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TF01101100<0110001}}IFChecksum14<two=//thenvocalisation::‘hoorah’

We pledge to the spirits of our founding fathers
And the glory of the realm our Emperor
That we shall be the shield which defends our realm
And the sword to smite those who would harm us



Now then, who is first?

It’s been a while since I last did something like this, but no pressure like peer pressure am I right? So, as a lot of folks know by now, I’ve got a bit of a thing for Imperial Knights and that's something of an understatement. Love ‘em! Perhaps a bit too much. The current Knight count is pointing hard towards a solid FOREVER ALONE. But who needs a soft caress and kind words when you got way too many robots on the shelf eh? I know I already have more than I'll ever need, but that doesn't stop me any time soon from adding more to the collection.

Anyway, this current project is to get out of a rather lengthy downer and a hobby slump by working on something fun and familiar. I'm going to try and build a "hero suit" or ace custom Imperial Knight HQ choice for funsies. Will it ever see the tabletop? Highly unlikely, getting a game in is nigh-on impossible for me these days due to how work schedules are and when the local store is open, so much so that I've slid wholly into the collecting aspect of the hobby somewhere down the road.

Every project starts with something that sparks the imagination, in my case stumbling upon the Etsy store of a chap called Taro Modelmaker through fellow Dakkanauts, who specialises in conversion bits for GW kits. In his case, a LOT of awesome and practical Imperial Knight stuff, including..



Replacement knee joints for Dominus class Imperial Knights, giving them a bit more height and a hell of a lot more options in terms of posing:





I also quite liked these smaller plates of foot armour:



Upon seeing those bits, it got me itching to get them and do something with them, so without really thinking I just ordered them a while ago. The initial plan was to kitbash together a Forge World Lancer or Castigator using GW plastic kits and specific upgrade kits from Taro, but that would propel the overall cost of the project well beyond that of the regular FW kit it was supposed to copy. So in the end I decided on building a custom Crusader from the codex, which is a nice all-rounder and saves me from any "It's Forge World, so.." or “we don’t really allow count-as models” discussions should it ever see the tabletop. End of the day though, this is just all a massive excuse to go about kitbashing together a nice looking custom Knight.

So after some pondering the plan is to get a Castellan Dominus class Knight and a regular Knight, take the legs from the Dominus and stick a regular Knight torso and whatnot on top of that. Add on some extra bling, paired with the increased leg length, should make for a striking HQ model or badass Freeblade model. It'll be interesting to see how far the new leg will be able to raise itself and still look natural, maybe this would call for a destroyed vehicle or slain beast to be placed on the base as a recently destroyed / slain foe to plant a victorious titanic foot onto?

Early next month will see the purchase of both Knight kits, as the budget will allow for things then, hello birthday.



Meet the Baron.
Aside from building a custom Knight, I’ll also be working on a model to represent the dismounted noble, a.k.a. me! This is something quite a long time coming now, as friends have been pestering me about this for ages. I have in the past done minis for some good friends and family members, but never one for myself, because let's be honest here, a dirty old coward like me is not exactly tabletop material. But a coward hiding inside the cockpit of a giant death robot of death? Doesn't sound all that bad! And older editions of the game would always say that the warlord or HQ of the army is supposed to represent you. So, might as well get that over with then.

This will be a purely cosmetic thing with no real tabletop purposes, unless there's a special scenario involving dismounted nobles.

The base model will be Lord Commander Nikolaus Zorg from Artel W miniatures' Grim Gothic collection, though with a head swap more to my liking. No ingtaer, I will not have it look like me, the world is not ready for the raw sex appeal that is me. Biggest lament is finding a good replacement head once model is in hand. I've got a massive pile of replacement female heads (almost all from the most excellent Statuesque Miniatures), but can't for the life of me find a good supplier of male heads. Suggestions are most welcome!







As of typing, I am impatiently awaiting his arrival, having preordered the model the moment it came online. As for a colour scheme, probably something along the same lines as the dismounted noble I painted up for my bestie, who has the honour of “piloting” my Valiant:



The model is Raven Skye - steampunk pilot from the Bombshell Minis range



Preliminary work.
As mentioned, I do not yet have both Knight kits in my possession, but I do have a veritable crapton of leftover bits and whatnot from the many, many previous Imperial Knight kits that I’ve purchased over the years. Enough to some early prep work that can easily be slotted onto the model once it arrives and is assembled.



First up, a custom heavy stubber made from a spare Icarus autocannon array, to represent an Ironhail heavy stubber, or just a plain old relic heavy stubber. Overall new barrel length is not that much over a regular one, so it won’t stick out too much in the end. The fancier barrel will also allow for some more colour than just regular old gunmetal grey.



The Stormspear missile pod, nothing too flashy, just added one of the antennae from an Imperial vox array to it and removed the light at the bottom, replacing it with a spare cogboy symbol. I may also add a suitable flag or banner to it in due time, as befitting a baron. Or maybe a couple of spare skulls from the Citadel box of skulls, to represent trophies taken from noteworthy foes.



Some parts of the right arm, which will carry the Avenger gatling cannon. Seeing as the kit will be using the lower section of a Dominus, I can’t hang the banner between its legs. So instead I’ll be looking at attaching the banner somewhere under the barrel / heavy flamer of this arm. Tilting plate will be the fancy one, it's good to have spares as I am not a great painter and do want to try and apply something like a custom pattern to it to denote that this is not a rank and file noble. As for the face plate, I just love the design and will use it for this build as well.

One thing I am torn about right now is whether to give this model a Reaper chainsword or Thunderstrike gauntlet, as both have a cool vibe to them, but ultimately only one can be used for this suit of armour. The Reaper has a nice painting surface ideal for honour markings whereas the gauntlet can grip something, though I have already done this with another Knight in my collection, having it hold the massive skull from the Citadel skull set.

