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Need more, Tinfoil! More!!

I’m working on a Chaos Knight conversion.
This is a project that sat on my hobby desk, barely started, for over a year… and then more recently, after several fits and false starts, lurched into motion… and now, after a few weeks, of gathering momentum, is beginning to cohere:


At this point I have gained enough confidence in my progress to start sharing the project here.
So, let me take you through the process so far….
I started with a Knight kit and a rummage through my bits boxes, looking for inspiration…

This was what I laid out at first. Just some vague notions, really, with no firm picture or blueprint for what I wanted to do.
As things have turned out, I did not end up using all or even most of this stuff, and found many other components that are not shown. So far, the project has pieced together components from the Nurgle Maggoth Lord kit, along with odds and ends from the Chaos Warshrine, a Forgefiend, a Soul Grinder … (The project turned out to be ridiculously expensive from a source model point of view! Though I have a lot of tasty bits to apply to other projects…)

So, to work. First I assembled several basic Knight components, including the legs and torso…

Then, I added horns and tusks to the head plate:
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Alright, that was a start. It’s chaos, right? So, the model needs horns and skulls and eight-arrowed circles and whatnot.
But then for the “head” of the creature I wanted something more dramatic. I wanted this project to create something more than simply a Knight festooned with skulls and spikes and chaos graffiti. What I envision is a daemon engine. An ancient beast. A nightmare, a violation, a desecration. A possession that is ripping its host apart and flooding it with the ruination of cHaOsssss itself. I wanted to spawn an unholy amalgam of machine spirit and sacrificial gore and eldritch energy and sheer, raw malevolence. In short and in sum, I wanted to Harrow this host.
Accordingly, what was wanted at the helm of this creature, I decided, was not a face or a helmet, but a ravening maw, blind and snouting and drooling and devouring.
Something like this, to start with:


Then, because I wanted the daemon to also have (in unholy union) a distinctly Dark Mechanicus dimension, I applied a mane of cabling…


… then worked in some greenstuff blending to graft on a daemonic skin


I also worked in few rounds of greenstuff sculpting on the plate, trying to create the look of the daemon’s horns violently ripping their way through the Knight’s once-sacred, once-inviolate armor:


And


And


I tried for a similar effect along the back of the plate, trying to suggest something like a spine:


And I worked up a few chaos touches for the back of the torso:


So, I’m starting to get the overall mood and look of the effect I wanted:


I have a long way to go. But I’m getting excited about this one.

That is stone cold brilliant the way you make the different kits and the greenstuff work together!

Glorious start to that knight, looking forward to the next steps !

Thanks for the kind words!

I continue to tinker on the Renegade Knight project, and will have more to show for my efforts soon. In the meantime, I have finished a smaller project: a daemon prince conversion.

This one re-imagines the classic 8th edition Prince build, with wings and a pair of malefic talons.


Here’s how it took shape. First, I cut apart a few screamer heads to use for the creature’s malefic talons:


For the main body of the creature, I wanted a piece of recognizable Imperial apparatus, roughly daemon-prince in scale, preferably with a visible human pilot component. After some trial and error with other options, I chose the mechanicus walker, affixing my malefic talons.


My vision at this point was to somehow harrow this thing – that is, subject it to the agonizing mutation of Tzeentchly possession…. And end up with a creature looking something like a bird of prey descending upon its next kill.

For a daemon head, I chose the upper half of an exalted flamer:


Then, to depict the wretched pilot in the throes of possession, I spliced in the head and hands of one of the old Empire flagellants -- the one with his head and hands in stocks. And of course began layering greenstuffed tendrils and viscera and whatnot:


Here’s another angle on the project at this stage:


For “wings,” I took a pair of bitz from a foetid bloat-drone kit:


… and spun more greenstuff, more tendrils, more tentacles, more Tzeentchy-looking weirdness:


I find it’s a hard model to capture in photographs…


And…


And…


Anyway, I’m hoping that as a conversion it readily, readably conveys “flying” and “Tzeentch” and “daemon prince” and “malefic talons.”

