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The Knight does look very good, I'm happy that your original fears didn't come true
I also love the quantity of close-up pictures, they really allow us to se lots of details that might have gone unnoticed at first
I really am looking forward to see him completed and I hope he comes off just as you expected him

I don't think you should be thinking of the skeleton as 'nearing completion' just yet.

This is something I see a lot of people who are used to doing armies of small models do- they spend a week or so, or a couple days, on painting- base coat, secondary colors, pick out some details, then declare themselves done- when this isn't one of a dozen similar $5 models, but the centerpiece of the army.

This guy is big, he's expensive, he's complex. There's only one of him, and probably will only be one of him ever. There's no reason to say 'Done' on it until you're honestly convinced that you cannot make it look any better with your own painting abilities- and looking at the awesome details you put in the liquid jars, I know that the vast majority of this skeleton isn't yet 'finished' to the best of your ability.

For instance- when in the world have you ever, ever seen silver pipes or tubes on a piece of heavy machinery? If you're not going to be painting them colors to show a little more life in the model, at least paint them black so that they stand out as a different material from the steel beams they're attached to.

Same with the engine- I have a hard time believing that the Mechanicus builds their engines all out of the exact same material, and that it all weathers exactly the same- do something similar to what you did with the pistons to show the way heat interacts with the different pipes and cylinders of the engine- paint some of them brass or gold as though they're used for more corrosive liquids, and others so they look like black plastic or white ceramic. Pick the bolts out in a different color to show that they're not just studs cast onto a solid piece of metal.

Pick out the connectors on the ends of the hoses in brass, the little decorative ridges in red enamel. Use more than just 3 colors and some washes on here- put some yellow on the little wires coming out of the engines and on the vents inside the front cowl. Make the cuffs on the pistons and rotary joins in bronze or brass as well.

There's so many details on a model this big, and after you've blocked in the big colors, it's the details that make the different between 'just another Knight Titan' and "KrautScientist's Knight Titan of the Eternal Hunt".

@ Legio Ultra: Cheers, mate!

@ Anvildude: While some of those suggestions are very good and while I can appreciate the sentiment: In all fairness, I think I've already gone beyond the bare minimum requirements on this model more than you are giving me credit for. And there's one factor that is important to consider as well, and that is my patience: I tend to tire of painting rather quickly -- it sucks, but there you have it. Each of my paintjobs, therefore, always has to be a compromise between what I can pull off from a technical standpoint and how long I can spent on a model before it just becomes a chore. Because I don't want this to turn into another job, you know

So when all is said and done, I will be spending a couple of hours more on the skeleton, adding some touches here and there, but it might still fall short of the ideal you - rightfully - describe. Because in the end, I want the model to be awesome, no question about it, but I also want to finish it before it drives me crazy, and there's still about half of this big boy left -- and that's not even counting the pilot.

So, small update: I got a bit tired of all the weathering, so I painted the pilot. Here's the - mostly finished - Baron Augustus Melchia Harrowthorne:









As always, let me know what you think!

Aaand another update: I really did take Anvildude's feedback to heart, after all, and really gave it my all during this latest round of details. Check it out:



"Pray to your false Emperor with all your heart. He may yet save you."

So, today I did two things: I took some better pictures out in the daylight, and I tackled pretty much all of the areas on the Knight's "skeleton" I was really afraid of Things I learned today include:

painting monitors
painting flames (courtesy of a super-useful tutorial by Tale of Painters)
using a glaze made from Mephiston Red to create an effect resembling glowing coals

Not bad for one day, eh?

So, here are the pictures. First up, the entire model so far:











As you can see, I finally tackled those flames which was...surprisingly fun, actually!

And a couple of detail shots:



You're probably really fed up with the model's head, but I still like it

Some of the weathering may be more obvious now, with the better lighting:



Another look at those vials:



And let's also take another look at the Knight's interior and its pilot:









Here's a view from above, showing the entire kitbashed interior again:



And as it happens, after taking the photos, I just had to finally finish the displays inside the cockpit. The task turned out to be just as fiddly as I had expected, but I am really rather happy with the result:











As always, let me know what you think!

Really love baron Harrowthorne. He looks just as stern as I expect from a khornate knight pilot.

Cheers, Zywus! That was exactly the look I was going for -- I'm glad that it seems to have worked!

Sorry to hear your baby had a bit of a misshap, but it looks like you've overcome the issues, and powered onwards regardless.

Titan is looking fab, I especially love the Captain. Looks very resolute and grim. And its nice to see a commander of a chaos titan who's not a writhing pile on tentacles!

Hi there - this is one of the only blogs I follow, as your stuff is so consistently interesting, and I am also a conversion junkie. You've got a lot to inspire other converters, which I intend as only the highest praise

I wanted to point out my new updates to my thread of majorly converted/kitbashed Khornate CSM vets/World Eaters.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/637061.page

take a peek if you like. I'd love to hear any feedback you might have, since you're also doing Khorne stuff, and basically the best Khorne stuff I've seen on Dakka.

Keep up the good work! (plastic) Skulls for the (imaginary) skull god!

-C6

Now thats a rigth and proper knigth! Well done sir

Thanks a lot, guys!

Here are some new photos of the finished "Skeleton":



















As always, let me know what you think!

Brilliant stuff could currently do with more red but I take it that'll be added with the main plates!

