I have a somewhat smug feeling currently having quite comfortably completed my Week 2 goals! All three Imperial Knights chassis/skeletons have been finished as far as I can without the armour plates in place. On top of this I’ve managed to magnetise the rocket pod onto the back of one of the carapaces. I ended up using four magnets in total, with three different sizes. Unlike other solutions, the magnet in the rocket pod is actually drilled and glued in place, most others just cut the stalk off and superglue a magnet that I’m sure snaps off fairly regularly.
I’ve done a little bit of work on one of the bases and have cut up parts from an old Tau tank and glued some in place along with some little crystals I picked up. I’ll need to make sure that I don’t go overboard with Xenos bits and pieces as I’m hoping to be able to use my Knights as part of a 30k Questoris Household.
My Week 3 challenge is going to need to be a little more flexible because the temperature in the UK has dropped quite a bit which prevents using spray primers and similar.
Prepare all armour plates (decorations, gap filling, washing) – including spares
a) Undercoat all armour plates Chaos Black
b) Complete all 3 bases
Regardless I want to get the armour plates ready to the point where they can be under-coated. I need to decide if I want to put on any purity seals (and if so do it), fill in a number of mold slips on the resin parts and then wash everything in warm soapy water (even the plastic bits). I’m not going to glue the handrails in place yet as it will make it easier to paint without and means I’m less likely to break them.
The a and b options will depend entirely upon the weather. The forecast is currently suggesting that the weekend will be a bit warmer and have low winds and no rain which means I can get away with undercoating them (if it goes glossy it’s not the end of the world). However the forecasts are fickle things and prone to being changed. If the weather is poor then I’ll try and get more of the bases done.
On the Bases
I’ve ruminated over the bases for quite sometime and think that I’ve finally reached a decision on what I’m going to do. Originally I was going to base them in the same style as my Space Wolves, so rocky and snow covered, this however throws up a number of issues. Firstly the way I currently do my snow bases doesn’t scale up very well, 50mm is the biggest you can really do it before having to change the method (not looking forward to doing the Storm Fang). Sculpey adds a nice amount of weight to a plastic miniature providing some needed stability for a plastic miniature – multiply that by a factor of ten+ and you’re carting round quite a significant amount of weight. Finally snow just doesn’t fit into the 30k background fluff without coming up with my own storyline. Although I don’t mind this, doing it to justify why I’ve used snow is a little lame.
So utilising my new masterclass book, I’m going to do bases in a similar vein for Forge World. A few significant changes, firstly I’m going to add debris from old models, my bits box and anything else I like the look of. I’m also going to use the bag of Crystals I bought the other day and put small clusters of them on, they’ll be painted up rather than left transparent green! This will all be filled in using the method of broken up cork tile and plaster that Forge World do. Finally everything will be painted and I’ll use a crackle paint to give the blasted earth effect you’d expect.
I’m hoping that this will look really effective (at least it does in my head) and it should scale downwards so I can follow it through for my Skitarri when I get round to them.
I’ve done a little bit of research and although the Citadel Agrellan Earth paint is fantastic, it is also very expensive for a base as large as the one the Knights use. Instead I’m going to try and get hold of some Kroma Crackle Paint. I’ll need to add some colour to this, but from what I’ve read this paint performs almost identically to the Citadel crackle paints.