The Running Man

Before I can tackle other things I need to get the knights finished.  So I have jumped straight into the next lancer.  Iapetus.  The name was chosen because the name Iapetus was the name of one of the titans from Greek mythology it also loosely means "The Piercer" and derives from the Greek word to wound or pierce iapto (ιαπτω) so to me it seemed rather fitting.

The cast on this was less than perfect so I spent most of the weekend fixing miscasts.  Usually I would just send them back to FW and ask for replacement as they are nothing but exceptional when it comes to things like that.  However due to the time passed since I purchased the lancers on release and the fact it is xmas I may have been waiting for a while so I just got on with it myself.  

This lancer will probably be the most challenging knight to photograph because of the stance it looks a lot like it is falling when photographed however it is not. It gives me personally the impression of it lunging forwards parrying incoming blows seconds before delivering a counterstrike of course I may have rose tinted glasses on here. 

So pictures of the tacced lancer and the WIP base

I have also added to the base although disassembled the lancer for painting so here is the base on its' own, the large area of cork will be tarmac and I want to stencil on some markings to fill in the space

The Sound of Thunder

Cue the music..............

Put that on an infinite loop

Then do this

and you have an insight in to how my brain will be for the next 4 months...........

Why? you may ask. Well these turned up over the last two weeks

What was contained within these not inconsiderable sized boxes Damien?  you may further ask

Something for after the knights are finished that i treated myself to.

However do not expect anything on this until I have finished the knights and a small contingent of Cult Mechanius (1 Dominus and 6 Destroyer Battle Servitors)

Industrial Cattle Prods

Zappy McZap Zap of the Clan McZap

Added the wire to the lance head and painted the whole thing, Was more luck than judgement with this bit, but it turned out as intended

All that remains is the banner and the piston oil and then jobs a good un.

Shocking Anal Retentiveness..........

Me being the massive freak that I am, the lightning was not sufficient for me........

So..............

I reworked it, added in some much finer wire as well as adding some wire to the inside generator, much happier with it now!  

Drawing a line under that as finished.

Shocking.......

An evening of trial and error has led to an ok result.  I think at the very least it implies some sort of energy field in the empty spaces on the shield 

Gungnir's Wrath Progress

Uninteresting blog title for a fairly uninteresting post.  

Lancer is a little closer to completion, although still only black-tacced together for the photo. 

Still need to sort out the chipping, and I am planning a lightning effect on the shield and possibly the lance too, if you think of this picture you will not be far from what I am looking to replicate.....

Although I will not be doing the lightning up the entire knight as in the picture.

Guiding the Lance

Pilot and cockpit are done, not the best job on either as neither are that easy to view so I saw no point in overdoing them. I give you Jakob Von Flashheart V

An idea given to me by Tommie Soule has made the cockpit accessible too, made a handle out of brass rod thereby allowing the hatch to be opened and closed without any issue 

The All Father's Technicolored Rod of Nefarious Doom

So remember this guy........

To be honest if you don't it's clearly time for that retirement home cause dementia has set in as I posted it yesterday......

:D

Anyway during the night I ground my teeth in my sleep in a stress ridden slumber over the name.....

Had a brief discussion with a couple of mates this morning over the name and they agreed the riposte just didn't pair up with something so norse.

So gone is Gungnir's Riposte, in steps Gungnir's Wrath, which makes far more sense as this lancer will be equipped with the Helm of the Nameless Warrior granting rampage.

And the stress is now gone.  I have even worked out the name for the next Knight Lancer, yes there is another after this one, which will be named Iapetus after the greek titan, which literally translates to "The Piercer"

Happy Joy Joy, all I need now is a name for the final Crusader.

The Mutilation of the Masses

The Knight Atrapos, "Kolobos" is done ready to base.

But no rest for the wicked.............

Knight Lancer designation "Gungnir's Riposte" (although not 100% settled on the name) is built and ready for painting

The Mutilation of the Masses

Starting to come together now!

I even made the transformer noise as I was building it......................

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Don't judge me :P

I put it next to the other knights and it dawned on me just how fecking massive it is

The Mutilation of the Masses

BITSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

That are covered in oil and stuff!

Although this is taking longer than the previous two knights there is progress, it is however a lot more detailed and requires far more work than the previous two knights.  

Simple Freehand Tutorial

The thing with freehand is it is actually very easy when if you think ahead, make a plan, and break something down into simple shapes.

For example a skull can be broken down into 5 circles, a square and triangle, 1 circle to make the dome of the skull, 2 smaller circles to make the sides of the skull where the eyes would be, 2 even smaller circles to make the eye sockets, the square to make the lower section with the teeth and then the triangle for the nose area.  

Now that would not give an atomically correct skull but it would give you the basic shape from which you could then use as a foundation to paint a more impressive looking skull, but that is the point, when you build a house you start with a foundation from which you build your house not the roof.

Another basic; but possibly most important, point is thin paint and this is true for painting in general, not only will thick paint will show brush strokes but there is the point I like to make of "you can always add more paint, you cannot take it away", so having patience is a must; or a hairdryer, as there will be many instances where you will be waiting for paint to dry.  

