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

Ok so I just got a pre owned imperial knight (yaay). However, this is an unmagnetized, house terryn, extremely genericly painted model. It is equipped with no carapace weapon, a rapid fire battlecannon, a gatling cannon, and a heavysrubber. I want to repaint and make this thing into a freeblade, but I have not seen any canon freeblades with those specs. Should I just come up with my own freeblade? If so, any ideas for story or colir scheme? The rest of my army is painted blue and grey-black.

Here he is in all his generic glory

Unless you're planning a full strip approach I'd be tempted to work with what you have as a base, paint in the missing detail bits (like the edges on the shin armour) and go from there.

The colours are actually not bad, but would benefit from shading etc from the look of it.

Maybe throw a few trophies on if you want a more mercenary feel, or start adding a lot of detailing, maybe something like ww2 aircraft nose art? thinking the sort of things a pilot and his maintenance crew could add as a sort of advertisement of their services?

There will e a lot of exterminator autocannons spare on ebay soon; you may find converting a carapace twin autocannon with one fruitful.

Beyond that, maybe cross out the iconography but leave it place? like a disgraced member on his own or something?

Why not add some shading and add some real weathering/battle damage? Maybe pick up a xenos vehicle cheap and use it to fancy up the base. Or add some flags, purity seals, cloaks etc.

Make it a real veteran, an oldie but very experienced combatant.

I like the weathering idea. Any tips towards that goal?

What is so generic about it?
It is a decently painted model from the looks of it. Finish it and add some details and such if you like, but if I were you I would refrain from doing anything major. That would just mean doing a lot of unnecessary work.
However, that base is still looking very bland and boring. It has a lot of empty space Why not make your knight more unique by giving it an awesome base? You could even make a small diorama on it.

For weathering there is loads of really good tutorials here on dakka and on other sites. Just google search for them.

 NoOneExpectsAnInquisition wrote:
I like the weathering idea. Any tips towards that goal?

Afraid the above poster hit the nail on the head! I have only ever used hairspray as a medium to 'scratch damage' but theres plenty of tutorials around!

Depending on how the back of the armor plates are painted, your best bet is just repainting the front of the armor plates, this really is the easiest way to make the knight look completely different. As for the weapons, they're not that hard to replace or even magnetize with what you have. Get you a good model saw, cut them in the gap where they swivel horizontally and fill the arms and weapons with a little greenstuff and put in a magnet. Most of the arm weapons attach at this spot, so if you buy bits from ebay this is where you can expect to attach them anyways. As for carapace weapons, use a hand drill where they weapon usually goes and put a magnet there. Then just magnetize whatever weapons you can get a hold of for easy swap out.