Imperial Knight Freeblade Work In Progress

Hi All

A quick update on my progress with my Imperial Knight Freeblade. I've made quite good progress this week and the legs and base are almost complete.
Here's a few pics....

As you can see the base is now done, the rocks were painted in a dark grey base and washed black then dry brushed with a series of lighter greys up to a final very light brush of white. I've tried to create a few rivulets of frozen ice and water trickling between the rocks; these were initially painted in a pale blue and then highlighted right through to white, they were then gloss varnished.
The snowy areas were first painted white, quite roughly, just to give a good base of colour, I've found that putting snow flock on top of a non white base gives it a dirty grey look. The snow itself is bicarbonate of soda. This is the first time I've used it instead of white flock and I have to say I prefer it, I think it gives a more powdery look, it was simply sprinkled generously over a thinned coat of pva glue and left to dry. The excess was harder to get rid of than snow flock.
I wasn't happy at this point though with the icy trickles, they weren't shiny enough so I decided to use a little water effects on them......this was almost a terrible mistake as I hadn't taken into account the bicarb! It reacts with water (and other liquids) the base went a bit frothy as bubbles appeared all around the edges of the "water"! Thankfully they did dissipate with a little help, next time I'll use the water effects before the bicarb!

Here's a close up of the heraldry I've gone for....

As you can see it's a mix of transfers and freehand vines, I'm pleased though it's a shame about the quality of printing on some of the fist transfers. Each example of thee heraldry will be slightly different depending on the area of the model it appears on. The plates were given a gloss varnish before applying the transfers so as to give a better fix and reduce the noticeable shine common with transfers.

I'm leaving the weathering to the very end once it's all done and put together so I can weather the model as a whole. That will be a first for me too as I don't usually go in for weathering. I'll be experimenting with weathering powders so any hints or tips will be most welcome.

Hope you like it so far, feedback is as ever welcome. I'm currently working on the 2 shin guards and a tattered crotch banner I've made from green stuff (you can see them in the background of the first shot). More pics to come soon......

Bluddtoof

Imperial Knight Freeblade W.I.P.

Hi All

Bluddtoof here with more w.i.p. shots of my Imperial Knight Freeblade.
I've got the armoured plates done on the legs now so all I've got left to do on this section is the iconography some weathering and the base.
I'd hoped to be a little further along by now but the weathers been so hot here this week that I've struggled to paint as the paint has been drying much quicker, sometimes before I've even got it on to the model!
Here's a few pics, including close ups of the green cables as requested.....

Hope you like it so far, I'm thinking I might take the highlight a little further on the red, it shows more in the flesh than on these pics but it's still quite subtle, I'll give it some thought and let you know over the next few days.
As ever feedback is very welcome.

Bluddtoof

Scenery, Battles and yes more Marines

Another long absence from the hobby. Life is taking over my geeking pleasures. But now England have been dumped out of the World Cup i hopefully have a bit more time to spend "completing" the models I have.

First a battle. my first big game of 7th. I was playing against my brother and my dad. between them they could muster 3k of marines (minatours) and eldar. we ignored the allies matrix and a few of the min squad sizes and played with what they had. I took my marines with a detachment of grey knights and an inquisitor.

I took:

kantor with 9 sternguard (4 combi grav guns) in a pod
librarian with 9 sternguard (4 combi meltas) in a pod
tactical squad in a pod
10 scouts
10 assault marines
10 devators in a rhino
Stormtalon
Thunderfire

librarian with 10 grey knight terminators
eversor assassin
Inqisitor
retinue (2 servitors, 3 psykers, 2 deamon host, 2 arco)

Morloc with 5 TH/SS terms
10 assault marines with minotaur special chaplain
10 tact in rhino
10 tact
5 scouts
Special contempor
Stormtalon
Lib level 2 9 stern in pod
Farseer
10 guardian
Warlock 8 guardian (we know they are a minimum of 10)
6 scorpions
6 banshees
9 rangers
Ranger special character
5/6 dire avengers

Both were battle forged

We played the new missions where we had 3 per tern and they weren't secret.