Finally unless you have an eidetic memory or you have painted so many of the symbol that you are pro at it (if the latter is the case why the fuck are you even reading this, go do something constructive with your time) having a reference image can be a god send.  This works for not just pictures but freehand script, printing out what you intend to "write" with your brush to the correct size and placing it above where you are painting it helps with correct placement of characters.

It is also worth noting that freehand is merely a culmination of a succession of lines, if you can paint a simple line to a specific size and length then there is absolutely no reason you can't knock out basic freehand, no excuses!  

Now all that said I am not going to paint a skull, I like to be wishy washy and not make any sense, deal with it! I will do a skull when I eventually get back to my Exorcist Space Marines :P  

Instead I am going to paint the Legio Invigilata symbol, but it shows the principle of thin paints and a plan.

So the base image, I break this down into a cross, 4 circles, an oval, and 12 triangles.  The lightning strike I tend to just do as someone with a Steel Legion it is pretty much done without thought.

So to start with thin white paint I sketch out a cross.  As the main shape is a compass a cross seems the most logical starting point.

The sketch out a circle, don't worry about being too precise there will be much in the way of correcting throughout the process,

Then start to fill in the circle with thin coats of white paint, make sure you allow each coat to dry before applying the next or you will end up with an abortion when you more semi dried paint and leave a crater, don't argue just do!  Hair dryer time, unless like me you are painting a flimsy resin banner that goes bananas near a heat source. I also start to make a few corrections as I see fit 

Now just more and more and more layers! REMEMBER LET THEM DRY!  

So now we have the cross and the circle time to add in the triangles, Starting with those at North, East, South, and West.  I do these with 2 pull strokes to draw the sides; pulling the brush away from the point towards the circle, and then filling the in the body of the triangle. The reason for the stroke being a pull stroke towards the circle is not just some random shite, the paint will pool at the end of the brush stroke usually so if you do your pull stroke towards the tip you will be left with a little white dot rather than a sharp point......now I know that sounds like an euphemism but entirely innocent clean your mind out!

Now the same is done with the 8 lesser points, again 2 pull strokes to form the triangle and then fill in the body.

So we have the basic shape of the compass.  Now for the rest, the red circle containing the eye actually sits inside a black circle, so first we need to paint a black circle, carefully sketch out in thin black paint the black circle, if you are not confident with this start the circle small and increase it's size gradually, it is easier to draw a smaller circle and increase rather than go balls deep in the massive hole......innuendo central!  Again start thin and build up the layers 

Now inside of the black circle paint the red circle, I start with a dark red thinned to get the shape.

Build up the red in progressive layers.  Oh and I added in the lightning strikes 

Now for the eye.  Within the red circle carefully paint the white oval, using thin paint and building up the colour in layers to you have a solid white.

Nearly there.......all that needs to be done is the pupil in the eye, so using the dark red first, important as you are painting on white if you go with the final red then it will end up lighter than the rest of the red and look odd. 

And done......

Easy no?

It took me about 2 hours to paint that and 4 others on the various bits of knight carapace.  

Practice is key here, more you paint the more dexterous your fingers will become, the more dexterous your fingers become the easier it is to paint, the easier it is to paint the more you will want to paint 

The Mutilation of the Masses

So base building has begun, I have manged to get the footprint of the Atrapos sorted so I can also start the build of that.  The base will be left now as it is just the matter of detailing it but the foundation it laid, it will be a ruined building on the raised part down to a road/plaza on the lower part.

I have a question to ask anyone daft enough to read this, which of the two body positions should I go with as I am undecided currently

A

or

B

The Mutilation of the Masses

The Gallant is finished other than the base however I have made a decision to batch paint the bases to save time and gain some uniformity.  Therefore I will do them in threes as the next knight will need to be attached to the base in order to stand up as I intend a pose with a degree of movement.

So that's the preamble of the post over.

Now..........

next knight has been commenced......

I give you BITZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

it is the new Atrapos knight and one hell of a nice cast, I have had a couple of minor mold slips to rectify otherwise it is perfect.....I love me some perfect castings for sure.

I have decided to name it "Kolobos", which I was always led to believe was ancient greek for the verb "To mutilate" not having ever studied greek let alone ancient greek I can't confirm or disprove this but that is irrelevant, it is a super cool name to me in any event and who is to say that Kolobos doesn't mean to mutilate in some far off long lost Knight World......rule of cool applies

This was the kit that drew me back into the hobby after my hiatus.....and it is fooken lovely!

Heads Will Roll

Time waits for no man they say, so as I have so much to do these days lets crack on......

Somewhat a productive day, still a fair amount to do on the Gallant but it is well on the right side of the half way mark :)

Not the best pictures in the world so have another with the groin flag painted

and here he is with his not so little mate 

Look Garmr there is a pot of PIS!!

and in keeping in the spirit of my first comment something has arrived, what oh what could it be......

Heads Will Roll

When one is motivated models just seem to build and paint themselves......

As the base for Garmr's Vigil dries the idle hand of Dee required a distraction......

Thus was born the Questoris Knight Gallant (yes yes no such thing but made from a Questoris Knight Magaera so it made sense to me) Designation "The Headsman"

I hate this pipe it must die for the Emperor....and stuff