My Imperial Knight Errant stomps onto the stage!

The part of Ferrous Maximus in my Crusaders for Knowledge army will be played by Remulus Ortyllis in his Knight Errant. I had to change the weaponry on my first Imperial Knight as going for cool trumps all considerations of following nice pictures in rulebooks (and rules). With the re-release of Renegade I got the chance to get a nice bit of scenery and two Imperial Knights at a splendid price. As I always wanted an Imperial Knight, getting two was too good a deal to skip. I have to admit I got a bit overexcited by having the kit and started building it between waiting for my Necromunda barricades to dry. Yesterday evening I put most of the finishing touches on the model (excepting a few small details I added this morning before breakfast (I may have gotten carried away by this project).

I know what you're thinking, did he fire at 100.000 gigawatts or 150.000 gigawatts. Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself.

A picture of a Forge World knight has been staring at me from the bookshelf on my new workspace and I wanted to (try to) replicate the armor color on it. As it was The Horus Heresy: Model Masterclass Volume One staring at me, all it took was opening the book to find out how the effect was achieved. The striking red armor is painted using an airbrush to pre-shade with blue and green tints, followed by a translucent glossy red. Unfortunately Forge World has stopped selling its own line of airbrush paints. Understandable as the ancient Citadel/current day Coat d'Arms pots are many things, but 'being useful for airbrush paint' is not among those things (insert rant about GW airbrush line and their pots here). As the paint was not available at all I had to improvise.

Painting the little window on top of this monster was a story all unto itself. Lets just say I tried a lot of painting techniques to get it to this rather basic green.

Tamiya X-27 Clear Red was an obvious candidate to replace Forge World Angron Red but the Tamiya Clear line is alcohol based (I think). Trying to thin it with my usual selection of thinners leads to tears (and those also don't improve the thinning process). In the end I went for an internet hint and ordered a few pots of MiniTaire Ghost Tint (Fresh Blood, Plasma Fluids, Green, Purple and Blue). The Ghost Tint line is an airbrush ready line of transparent  paints that sounded perfect for the job. I followed the Forge World Masterclass starting out with Vallejo Steel and Aluminum airbrush ready metallics and then using MiniTaire Plasma Fluids (light blue) to pre shade panel lines and the MiniTaire Green for the darkest shadows. After that it was a matter of patiently spraying on about four or five coats (I lost count somewhere) of MiniTaire Fresh Blood. The first layer was best described as 'wimpy pink(ish)' but it is important to let the coats dry and keep at it. If you don't the Knight will be called 'Sir Runner' in reference to the paint runs on his armor panels. It's also where the simultaneous work on the barricades (and a new dedicated hairdryer for drying paint) came in handy.

A quick work in progress shot seems appropriate at this point.

For the body I considered trying the Forge World method, but knowing my patience and skill I opted for a bit of Duncan inspired work. I ended up washing the metallic body of the Knight with a thick black wash from a Vallejo (73301) Black Shade followed by a quick drybrush of Ironbreaker.

I just had to add a Thunderstrike Gauntlet, it looks so wonderfully menacing.

To add color and further tie in the Knight with my budding Adeptus Mechanicus army I opted to paint all ribbed cables (Prussian) blue then, still high on at least nearing the Forge Word effect I decided to paint all non-ribbed cables yellow banded with black. It was a chore (and good practice) and you can see two of these cables on the Power Fist Thunderstrike Gauntlet above. Not perfect, but I'm very happy with it. Applying the decals/transfers was easier then with most models as the underground on the armor panels was already gloss (saving a step). After adding them I added a coat of Ardcoat as usual to fix them in place, using Vallejo Matt Polyurethane Varnish on the banner between the legs to restore its non-gloss surface.

I love Vallejo Game Color Fluo Green. It is an almost impossible color to apply but when it works, it works.

Last but not least the base needs a bit of a mention. Following an oddly voiced Painting Clinic video I used Wood Filler to create the basic outline with room for a puddle in the middle and a few small rock to weigh it down slightly. I cut a barrel from the GW Combat Accessory frame (now known as Munitorum Armoured Containers) in half. As with the rest of the army I painted the base Khorne Red and covered it with huge blobs of Agrellan Earth for the crackle effect. The pool with the barrels was painted with a few random greens and then given multiple thin airbrushed coats of Vallejo Game Color Fluo Green. When the knight was finished I discovered the hard way that I forgot to check whether he could actually stand on his base  (in my defense, I was in a painting fugue). I ended up mixing some Wood Filler with Khorne Red to cover the gaps between the Knights feet and the ground. I mixed the filler with paint hoping I would not have to repaint it. Silly me, it turned the goop pink. So next was a new layer of Khorne Red, blow drying and finally adding more Agrellan Earth to the newly formed bits of ground. This morning, to my relief, it turned out reasonably well. I ended up quickly washing the bits with a quick mix of Army Painter Dark Tone and Strong Shade. I sprayed more Vallejo Fluo around the pool to green up the newly formed bits of ground (and the legs of the knight). As a final step I thinned down a bit of Baneblade Brown to dust up the lower legs of the Knight. As a last step I added a few Mordheim Tufts.

I am actually not old enough to enjoy Bingo this much.

Even though typing this I see some details I might want to improve, I will call this Knight Errant finished (for now). I don't think I have ever painted a huge model this fast (in four evenings) and I have to admit being rather happy with (most) of the results. As for the ongoing challenge of filling up my Wargame Bingo Card I (think I) can decide between 'Paint a vehicle' and 'Paint a monster' but I will pass on both as they will be easily achieved later this year. For this model I'll pick 'Paint a model and incorporate a technique you haven't mastered'. While I don't think I've mastered any technique, in the spirit of Bingo (I never expected to utter those words ;)  I think using pre-shading with transparant paints was definitely something new and therefore utterly unmastered. So that is where I'll put my stamp this time. Only 15 more spaces to go...

Now on with more painting (oh and work, family and all those good things that take you outside into the sunshine (or so I've been told...)).