Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Phheeeeeewwww… It took what felt like a small eternity and I still can’t call him finished, but I have pictures to share.

I feel a great sense of achievement and excitement, despite what was an odd journey of direction changes and experiments. I started with an image of a black skull mask and bone motifs, but wasn’t feeling the faceplate at all. I then painted another helmet and decided I do like the bare head the best. I feel like I failed the heraldic hero look, but got a very bad ass war machine.

I still need to work on the base, the exhausts and little washes here and there for the metallics. But not before I take a brake with the next exciting thing. (picture below the Knight pics)

I really enjoyed the airbrush, oils and my new set up. I learned and fine tuned many new effects here, that I want to apply on tanks and more manageable sized projects in the near future. Being able to add just the right amount of gloss / matt as a final finish is something I’ve dreamt of for a decade. Pledge floor wash mixed with the wanted amount of Tamiya flat medium and airbrushed exactly where needed does the trick perfectly!




full set: http://legionofplastic.blogspot.com/2014/04/raphael-freeblade-knight-eternal.html

Hope you like him!

PS. Next comes my take on the new Storm Trooper Kit. I've always struggled with all thing Mechanicus looking too lobotomized. It fits servitors well, but not the breadth and depth of great fluff and many facets of the organization that is fast becoming it's own detachment in the project. I really enjoyed reading the HH series book about Mechanicus civil war, with Knights, techno-assassins and aspects of the organization I want to play with.

When I first saw the new models, I instantly thought they'd make a wicked Mechanicus unit. Imagine the best trained and equipped, fully augmented, Skitari shock troop. These are counts as Imperial fist scouts. I'm building a detachment of "Sentinels of Mars" to round out the army to 2000pts and the Golden Throne Grand Tournament in August. I want the army to look good, but also work very well.

5/20 pictured: Notice the solid shell bolt carbines, more advanced comms on the leader and shoulder targeting systems actually tracking the warriors sights.

I...well...damn. That's a knight!


Oh, and the stormtroopers are cool too, I guess Be nice to get a few more shots of them

absolutely beautiful!

The almost chalky palette and paint chipping/weathering effects make the whole thing remind me of an early-renaissance fresco, which is a very good thing in my book! I think you’ve also managed to make the knight seem extra large (and perfectly in-scale with the infantry) by using relatively small heraldy, fine decorative details (the tiny checks!), and sensitive detailed weathering. So many great details here. Very clever asymmetrical eagle crop on the tabard banner (which seems very appropriate for your theme, with the eagle only revealing one of it's faces). The chipping on the white trim is so nice. And I absolutely love the specific shade(s) of rust you’ve used — the colors on the roof vent panels look so great with the muted green. The only thing I’m not quite sure about is some of the metal seems a bit bright to me (the hips mostly) but that may be just because you’re not done yet.

The stormtroopers are looking great too. I really like the idea of exploring Mechanicus imagery beyond the servitor/robed-magos continuum, which I agree can get a bit monotonous.

Thanks for the feedback!

Spot on with the metal toning down. I still have about 20 details/areas/nuances that need to be worked on eventually.

The knight looks incredible

Consider the idea for those "scouts" stolen.

Fantastic work

Sweet I was hoping youd pick some Storm Troopers up!

The Knight is incredibly well-painted, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm a tad disappointed that you didn't try and change up the posing a bit. With how much conversion there is in all your stuff and the incredible talent you've displayed, I was hoping you'd change up the rather static pose that the kit has. A lumbering pose with a lot of movement would have been nice.

Now those Stormtroopers really make me want to scrounge up the cash to buy a box. They are brilliant models from the get-go but seeing the conversion work you've done on them has really inspired me and given me some great ides for my own Legion auxiliaries. For the guy second to the far left, did you use one of the heads from the Dark Angels Knights? I absolutely love the way he looks. I like your idea of using them as Scouts as well; they've definitely got the look.

Thaks gents!

Bob, the pose is pose able. If the legs are too static, then yes, I did not move them and I do agree with you that they could be more dynamic. GW made it very hard to do, but as with the Dreadknight kit, if I do a second knight the legs will move to give me two really different looking ones The pose has grown on me though. The static split seems to really suit the old hunchback.


Praetorian Kill Team RSX-317
elite of the Skitari elite, led by Decanus Gore is on the painting table.

under moonlight as ever
need to fit both Legion and Sentinels of Mars detachments visually
need to paint at least 20 of them
back to impact, strong shadow and light - where the Knight as such a big object was a challenge
Test trooper done.

Really like the de-saturated primary green of the Freeblade, there's another one getting around the Internet that's a dusty pale blue that's nice too.

I think the posing issue is basically the kit's fault, it's so big (compared to 40k 'humans') and iconic that even with the Knight's people are showing with changed legs don't look that different.

