Imperial Knight (Completed)

Another of my "quick paints to a deadline" was this freelance Imperial Knight, for entry into a Canadian Games Workshop Imperial Knight painting competition. After a day of assembly and five days of painting over three weeks (probably about 30 hours total paint time after spray painting the greys and reds) I am happy to have finished the model, and use him in many games with my Blood Angels. After such a speedy paint job for such a large model I have a better understanding of how glazes flow across large surfaces, and how thin you can mix them down until you get ugly water marks. I chose not to use pigments for the weathering, merely GW technical paints, as I feel any more black smudges or rust marks will darken an already dark model.

I had the most fun with the "copper" muzzle and exhaust, mixing orange and pink before a few washes and glazes to add the redness and oxidation. The freehand was a last minute addition, as I find the included decals a little garish, though it shouldn't be too hard to repaint in the future. In hindsight I may have also made the "metal" sections on the rear appear too flat, but this may be a result of painting individual sections and then assembling them, lessening the ability for the shadows to convey depth across the whole model. I couldn't imagine painting one of these without the use of sub-assemblies.

Behind the scenes: Making the base and Undercoating the sub-assemblies using spray cans.

Imperial Knight (WIP Week 2)

This week I became a little overwhelmed/awestruck by the amount of finished Knights showing up on blogs, and with the paint scheme not yet a cohesive picture in my head (despite fingers covered in paint!), I turned to the base to keep the motivation going and look for some inspiration. Having just picked up Ravenor Rogue by Dan Abnett, I took the Inquisition symbol on the front and used my new go-to product, Sculpey, to add height and details. Add in a couple of candles from my currently shelved Stormraven project and it's looking the part so far!

The "Machinum" motif is the section of the Inquisition which deals with technology, both STCs and Alien tech, so it seemed fitting for me to use this in the base of my Freeblade (solo) Knight. This may expand into a small Inquisitiorial force down the road, and maybe tie in with the use of my Blood Angel 'STC' Baal Predator. In hindsight I may have made things more interesting visually by offsetting the angle of the tiles, but I will be pinning the Knight to the base to allow for re-basing in future.

Speaking of the Knight I have started from the ground up with the legs, using a mix of three glazes feathered across the base colour, a second brown glaze for depth, and a black wash applied in the shadows. After that it's a lengthy process of edge highlighting and weathering, all of which is taking longer than expected! I aim to be starting the "gold" edging and red armoured sections next week, and I am already happy with the shading of the reds "toes".

Imperial Knight (WIP Week 1)

Well it's been a hectic week with shift change at work and a game or three at the local store in between assembly of the legs and torso of my Imperial Knight. From day one the cost of the kit was always going to be mitigated by the use of existing spray cans and colours from both my Blood Angels and Necron forces, and although the blocked out colours don't quite mix well I feel the use of various weathering effects will help unify the model. I will be using similar techniques to my work on the Leman Russ Exterminator. As an aside, this guy is so big I need a new photo box!

Most of the armour plating in the above photo is loosely resting in place, and apart from a few masked off areas on the arms and feet, can be completely detached for painting. I am looking to recreate a gold edge and various fleur-de-lis like details on the armour, but I will have to get cracking on the skeleton first. As with most of my newer highlight/glaze painting attempts the darks and lights are far too subtle for a model this size, and I will be continually reworking until I have probably gone too far! You can see some of the experimental shading work on the chainsword arm in the photo below.

I have been inspired by more than a few Knights on the blogosphere, and I recommend you follow their progress over the coming weeks. The best WIP's so far have wisely chosen to use an airbrush for quick and smooth paint jobs (not to mention excellent colour modulation) but I feel I will just have mine finished by the end of the month with my drybrushed/lined highlights and glazed shadows, fingers crossed!

40k Hobby Blog's "Heresy Era" Knight complete with detailed cockpit!

Tale of Painters' ThirdEyeNuke's deep blue and red combo Knight

Lil'Legend's House Taranis Red/Silver beauty (completed already!)

Hobby "Travel Kit"

Inspired by a fellow Vancouverite who fits painting into every second of the day, I have taken my hobby on the road in the form of a small satchel filled with files, blades, drills and accompanied by clippers and glue. I cannot seem to paint in the company of others due to horrible multitasking skills (the palette usually dries by the time I've turned away from the conversation), but so far I have not lost a finger or trimmed a model's arm in half while on the go.

This particular set up enabled me to get a good start on the latest Imperial Knight model (It's my birthday, thanks Grandma) while in between games of 40k at the local store, all while joking about this size of the model as compared to models on the table (my leg is the size of your commander!) and other distracting festivities. Today I will be hopefully finishing the last of the assembly and getting on with a base of sorts. I have actually started spray painting at work as it has easy access to exhaust fans, a temperature controlled atmosphere, and lots of scrap boxes to use as backing. An added bonus is the lack of lingering fumes when you sit down for dinner.

My other work bench...

Speaking of the Imperial Knight, there is currently a painting competition running at GW Canada, and you can enter your completed model to your local store by the 29th of March. As an added bonus I contacted my local GW and confirmed I could purchase my model from an Independent stockist and enter it. As I game every week at my local indie, I thought it rude to bring such a large model along when purchased elsewhere. So what are you waiting for? Mortgage your first born (or ask Gran nicely) and get painting!

WIP Blood Angels Command Squad and Captain

Yet another unopened box lurking in the cupboard, this recent addition to my Blood Angels was modified using some new bits from the Finecast range of Space Marine Captains. Despite the usual added time of straightening arms/weapons and cutting seemingly endless amounts of flash from the models (only to fill in the bubbles with Green Stuff) I really like the poses and wargear of these guys. Painting has been put on hiatus for yet another project, but I thought I'd share them with you all.

(Seriously, does anybody work in quality control!?!?)