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Imperial Knight - First attempt at water effects. Now with Pilot  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in au
Dangerous Leadbelcher






Australia

So, i got back into the hobby after a few years haitus and decided to come back with a big project i'd had on my mind for a long while. I spent a few weeks working on this knight, slowly figuring out how to repose it, then pushing myself with learning some of the technical paints (typhus corrosion and nihilakh oxide are absolutely phenomenal) for the metals and also pushing myself with my freehand skills. It was a nice change of pace working ona solid, complete model after my last few things had been gunpla, and a bunch of small characters for a scifi/shadowrun/general cyberpunk game and aesthetic. I really like mechs and I just had to do a big 40k one.

The biggest things I wanted to achieve with converting it were having the cannon that I first saw here and also changing the leg pose to be a bit more dynamic. Early on in the project i found the Queen Bee, which had excellent step by step guides to a whole lot of different conversion and painting techniques, and really pushed me to do a lot more with the model. I also wanted to go all out on the base, since it's such a big area, and it would be a real waste to just have some flat ground with maybe a rock or something. My original vision was to have a few knights wandering around an abandoned overgrown city, and use some of the building models and cover them in vines and leaves. For this one I didn't have enough space, but i'm sure i'll try something equally as big for my next knight. I'm also thinking of maybe printing out a small poster or newspaper and adding it as scatter, but maybe the base is good enough on its own already. I wouldn't want to overcrowd it.








The eagles are decals, but i went and painted over them so that they fit more with the model. It looks a bit incongruous if you've got all this kinda messy shaded painting, and then suddenly there's a completely flat shape with very hard and sharp edges. Everything else, from the plant stencils, to the checkers and diamonds, was freehand. I'm still a bit unsure of myself when it comes to freehand, so i mostly just do simple stencils and shapes. My method is usually to google "tree stencil" or something like that, and copy one that I think looks nice. Outlines first, and then slowly colour it in. Having a colour scheme that has pretty bold contrasts helps a lot. I also experimented with paint peeling effects, using pva glue, letting it dry a bit, and then scraping it so it built up into a little ridge, and i could paint the middle with corroded metal, and paint over the ridges with the colour of the armour. This was a good method, because it also worked after i finished painting certain areas, but felt like i needed to go back and add something. I could do it at any stage in the painting process.




I'm also really happy with the dirt and grease streaking efects, which mostly just used watered down typhus corrosion and/or earthshade. It was just a case of using a fine-ish brush and drawing it down in streaks. I also flicked brown paint on to give it a few speckles of dirt. I'm really proud of the grease and grime dripping down under the arm.





The base was made with balsa wood to build up the bulk. I then cut and sanded it back, and used bits of mdf for the paving, and sandpaper for the road. The muddy bit uses balsa wood and clay to make the shape, and then I added sand and paint and eventually resin water effects. I tried some different things and failed pretty badly before I got this one, and I still think it's not quite perfect. As you can see below, there are some pretty disinct layers of colour. But I'm pretty happy with it for a first attempt. The white spotches are from bits that were still drying and have now disappeared. The reeds are from some really cheap paintbrushes that I bought. I ordered the leaves online from antenoctis workshop, and I'm pretty sure they are little bits of seed pods. They are pretty perfect. The mud is a mix from a company called ak interactive. It's a mix of plaster and enamel paint. I had to go over it a few times because it dried into a very light brown colour, but it's still really good. I found it at a hobby warehouse in my city and just had to try it.






I've also got a bunch of wip shots, especially of the base, if anyone is interested. I'm also working on a pilot model based off this model. I'm just waiting on a scion helmet in the mail before I can finish converting it.



I've sort of got some lore in mind, but i'm still thinking up a name of the knight. I kinda wanted a phrase, sort of like the Halo ships naming scheme, and something to do with plants, flowers and the colour blue. I'm still working on it. I liked a lot of the general feel of the freeblade from that Queen Bee blog above, which is why this knight is so very grimey and rusty, having not returned to its homeworld in a very long time, and only able to get slight cleans and repairs. Despite that, i'm plannining on adding at least one more knight, maybe one of each of the smaller knights that came out, and 20 of the solar auxilia lasgunners, organised in two squads, because I really like the archaic look of their armour, and I think it'll fit really well for a knightly detachment.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/07/29 00:29:17


 
   
Made in om
Longtime Dakkanaut





Muscat, Oman

Fantastic work! I love the weathering and freehand, it makes a very detailed and interesting model! It is a more interesting pose than usual too. The base is very cool, and I love how it tells a story, with the snapped railing and mud dripping off the foot! It also looks very natural with the weathering and foliage.