Your weathering is beautiful, and I really like how the decals look like they were painted on and weathered with the rest of the machine - again, while the Knight kit's 'issued' decals are fantastic, there are far too many Knights getting about the Internet with decals that don't integrate with their paint scheme.

The red on that Praetorian is stunning! How you keep that level of finish up on 20 of them is beyond me!

Eagerley awaiting the final force... Cheers!

God, I love that pink!

Thanks guys,

Lamby - thanks mate! Totally agree on the decals. Really important to blend them in. I often paint new detail over them even and always weather them and wash them down when needed. I really like the Knight Decals, for the purpose of this project I cheated one of my principles. I try to avoid using black as black anywhere else than the darkest shadow on a black area of a model. I find actual black on models highly unrealistic. I did try and very carefully wash over the black of the decals here.

 migsula wrote:
Thaks gents!

Bob, the pose is pose able. If the legs are too static, then yes, I did not move them and I do agree with you that they could be more dynamic. GW made it very hard to do, but as with the Dreadknight kit, if I do a second knight the legs will move to give me two really different looking ones The pose has grown on me though. The static split seems to really suit the old hunchback.

Fair enough. The model looks good regardless.


The new stuff looks great. I'm really liking the paint scheme on the Stormtroopers. The balance between the gray and red is a really nice contrast.

The test praetorian looks great!

Some beautiful work, i think I’m falling in love with your style.

Thank you!

Love the red arm, just need some balance (as has been said) - instead of adding red or chevrons to the other arm, what if you did the opposite (left) half of the chest plate red - you already have a red right arm and right knee pad!

Anyway, as you said (over on your blog) - "The red arm stays because I like it!" and that's the philosophy we all should aspire to, both with our own models and others - we all like different things, which is what makes following other's art so interesting!

That Knight is really nice, that colour works incredibly well.

Those bolt carbines on your Mechanicus Stormtroopers look excellent. Really brutal. Really liking the choice of colours you've gone for in painting them up. Suitably sinister.

The knight looks good, especially the stripes and checkering! And I really like the test storm trooper

Thanks guys! Hoping to have the first 6 painted after this weekend

migs, as usual your work is stunning...

Knight looks great, with the almost-dull light green, and the highly-contrasting details - plus your technique...

And the Skitarii are just awesome. My favourite piece is the Heavy-Bolter wielder : that's just a terrific idea !

Can't wait to see more !

Thanks Yggs! Much appreciated

Planning the year ahead,

2014 has so far been the most overly double booked and hectic year of my life. Luckily most of that has been fun things trying to all happen at the same time. Out of a busy work & home life a little window is left out for the hobby and after a very slow start, things have picked up nicely.

Friends often ask me how can I get so much stuff done, and I usually give them a little speech about the benefits of exemplary self discipline and not owning a TV, but it has recently come to my attention I actually paint really fast. We've been exchanging emails about models painted in three hours and people hate the clock and approach results as a compromise, while I realize spending more than 3 hours on an infantry model, even to "showcase" standard is rare to me. Or I should say unnecessary.

Why I might be quite efficient deserves another entry. There are distinct reasons for it. Instead I want to tell you I now have a specific goal to "finish the army" and real reason to worry about getting side tracked.

The Golden Throne Grand Tournament, 2000pts of Warhammer 40K Northern California style is the first weekend of August, and I've got my ticket and plan in place.

Left to do is:
build and paint 14 more Skitarii troops
build and paint a Skitarii Attack craft (the small SM flyer)
build an paint a legion drop pod
paint the legion librarian (new arms since you last saw him)
detail and paint the Display Board

That's a chunk of stuff by August. But should I pull it off, I would have well in excess of 3000pts of beautiful Legion models to play with and expand for years to come. It will also give me an army that should perform well on the battle field, provide I learn to play this edition first. Those of you who play and or follow the tournament scene are aware of a pretty sad state of "meta" or current trend in army building called "death-stars", where 95% of top armies are made of the most abusing single unit you can build that takes benefit of all the re-rolls available and more often that not, insane battle brother ally benefits.

So hopefully, I get to finish the force, learn to play (ie. at least 3 practise games) and enjoy the tournament: ie. do not get totally smashed, shredded, pinned and instant-deathed by some barely painted death-star.

The reward, or possibly the plan buster, is of course, the Good and final installment in my Inquisitor trilogy. Something I've been working on for a good few months, on an off, in my head, and bits box, slowly putting stuff together and tweaking it.

There's a good deal of self created pressure. This needs to be as good and better than the first two, really different and an insane ode to Games Workshop's massive leaps in plastic material quantity and quality since starting the original "Shaddes offe Greye" group six or seven years ago. Pretty sure I have the ingredients, but with yet another "big painting idea" on how to do it things can also go very wrong

Migs

Wow this all seems very interesting !

