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The Knights go marching one by one.
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Some progress on the Knights, although none are entirely finished quite yet. I decided that that main reference model was far enough along that I could starts the others, and hopefully then finish all three at about the same time.
Before going into detail particulars, I've tried to use upper carapace patterning to give simple differences to each, and I may try to further this on the "shoulders" and other larger armour plate areas. They're obviously part of the same House, but differences in markings help reinforce that they're ultimately a collection of individuals rather than a more cohesive military unit.
The bases took me some time to figure out, and in the end I'm still not entirely happy with them, but didn't want to delay further. It makes painting them somewhat easier at this stage if they're glued to a base. In the end I went with concrete road that they're walking down. It implies an urban environment, or industrialised to some degree, is easy to paint (it's just a flat surface), and lane markings help give a sense of scale. I could (and maybe should) add rubble or impact craters at some point, but I also want to not put quite as much effort into painting these models as I do for Blood Angels; I need to paint faster, and the Titanicus models are intended for playing with one day.
Anyway, the road is simple enough to paint:
- Celestra Grey over the entire base.
- Administratum Grey layered over the entire base.
- Dawnstone layered over the entire base.
- Stormvermin Fur, watered down quite heavily, and painted along each "lane". If roads are looked at, then where cars travel there will be dirt, wear & tear, etc, where tires are constantly passing. This means the centre of the lane is relatively clean, but flanked by colour variation. Brush strokes are always in the same direction when doing this step.
- Ulthuan Grey for the road markings. I used some specialised masking tape to stencil in the straight lines, but this is only done once previous steps are completely dry. Not all tapes are equal, but anything can be used that doesn't lift up the paint.
- Black Templar is also being used to give some shadow on the ground. Imperial Knights are large, and will cast noticeable shadows - however this is best done after the model is fully assembled, and I'm still getting this step right. I suspect I will need to work at it a lot more.
Reactor casings, which are on the rear of the models and not seen here:
- Warplock Bronze
- Sycorax Bronze
- Fulgurite Copper
The void shield generators on top:
- Screaming Bell base.
- Agrax Earthshade, with two coats probably needed to tone down the base colour.
- Fulgurite Copper for highlights.
The repetition of Fulgurite Copper here is to convey a sense of those components being more archaic, barely understood technology, as opposed to the brass and bronzes of shell casings.
All cabling is being painted the same. It's not fully done at the time of typing, so this is more of what it will be: something simple as a time saving step. Hazard stripes look nice, but the Imperium likes to standardise equipment, so I'm using that as an excuse to paint all outer cabling the same.
- Dark Reaper - this may require two coats as it's layer paint.
- Black Templar (Contrast)
Finally, for the second and third knights I tried to paint with Nuln Oil (Gloss) instead of using Deathshroud. It does not work as effectively, and so future models will revert back to using Deathshroud. It's less precise, but gives a much darker shade to the metallics that just fits better with these models.
-- silly painter.
