Imperial Knight, New Pics (better)

  I spent the day regretting the pictures I posted of the Imperial Knight.  The blue background was a mistake, I should know better by now...   So, just some new photos of the same guy.  Without the colour sucking horrid blue background.  Sorry about that...

Imperial Knight Build - Day 7 - Done!

  Woooohoooo, it's done.  And I shall ever remember the pain of it all.  I had intended to get this all done on Saturday, so it would be a true, 7 day build.  Alas, events intervened and my lower left molar (teef!) decided to get an abscess.  It's been a long time since I have felt pain like this.  Several trips to the doctor to get it drained and it keeps going nuts.  I'm on antibiotics now, and the swelling is going down.  But, joy of joys, once the swelling is gone, we get to do a root canal...

  So, I was only able to a little work on Saturday, and a little Sunday.  Finished the base today.  I am really jazzed with how he came out.  Especially the decals.  I always worry with them, but I followed all the rules and they came out pretty good.  The matte finishing was a real trial too.  I started by spraying some Valejo matte finish through the airbrush, but it frosted really badly on some pieces, on other is was fine?  How odd!  I was able to take it outside on Sunday and shoot a coat of GW's Purity Seal on it, and it toned down the frosting a lot.

  For the decals, I finally did it the right way from start to finish.  I put gloss varnish on the pieces first and let it dry.  I used Micro-Set to ready the area and then cut and dipped the decal.  Nudged them into position with the brush and then blotted up the excess.  For the curved areas, I followed that up with a coating of Micro-Sol to get them to soften up and hug the contours of the model.

  So, all in all, this is a great model.  It was fun to build, a blast to paint and the options are fantastic.  The pose options are great, and the instructions are very clear on how to put all the fiddly-bits together.  I hope you all like it.  Bring on the D!!! 

  On with the in-process pictures;

  Some shots of the Decal work in progress.  Very happy with how they turned out.

 

   Did some work on the end of the Melta gun to make it look better than just a black barrel.  Got pretty brave after I saw how the eyes came out. :)

After the jump, pictures from every angle!!!

Imperial Knight Build - Day 6

  Ahhh, day 6.  I looked forward to today with dread.  I'm not a good washer and detailer.  I told myself I would be patient, try to remember all the videos I have watched, and just work at it.

  What followed was not too bad at all, I think.  I'm normally pretty critical, and in the photos, I'm sure folks will see a lot of errors, but I have the benefit of looking at it from tabletop distance, and it doesn't look to shabby at all.  I still have lots of little details to hit, and I certainly will not make my 7 day goal, but I am also not going to rush this.  I want this to be the first model I am really proud to say I painted.  I love my necrons, but I think they show signs of amateurishness.  Not that I'm a pro, but after I get all my marines and eldar and chaos (LOL) done, I may revisit the boys in cyber suits.

  Tonight was pretty much pin-point washes, washing the gold, drybrushing the gold and picking out some details.  Hope you like them, and if you have constructive criticisms, feel free, as always.  I can take it... I'll only cry on the inside... LOL :)

  More tomorrow, maybe.  I have an appointment with the accountant for the dreaded tax season.  I may be needing some time in hospital!

Imperial Knight Build - Day 5

  At it again...  Base coating is done.  The gold was a real bear.  I used the GW Balthasar gold for the base, and it was thick.  Then I would thin it out too much and had to add more in.  Vicious cycle ensues... lol.  But it's done.

  All of it was done the old fashioned way, brush and patience.  2 coats minimum for the gold.  The Grey/Purple was sprayed yesterday...

  No update tonight, it's bowling league night.

See ya round!!

 

Imperial Knight Build - Day 4

  Well, it was an unfortunately short painting day for a sunday.  NASCAR and Formula 1 racing took alot of my day and then the plumbing backed up.  UGH!  Still, I did get some airbrushing done on the armor...

  Well, here is the overview of the progress thus far.  I am going with Xereus Purple and the Fang for the main colors.  Oddly enough, I am going to make this a House Hawkshroud Knight, but i don't like yellow (The color or painting it...).  In my fluff, This Knight has been on an extended mission for over 50 years.  I figure in that time, and with his penchant for pinpoint night raids, he toned down the bright yellow.

   I have fallen in love with the Sotar 20/20 airbrush (Thanks Carl!!).  The pinpoint control, as well as my ever increasing airbrush skills, makes it my go to brush for detail work.  Getting a good mix and thinning on the paint and spraying with a low air pressure seems to be the real key with this brush.