--Lord of the Sentinels Eternal-- 
   
Made in us
Ship's Officer





Dallas, TX

The 2 parts that looks off are the coloration around the exhaust and the use of white. coloration should looks like a gradual gradient from yellow(depending on original base color may not be necessary)-red(furthest from exhaust)-purple-blue-dark; I personally use red ink, purple ink, blue ink, tilt them toward the exhaust and let dry, then use black dry powder on the exhaust.

You made a mistake using white straight, since white is the lightest highlight it prevent you from highlighting; you should have use a mid grey tone-light grey-off white-white to achieve white.


The freehand tree could be more crisp, I do like the water and the chipping effects, as well as the raised helm pose.
   
Made in au
Dangerous Leadbelcher






Australia

Thanks, I appreciate the replies! I'm looking forward to showing off the finished model at my local store, but it's always nice to hear some feedback from other people. Thanks for the comments about the foliage. I really like cityscapes, but so many of the ones I see on models are just these completely destroyed concrete wastelands. And that can be a really good look, but I think there's also something nice about having grass growing out from the cracks in the pavement, and some more natural features nearby roads. Where I live in sydney is very green, so I really like to replicate that.

Big Mac, Your comments have made me realise that i still haven't figured out how to properly photograph my models yet. So, the white is actually mostly built up from fenrisian grey, but i overexposed the images, so it does look a whole lot more washed out than it actually is. The crotch armour in the second photo is porbably the most accurate depiction of what it's like in person. I was going for quite a light blue-ish grey, sort of reminiscent of this model. So, with the exception of some edges, it really doesn't use much pure white at all. It's still a bit hard to expose for both the light greys, and the dark machinery, especially when i'm only working with a phone camera. I do keep on trying to get better at it, but thanks for pointing that out. I'm going to hopefully get a better shot tomorrow.

As for the metal, i was trying to do something slightly different than what you are saying. Instead of representing metal that is currently really hot and burning giving off incandescent light, it's supposed to be stained and burned metal. Still hot, but not currently burning, which is why I built it towards a thin sliver of silver, which is what brass does at high heat. I did decide to go touch it up after you mentioned that, though, just to add a little more earthshade under it. I got this technique off the Queen Bee tutorial, which got a nice little followup here. Basically, the metal is actually hotter towards the bottom, rather than at the end of the machinery. So it would stain a bit more towards the source of the heat.

I do think it's a good idea to add a little more yellow wash towards the top of the effect, and if i can get my hands on something that'll help represent soot at the top, I think I'll do that as well (I'm not a huge fan of drybrushed black as a technique. I can never do it quite right).

And thanks for the words about the raised helm. I'm a big fan of it as well. I like what it implies about how those face plates work, and it still manages to show off the really cute knight face underneath.



(once again the whites look way more washed out than they are, sorry).

   
Made in se
Hungry Little Ripper



Skåne

His foot in the water is not IN the water, but ON the water.

Looks very strange imo.
   
Made in gb
Incorporating Wet-Blending




U.k

Crazy_swede wrote:
His foot in the water is not IN the water, but ON the water.

Looks very strange imo.


I thought that at first but when you look closely from the right angle the foot is on the mud at the edge of the water and the water deepens quickly behind it, the trailing toe is down on the slope into the deep water. It’s actually very clever and subtle. The base is full of subtle detail.

I love the posing and can’t imagine how much work you out into it. I haven’t dared repose a knight yet and I’ve painted a few. The pose is full of movement and character. Love the tree motif too. Feels very Arthurian or green knight esq. awesome work.
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





Really nice work. I think my favorite part, though it is quite subtle overall, is the way you painted over the decals. You are correct, that makes them blend in wonderfully and I think really adds a lot. Well done!
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran




Amazing! The free-hand looks wonderful!

