strategic shading with my super secret wash. Certain parts (typically on the pistons) were hit with some Brassy Brass for a bit of pop. The cables were then painted black and given a light drybrush of grey.

The second step was to complete the metallics on the torsos, heads, and weapons. I followed the same process as for the legs, finishing up with the various cables etc.

After the torsos I busted out my airbrush - a tool I still don’t have a lot of experience or confidence with - and started working on the armor plates. Rather than present identical panels on each Knight, I decided to mix it up a little bit. I think they will still have a nice unified look while each has their own “personality”.

Since that stage I’ve been focusing on the individual Knights, and the first two are almost complete. After I wrap up the painting on the last Knight  I’ll be able to apply the final decals.

I’m expecting a nice little envelope from Fallout Hobbies to arrive this week with my updated (and white-underprinted) House Taranis crests and emblems to arrive. I’m very excited to see how Ron’s decals compare. After seeing the detail he can get last week at the NOVA Open, I think I’ll be in great shape!

More soon…

Cheers

Dave

Mechanicum - Knights so close you can taste them!

Not long now and my first two Knights will be complete. Just some chipping and then weathering powders to go on my Knights of House Taranis, sporting the 30K version of their iconography/heraldry. The Cerastus Knight-Lancer is above, while the Knight-Paladin is below.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Cheers

Dave

Mechanicum - Acting as a Mechanicum Forge World

Sorry for the radio silence, I've been too busy to snap any photos of all the hobby work going on at the moment. In addition to my own Knights, I'm working on a big Napoleonic commission, a FOW US tank army commission, a handful of US tanks in payment for some 3D modeling I had done for my Knights, and this beauty - The Etruscan. My friend Dave Pauwels has a great many wonderful ideas, but often nowhere near the time to achieve most of them. To this end he commissioned me to clean and assemble his Cerastus Knight-Lancer. Last Fall I did the same thing for his Warhound - Venatrix Nocturna.

I wanted the Knight-Lancer to be in a wary, combat-ready pose, crouched behind the shield, feet moving (rather than a locked/power stance) to give the impression of circling, as this Knight will be doing at AdeptiCon 2015 in one of the new Knight Gladiator events (more details on those as soon as I have them).

And my custom decals have arrived. Although House Taranis have decals on the sheet that comes with the box, they are designed for the 40K-era House Taranis. Based on the eveloution of the heraldry shown in the lush sourcebook The Imperial Knight Companion, I decided to scale the heraldry back a bit, and make the icon a little more complex.

Now I just have to start getting these elements onto the Knights : )

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - Knights, and more...

While I've been waiting on the custom decals for my Heresy-era House Taranis, I've taken my Knight Paladin a little further. Of course, once I reach a certain stage with him I'll use the same custom decals, and then just need to build his power blade replacement for his Reaper chainblade. The base is the Knight base from the Tech Deck range by Dragon Forge Design.

A few folks have asked me about my metallics recently, in particular the base metals for my Knights' super-structure. Well the basic approach is this:

• Prime GW Chaos Black spray
• Heavy dry brush (with "Tank Brush"-sized brush) with Vallejo Game Color Tinny Tin
• Drybrush (with "Tank Brush"-sized brush) with Army Painter Gun Metal
• Wash with Army Painter Dark Tone
• Selectively shade with thinned washes of Vallejo Game Color Charred Brown
mixed with Army Painter Matt Black
• Highlight edges (as appropriate) with Amy Painter Gun Metal
• Highlight edges (as appropriate) with Army Painter Shining Silver

I hope that helps : )

For those who would like to get a closer look at how I do my metallics, I've been coerced into running two classes at AdeptiCon 2015. More details to come!

Another work project I've had on my painting table are a bunch of the fantastic Hell Dorado models from Cipher Studios. Much more information to come as this project nears completion : )

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - Finally, an update on the Knight-Lancer

A quick update of the Cerastus Knight Lancer. Last post you saw the pilot posing in his Throne Mechanicum. Here you can see some of the painted version in situ.

And here are a couple of shots with the carapace in place. I have a bit more work to do on the carapace and shoulder pads, including custom decals and weathering.

And then, of course, it's completing the weapon arms. I'm pretty happy with how he's coming along : )

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - A few new shots and a pilot for the Cerastus.

A quick shot of the finished Thanatar standing alongside my still-yet-to-be-named combat-focused automata.

The Castellax with all of their shoulder icons.

Finally, here's the pilot I built for my Cerastus Knight Lancer. He's currently painted and in place. Once I've made a bit more progress on the Knight-Lancer I'll post some more shots : )

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - Cerastus Knight-Lancer Part One

No prizes for guessing what's in the bath of Simple Green. This weekend's assembly project is a Cerastus Knight-Lancer. I'm looking forward to getting this puppy built, and if I can squeeze in a little time, I'll even build a pilot for it : ) And that's a Tech Deck base in there from Dragon Forge Design.