As well as “Harrowed,” of course. I want it to convey that most of all.

Thanks for looking.

I'm liking the direction of the Chaos Knight so far. You were one of the first to ever comment on my blog, it's good to see you're still going strong.

Can’t believe I have missed this blog so far!

Still making my way through it all, but I love your concept of chaos and execution. Great to see how your ideas evolve over time.

Loving the Tzeentch DP. Definitely feel the speedy slicey vibe of talons and wings, while maintaining the distinct harrowed flavour. Can’t wait to see some paint on the latest creations!

 tinfoil wrote:
As well as “Harrowed,” of course. I want it to convey that most of all.

Nailed it

Lovely piece, and possibly quite large? That chicken walker is no mere sentinel!

Gorgeous !

Well, this project lay fallow for awhile. But I have been putting work on it over the past few weeks, and hope to maintain momentum looking forward. At present, I have finished my modeling and conversion on the legs, hull, hull plate and shoulder plating. Here's how things look now, tacked-together:


And from one side:


And the other:


And from above:


Here are a few detail close-ups:


and another look at the legs:


And the various pieces disassembled for painting:


The goal is to tell a story of a once-proud knight in the throes of possession (definitely House Infernal, this take), and so writhing and coiling with eldritch energy.

Next I turn to the arms and weaponry. For this creature, I plan to work up a pair of rapid-fire battle cannons.

Thanks for those who have been commenting! I'm sorry progress on this has been so fitful. Vagaries of the Warp, I suppose. But I do feel things are coming together. Let me know what you think.

Magnificient progress, and no worries on the timespan, we know that time flows differently in the warp. I am always excited to see a new post on this blog, keep it up !

Home quarantine does have its hobby consolations. As pandemic blight spreads across the world, I’ve been sheltering at home, moving my teaching on-line (by day I’m a mild-mannered college professor)… and meanwhile hobbying busily away. Among other projects I’ve pulled out my Chaos Knight conversion – actually, conversions plural, since by now I’ve got three of these monstrosities in process:


Here’s a look at one at this stage, with work basically completed on a second torso, and a pair of rapid-fire battle cannon arms:


I took a Dremel to the head, trying to evoke an armor-being-harrowed effect, transforming into something more organic, like daemonic bone or cartilage:


The result is crude, but I’m hoping with paint it will work.


And I do like how the top came out:


Meanwhile, here are a few pictures of armament:

And


I wanted these parts of the model to evoke a sense of the weaponry forming continuously in mutating coils and tendrils and screeching squeals of warping metal… Something like Howl’s Moving Castle, something like Tetsuo achieving Akira apotheosis…


It's getting there, I think. Anyway, thanks for looking!

Magnificient WIP on the knights Tinfoil ! Definitely has the living metal vibe !

Happy to see the harrowing continues I've been grinding away at updating my Tzeentch daemons, and having reached the end of rebasing all the things, I'm thinking about tackling a Tizz knight as well - so having three daemonic knights to ogle is appreciated

Smart use of screamer bits, curious to see more of that twin LOC one!

The dremelled armour does look really good, painted up it could look really good as a transition from organic to inorganic, that classic Daemon Engine style. Looking forward to see more of these beasts!

 KernelTerror wrote:
Magnificient WIP on the knights Tinfoil ! Definitely has the living metal vibe !

Thanks, Kernel!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Boss Salvage wrote:
Smart use of screamer bits, curious to see more of that twin LOC one!

Thanks, Boss! I'll certainly be interested to see what you do with the idea of a Tizz Knight.

As for a closer look at the twin-LOC Knight:


and here's another angle


and from above:

I plan on conferring the "Mutated Hull" trait on this beast. Hence the extra harrowing....


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
The dremelled armour does look really good, painted up it could look really good as a transition from organic to inorganic, that classic Daemon Engine style. Looking forward to see more of these beasts!

Thanks for the kind words, Gwyn!