Choices, choices..

Future plans
Here lies madness as I'm already bad at keeping hobby schedules, but when has that ever stopped me from making bold statements? One of the plans that I've been looking at for some time now is building a retinue for the Baron. A Freeblade has maybe a small following made up of a few Sacristans and a single repair crawler, but this is a Baron, someone who is amongst the highest ranks of the Questor Imperialis, so it stands to reason that there should be a few more characters attached to his personal court. Again, nothing game-wise really, but more for display purposes and overall rule of cool, though it could nicely be turned into something for Kill Team with the right crowd. It would also be a great opportunity to use some of the many minis I've been collecting over the years.

The current candidates for the Baron's retinue are, with the model(s) used listed and linked in brackets:

* Consort / Baroness (Helena DeRoza from Artel W miniatures)
* Sacristans (various Techpriest Enginseers)
* Servo automata (various servo skulls and whatnot)
* Astropath (Regimental Advisor)
* Imperial Navy liaison / Home fleet officer (Officer of the Fleet)
* Imperial Guard liaison / House Militia officer (Master of Ordnance)
* Medicae / Personal physician (Sanistasia Minst from Rogue Trader, but with a head swap)
* House Navigator (Espern Locarno from Blackstone Fortress)
* Bodyguards (Voidsmen from Rogue Trader or Tempestus Scions)
* Personal pet / hunting beast (Aximillion from Rogue Trader)
* Squires (Van Saar gangers)
* Scribes / Recorders of Lore (an =I= scribe and a warhammer fantasy one)

Aside from the squires, all models are already around here, somewhere. I even made a start on the medicae some time ago already as a means of forcing myself back into things:


WIP medicae with a head swap from Statuesque Miniatures

And I’ve also got one Sacristan and one servo-automata already more or less done as well:


Sacristan Eshissel Lucius-Alpha-17


Servo skull from the Tempestus Scions set, skulls from the Citadel skull set

So, there is a start.



Even more future plans! Something really stupid a.k.a. hubris is delicious and what the hell right, it's probably only for Armies on Parade!
One of the goals I set for myself for this year is to try and get something done for Armies on Parade. Either a Sacristan repair vehicle (massive armoured vehicle on big wheels festooned with point defence weapons and repair equipment) or the interior of a hangar / drop keep. I've already made a start on the latter last year when Imperial Knights - Renegade dropped alongside the codex, using the frames of AdMech terrain to build me a gantry or rig of sorts that can be used as a dock for Knights undergoing repairs. It never really got beyond the crude mock up phase and was made to fit my display cabinet first and foremost:



Crude, but effective and I can see gantry populated with members of the court, overseeing repairs or just hanging about trying to look like they belong there. So, I am still tempted to try and build / create the interior of a Knight hangar / drop keep interior as the board for my Armies on Parade display this year. I’ll also have to use a Knight then that doesn’t use third party parts, but that’s for another day to worry about..

Okay, that's enough of that from me, got to get that Knight sorted first..!

The display cabinet/Knight gantry idea is a really good one. Looks great!

Good luck breaking out of the hobby slump - I'd say you have a great start.

The Starstrider Medic looks even more awesome with that replacement head, nice job!

Good stuff Brook, really looking forward to seeing how things progress! That hanger is sweet and I love the colour scheme you have going on.

"but no pressure like peer pressure am I right?" <- Truer words were never said
Perhaps I should fire up the hobby motivation thread when I am back from my trip, would you be keen to join?

kestral wrote:The display cabinet/Knight gantry idea is a really good one. Looks great!

Good luck breaking out of the hobby slump - I'd say you have a great start.

Many thanks, I'm hoping that once I've powered through over that first bump it'll get easier from there on out.

aku-chan wrote:The Starstrider Medic looks even more awesome with that replacement head, nice job!

Cheers! I was a bit worried that the head might look a bit too big on her, but in the end it worked out nicely!

ingtaer wrote:Good stuff Brook, really looking forward to seeing how things progress! That hanger is sweet and I love the colour scheme you have going on.

"but no pressure like peer pressure am I right?" <- Truer words were never said
Perhaps I should fire up the hobby motivation thread when I am back from my trip, would you be keen to join?

I'm going to probably regret this, but yeah sure. Have fun behind enemy lines in the meantime.



The Sacristan workshop
Did some more tinkering on the parts I already have lying about and decided to add some banners to the weaponry. I stumbled upon an old Empire standard that was a bit big in its original state, so I’ve sawn it into two, making for excellent banners for both the Stormspear rocket pod aerial and the barrel of the Ironhail heavy stubber with some extra cutting. Using thin strips of plasticard I made loops to go around the barrel. It’s a bit fiddly, but I’m nowhere near as good with greenstuff for this sort of thing, so got to make do with what I got. Still got one more to add, then tidy up the edges with a little bit of greenstuff to make it all look neater:



Also drilled and carved out a pair of indents into the bottom of the Avenger gatling cannon housing, so I can hang a banner from there once it’s all painted up. Actually debating whether or not to make the effort and try to remove the details from the Canis Rex banner so it can strut around with a fancier banner, but that will probably be more effort than it’s worth to get it all nice and smooth in the long run.

I’ve also been looking at mixing and matching together the arms of both Knight kits now. The Dominus arms come with rather nice pieces of extra armour plating that go on the upper arms, which would go nicely with an up-armoured suit of armour befitting a less than brave or perhaps very prudent Baron. I think the upper Dominus arms should be able to hold the regular lower arms of a Knight just fine, almost as if it was intended so, Jes is a genius at this after all.