Cheers, mate! Your wish is my command: Here's another status update

It's more than 30 degrees Celsius outside, so there's no way I'm heading out there to take proper photos, but here's the Knight with its leg armour in varying stages of completion, all the same:



And here's a first look at the PIP belly plate:



On a related note, there's something I would really love your feedback on: I want to add a decal to the Knight that represents the Machine's honorary membership in the Legio Audax ("The Ember Wolves"), the Titan Legion that fought alongside the World Eaters during the Heresy. So I was looking at a suitably wolf-y decal in order to represent that affiliation: At first I wanted to use one of the War Hounds decals, but those definitely show a dog, not a wolf. So which of the following do you think would work best for the intended effect (As for placement, I'm thinking one of the kneecaps)?



As always, let me know what you think!

Far right one, definitely.

 Kepora wrote:
Far right one, definitely.

While I like the look of that one the best, it says “Space Wolves” to me a little too strongly. Not sure if a change in color would be enough to shake that. I’d go with the middle one.

For Ember Wolves I'd go with the middle one, the forelimb claw. Given it's design I think you could work in an ember/fire effect on it that would be cool.

Well there's always the Fire Wolf symbol:



Or this from the Space Wolf game, seems much more aggressive and Chaotic although you'd have to fill in the missing details; the flame effects from the Fire Wolf perhaps.

I think the middle one, myself. I agree with Nevelon about the far-right being too Space-Wolves-ey, even if it's also the most wolfy in general.

The first is too generic, as the wolf-paw-print has been co-opted as a generic 'Beast' symbol in popular culture.

And like Prestor Jon said, the fur would allow for a pretty interesting fire effect, if you wanted to go that route.

The ones gogsnik posted are awesome.

You could go for the War Hounds symbol... just saying. Since after all, they became the World Eaters.

 Nevelon wrote:
While I like the look of that one the best, it says “Space Wolves” to me a little too strongly. Not sure if a change in color would be enough to shake that. I’d go with the middle one.

That's my feelings too. Perhaps a wolf's face head on, but with flames in the background. A wolf's face head on is not typical for Space Wolves, and would help tie it in to the Legio


Some of the bottom left ones are not commonly seen on Space Wolves

The Knight looks great with the armor plates on, and it's great to see he's nearing completion (can't wait to see the breastplate on though )
As for the decals, I would say the central one is the best for what you want since both the leg looks wolf-ey enough and the fur could be made to look like flames. Otherwise the middle wolf face on the third row of Dreadclaw's suggestion should look good as well.

The speckled/mottled effect actually looks cool, like aged metal. Even better with your weathering and the plates on.

Cheers, guys! Thanks for the excellent feedback regarding the decals! While I do like the middle one too, it has to be said that the one on the left could work as a play on the World Eaters' tradition of marking exceptional service with a bloody handprint.

Some brilliant additional suggestions, though! The Flame wolf seems like a no brainer, although it only seems to be available in red and yellow (which looks slightly hokey).

@ Dreadclaw69: Those are possibly the best suggestions of them all -- are they even decals, though? Or do they only appear in a Codex as artwork? If they are actualy decals and somebody has any of them left, especially the more hirsute looking wolf heads dead centre and in the bottom row, please give me a holler!

I can never quite get over the transformation, when the Armour final goes on one of these things.
As for the paint job, I think you've so far manged to turn what could of been a disaster, in to a really nice looking piece, very well done .

Thanks, man! That is very nice of you to say -- and yes, the transformation is rather uncanny, isn't it?

So, all the excellent feedback re: the Legio Audax symbol provided here and over at The Bolter & Chainsword has led me to the following conclusions (for now):

1. The decal depicting that hirsute front-on wolf's head from the FW sheet would be great, but alas it seems to big for the intended position -- so it's out of the race

2. The left one from my original selection would be a nice callback to the World Eaters' practice of using bloody handprints as a sign of exemplary service, but it's too easy to mistake it for a cat's. So it's out as well.

3. The wolf head from the old Dreadnought sheet is indeed lovely, but the laurel wreath makes it look slightly too loyalist -- plus the only way to obtain it via the German ebay site right now would set be back a whopping 15 Euros -- no way I'm paying that much cash for a 20 year-old decal sheet!

4. So when all is said and done, I think I'll be using the middle decal from my original selection, albeit with a slight tweak: If I turn it around, maybe I can make the top look like a flame, which would make it look more "Ember Wolfy"

Meanwhile, I am getting there one armour plate at a time







As always.let me know what you think!

Wow does he look good, great job!!! That breastplate is the , really imposing with all the blue glowing eyes. I love the way this knight is going, well done
Now we just have to wait for the helmet

 KrautScientist wrote:
@ Dreadclaw69: Those are possibly the best suggestions of them all -- are they even decals, though? Or do they only appear in a Codex as artwork? If they are actualy decals and somebody has any of them left, especially the more hirsute looking wolf heads dead centre and in the bottom row, please give me a holler!

I think they are decals, but likely from around 2nd Edition. You could print your own with the right paper and ink

Those chest eyes really make the model pop with style!

If you want to put bloody handprints on it, you can. They don’t need to be painted on all official like. Just a few slapped on by the troops nearby.

Cheers, guys!

@ Nevelon: Oh, there will be bloody handprints, have no fear! In fact, I even made a custom GS "stamp" for that very reason (it appears somewhere earlier in this thread). What I meant was that the Legio Audax symbol could also resemble that tradition, but when all is said and done, I think the plan I have now (using the wolf claw decal turned around and with the top turned into a flame) might work better.