Thanks for the shots Tin In my research I actually saw a knight with 1 LOC head, and it definitely didn't have the bulk for it. Two heads, particularly as asymmetrical as yours are neck-wise, fill the space much better. Also props on all the gribble, as always

I'm currently swimming through the world of third party knight bits right now, but ultimately looking to go pretty stripped down on this guy. I don't imagine I'll be making more than one knight, and I've been won over by the 'doesn't have to (and maybe shouldn't) match the army it's with' camp as far as modeling / painting goes.

Really exciting stuff you're working on! Love the knight WIP. I think the dremel is effective - I like the asymmetry of it. Excited to see how it turns out painted.

How did I not know of this??? Recognise some of the early stuff, but I wasn't subbed and not seen most of it.

Beautiful work, love the fluff, love the modelling, love all the gorgeous gribbly goodness especially.

LOC knight is great, added some more ideas to my knight projects.

Very imaginative use of the LOC heads. Looking forward to seeing how these turn out.

Ooooh, those two heads look good!

You;re back!!!!

Thanks for the kind words, fellow modelers! It's very encouraging.

Alongside my Knights I've also been working on a few War Dog concepts. This one is close to being ready for primer:


He'll be a Tzeentchian engine, of ruin, of course, but also of sorcerous craft:


and, from another angle:


I have some clean-up work to do on the greenstuffing, and I'll probably do a little bit more harrowing work on the gun arms, but not too much more, but he's nearly ready:


Thanks for looking!

Hard to see where the greenstuff needs cleaning up, looking pretty sharp to me. Where does this Armiger's head come from?

 Don Qui Hotep wrote:
Hard to see where the greenstuff needs cleaning up, looking pretty sharp to me. Where does this Armiger's head come from?

I'm sorry, but I don't remember! I pulled it from my bitz box. It's definitely GW, and I assume something either WHFB or Sigmar. And the fancy Egyptian-looking plates above are a separate bit, IIRC. Can anybody else help with this? Here's a closer look:

It's one of the 3 heads for the herald from the "Fateskimmer, Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot" kit, which also looks like the only place to get a plastic herald these days?

Regardless, good looking helverin, solid chaotic flourishes/goop!

Very nice. Love the exhaust work.

 Boss Salvage wrote:
It's one of the 3 heads for the herald from the "Fateskimmer, Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot" kit, which also looks like the only place to get a plastic herald these days?

And there we go, that must be it. I did buy three of those kits to convert into Harrowed heralds. Thanks, Boss!

Update: I have begun painting the first beast! (This is big. I confess I am more of a converter/tinkerer than I am a painter.)
The painting is still very much WIP. Really all I've done so far is blocked out some of the base colors. But for kicks I decided to temporarily assemble the components. And I have to say, I am tickled by the look of the thing:


Here from another angle:


And here from a third angle:


She's a grim and gribbly one. But all she wants is a hug...


More to come -- I still have a lot more paint to slather on here. But after hemming and hawing for a few weeks, I have broken the seal and set in. She will walk soon, brothers! Prepare yourselves for woe and ruinry!

Thanks for looking!

Here's an extra bit of Chaos Knight flavor -- a bonus Harrowing: I'm adding a figure to the base to accompany the creature:


He's cobbled together from WHFB flagellant bits, with some Tzangor bling (those arms from brayhorn bitz) and feathers from the Corvus Cabal kit).

I see him as shaman/cultist/dark adeptus disciple/herald -- a "Seeker of the Path," striding in front of the creature he praises -- until he is eventually crushed under its terrible, thunderous, steps -- a blessed apotheosi:


After all, a visitation of the ruinous powers in so portentous, so monstrous, so wondrous, so Harrowed a vessel as a Chaos Knight.... such a miracle would draw supplicants like moths to a flame


In seeking this glorious end, our supplicant burns and writhes in the eldritch coils of Tzeentchian favor, chanting the blessings of a dimly glimpsed god


Once he's painted, I'll pin the herald to the base of the larger creature, something like this:


I love the proportions here -- the puniness of the wretched mortal, the awesome massiveness of the roiling beast above him...


Thanks as always for looking!!