The baronial court
I took the time to start digging out all of the retinue / court models I mentioned. It took a while to find them all, I may need to downsize my collection one of these days.. On the bright side, I also stumbled across some other models that will now be incorporated into the court while we’re at it!



Old servo skulls! And a Forge World servitor! I may try and replace the crude flying stands of the two servo skulls with some ribbed wiring or trailing cables, as with the other, more recent plastic ones. The third one is fine as is, from a Witch Hunters henchmen pack if memory serves me right. The servitor, not sure what it was used for then (belonged to Solomon Lok I think?) but I’ll cover up the Inquisition symbol with a console or something and repaint it in house colours, maybe add in the same cog motif as with the Sacristans, serving as a diagnostics unit of sorts for its masters. Speaking of whom..



Whilst digging around I came across a very old conversion from well over a decade ago, ignore the horrible, half done paint job please! Back when we still played Rogue Trader, this was the Explorator PC’s model before being relegated to the bottom tray of some carrying case. This guy will go nicely alongside the other metal Enginseer I got last year when the Knights dropped and while not visible due to the servo skull, he does still have his servo arm, it’s just neatly tucked away in a stowed position. These guys will make for nice junior / regular sacristans toting the house colours and cog motif somewhere on their robes. He will also receive a rebase onto a 32mm base while I’m at it!



I’ve found my scribes, one from an old Daemon hunters henchman blister, the other from a Warhammer Fantasy character series done a while ago, this scribe / letter writer being packed alongside a merchant. It is tempting to add a servo skull to the fantasy scribe, but he looks fine as is, looking like an understudy or assistant to the fatty. Still need to decide on what colour scheme to go with, fatty is repainted in a test scheme to see if Celestra grey works on the robes like that.



Also found my other Astropath, again from an old Daemon hunters blister, this one already undergoing some experimental repainting some time last year as I want to try and combine both the primary house colour (Celestra grey) and the dark green usually associated with Astropaths. Not sold on this, but it may grow on me yet.

I’ll need to order a new blister of regimental advisors, as the current ones I got from an earlier order are a bit iffy. The Master of Ordnance in particular has rather horrible moldlines running down both sides and the Officer of the Fleet has a dodgy looking head. Thankfully the blister is cheap as hell and I can always use another one of those Astropaths, which can always be turned into a Sacristan with some extra bits and a swap of the top of the staff.

Also decided to not use Helena DeRoza as the consort, for some reason the model looks absolutely childlike in proportion next to all the other models, this includes those more recently done by GW models those by Artel W itself!

So, lonely Baron seeking fiendishly lovely consort to plot and scheme with when not going to war.



The wordy stuff
It’s going to need a name at some point, obviously. Naming stuff is always annoyingly hard, as a name has to fit the thing it is going to get attached to.

Also decided to look into house traditions and whatnot, for the sake of getting a feel for the thing as I'm building it. Nothing is set in stone, aside from it being an Imperial Knight House that loves to send its nobles out on crusades and quests to do good across the Imperium as a whole, these choices were mostly done to complement the planned conversions (longer, more powerful legs and more armour bolted onto vulnerable places):

Household tradition: Hawkshroud
Warlord trait: Landstrider
Household Heirloom: Armour of the Sainted Ion

Though I could always go full filth and use the custom hero creation rules from Chapter Approved 2018* to create a truly Legendary Hero worthy of House Adamantite Rose:

- Ferocious Combatant (+1 Attack)
- Dead-eyed (BS 2+)
- Fleet (+2” movement)
- Blademaster (WS 2+)
- Toughened Armour (2+ armour save)
- High Calibre (+1 Strength to Avenger gatling cannon)
- Beast Hunter (Re-roll failed wound rolls for attacks against MONSTER units)
- Deadly Charge (+1 Attack when charging)

Dirrrrrrrty..



* I am aware of the casual and unofficial nature of these rules, but they're still a lot of fun to play around with.

Been a while, totes got nothing to do with being a semi-responsible adult who works five days a week and also putting some time into the Division 2.

YOU GOT MAIL PART THE FIRST



Is it? It is! Payday + early birthday money =



I may have ordered a Valiant instead of a Castellan by accident, but that’s okay, just means I’ll be running two Valiants for my custom house instead of one..! May still need to track down a Castellan groin plate at some point, but details amirite?

The most important thing is, I got legs, I got a torso, I got arms, I got custom conversion parts, I got almost everything I need to get started! All I need now is time off so I can start work on this monster and make it look good.

As for the Dominus blister, it is included as a future project where I alter some bits and turn it into a Sacristan prime or something along those lines. I am aware that GW’s got a slightly cheaper version of the model for Kill Team, with a load of extra tat thrown in as well, but I’m not overly fond of the coloured plastic GW uses. Mind, you can still cut and glue it like the regular stuff, it just feels a bit more brittle for some reason.



YOU GOT MAIL PART THE SECOND

This one actually came in on Saturday, but I decided to save it for this update. Mail from Artel W!


Due to dodgy photography it is a bit hard to make out, but there’s a “W” on the wax seal of this tiny box.

Aw yis! My noble has arrived. As with their previous orders, the model is FLAWLESS. No bubbles, no vents, no holes, no flash, just a few not awkwardly placed tabs that need to be removed before a quick cleaning and priming.

In a future update I’m hoping to show off the model with a new head, one I found while digging through a massive pile of spare Kingdom Death: Monster parts. It’s already primed black and awaiting some colours, though I am still debating how to go about this. Current thoughts are to try something along the lines of Director Krennic from Rogue One, maybe switch the trouser and shirt colours for a bit more pop to go with the bling the model sports.

I’ll struggle and agonize over that later, for now I’m just going to admire the mini.





BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE?!