The scenic base is well done!

It is always cool to see water effects done on bases.

The blue/white color scheme is very cool!

Over all Great Work!
   
Made in ca
Gnawing Giant Rat




Victoria, BC

I feel like if Gondor had Knights they'd look like this. Love the motif.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/07/09 19:06:04


 
   
Made in us
Secretive Dark Angels Veteran






What type of resin did you use on the water?

Also what did you use to make the "rim" so you could pour the water without it running off the base?

Looking awesome!

~Ice~
Da' Burnin Couch 2018 Best Overall
Beef and Wing ITC Major GT Best Overall 2018
2019 ITC #1 Overall Best Admech
LVO 2019 #1 Admech 
   
Made in au
Dangerous Leadbelcher






Australia

Thank you very much for the comments!

I took another photo of the knight to show off the blue-grey colours a bit better. It's still not quite as vibrant as on my phone, unfortunately, but it still works



Andkp: The reposing wasn't as hard as I expected. It took quite a bit of work, and a lot of other materials. I had to replace most of the pistons around the ankle with plastic rod, and I had to replace the ball at the bottom of the shin with a plastic bead that was, I think, 10mm thick? (The box of them that I got doesn't have the numbers, but I remember that the Queen Bee blog used 12mm and they were too big and had to file them down, so i'm pretty sure it's 10mm). Getting the thigh and shin to connect back up was also a pain. I made a thick triangle of plastic out of some spare parts and jammed it into the shin part of the leg, and then glued it into the top part. I eventually also had to pin it parallel to where the knee bolt is. Also had to shave off a lot fo plastic from the hip joints. But it was well worth it.

It ended up looking like this




I couldn't actually get to work on it until i'd built up the base, because I didn't know the heights. Speaking off, Crazy_swede is right that the water only just laps around the toes of the knight. I had an idea for the knight's leg to really be submerged in the water, but I could actually make the knee bend any more than it already has, because then pipes and details crash into each other. So, i decided that it would be stepping on the muddy banks instead.

So I ended up with something like this





For the water effects, I used AK Interactive two-part resin. They were being sold in a hobby store in my city, and they were a bit cheaper than some of the insane other ones. Before I tried them, I also tried using still water effects by vallejo, which is more of a gel, but it wasn't the right thing to use for something with this much depth, and it really interacted badly with the mud effects I was using, and peeled off. I used a bit of clear plastic that was previously the cover page of some university notes I'd made. I sealed it with electrical tape. It wasn't in the perfect position, but it worked pretty well. I mixed in some very watered down dark green paint (I think it was still the old dark angels green that I haven't finished yet), which was probably a little too strong, but it's come out looking nice. I also used a transparent water gel to create the ripples, also by AK interactive.



Here's the setup I tried before this where it spilled everywhere and was bad
Spoiler:



I also studied this video a lot, even if I didn't copy it perfectly, and I needed resin, not water effects, to be able to peel it away.




And thanks for the comments about the heraldry. I really like thinking about the tree motif, and making something that didn't look like it was just skull motifs. It's a bit different from the gondor one (I looked it up and thought it looked just a little too complicated to paint), but that definitely inspired it. Like I said, I just ended up googling "tree stencil" and "vines doodle" and getting inspired from those. I figured if schoolkids can do it in their notebooks, it shouldn't be too difficult to put on a model.


   
Made in gb
Incorporating Wet-Blending




U.k

Love how I say the re pose was easy then go on to list a very tricky list of steps that sound like a nightmare. Kudos to u. I think I need to try a very scenic base. Never done one before.
   
Made in au
Dangerous Leadbelcher






Australia

haha yeah

I suppose "difficult" for me would be something like remodelling a gunpla kit where it's still got to be able to move around and still work as an engineering project. Spending a bit of time working with them really made me appreciate just how nice it is to have a model that's in one specific pose, where you can just glue things all together.

Reposing the knee joint was pretty tedious, although in the end, i'm not sure if it was "difficult".

But then again, when I first bought the kit I spent several hours just fitting it together without glue and just thinking about it, and then I went and looked up blogs done by other people, so that made it easier. Seriously, I keep on linking it, but I can't recommend the Queen Bee project enough. It has so many good guides to so many different subtle and dramatic conversions.