  This is the result of the first go on the purple.  For me, this is very little overspray. :)

  Once again, I used the silly putty to mask everything, although I didn't get many pictures of it. I rolled out the silly putty into a thin strip and then used it to mask the lines.  The nice part was being able to use sculpting tools to push it down to make the seal, but also to move it around to better conform to what I wanted painted.

    And again, the finished results.  One thing to remember if you use Silly Putty to mask.  It does flow, and it does not take long to start that flowing process.  Do not mask something and then come back in an hour, the putty will have flowed a bit and you will not get the results you expected.  But if you are going to mask then go right to painting, it's brilliant!  Thank you Les Bursley!!!

  Hopefully, more tomorrow!

Imperial Knight Build - Day by day

  So, what do you do when you have a brand new Knight Titan and a a night or two to fart around with?  You build the damn thing.  I thought I might start a log of my progress just for fun...  Here goes...

Build Day...

  This thing build like a dream.  The instructions are pretty clear and the model is VERY well done.  Hardly any mold lines too.  Super easy and very customizable.  They show you in the instructions where not to put glue, and you should pay attention to that.  I decided to build mine with the body and Melta gun facing to the right a bit, I like the look of it.  The only things I left moveable were the arms, the ion shield and the stubber.

   The four major sub assemblies and the base.  I didn’t glue the torso to the legs until it was primed, as I felt it would be easier to prime in chunks.

All the parts primed.  Yay.  Build complete.

The painting days are after the jump break...

Imperial Knight Collectors Ed Codex + Companion

  Big day here, I got the packages with Imperial Knight Collector's Edition Codex and the Imperial Knight Companion.  Here goes my review of both.  Up first, the Codex.

  Ok, so I am normally the GW apologist, you all know that.  I tend to be the one that says they're not all that bad.  I also want to point out that I love this codex, and the collector's edition is great, but... It is WAY not worth the extra $74 for the Collector's edition.

  The codex is great, although, as everyone knows, there is only 2 units in the entire book.  The Imperial Knight Titan, Errant and Paladin versions.   The rules section is comprised of those sections from Apoc/Escalation that you need to play with the Titan.  It covers the super heavy stuff, plus the effects of the Melee D weapon.  Then it has the two units.  There is a section for warlord traits so that you can make the Knights your main force.  There is also a pretty cool table to determine the level of your pilot.  He'll either be green, average or Seneschal.  The seneschal is +1 to WS/BS and the ion shield is a 3+ instead of 4+.  The green pilot is -1 to all those.  It gives a little variety, but there could have been a lot more done here.  I think I'll make my own table to really vary pilots and give the game a little "narrative".   Also, there is a sentence that makes all your knights scoring if they are your main detachment.  But, as has been pointed out elsewhere, that does not make them denial units, so in an objective game, you could find some last turn shenanigans costing you the game...  The obligatory allies table is also here.

  The physical presentation is, as always, beautiful.  The codex slipcase is bound with that rubbery/leathery coating that makes it feel very 'rich'.  Inset into the slipcase is the names of all the houses and on the back is the "builders plate" that has your unique edition number.  The codex is in there along with another pullout that has some very heavy stock photo plates of named titans.  All very nice, but certainly not worth and extra $74. 

The cover of the added pullout section with the Titan photos.  Kinda like a 40k porn surprise package :)

The slipcase cover.  Sorry, I left the plastic on.  It looks better in real life

Titan Priming (Reaver and Knight)

  Ahhh Sunday, best day of the week, in my opinion...  Do you know why?  It's priming day.  Spent all day Saturday building my Imperial Knight (Errant version) and then looked over at the "To Prime" pile.  I still have the Reaver Titan and the Necron NightShroud in bare resin and plastic.  So I knew, that Sunday would be priming day.  I learned a few things too.

  #1.  Do not drop your very freshly primed Reaver Titan Carapace onto the carpeted floor.  Especially do not do this if your little dog has just been through shedding...  Yes, the carapace was a total loss (primer-wise, that is) and had to go to the Simple Green Pool for primer removing.

  Luckily the primer was still very soft so a quick hour long bath in the simple green bag-of-doom was enough to just lift off the primer in sheets.  Otherwise I would have been a very unhappy camper.

#2.  The Valejo Surface primer does not need to be thinned at all, really.  It just needs to be sprayed at a higher PSI than I thought.  I found that 25-30 PSI was the magic number to avoid sludge build up and get consistent results.

#3. The Grex airbrush, with the magnetic crown tip is fantastic!  Every time I would get a little build up (Dry-tip) I could just pluck off the crown, run a Q-tip through it and clean it right out.  Pop the tip back on and back in business.  This airbrush was a true workhorse today and even running the primer through it for about a 5 hour stretch, I only had to really clean it once.  I did run some airbrush cleaner solution through it after about every 5 cupfulls of primer though.