Indeed, 3 hours for a single model is "lightning-fast" to me, so I'd love to hear (read ?) your take on why you're so fast...

As for the games & tourneys, then I can only wish you dedication in painting the force... And some nice success on the field !

Lastly... I'm pretty piqued by your hint about the end of the Shaddes Offe Grey trilogy... Hopefully there are not 50 of them (see what I did there ? )

I've been getting a ton of Mechanicus ideas recently. Seems like the flyer is going to be something more ambitious too. More like a flying automaton/robot And I am building a new Magos... when really I should be more disciplined. First 6 Skitari Infantry are nearly ready though.

That is without question the best Knight Titan I have seen so far, amazing job!

Thanks man!

Wow. Well, I just read this entire blog over the course of four days' free time. I appreciate what you say--at various points--about lacking free time for the hobby, but this just was too riveting to break away from. I've been on Dakka for a while, sporadically, but have just gotten onto the P&M Blog this year. I am actually thinking that this is where I need to be spending more of my time. I have found more like-minded people here than on the tactics forums, and there is much less of the snarky arguing and petty spam-building mentality here. Certainly there is none in your army, which is a force built around an idea, and has more character than any I've ever seen.

In short, thank you so much for sharing all of this. It's a true blog, and your sharing of your philosophy about the hobby, modelling, and art is just as appreciated as the fantastic conversions and painting that you share. I love the "written word" components, and I completely agree about needing that back story, the role-playing, imaginative component, to give an army some depth. It's very long, but I am really encouraged by the journey it shows over the years.

I have been in the hobby for about 8 years now, and have seen some ebbs and flows in my creative energies and ability to commit time to the hobby (and gaming) but this past year and a half (I also relocated--new country, new job) has been the dryest spell I have encountered. It's been discouraging, because I have (too many) projects sitting there, staring at me, but my hobby area is a mess, and I can't seem to finish anything. So, it's been great to see you push through those periods of busy-ness and distraction and to see the fantastic pieces you are producing right now, and the renewed enthusiasm you have for the models.

Again, I'm just fresh off reading this entire blog, so there's too much I would like to say at this moment, but just to share some of my thoughts with you:

- I love the "scaled up" Alpharius--that's what drew me to to this blog in the first place. I think it fits perfectly with what we read in "Legion" and even the novella in "Primarchs" with the Alpha Legion all being almost indistinguishable from one another...and huge. Tremendous work making them look as uniform as they do, as well, especially with the breastplate.

- I really dig the idea of exploring the "whole realm" of the Alpha Legion, which you have obviously succeeded with, from the auxiliaries to the Mechanicum. The Operative's full tool kit of waging war and/or spreading instability or confusion is really coming together.

- The Inquisitorial Retinues are amazing visually, and I can't imagine how many hours of conversion work they represent. They do seem to me to be a departure from the Legion, though, and I have no experience with Necromunda (would you use them for that?) and have not played with Inquisition, so I feel I can't appreciate the grimdarkness of them fully. I do completely see the Blanche influence there, and I think (or know, given your publicity in Visions, etc.) that he would admire your skill and efforts there. I think you've really captured the technique, and the dirty yet detailed look that he paints. (Like Johnny Cash's voice: "sharp like a razor, slow as a steam train") So, awesome work there!

- BUT I'm really glad you're back to the Legion force, and huge congratulations on getting it to a size that you can play with! With the amount of time you spend on each model and unit, that's a pretty tremendous achievement. I'm hungry to see more Legion blue, though, and so am looking forward to seeing the new vehicles for sure, and absolutely love the "Death Head Dread."

So, I'll leave it there for now, but I really wanted to convey my appreciation for the thought and time that you have put into this hobby, and into sharing it with people here in this blog (and in your other Legion of Plastic blog, which I will try to follow as well!). You've got my head spinning, have raised the bar of what I think I could do personally, and I am trying to get my courage up to start a blog of my own, if only for the accountability factor. So, thanks--this was a fantastic use of limited free time!

Those tempestus really looking good migsula

By the way, do you already have the Horus Heresy Extermination book? Lots of new info about the Alpha Legion which might be rather useful!

 Malika2 wrote:
By the way, do you already have the Horus Heresy Extermination book? Lots of new info about the Alpha Legion which might be rather useful!

Seconded ! Also lots of cool rules for them !

[edit : links to those awesome products (got them early with the whole Collector's Edition ) :
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/THE_HORUS_HERESY_LEGIONES_ASTARTES:_ISSTVAN_CAMPAIGN_LEGIONS.html

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/THE_HORUS_HERESY_LEGIONES_ASTARTES:_CRUSADE_ARMY_LIST.html

]