Also got a Genestealer Magus incoming, going to try and see if I can turn that model into a consort with a headswap from Statuesque and some spare hands from the very same massive pile of spares I got from Kingdom Death: Monster, after seeing the amazing conversion done by LS270686!



Seriously, give his gallery a look and some votes, his stuff is amazing.



The Sacristan workshop

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is, the amount of random Cities of Death parts I still got lying about! Aeons ago when they first released those kits I got the Imperial City boxed set, built a crapton of buildings out of it and was left with a crapton of spare parts, mostly the lower wall sections that go on top of the buildings. I’ve been gathering these up from time to time, stick them together and build various monuments / sepulchres out of them as extra scatter terrain, spruced up with odds and ends like piles of skulls of the faithful, a spare Imperial Knight face plate and assorted minis to use as statuary, turning them into monuments and whatnot.

Recently I did some digging and managed to find more parts, so I decided to build a smaller sepulchre of sorts as a handy piece of base decoration for the Knight to stand on. When you give a model working knees, might as well use them right?



I may add some candles to the top, or simply leave it as is and paint it up in a worn, weather beaten kind of way. Maybe I’ll try and see if I’ve got any old large square bases left and use those to create a ruined tile floor to go with the sepulchre.

That's all for now, next time, I'll hopefully have some actual progress to show off.

I really enjoy your updates, and look forward to hearing about how things go when you've got time to get stuck in. The sepulcher looks quite nice already, solid foundation to rest a giant stompy foot on

Also, that's some impressive packaging from Artel W!

Really like that little mausoleum, Brook.

Boss Salvage wrote:I really enjoy your updates, and look forward to hearing about how things go when you've got time to get stuck in. The sepulcher looks quite nice already, solid foundation to rest a giant stompy foot on

Also, that's some impressive packaging from Artel W!

Many thanks!

And yes, part of the charm of ordering from Artel W is the packaging, makes me feel like I'm special or something.

Dysartes wrote:Really like that little mausoleum, Brook.

Cheers, I'm chuffed that it wound up working out perfectly for its intended purpose.

IMPERIAL ARCHITECTURE

As mentioned before (I think), I wanted to do a lot of prep whenever I could running up to the arrival of the kits, so I could fully focus on that instead of the smaller details surrounding it all. One of the things I also want for this model is a nice base. I’m not one to go all out or build something insane like some of the really creative folks out there, but I still wanted something nice that would complement the model.

I’ve already thrown together a sepulchre of sorts with the idea of it being something the Knight can victoriously or perhaps, arrogantly (it is filled with remains, shame on you sir Knight!), stand on overseeing its fiefdom or the carnage it has wrought. So, it would need a base that I could stick it onto.

On a whim I just started digging through my bits boxes, digging up all sorts of odds and sods until I got a general idea of what I wanted to do. I wound up using a spare Imperial Knight base that I pried the model off and using an old movement tray with textured edges as the basis for a simple tile floor. Well, simple it may be, but it took some effort to remove the raised edges, as my brand new Citadel saw decided to break! So, on to plan B, which was to use my trusty (and sharp, always use a fresh blade when starting on a new project) hobby knife and score out the edges enough to snap it off after some careful clipping.

Then I simply held it over the base, drew out a rough cutting shape and clipped away! This left me with a nice, partially damaged floor piece that I then glued onto the base, waited for it to dry overnight, then carefully clipped, cut and shaved away at the edges so it more or less fits flush along the edges of the base.

The tile floor makes for a great bit of thematic flooring for the sepulchre I built earlier, like a destroyed building interior or an outside location. I did not glue it into place just yet, first I wanted to make sure that the converted legs could actually reasonably act out a pose on this terrain. Later down the road I’ll be adding some extra skulls and fragments of tiling to the base as scatter and debris, the rest of the still blank area will be covered up with a texture paint that matches the rest of the army, tying everything together.



But as it is right now, it’s a good start and a nice base to work on.



THE SACRISTANS WORKSHOP

I could do a lengthy ramble, but instead..



Yes.

Oh yes.

It’s amazing what a simple conversion can do for a model sometimes.

Inserting the conversion parts took no effort at all, just the removal of the tabs on the lower legs and the removal of the tabs on the hip joints to allow for a nice 360 degree rotation, should one desire to do so. It did take some fiddling and a lot of dry fitting before I glued everything in place. Starting with the upper legs to the hips, then the lower legs + feet to the base and finally joining it all together. I added some thick plasticard to the left foot to raise it slightly. I did this for two reasons: To give it just a little bit more height to straighten out the hips and when basing it, it won’t look like the model has sunk too far down into the ground. Not to mention, this gives the feet a larger area to adhere to when gluing it to the base, something I did with all my knights, though in their cases I’ve used a thinner sheet of plasticard.

After I was done praising Taro for the awesome conversion bits, I got to thinking.. Why stop at just the legs? I can practically do Imperial Knight torsos in my sleep nowadays! And I still have a Thunderstrike gauntlet handy from a previous project (sorry, Knight Galant!), so might as well keep on trucking!

The result being..



I may fiddle around with the arm poses a bit more, but overall I quite like this pose, it has the right amount of triumph and arrogance on display befitting a Baron. The right arm is a mix of an Imperial Knight Valiant / Castellan arm + pistons mated with an Avenger.

And a quick picture of most of the upper armour in place, not glued down yet, but there so I could dry fit the position of the tilting plate and heavy stubber before gluing their fittings in place. This also allowed me to check if I could add in the extra arm armour from the Valiant to the right arm, due to the kit using different shoulder plates:





Yes! Not glued in place and I’ll not glue it in place for some time after painting it, I want to check and see how it looks with and without the extra armour there. Reason for this is..