But yeah, I'd really recommend trying to make a scenic base! I spend a lot of my modelling time trying to push myself. Like, I started this project thinking that I'm not very good at freehand and that's a big pity, so I just tried to push it to the next step, starting with doing more checkers and diamonds, and then trying the plant doodle and then just keeping on going at it.
   
Made in de
Cog in the Machine





Germany

I really love this base! It looks like a real life scene with lots of details but not going overboard with it! Your "leafs" are really seed pods. I have used those myself. They are from birches. There are some at my workplace and I collect them once a year for modeling purposes.
I never thought of using sandpaper to represent the surface of a street. So simple yet the effect is so on point! I'll definitly remember (and reproduce) this! Was it difficult to glue in place as sandpaper seems to tend to bend itself quite annoyingly? Did you use white PVA glue or something else?

What colour did you add to your water to tint it this way?
   
Made in au
Dangerous Leadbelcher






Australia

 LordMcAllister wrote:
I really love this base! It looks like a real life scene with lots of details but not going overboard with it! Your "leafs" are really seed pods. I have used those myself. They are from birches. There are some at my workplace and I collect them once a year for modeling purposes.
I never thought of using sandpaper to represent the surface of a street. So simple yet the effect is so on point! I'll definitly remember (and reproduce) this! Was it difficult to glue in place as sandpaper seems to tend to bend itself quite annoyingly? Did you use white PVA glue or something else?

What colour did you add to your water to tint it this way?


thanks a bunch!

I actually ordered the "leaves" online, and I'd guessed that they were seed pods when i saw them, but I'm really glad to know what tree they're from. I don't think we get as many in Australia, and I'm actually surprised they got through customs, although I guess it's fine when you label them "modelling supplies". Must be fun going out and collecting them in the wild.

The sandpaper was actually really easy. I've used it once or twice before. I think I used superglue to glue it on. I'm looking at the back of it, and the numbers on the back are KP520, and P120, so i'm not sure what grit it is, but it's a pretty rough one. I just cut it out mostly with scissors to get a rough shape, then used a scalpel once it was on, and then file to get it to fit perfectly. I've used it on some 40mm bases before as well, and it's worked pretty well. Didn't even have to seal it on with a pva wash on top, although i guess i'd be careful with painting it. it's never seemed to damage any of my paintbrushes, but i guess it never hurts to be careful.

The water is tinted with a mix of Dark Angels Green, Hawk Turkquoise and a little Rhinox hide, very watered down, but honesly it's mostly dark angels green, and maybe a little much of it. I also added some agrax earthshade one one of the later levels of it. I'd heard that you try to do a darker first layer, and then really use less in top layers, to give it a little depth, but i'm not sure if i perfectly achieved that effect, and if I wouldn't have just been better to use a little less in the first place. But it still looks pretty good.
   
Made in de
Cog in the Machine





Germany

Thanks for the reply!
   
Made in pl
Crazy Marauder Horseman




Poland

Absolutely stunning work!
   
Made in us
Steady Space Marine Vet Sergeant




Hanging out on the Great Plains

Work of a true artist, unbelievable. Great job.


Eastern Frontier Exploratores
224th Astra Legion (main army)
628th Praetorian Guard Cohort (wife's army)
827th Auxilia Cohort (ad mech fun)
825th Foderati Cohort (in the beginning army)
1212th Foederati Cohort - Jokaero (cause I like apes with guns) 
   
Made in au
Dangerous Leadbelcher






Australia

So, after waiting a month for bits to arrive in the mail from ebay, someone nice at the gw store went and gave me the helmet I needed to finish off my pilot conversion.

Captain Marième Marot, Honoured Protector of the Peoples of Everfair, Pilot of the Blue Flowers of the Springtide







I'm pretty keen to make more conversions for more pilots as I make more knights. Considering that my knight aesthetic is quite grungy and dirty and hasn't been fully serviced in a bit too long, they might not be so formally dressed. But Captain Marième's position as a figurehead requires her to keep up certain appearances.

The model is based of the wonderful sculpt by Victoria Miniatures that I posted in the OP. The arm holding her helmet is a little wonky, but I think I got it good enough.
   
 
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