Main points.
Psychic phase is harder to get power off. Yes they did go off and it is also harder to deny but nowhere near as “game breaking” as the doom sayers predicted.
I cast less than normal even with more psykers on the board!

Missions level the game a lot. You get the mission and then can complete them in your turn, before your opponent can react.
You need mobility. Scoring units are useful to trump things sat on an objective. E.g. if I have a thunderfire on an back objective and a necron warrior squad comes within 3” of it. The necron warrior squad can trump the thunderfire and claim the objective. But all units can get an objective which is a very interesting dynamic.

They game changed throughout and you need a bit of everything. At no point was there ever a hopeless situation for either player. Yes you may need a bit of luck with the objective cards, but there are 36 of them so luck is diluted a bit.

Final score was 8-8. Close throughout. I may have been able to nick it but needed a cast gate of infinity, which failed! and the assassin only consolidated 1 when needing 3+ to get to another objective!

some pictures:

No matter how good your tactics are....... 

Kantor kicking ass, shortly before Morloc said hello!

I have nearly finished the scenery in my last post, but got side traced in completing the Sternguard squad for the battle.

i have sprayed up some craters and will quickly wash them and they will be ready for the baord.

model wise i am painting a witch hunter inquisitor and 2 more assassins.

I hope to get some more 7th ed games in over the summer.

.

Imperial Knight Freeblade, work in progress...starting the paintjob.

Hi All

Time to show the WIP on my Imperial Knight, I started on the legs and have now just got the guard plates on waist, thighs, knees and feet to do before I paint the base.
The plates will be red and bone and will feature the knights personal heraldry.
Here's pics of the wip...

I'm really pleased so far, particularly with the gold, it's layers of balthazar gold, old shining gold and auric armour gold on a base of old vermin brown, highlighted with silver and then washed with yellow glaze to give it a really bright finish.
Also a new one for me is the green cables, I normally just use a wash over the base, this time I used hexus pale sun dry paint to put a really light dry brush over the moot green base and then washed with green glaze, not sure if it shows in the photos but it works well in the flesh.

As ever feedback is always welcome.

That's it so far, more to come soon......

Bluddtoof

Imperial Knight Showcase

Evening All,

Doc here with the promised showcase of my Imperial Knight Freeblade.  I don't have WIP shots for this model as it was completed in secret so I could surprise Red Mist in a recent battle.  So many of my recent posts have talked about sponge weathering and this model gave me the chance to really put that to good use.

I have painted him in the Gerantius 'The Forgotten Knight' colour scheme.  Two reasons for this firstly I only intend to use 1 and second I really liked the look of the sea green.  Its a colour I haven't painted much before.  This model also allowed me to get over I hate transfers thing....  Well sort of still hate transfers!

Anyway on to the picture dump....

Imperial Knight Freeblade W.I.P. The Build

Hi All

So now that our day of Deadzone is done, (and a great day it was, a cracking game which is ideal for a group day letting, everyone play several games), it's time for my next project; my Imperial Knight!
Firstly it's a really nice kit, easy to build and goes together nicely, I'd originally intended to magnetise many of the parts so as to give me the flexibility of main weapon options and also to have a model which was easy to transport but was held solidly together on the table, alas it has not come to pass because none of the joints between arms/body or body/legs lend themselves to the placement of magnets, I've not tried magnets before and I want my first attempt to be on a model that does lend itself easily. As for the possibility of using magnets to allow swapping out of the main weapon, that also proved impractical for two reasons; the two variants both have different power feeds that connect to a common point but the Thermal cannon feed originates from a piece which is hidden inside the main body of the gun and so cannot be removed, also the battle cannon ammo pack is hollow and so would need extensive remodelling to provide an anchor point for the magnet. In short I decided it was too much work for a first attempt and I've settled on the Thermal Cannon and I will fix the torso to the legs but leave the arms separate as they have a nice twist and lock connection to the torso.With this set up the model will fit snugly in a figure case.