Due to the arm pistons of the Thunderstrike gauntlet, I cannot use the same plate on this arm as I had initially planned, which may result in an unbalanced look in my eyes. Now, the gauntlet arm does come with a small shield as a standard option in the kit, I may replace this with a larger or fancier one from my pile of Empire Fantasy stuff instead, or add some bling to the original instead. We shall see.

All in all, good progress was made over the course of the week, despite moderation madness and work trying its best to drive me insane, so quite pleased with that.

There is still some stuff left to do before I can start priming..
- Build the head (I may paint this separately from the model before gluing it in place).
- Magnetize the Stormspear up top and see if the banner does not make it too top heavy.
- See if I can get a Knight banner attached in the same place as normal Knights (this would’ve been easier had I thought of this before gluing the legs together, derp!).
- Re-do the heavy stubber, only minus the banner this time, it was a bit too much when I fitted it in place!
- Add the Aquila heads to the frame of the Knight, along with some purity seals on both the armour and the sepulchre as extra decoration.

Finally, a name has been decided on after a brainstorm session with someone else using various themed name generators put out by both GW (Living Failure, really GW?! ) and other places. It also helped to finally have an actual model to attach a name to, the pose has helped in the process a lot, as have some initial thoughts on the pilot’s previous exploits in picking a suitable name.



THE COURT RECEIVES ANOTHER TWO MEMBERS

As I was digging through boxes and trays of minis looking for good conversion fodder I came across Artel W’s version of Colonel Regina Kasteen of that arsehole Ciaphas Cain fame.



Now, this shouldn’t be a surprise, but I gave mine a Statuesque headswap. I swear the dude is not holding my best friend hostage or anything! But as is, the mini is too good to ignore, so she’ll be a House Militia officer of sorts alongside the other guy, probably a minor blue blood or something with enough clout to get a commission, but not enough blue in the veins of her family to stake a claim to even an Armiger suit and bondsman status.

Scrub!

When I got her she’s actually part of the HQ deal they got going on:



Chances are I may or may not sneak that holo table into the hangar project at some point as well somehow, too good a piece not to use in all honesty, either as a briefing area or maybe as a spot where Sacristans go to discuss their repairs. I’d paint up a Titanicus scale Knight as a hologram, but I already compared the two and the table is a bit too small for that sadly!

The other addition is the Dominus of the previous update, whom I’ve given some minor conversions so I can turn the model into a Sacristan Prime or whatever the title is belonging to the top ranking Sacristan. Nothing too severe, I quite like the model as is, though I removed both ranged weapon options in favour of some spare servo arm parts from an Anvil Industry order I made last year. I also added in another servo skull, this one from the Cadian command squad set. The main arms will be added once the model is painted, I’m not making that mistake ever again!

Anyway, in my vacation, or whenever insomnia strikes, I’ll probably go to work naming all the court members and devising some sort of sad little pecking order they all adhere to, breathing a bit more life into them.

Alright, three more days of work, then a week and some change off to really start knuckling down on this thing. I'm actually looking forward to priming and painting this beast now!

Looking good Brook, I did briefly wonder why praising root vegetables helped in the construction of Knights but I just put it down to one of the mysteries of the universe.

Exciting to see some painting progress! Would also be interested in seeing a list of the Household court (remember you have another techpriestess coming!). Keep up the good work!

 ingtaer wrote:
Looking good Brook, I did briefly wonder why praising root vegetables helped in the construction of Knights but I just put it down to one of the mysteries of the universe.

Exciting to see some painting progress! Would also be interested in seeing a list of the Household court (remember you have another techpriestess coming!). Keep up the good work!

Ah yes, the extra addition, with enough tentacles to make her look like an extra for one of those weird Japanese cartoons.

I look forward to seeing how she'll fit into this all.

THE SACRISTANS WORKSHOP

So, from last time, I still had a small checklist of stuff I needed to do:

- Build the head (I may paint this separately from the model before gluing it in place). The head has been built, primed, painted and put in place.
- Magnetize the Stormspear up top and see if the banner does not make it too top heavy. This proved to be no problem at all, I just had to shorted the original peg with which the pod is attached to the carapace a little bit, so that both magnets go together nice and flush.
- See if I can get a Knight banner attached in the same place as normal Knights (this would’ve been easier had I thought of this before gluing the legs together, derp!). This did not work out as between the legs there’s not enough room (Heyooooo!) and the other plan, to attach it to the bottom of the Avenger, didn’t work out either. So no banner and I had to fill up the holes I made in the bottom of the Avenger again, oh well..!
- Re-do the heavy stubber, only minus the banner this time, it was a bit too much when I fitted it in place! Done, nothing noteworthy there.
- Add the Aquila heads to the frame of the Knight, along with some purity seals on both the armour and the sepulchre as extra decoration. Done! I’ll be adding the purity seals to everything else as a final step, probably paint them up while they’re still on sprue and super glue them in place.

That said, time for a work in progress shot:



We're getting somewhere!

Still got loads to do, starting with the base and working my way up from there. After the base I'll do the feet, which will be the first splash of Celestra grey, but there will be loads more of it before we're done. I'll also be picking out some other details in bronze for a bit of pop, like parts of pistons and reactor components.

I've also started work on priming most of the armour panels, priming it all black with the insides done in Leadbelcher afterwards. The insides are barely visible, but better safe than sorry! With those already primed, I can start work on painting them one by one and gluing them in place as I go, slowly "dressing up" the Knight so to say. While I don't like to paint, I do love this stage of the models’ assembly.