#4. Priming two Titans and a Nightshroud will eat up a lot of primer.  Make sure you have enough on hand when you start a session like this.

#5. The blow dryer is your friend.  Seriously, being able to blow dry these parts helped immensely.

So, all in all it was a good hobby day.  Watched the NASCAR race and also the new COSMOS series with Neil deGrasse Tyson (Fantastic new edition, major kudos to the whole team there!!!) and got a large set of items off my KanBan "to prime" column!

The Knight Errant before

And after...

Necron Goodness!!!

A letter to Horus, the wussy warmaster!

(Ok, so I have re-read the first three books again, and I’m still pissed. Sometimes, you just gotta rant, people. I’m tired of chaos lovers… I’m especially tired of Abaddon, the man-lover and I’m really tired of Horus, the Half-baked, whiny-warmaster!!! Here is my open letter to Horus the Wussified Warmaster.  Do not read if you have not and plan to read the Horus Heresy novels :)

Yeah, yeah, Horus, so you’re a Primarch and all. You’re still the ultimate girly-man, and I’ll tell you why. You have no guts, you have no self-confidence, you lack the self-esteem a warrior needs and ultimately, you’re weak in character. You let minor, petty things get to you and you forgot to check your ego at the door. As a result, mankind has spent the last ten thousand years in the ol’ grimdark!

Let’s see if I have this straight… Horus is a genetically engineered super-human war machine. A real Lord of War, if you will. Horus has genetically enhanced everything and the benefit of massive intelligence. You are the Emperor’s fave child.  When the Emperor has to be other places, you know, to do Emperor things, he puts Horus in charge of… well… EVERYTHING in the freaking imperium of mankind. Yeah, that about sums it up, right old boy?

So, instead of using your amazing emperor-given gifts of wisdom and brain-power, our little girly-man starts to have nagging doubts and gets to feeling all lonely.  “Oh golly, daddy, am I good enough for this?” Get a life, you loser!  Yes, you’re good enough; the emperor didn’t make YOU warmaster because of your steely good looks (even if that’s what Abaddon thinks). He TRUSTED you! Move on!  There is an old saying, “When you’re in command, Command!” That means that you do what you think is right Horus, you whiner, and trust your own judgment. If the emperor thinks you’re screwing up, he’ll let you know.

Then you start with the whole, “oh golly, this is hard, being in charge of everything”. Man up, you little dork. If it was easy, the emperor would have had a normal man do it, but he picked you, a FREAKING PRIMARCH to do it. The emperor kind of thought you might actually, oh I don’t know, Primarch up and become a leader. Instead, you picked the easy route and wimped out.

It took some real nerve to actually try to blame the emperor for your own lack of male genitalia. To actually say that it was his fault that you were weak, because he should not have left you with such a heavy burden to bear. What did you think? Being a Primarch was just about war and swords and bolters? You didn’t see that it might take some real thought? You whiny little bitch, go change your panties, I think you may have leaked a little.

And what about this ‘ability’ you have to see into men’s hearts and souls? You really mean to tell me you didn’t see Erebus coming? You didn’t see this addlepated twit of a space marine chaplain manipulating you? Some Primarch you turned out to be. The minute the going gets tough, you whine like a girl and sit on a Nurgle infested moon and cry.

I could almost deal with you when you had the whole Mournival thing going. Good idea, that was, always good to have some other opinions around. As long as you realize the final decision rests with you!! You’re the gol-durned WARMASTER. But, instead of listening to everyone all around, no, you prefer to go to Abaddon, who has the galaxy’s biggest man-crush on you, for advice. (Yeah, and after you die, you twinkle-toed panty-stuffer, you leave him to run thirteen freakin crusades from the eye of terror because of his failed man-crush… way to go, good disciple choice there…) So, yeah, you almost had a good idea, but like everything else, you lacked the willpower to do it right. You’re not a leader; you’re a whiny follower with delusions of leadership. It’s like putting the schoolyard bully in charge, you may win a few fights, but as soon as there is a challenge, you’ll fold like a house of cards.

And boy did you fold up. The minute some warp entity shows you a scene of some emperor worship, your bruised up little ego takes over and you go on a three day crying binge. Your complete lack of character, confidence and leadership showed up that day. Even Angron would have seen through that shit, but not you, you had to be the one everyone liked. You wanted statues to Horus, didn’t you, you freak.