So on to the model itself, I've built all the sub-assemblies and the next step will be to undercoat them.
The model will be fielded almost exclusively alongside my Space Marines, the Thunderbolts who feature a rock and snow theme on the basing. The Knight is a big imposing model anyway but I wanted it to be more so, originally I'd had the idea that I would model it stepping up onto a snow covered rocky outcrop, however the legs are moulded as a rigid piece for their entire length so no convenient knee joint, I looked at the knee with a view to cutting and reposing but the mould has no material to play with and so I would have needed to sculpt the whole knee section which is beyond my sculpting talents, the last thing I wanted was to give my beautiful model a gimpy leg!! I settled on mounting the model on a large rock outcrop, thus raising it even higher over it's foul enemies! The rock is modelled from thin sheets of balsa glued together and held with elastic bands overnight, once dry I cut away at it to create the broken and eroded shape, the layers give the appearance of a slate outcrop. Then an all over coat of thinned PVA to seal the balsa. Once dry I glued the legs sub-assembly in place and then I applied the rocks, gravel and then sand in stages letting each stage fully dry before the next. One benefit of using balsa instead of sculpting from a modelling clay is the base is very light so I didn't need to be too concerned over the bond between the models feet and the rocks.
Here's pics of the base prior to undercoating...

You'll notice I haven't attached the shin guards or the crotch banner as these will be painted separately and attached at the end.

In total I'll be painting the model in 12 pieces, firstly to break up the monotony of painting very large areas at a time and secondly to minimise the amount of areas which are hard to reach.

Painting pieces like the banner and the shoulder guards will also be easier as I'll be attempting some freehand work on the Knights heraldry, he's going to be a freeblade, I'm still working on the design for his heraldry.
The other technique I'll be trying for the first time is OSL, which I'll be using on the eye lenses and the face mask.

That's it for now, more to come over the next few weeks....

Bluddtoof

Deadzone update - Completed Enforcers

Hi All,

So in true DOC style I left finishing my enforcers to day before our Deadzone day.  Well when I say finishing I actually started and completed 7 of these models today!!  The first batch I completed are here.  Nice to add a further 8 points to my tally!

Anyway on to the showcase:

So there you go all done.  Whilst not my best efforts, as with the first batch I again got to practice sponge weathering.  My main concern moving forward to more precision work is getting a small enough piece of sponge so I can just catch the edges more accurately.  I might make myself a tool with small piece of sponge on the end?  Ill have a think on that one.  Anybody else got a good idea for this please comment below.

The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed I have more painting points than I have posted up on here. That is because my next post will be my already completed Imperial Knight.  Why Doc have you not shown it until now?  Well that's because I wanted to surprise Red Mist with it in our recent 4K battle.  It was nice to plop such an imposing model down as a surprise and his face was well worth it!  So it seems Code40K is about to have an Imperial Knight segment!

Thats all for now folks

DOC out...

Deadzone Plague Strike Team Completed

Hi All

Huzzah! I've finished my Plague models for Deadzone and with a couple of days to spare before our Day of Deadzone on Sunday. The last 3 models are a pair of Stage 2 and a mutated Teraton.
Here's a few pics of them.....

Stage 2...

Teraton...

and the last Stage 2....

finally all 3...

I've enjoyed painting these as a change from my usual 40k stuff, I'm pleased with the finish and I'm really looking forward to seeing them on the table. It's also been a great start to my hobby points system which I started at the same time as this project, these points will go toward some of the shiny new Ork stuff from GW.
But for now my next project is my Imperial Knight, stay tuned for WIP posts over the coming weeks, I intend to try magnetising for the first time and I'm going to try my hand at some OSL also for the first time.
Any tips to share on either technique are always welcome.
That's it for now, next post will be a report on Sundays Day of Deadzone....

Bluddtoof