THE BARONIAL COURT

Every noble needs a strong consort, so sayeth the fluff! Well, the background has changed radically since the first Imperial Knight codex and tie-in novella, where it was a strict case of men going to war, women running the courts and being forbidden from operating suits of armour. Two codex books and a pair of novels and short stories later, we’re at a point now where consorts can be blokes and Knight pilots can be female, or even both. This may in part be due to author Andy Clark, who penned two Imperial Knight novels and the latest Codex, so thanks Andy!

Initial idea was to maybe have a baroness who also operated a Knight, but I also quite like the idea of having someone running the show behind the scenes, or having, as was implied with the earlier stuff, that the consorts wielded the real power in the courts, not the Knights. Or maybe this was a case of the Baron not really caring all that much about running a court and instead leaving it to his dear wife, so he could spend more time doing anything but that, as running an Imperial court is mind-numbingly boring and so full of protocol and tradition that going to war is a much desired alternative.

I decided on the Genestealer Cults Magus after seeing an ace (understatement) conversion done by LS270686, if you haven’t already, please do check out his gallery and give it some votes, his stuff is awesome and inspiring!

The base model is nice, but I wanted to change one or two things to make it more to my liking. First up, the head! The new head is from you-know-who, which was a simple neck shave on both ends until it fit in there nicely. The super glue should cover up the join, if not, I’ll try and fix that with a small amount of greenstuff after priming.

This left me with the hands and what to do with them. Initially I just wanted to replace them with spares from Kingdom Death – Monster, but the hands have these nice sculpted on details, so I simply had to keep them.

I’ve got a good friend on standby who I tend to bounce ideas off of or brainstorm stuff in general with, so she was called in to help come up with some ideas for the model. Somewhere along the line we decided to focus on the alternate hand holding the skull. How could we use this? The Imperium is known for its rather macabre veneration of the dead and parts of the dead, so what if this Knight world also had an Imperium approved / reimagined cult of sorts that involves the dead? What if this consort or baroness was, or still is, a member of this cult? For a lack of a better term, for the time being we decided to simply dub it the mortuary cult, at least until we can devise a good, proper high gothic name of sorts. But it gave me an excuse to use the hand holding the skull at least.

This simply left me with the right hand holding the staff, which was a bit too heretical, though very fancy looking. After some digging through my bits boxes I decided to turn it into a shorter baton, using leftover parts from a Lord Commander Solar Macharius mini I used to own aeons ago. What the baton signifies is unknown as of now, maybe a honoured ancestor, some local saint / founder of the mortuary cult or a simplified representation of the Emperor. Or maybe the visage of her husband, so she can wave it around as a badge of office?

Anyway, problem solved!

The model, as many others in this court, has no real tabletop purpose, but is a nice conversion for the Baronial court.





Next update will also, hopefully, contain some proper images of the squires! I decided to pick up a box of Van Saar, so it'll be interesting to see if I can churn out some unique looking squires / bondsmen to go with the nobles.



In other news, having a game this Wednesday, a proper one for the first time in ages that isn't some random scenario or a retread of First Strike. 1000 pts of Imperial Knights against whatever the chap running GW Amersfoort is going to throw together, maybe Eldar? He is working on some good looking Ianden models. Looking forward to it regardless, maybe I can bash out a defeat on my birthday, but knowing me I'll make some tactically sound decisions and get tabled by the end of turn three. Either way, chuffed this is happening. As to what I'll be bringing, probably the Valiant, a Helverin and a Warglaive, I doubt I'd get the Warden done on time, plus I don't think they'll let me use it as it has third-party parts in there.

The Baroness is looking nifty, nice converting!

 aku-chan wrote:
The Baroness is looking nifty, nice converting!

Thanks! There's still the threat of me ruining it with my attempt at painting it.

SACRISTANS WORKSHOP

Progress has been slow on the Warden, but at least the carapace is, aside from some tidying, done and in place. I also glued the shield in place, which is a bit barren as of now, but I will add some purity seals to it at a later date.



Most pleased with how the decals on the hatch turned out, which took some careful cutting to get rid of the original icon held by the wreath in favour of the Sisters of Battle symbol my house uses.



The red stripes on the carapace denote that the noble piloting this suit of armour is a Baron. He is however not part of the exalted court, as his tilting plate is devoid of any special patterns that may mark him as such and grant him courtly titles such as Kingsward or Master of Judgement.

Next up.. some more armour plating, looking a bit naked down below right now!



THE BARONIAL COURT – ASPIRING SACRISTAN

So, despite my best efforts and claims otherwise, the retinue keeps on growing! Quite unexpectedly I received a Genestealer Cults Nexos blister for my birthday. Wasn’t quite sure what to do with it, so I set it aside for a night to think it over.

Inspiration of sorts struck the following day during a Discord conversation with another friend, which led to a session with the bits boxes and here we have.. an aspirant Sacristan! He is either a Sacristan in training, or someone who will never truly become a Sacristan, forever being a lowly maintenance worker with a fancy title.





Over the course of the day I may or may not have tinkered with the model a lot until things felt just right. The initial head was one from the Skitarii set, which still showed a little bit of flesh but also enough tech. This wound up getting replaced by a leftover sergeant head of the Solar Auxilia flamer squad, which has a bitching welding mask flipped up, not to mention a nice protective neck layer that would go nicely with the under suit the model is already wearing.

The vox aerial was replaced by a spare lamp from an unused Genestealer Cults torso, whilst a web pistol, some electric wiring and a cybernetic Skitarii hand replaced the original right hand clutching a radio. Now he’s wielding a welder of sorts hooked up to the satchel on this side, which is now acting as the power supply of the tool.

On his back after some careful clipping and trimming is the always pleasing smaller servo arm backpack of Anvil Industry, with one of their fine servo arms up top and a mechanical tail of sorts down below, maybe acting as a diagnostics or data jack of sorts to aid him with his repairs?