I’m not going to fault you for your betrayal and what you did to all your loyal brothers. Your complete lack of moral fiber and character means that you wouldn’t learn the lesson anyhow. For you, making the plans to murder your own people, to kill your own brothers was easy once you took the gutless way out. It was easy to use their strengths against them, as a coven of women might. And I’m sure your little privates-polisher; Abaddon was helping all the way. It’s quite easy to be the warmaster when you’re planning a seditious little war on your own family, your own father. Just remember, jack-wagon, it’s hard to keep an oath; it’s very easy to break one. But the measure of a man comes from keeping his word, not breaking it.

I wonder how you could look Sanguinious in the face that day. How could you look upon someone who had upheld their convictions, stood true to their word, and their brothers? Is that why you killed him? Was the reflection of your sorry little ass in his eyes too much to bear? Did you realize, all too late, that your entire life was forfeit, meaningless and wasted? I may be giving you too much credit. Petty men hardly ever see the truth when it stares them in the face, they would rather blame someone else for their failures.

Being cut low was too good a fate for you. It should be you on a golden throne as well as the Emperor. Although, I suspect your throne would be made of a quivering mass of jelly, as befits your spineless nature. You should have been forced to watch ten thousand years of misery and strife, caused because you couldn’t do as men do. You could not keep your word, your faith or your honor.

Death was too good for you, you pretentious little sot. In your final act, as in all things, you took the easy way out. Wuss!

(Thus endeth the lesson :)

Legion of the Damned Mini-Dex - rated - Meh to cool

  Always have had a soft spot of these guys, and this new $16.99 mini-dex promised tons of fluff for them.  Needless to say, I handed over my money, pre-order fashion and waited...

  Then the great computer debacle of 2014 occurred, which has led to a completely lost weekend as I upgraded to 2 new computers... blah blah blah, I'll spare you the details.  You don't care about them (unless you like the thought of 2 brand new Macs on my desk, muahahahaah!!!!)  So, I was able to read and digest the mini-dex yesterday and last night.  All in all, I would give it a B... a solid B, but not the A+ I hoped for.

  So, as far as a mini-dex goes, it's not too bad.  It concentrates on 1 thing, the LotD, obviously.  It does also make them different from the standard marine codex entry in many ways.

  They are now a detachment unto themselves, which seems to be a new rage with GW things.  They can ally with the usual suspects, Battle brothers with Imperium, hate Xenos totally, and are meh to Eldar/Tau.  They have a force org for their detachment so you can take a nasty big amount of them.  They can also nominate a warlord who gets some gonzo abilities and a relic of his own.

  One of the warlord traits is a great one called Never too late, Never too early, which allows them to arrive via reserve at will, no roll required, starting on turn 2, have to be in by turn 4.  Very nice to know you will have them when you need, but alas, only a 1 in six for that.  The other warlord traits are pretty nice, but no game changers.

  The squads are as you would expect, no major change to their stat lines.  The special rules are bumped a bit, and makes them a bit more fluffy.  They have the rule, Aid Unlooked For, which makes them unable to have ICs join them, requires reserve entry via deep strike, but does allow you to re-roll scatter dice if you want.  they also get Fear, Fearless and Slow and Purposeful.  The other rules they get give them Ignore Cover and a 3+ invul save.  All in all, a nice package of rules.

  Also in the dex are some missions, an Apocalypse data sheet for them and some other goodies, plus some really nice art. 

  So, why the B?  CUZ THEY DIDN'T ANSWER THE AGE OLD QUESTION IN THE FLUFF!!!!  (Sorry for yelling, just frustrated).  Everyone who has been in the game since the olden days (remember Rogue Trader?) has opinions about just who these blokes are and why they are here.  Yes, this codex adds ALOT of really nice fluff, background stories, first-hand witness accounts etc, BUT NO ANSWERS.  (I say that with tongue firmly in cheek.)  Still, the fluff is really quite good, and the legion are now much more configurable and can go anywhere, with anyone.

  Can you make a LotD army list?  Nope, not that I can see.  No vehicles, no troops (all LotD are elites, but they are their own detachment, so they don't count against you) and no ICs.  (I think if you make them primary detachments though, they become scoring units, so you just might be able to pull it off).  They will make a very nice, powerful add on to an imperial list, or give some real flanking punch to one of their more erstwhile allies.  These guys are tough hombres and you have to kill them dead, dead, dead to make them go away.  Since they are, like Codex Inquisition units, a detachment unto themselves, you could conceivably have 7 units on the board (3 from main force org elite slots and 4 from this detachment slots).

  I think I just saw a Sisters of Battle army becoming viable???  :)

  So there you have it, my thoughts after a good nights reading the mini-dex.  Hope you enjoyed it!  See ya soon.  Need to get to work on my new Imperial Knight :)