Warhammer, 40K Imperial Knight of house Terryn

[geedubelyer]

Hi folk, I finished my Imperial Knight kit and enjoyed every minute. A quick step-by-step is here should anyone wish to view it:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234993227-warhammer-40k-imperial-knight-carapace-and-other-bits-done/

I opted for the Knight Galant boxing which adds more versions over the original kit. It costs a tenner more but you get the choice of carapace mounted weaponry and new main weapons over and above the first edition.

I'm not a gamer so, on this occasion I chose a colour scheme that I liked and it evolved into something resembling "House Terryn" in the GW Codex.

GW cleverly give the modeller or gamer a lot of freedom when they write their Codexes. If you prefer to make something up entirely then they call those Knights "Freeblades" and allow the modeller to work them in with their own backstory. Great lateral thinking.

I bought the Codex as a kind of inspirational tool and marvelled at the painting skills that the 'Eavy Metal workshop have lavished on their miniatures. Beautiful painting in a typical GW style. Great to look at.

I also watched some Youtube tutorials to get a feel for the kit before I started. Most modellers choose a very artistic finish to their creations. Some employ wild airbrush techniques, others use amazing hand painted murals to add that wow factor. Some are pristine, others are heavily weathered. Each finished model is unique to the builder and most of them look superb.

I decided that I'd like to try some of the techniques that the armour community use on a regular basis. This model would give me a chance to flex my artistic side in way that aircraft modelling rarely permits.

Chipped and worn paint, rust and weathering, basing, all techniques that I only use occasionally. For this model I used the GW Chaos black spray can to prime the bare plastic and give a good key for the next layers.

I then sprayed some Alclad II lacquer over this on the chassis components like the legs and body of the knight. Many modellers will finish the main components in metal colours then apply the colourful house schemes to the armour panels but I've gone a slightly different route. Instead of bare metal I chose to paint everything in the way armour gets painted. It's not cammo of course but it is universally covered in the same way a tank or APC might be..

With the Alclad II stainless steel down I added salt in places and sprayed on a coat of hairspray in readiness for the initial weathering stages.

I used a combination of acrylic blues through the airbrush starting with the darkest shade and working my way through three layers getting gradually lighter. This is not the actual House Terryn base colour, just something I had on my paint shelf.

Edited January 10, 2016 by geedubelyer

[Wolwe82]

wow it is looking great, nice work!

[geedubelyer]

Thanks Wolwe82, glad you like it.

Work begins by assembling the legs and feet.

These are not articulated out of the box but I have seen a number of conversions on-line so it is possible with some thought. The white painted toe on each foot is purely to add a splash of colour but in fact, I'm not sure that it does n't actually detract from the overall look. I think on the next Knight I shall keep the toes all one colour.

Most of the Knights that I've seen on-line use paint to replicate the polished, oiled metal of the rams and actuators and they look great but nothing looks more like metal than real metal. For that reason I wrapped each one on kitchen foil before giving it a wash to replicate the oily sheen.

The armour plates were approached in a slightly different manner as I wanted to differentiate them from the undercarriage of the walker. I kept them darker overall but did try the GW fading technique to give brighter areas in places. Some of this shows in the images. I also opted to undercoat the armour in gold rather than silver to set it apart still further. Some of the pieces almost look enammelled which is a happy coincidence.

GW provides a large decal sheet and this was used for the majority of the heraldry and markings although the maltese cross style emblems were hand painted.

The rear of the carapace is heavily weathered. With those large exhaust stacks, engine cover vents and smoke from the rocket pod I imagined that dirt, oil and grime would be heaviest over the rear of the armour.

On the kit part those exhaust vents are large grilles but I decided to remove the plastic and add in etch to give more of an armour feel.

I used LIifeColor Tensochrom weathering agents for much of this with some washes, oil paint streaking and pastels too. Basically I threw everything I had at it!

The shoulder guards use decals for the mostpart except for that cross on the white portion.

I chipped alot of paint off the rear of the gun and used oil on alot of the mechanism in an attempt to suggest heavy usage. I kept the magazines fresh as I imagined that they would be replaced on a regular basis. (Looking at the size of the gattling gun and the piddly number of rounds provided in the magazines, I'd guess the knight would get about a two secnd burst before havign to re-load.......). Forgeworld do a number of Knights in resin and their version of the gattling gun provides a huge back pack of ammo with massive belt feeds. Perhaps it might be possible to cross-kit the parts?

The barrels were hollowed out too. I prefer to see the darkness of the barrel rather than paint. I also added a shell ejection chute from metal foil on the inside of the gun pod just because it looked like spent shell casings would be ejected onto the workings of the right foot. How sad is that?

Edited January 10, 2016 by geedubelyer

[Hunter Rose]

Great job, excellent paint skills!

[geedubelyer]

Thanks Hunter Rose. That means alot man, I appreciate it.

GW give plenty of choice in the kit. There are two versions of the tilting shield, this one and another without the raised edging.

There are also about six visor styles. This particular one was not my first choice but it did allow more of the eyes to be seen and since I'd spens some time working on the face of the knight I wanted to at least glimpse some of that.

The red on the head armour was another attempt at visual interest but again, I'm not convinced. If I'd gone with blue for that component but used a splash of red on the visor it may have been more coherent. Perhaps I've been looking at it for too long so maybe I'll get used to it after a while.

The Knight wields a large range of weaponry. Huge cannons, flame throwers and chain swords to name but a few. However, for me the "Thunderstrike gauntlet" was a must.

The modelling on this piece is superb. Each knuckle and spike is beautifully rendered. The joints on the thumb and fingers mean that the hand can be posed in limitless ways. With a little thought this component can give alot of life to the model.

There should be a small armour plate on the left upper arm above the elbow joint but it was sacrificed to the carpet gods so that this knight could live. I suppose I could have scratch-built a replacement but I chose to add a couple of bent mounting plates instead. If it was attached to the gauntlet arm which is used for smashing through tanks and titans I'd guess it might take quite a bit of hammer! The articifers will replace it when next the knight returns home.

As you can see, I scraped alot of the paint off the hand for the reasons just mentioned. That was great fun.

The three carapace mounted weapons are new for this boxing. The builder can choose between the rocket pod pictured, a missile pod which replaces the front plate with missile tips rather than rocket tips and twin anti-aircraft guns. Once again I'm not sure how successful the colour scheme of the rocket pod is. In my mind I'd imagined an add-on component so thought that it might be painted differently to the knight. I can't help thinking that a matt blue would have looked better.

The footstep, handles and railings on the pod and elsewhere across the miniature are made from tube and wire. I ditched the chunky plastic kit parts as they appeared overscale to me.

Edited January 10, 2016 by geedubelyer

[geedubelyer]

Originally I had wanted to adorn some of the model with stripes or chevrons. These feature heavily on models on the web and really look superb in my eyes. All very "Chris Foss".

However, I restrained myself to the exhaust shields and the rings surrounding the arms on this build. For the next one I shall definitely have to do some contrasting stripes.

There are also numerous tie and attachment points on the model. These are ripe for the addition of chains and one model on the internet showed just how good this could look. Again, maybe on the next one. With a little imagination. the possiblities are endless.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. I hope you enjoyed my take on the Imperial Knight Galant.

I'd be very open to any comments, criticism or ideas that you all might have as I'd like to build another of these in the future. It's been alot of fun.

Cheers.

[batcode]

fantastic work. very nice job on the paint and finish. looks superb and great looking base...

[geedubelyer]

Hi batcode, I appreciate you dropping by. Thanks for the generous comments. I'm glad that you like this war machine.

Cheers.