I still need to do something about the holographic map table, I’ve already carefully removed the damaged aquila and after some sanding replaced it with a small brass Aquila plaque from Forge World to cover up the rest of the scratches as best as possible.

I also need to replace the holographic display with something else, as this guy is not military or support staff planning an attack on Nottingham, but one of the workers tasked with the repair of a suit of armour. My first thought was using a Knight from the Titanicus range and paint that up as a hologram, turning it into a diagnostics station of sorts. But as is the model is too big! I thought about cutting one in half and using the top half, but that also wound up being too big. So, with this model I’m still stuck there for some time to come, but we’ll see what kind of weird brainwave will happen next.

Suggestions are welcome though!



THE BARONIAL COURT – YET ANOTHER ASPIRING SACRISTAN

With special thanks to fellow mod ingtaer, who needed to offload some junk and thought I’d be the best source for all of this. But joke’s on him! I’m an irredeemable hoarder and will find a use for each and every item sent my way, be it today, tomorrow or a decade from now!

So, what did he offload onto me then?



It took me some time to find a proper picture or two of the model, as googling Prodos is anything but pleasant. Instead I had to search under the Archon label, their latest disaster waiting to happen and after some more searching in the Men of Iron (Germans in Space) KS, I finally found the model.

So, this is supposed to be a medic of sorts then. The concept art I found for the model is decent enough, but the model itself.. a tiny model with oversized mechanical arms that look more at home in one of those Japanese cartoons I most certainly do not watch!

Okay, going to leave the original arms off and put those away in a bits box it is then, you never know when those might come in handy.

But what about the model itself then? It is quite small and svelte, almost childlike, so will not readily fit in with the rest of the models used. After some pondering and fiddling about with the bits boxes I’ve decided to turn her into another aspiring Sacristan. This time around a young adult perhaps, who is still undergoing trials and tutelage before being shipped off to Lucius for a more formal induction into the Cult Mechanicus, along with a slew of cybernetic enhancements to bulk her up like her peers. Maybe one of the already present Sacristans is her parental unit and has taken her under a watchful cybernetic for the time being.





Now the replacement arm, from Anvil Industry, isn’t exactly small either, but feth it, at least it is more in line with the other models and this is the Imperium, so STC all the way. She’ll grow into it or something. Two of the three other ports have been carefully drilled out and outfitted with a piece of electrical wire to represent unused power cables or data jacks of some sort. I may add some devices or spikes to their ends later.

Other than that, keeping the model as is. It’s too tiny for more kitbashing anyway!



THE BARONIAL COURT – KEEPER OF FAITH

Another thing missing from the court was a representative of the Imperial faith, but no more! Much to my surprise GW still has the classic metal Missionary with chainsword up for sale:



So one quick mail order later and I’m the proud owner of this chap, again. I may tweak one or two things on the model, like a less chunky chainsword and maybe a different backpack, but overall I quite like the guy and will most likely use more or less the same colour scheme as well, what with him being an outsider of the court, unlike most of the others.

He sure as hell beats the alternative out there, which is the MEGA FAT BIG CHUNGUS POPE from Blackstone Fortress. No thanks, while he may look the part and certainly looks at home with the court, I’m always a bit suspicious of clergy that rotund. I like to think that the baron feels the same way about these people.



THE BARONIAL COURT – LADY ULRICH, THE REAPER

Finally, a model that wasn’t a planned member of the court, but now is:





This model started out as a test piece to see if I could do white hair and silver armour, which is still something I’m working on, but overall I liked where this was going. So much so that I’ve decided to adopt this model into the court as one of the nobles in service to the baron, based on the character my brother always plays.

That’s right, not a character, but the character.

This is lady Chisami Ulrich, a character name my brother uses for each and every game out there, be it roleplay, tabletop or computer game. Another aspect or trademark he always uses as well is that this character has white hair. So, might as well make the most of this and just go with it!

Her title of Reaper comes from his all-time favourite time sink Final Fantasy XIV, a game he has sunk almost 4300 hours into.. eesh, I know right? Even more hilarious is perhaps that the title was granted to him not for slaughtering his way through mobs of foes, but for farming stuff as the Botanist class IIRC.

The title sounded all a bit cheesy and edgy at first, but then we decided to connect it to the Mortuary Cult present on this world, because why not right? It might be a lesser version or local variant of the Baronial title Master of Justice, or this could be someone chosen to become the champion of the Cult itself. All I know is, I’ve got an old Forge World Valkyrie decal sheet lying about here and I’m going to try my damnedest to use that small skeletal cherub on the right as personal heraldry for this noble!



As an added grim dark bonus, I’ll finally get to use that converted Empire standard I did aeons ago, should be fun to mount that on top of a Knight’s carapace or a launcher of sorts to hammer home how deep into the cult this person really is.

What she will be riding is unknown as of now, I’m allowing my brother to decide on that. I’m first and foremost not building this as a tabletop army, but rather as a fun project guided by the rule of cool. I already have a pair of unarmoured Knight chassis at the ready for him, one at a run, the other with one foot planted firmly on a toppled column of building debris.



CHECKLIST

Coming next update..

Unbelievable

K.

Cool

Great updates Brook, the knight looks really tight with that light carapace against dark metal. Lady Ulrich is also a standout for me, despite her being unplanned

Thanks guys, hoping to update again soon, or whenever work is less hectic.

I'm happy with how Ulrich turned out and I'm glad that my brother approved of the outcome as well.

I've been doing some things in my sparse free time and while the Baron may not be the overall ruler, I am toying around with the idea to give him an exalted court of his own, I certainly have more than enough Knights, of almost every type, to fill out each and every slot.

