A Knight's Tale: Legs Complete

Hi folks,

Following a cooking accident on Friday, I have had my right hand bandaged quite heavily. Thankfully, after the specialist removed the dressings for a peek yesterday, it was clear I had done some X-Men/Wolverine level regeneration. Now it is just a game of regaining flexibility and putting up with the nerves firing randomly. At some point over the past week my wife said "Well... you had better learn how to paint left-handed." We both laughed. I'll let you guess which half of the Knight's legs I did with my left hand yesterday.

Striking a balance between using enough colours to represent both the Iron Snakes and House Feardrakken and not creating a confusing mess has been a challenge. For example, both factions use white in their scheme, but in slightly different ways. Feardrakken use it quite extensively on the armour segments, whereas the Iron Snakes use it as a one-off spot colour. To resolve this I have replaced the white on the armour with Leadbelchers and white decals.

I haven't decided whether I will weather the decals or not yet. At the moment I am just happy that they are on in roughly the correct place.

The Adeptus Mechanicus symbol I was planning to put on the right leg turned out to be a shoulder decal, so I swapped it for a few of the steam-punk cogs. The symbol on the left armour panel is unique to Perseus Intrepidus and came off the Shadowsword sheet. The Aquila on the knee armour cross-references the main theme of the left leg decals.

The Aquila decals that fit into the armour were really tricky to get into position; I still need to use some softening medium and a razor blade to clean up some parts. Again, the symbol on the knee references the other leg.

The next job will be to undercoat the torso and head, then add some glazes. Thankfully, rattle-cans and washes don't require that much fine-motor control! I was planning on doing a free-hand Medusa on the shield, but I think that is well and truly beyond my capability at the moment.

See  you across the table,

Marc

The Weekly Review: IT BURNS!!!

Hi folks,

Just a quick update today to apologise for not posting for a while. It's that time of the year when teachers are busy marking examinations and writing reports and, as the head of my department, I have been snowed under completely. One of the things that made it easier was looking forward to all of the painting I could do during the holidays.

Yeah, well...

Last night I burned my right hand pretty badly, requiring a trip to the hospital. Unfortunately, it includes the tips of my fingers, so I have no idea when I will be able to paint or model again. The current dressings come off on Monday when I visit the specialist burns unit. Until then, and probably a good while after, I'll be swinging this Powerfist around:

It's not all doom and gloom though (yet?). I have been reading through the 8th Edition Index books that I bought and have been working on some related articles. I have some more short stories to post that expand the back-story of my Imperial Knight as well. Here's the first in the series, in case you missed it: Undertaking to Pylos. I also have a few painting progress shots that I haven't posted yet and may even get a few left-handed games in ;-)

See you across the table,

Marc

A Knight's Tale: Base Complete

Hi folks,

The last "A Knight's Tale" article I posted was all about planning the base for my Imperial Knight Warden, which I have been working hard to complete this weekend. On Friday night, with no small amount of shame, I realised that the last post was from over 12 months ago! About time I go the job done, huh?

The first stage involved painting the stream, which was inspired by the very clear, sandy bottomed, rainforest streams we have up North here in Australia. The base really soaked up the paint, making me think that maybe I should have base-coated it or sealed it first.

The main colours used were Ushbati Bone, Skull White and some turquoise I mixed from Kabalite Green. After a few coats and some wet blending it looked like this:

A added some Astrogranite Debris around the shore and over the root bole of the fern. I was never intending to keep it grey, but I really like the texture of this product and it is easy to move around. The added height of the shore would act to seal in any wet effects I used on the stream. I also painted some black roots extending into the water, to reflect the reference material I was inspired by.

Next came the wet effects. I coated the stream in three 1 mm layers (wet), letting each layer dry for ~ 48 hours in a closed box to prevent dust contamination. The Noch water effects I use take about this long to cure.

Now... don't blink. Over the last two nights I:

1) Painted the Astrogranite in Rhinox Hide/Black blend
2) Added some summer and summer/spring mix themed flock (brown and browny green).
3) Repainted the fern in a Lothern Blue and yellow mix to better match the laser cut ferns, which are a very pale green. I finished it off with a Sepia wash.
4) Added four laser cut ferns.
5) Sculpted and added a little tree snake.
6) Celebrated!

Once the Knight's legs are attached, I may add some static grass as well, to add a bit more texture to the grass. I have also considered painting the snake like a Coral Snake (below), because that is how just about every snake seems to be painted when it comes to GW! Let me know what you think, perhaps I am just brainwashed by all the pretty Lizardmen bases :-)

See you across the table,

Marc

The Weekly Review: MOAR plasma!

Hi folks,

This week I have been tinkering around with my Imperial Knight Warden and Iron Snakes Centurion projects. Both miniatures feature some serious conversion work involving plasma weapons; just the pick me up I needed after a busy week at work.


On the Table

My first goal was to add some washes to my Knight's leg internal structure.

I started with a few glazes of Seraphim Sepia, followed by a Reikland Fleshshade wash to deepen the shade without resorting to black. After that was dry I gave it a gloss varnish to give it an oily sheen.

The toes were painted in Lothern Blue, then highlighted with a lighter shade. I could then weather the armour using a hobby knife, by scratching through the blue to the Leadbelcher undercoat. Heavier weathering was achieved in places by digging deeper, all the way down to the original black layer. I think it worked pretty well, and it makes it easy to scratch bullet holes and other battle damage. I'll be using some stipling and sponging techniques later on, with some of the larger armoured plates, to represent different forms of damage.

Under the Knife

I also converted the Hellfire Plasma Cannonade carapace weapon, using the Deredeo Dread upgrade kit. I am really excited to see how it looks mounted on the completed Knight.

Finally, I have been stewing over my choice to give the Iron Snakes Centurion sergeant a sword and grav cannon combination. I never really liked the idea of grav for this squad, so when I noticed the plasma cannon on the Deathwing Terminator sprue, I decided to revisit the original conversion. I still like the sword idea, but I will save that for another Centurion squad. After a bit of sawing and filing, I was able to fit the plasma cannon and cables pretty neatly. The Deathwing plasma cannon is a really neat, self contained piece; much easier to convert than the Devastator version.

I also rebuilt the emergency heat-sink on the Centurion with the overheating plasma cannon. I have decided that this guy is going to be the Apothecary in the squad (every Iron Snakes squad has one), so I will probably attach some more medical gear to the leg armour.

Ooooh, I spotted a gap! I'll fix that tomorrow.

The third member of the squad is going get a standard for his back, which ticks all of the special character components I wanted the squad to have.

On my Mind

8th Edition 40K is so close now I can taste it. I am not a huge fan of the new Primaris Marines, except for (dare I say it) those huge plasma guns. So the starter set isn't a priority for me. If I do spend any money of miniatures this year, they will probably be of the 30K variety. Getting my hands on the new Dark Angels, Space Marine, Imperial Knight and Tyranids rules, on the other hand, is an absolute must.

See you across the table,

Marc