And for those who have not yet seen the rules for the Cerastus Knight-Castigator (the one with the sword), Forgeworld apparently posted these rules up today. Check out the madness that is the sword! S10, AP2, with Deflagrate, and the ability to auto hit all models in base contact at Int2. Perfect for wiping out Terminator hit squads!

And with that thought I bid you all a great weekend!

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum - A Knight Paladin on deck

It has been a while since the last Imperial Knight graced this blog. I've been working "behind the scenes" to add more to the Knight Warden. Hopefully I'll have most of it sorted by the end of summer : )

In the meantime, I decided to get cracking on my Knight Paladin. A little bit of work to create a cog-like look on the shinguards and shoulder plates, all part of that "I can't just leave a model alone" thing.

The base is from the Tech Deck range from Dragon Forge Design. Jeff has a bunch of different themed Knight bases just ready and waiting for you to purchase.

The second to last thing to do on this Knight was to create a smooth faceplate that will receive the glossy, black glass look that my Thallax and Usarax have.

The final thing will be building a new left arm, something that will work as the chainblade, but also have a bit of a shield feel to it.

Cheers

Dave

Polarizing?

Well, there was certainly interesting (and, for me, completely unexpected) response to my last post. In that post I gushed over the work of Clarence, and then presented my copy of his work. I love all of the elements of this conversion, and I love all the ways they go together.

There were quite a few folks that did not like the conversion, some who hated it. I was certainly put on the back foot, feeling pushed into a defensive stance, not a place I feel anyone should be when we're talking about having fun with our toy soldiers.

I felt, therefore, it would be good to step back for a day or two, take an objective look at the constructive criticism that I've always tried to welcome, and then respond.

The general concerns about the model were as follows:

• The gun arms were too small, comically/tragically so.
• The carapace was pushed too far forward, creating a feeling of incredible overbalance.
• The exhausts were not at a corrected angle, exacerbating the feeling of the previous point.
• The legs were too long.
• The head was in danger of being "lost" underneath that large carapace.

My responses to these concerns are:

• I LOVE the look of the gun arms. Are they proportionally smaller than the original inspiration model? Yes, but I feel that this disparity is a considerable part of their charm. I'll be keeping these at the same size. Please, there is no need to labor this point ; )
• I understand the concern from a visual point of view (although in the universe of wonky physics that is the 30K/40K universe I don't think there's a "working" balance issue). I will be keeping the carapace at it's current angle, and anchor point, but I have decided to add a couple of features that hopefully will address the visual imbalance. More thoughts presented below.
• I honestly had not thought about these when building the model, so I'm alright with thinking about them a but more, probably taking the time to rebuild the exhaust pipes.
• I'll be taking a closer look at this. There might be 5-10mm I could cut from the thighs that would address the issue.
• I want to go with the smooth, black glassy look that I've used on some of my other Mechanicum models (the Thallax and the big combat servitors). This will need to be framed well. More thoughts presented below.

Two thoughts on my adjustment to address concerns on visual imbalance are:

• Make an addition to the structure of the Warden's torso, building it to follow other lines already in place. As it wouldn't be a part of the armor plating, it would have quite a utilitarian feel, with rivets and anchor points, much like the superstructure of the Warden itself.
• At least one, but more likely two, campaign banner hanging from a horizontal pole(s) extending from the back of the Warden. As these pilots are the older, grizzled veterans of hundreds of campaigns, it seems there'd be plenty of opportunity to go to town on many fun elements here. The bonus would be seeing they way it filled out the "gap" caused by tilting the carapace forward.

As the Warden doesn't have the shield or heavy stubber of the Paladin or Errant, I thought it would be a good idea to frame the dark/black faceplate with lighter/white banners. I think there are a lot of things I can do with these that can guide the eye to the "soulless" mask and ensure it doesn't get lost in the rest of the paint job.

I may be opening myself up for another round of criticism, but I'm ok with that, as long as it is constructive. It's how we can evolve and improve, right?

Cheers
Dave

Mechanicum Knight Warden

The model I posted a preview of days ago is now mostly complete, mostly…

It is an updated version of a Knight Warden, the first Knightly model for my own Mechanicum-aligned Knight Household (yet-to-be-named). This is one of those moments where I am happy to be standing on the shoulders of giants.

I'd like to thank Clarence Harrison, who runs the excellent Quindia Studios blog. While I was working on the two Knights for Hank, I was wondering how I could build a Warden reminiscent of the classic Epic model above. In stepped Clarence with this post HERE.

He followed it up with this excellent post HERE, where he detailed how he built his great Warden.

And now he's painting it! All very cool.

The Knight Warden below is my version. Almost identical, but with a few twists of my own.

I'm planning on sorting out a few "sculpted" icons for the greaves, and for the shoulder plates on my Paladin and Errant. More on that later.