The lady Ulrich would be the Mistress of Justice, a job the Gallant is simply made for. Sir Keishu and his Castellan would become Gatekeeper, leaving me with just the jobs of Herald and Kingsward, though the latter would probably be a more mundane title like Lifeward or the like.

Great start there, Brook. I really like the detail you're going into with both your work on the knights and their background.

I wish I'd come across this thread earlier, because i've done something similar with my knight, but without the 3rd party knee bitz. They would have made my life easier, that's for sure.

Has there been any more progress?

Sadly life hit pretty hard. Working a lot, toss in a seasonal depression that's ignoring the calendar and I've been looking at a half-done Knight for six months now. Tried some other things in the meantime like Aeronautice or smaller projects, but well.. things haven't been going well all-round for me.



I've been hoarding more and more minis in the meantime, the court has grown to massive proportions since then. Once things have settled down a bit I should face the music (or firing squad) and try to get this all back on the road.

Man, this is really awesome work - I love how much character your minis have - hope the life stuff smooths out soon, and you feel like you can get back into the swing of things!

(Btw Inaba best grill)

"And in that time the Great Beasts shall walk the earth,
beneath their tread shall cities become as dust,
by their burning breath shall civilisations be as ash,
so the End of Days is begun."

- The Apocrypha Terra



We keep listening for the other voices, hoping for the darkness of the void lit only by a single guiding light, but instead we are still greeted by a miasma of madness, accompanied by incoherent screams and violent intent, slowly killing us one by one. Not for the first time and certainly not for the last time, I cannot help but wonder what is going on out there right now. What has brought this all about? Though it is heresy to even form such a thought, I fear we may be looking at the loss of Terra. However, until confirmation of such heretical thought, we will continue our vigil, until contact has been re-established or, I fear this may be the most likely outcome… When the last of the choir has been burned out, killed or put down due to the strain.

- Choirmaster Morren



I do not know how I managed to survive, but Emperor forgive me for voicing this out loud; I wish I never did. Every time I close my eyes, I still see those… things.



FLIGHT CONTROL: Esperanza, this is Shimano Control.

<VOX STATIC>

FLIGHT CONTROL: Freighter Esperanza, this is Shimano Control, please acknowledge our hails, over.

<VOX STATIC>

FLIGHT CONTROL: Esperanza, please respond, you are coming in too fast.

<VOX STATIC>

FLIGHT CONTROL: Esperanza, this is your final warning or we will be forced to open fire on you.

<REDACTED BY ORDO SEPULTURUM>

FLIGHT CONTROL: FIRE! OPEN FIRE! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, OPEN FIRE!

- Flight control message recovered from orbital platform debris



Help us! For the love of all that is sacred, please help us! They are everywhere! We cannot hold them back much longer!

- Emergency transmission from Shimano Theta



Wish I’d paid more attention back in the day, so I could dictate a nice and flowery epitaph, but instead? Here’s me talking into a vox horn, hoping that someone, anyone is out there listening. Heh, so here we are, the last sorry few, moments away from annihilation. We’re all going to die, but we’ve decided to go out on our own terms. Like hell are we going to get torn apart or worse, become one of those… things like many others before us. Instead, we’re going to detonate the fuel conduits running through this place and with a little luck we’ll be able to take out a good chunk of that horde with us. Ha, probably a good chunk of the city as well, but it’s all gone to hell anyway, so I’m guessing we’re doing whoever comes in after us to rebuild and repopulate this place a big favour by levelling it in advance. Emperor accept us into thy grace, we have been true to the Throne until the very end. Omnissiah forgive us for what we are about to do, but better to destroy this facility than to let it fall into enemy hands, right? This is junior supervisor Aldo, stationed at refinery plant Gamma, indentured to house Dubrovnik, signing off.

- Final transmission from Shimano Theta, currently overrun by <REDACTED BY ORDO SEPULTURUM>



Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop.

- Graffiti found scrawled over walls of medicae holding cell



<ENTRY REDACTED BY ORDO SEPULTURUM>



Praise the Emperor! An end to the madness is in sight, contact has been restored and with it, word from Terra! The message is garbled at best and the decay of the many relays has taken its toll on the original missive, but one thing I clear: Help is on the way! There is mention of a crusade and a “true son” of the Emperor at its head. At this point I will gladly believe anything, even something as impossible as the return of a sainted Primarch, if it means salvation from the madness beyond.

- Choirmaster Morren























+ + + INITIATING THRONE CONNECTION + + +

011000011001111010110>01110=37Alpha5[[[
TF01101100<0110001}}IFChecksum14<two=//thenvocalisation::‘hoorah’



We pledge to the spirits of our founding fathers
And the glory of the realm our Emperor
That we shall be the shield which defends our realm
And the sword to smite those who would harm us

+ + + WELCOME BACK BARON + + +

It's been a while..?

Had hoped to update sooner but well, double-whammy of getting the flu followed by getting swamped by work (COVID-19 or not, the mail needs to be delivered!) meant this took longer than expected.

And I'm still not done with the fether!



But slowly getting there, nothing yet glued into place, but again, slooooooooowly getting there, dressing it up one part at a time.

Warden to-do list:
* Left upper leg plate
* Left lower leg plate
* Right foot
* Groin plate and banner
* Thunderstrike arm tiny armour plate
* Avenger arm
* Avenger arm armoured plate
* Left shoulder plate
* Stormspear rocket pod and banner

When that's out of the way I can look at some minor things like adding some purity seals to the tilting plate and redoing the right side of the base, maybe try a marble effect for the tiles and redo the crypt itself in a better shade of grey.

And there's also the dismounted baron, also still very-very-very-very-very much a WIP as I try and find the right colours for him:



Model not yet glued to base, base also not done, cane also neither done nor glued in place.

Let's see if I can get it done before my vacation in two weeks.