Khorne's Eternal Hunt - KrautScientist's chaotic WIP thread: Fine-tuning Eightbound...

[Augustus b'Raass]

I love all of them. 

 

The Armiger, well, I've said enough to let you know how I'm in awe of those conversions. I'll also state that you've inspired me to bring two to a tournament this weekend, so I'll be chaosifying them in the coming days. I'd love your input on them.  EDIT: oh and YES! I did give you that Bloothirster groin late! I forgot about it and you reminded me. That's cool use of that bit and I couldn't have asked for a better destination :D

The Biker is still an awesome piece of ork - a shame you didnt finish him in the Arena, but here's your chance to redeem yourself in the eyes of the gods!

The LoC conversions is realy smartly done. I'm impressed by what you did to his right hand, holding he plague bearers heads like that!!

Edited October 16, 2018 by Augustus b'Raass

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Kraut, love those armigers. Really characterful and khornate to the max. Gotta say tho, the face on the new one really puts me in mind of Brak from Space Ghost

Love it

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the feedback, guys! :)

 

Alas, no painting this weekend -- I simply didn't feel it, to be honest. Plus I got sidetracked by a small gaiden project after buying a box of those Adeptus Titanicus Knights Questoris last week.

 

Now Adeptus Titanicus has left me weirdly indifferent so far -- surprising, really, as I always thought I would be right at the front of the queue if it ever made a return. But the focus on the biggest Titans somehow makes it less interesting for me (even though I'll readily acknowledge that being able to own multiple Warlords without having to sell a kidney is probably one of the main draws of the game). But I did really want to pick up those smaller Knights, as they are pretty cheap compared to the bigger kits. Plus the detail on these is truly off the charts: It's almost uncanny how GW has managed to make them resemble the bigger version down to some of the smallest detail. And I found myself regularly having déjà-vu moments while building the first model -- it's that close to it's bigger kin.

 

And of course I had to build yet another chibi-version of my Renegade Knight: Gilgamesh, the Warrior King.

 

Here's a look at the original model, just to remind you:

 

 

And here's what the new smaller version currently looks like:

 

 

 

 

Due to the much smaller scale - and to how delicate the sculpt is - coming up with a way to mirror those chaotic decorations has been slightly tricky, and I've had to drop some of the detail that is simply too small to reproduce - or would look weirdly clunky. So I went for the essence of the model, trying to hit enough visual cues to make it work. In fact, some of you may remember my earlier Chibi-Knight, built quite a while ago from all kinds of odds and ends:

 

 

I think he still holds up fairly well, all things considered, especially the scale. That being said, the previous version is a bit weirdly proportioned and hews closer to the visual clunkiness and retro charm of the old Epic 40k models. And some things I did on the model simply wouldn't work on the more delicate AT Knight (such as using a Bloodletter face on the gun barrel, for instance).

 

I've also been staring at that hollow interior on the new Chibi-Knight:

 

 

I wonder if...

 

Anyway, let me know what you think! :)

 

[Krakendoomcool]

This mini knight is a lot of fun. It’s amazing how closely your previous kit bash is also, the scale is almost exactly the same.

[ElDuderino]

Cute! Not a Word often used here hehe.

 

Nice work in the mini knight, it seems like you've been able to transfer most of the details onto the smaller one. It puts your original chibi-knight into perspective too, that's pretty damn close. Move the head down a bit and it would pass as a AT knight.

 

And of course you're thinking about a cockpit haha. Any ideas for a pilot, or are you hopefully just joking? I don't want yo have to start building interiors on all my marine size models to remain competitive;)

[Nemac Vradon]

The new mini Knight is great KS, though I still think the original is awesome :D

 

 

I've also been staring at that hollow interior on the new Chibi-Knight:

 

Do it...

 

Nemac

[Augustus b'Raass]

That new knight needs a pilot, period. There's no way around it. No excuses. You asked for it. Both by pushing pilots on yourself, and on others (yours truly included ;) ). But most of all because you hinted at it yourself. This is irrefutable!!  DO! IT!

Edited October 22, 2018 by Augustus b'Raass

[Naryn]

I can't quite tell how big the space inside the mini knight is, but I have a hunch that the pilot or gunner of one of the old Epic Armageddon landspeeders would fit pretty well. I used mine as a pilot for a tiny podracer back in the day, so I have a soft spot for those little guys.

Edited October 21, 2018 by Naryn

[Graymane]

What about a 1:72 scale plane pilot? Or is that too big? Hard to judge scale.

[Atia]

Cuuuute

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the feeback, everyone! Really glad to hear the new Chibi-Gilgamesh is already quite popular ;)

 

That new knight needs a pilot, period. There's no way around it. No excuses. You asked for it. Both by pushing pilots on yourself, and on others (yours truly included ). But most of all because you hinted at it yourself. This is irrefutable!!  DO! IT!

 

Haha, yeah, when I posted it, I was actually already pretty much committed to building some kind of interior anyway -- I doubt there'll be any way to weasel my way out of this one, now that the cat is out of the bag...

 

Coming up with a pilot that works is going to be challenging, though: I thought I was already out of the woods when I remembered some 40+ years-ish old plastic Army Men style soldiers my uncle used to play with, and wanted to use one of those, but they are still a tad too big. As is a pilot from one of my uncle's old model planes:

 

 

Whatever I use for the pilot, it'll have to be tiny. Z-scale model train figures might work, and they are readily available in batches of one hundred over at ebay -- there are even some sitting ones.

 

 

The thing is that these are all sent over from China, though, and there's no way I am going that route -- it just doesn't seem sustainable to pick up something so cheap and minuscule from halfway across the planet. So I think I'll drop by a local model train shop when time allows, plus I also have one or two additional ideas, if all else fails. That being said, if anyone has a cool idea for materials that might work for the pilot, I am all ears!

 

The good news is that I can happily leave this problem for last, as it's really easy to just not glue the top carapace in place and finish the rest of the model before I have to deal with the interior.

 

Anyway, so much for all things Chibi-Knight related -- at least for now ;)

[grailkeeper]

Those train figures seem tiny and very lacking in detail- maybe you should just sculpt a pilot from scratch with wire and greenstuff. Those figures are barely stickmen as it is.

 

Alternatively are there any epic models you could use? Maybe an Epic landspeeder could be useful as the marines are sitting down.

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, mate!

 

Make no mistake, though: The scale we are talking about here is freaking tiny, so the detail level on the pilot will have to match that. I am also not sure whether Epic figures are quite that easy to get hold of these days -- Epic wasn't really all that big here in Germany, IIRC...

 

Fortunately enough, however, I have found a different solution!

 

Before we get to that, though, here's a look at the finished build for the Knight's exterior:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, as for the cockpit...

 

I remembered one of the old plastic Bretonnian Knights from an old WFB starter box having a stylised little person as their heraldic helmet crest — maybe at just the right scale? When I dug out the bit from my cupboard of shame, I realised the figure was pretty much the right scale indeed — but alas, it was a "Lady of the Lake"-style sculpt:

 

 

Very fitting for Bretonnians, no doubt, but not a particularly good match to recreate my Baron Harrowthorne model at a smaller scale. But maybe there was still something there that I could use? So I shaved off most of the detail from the helmet crest, until I was left with only the bare outline of the model, then tried to carve it into a rough incarnation of Gilgamesh’s pilot:

 

 

If nothing else, I was able to leave the suggestion of facial features in place. And I realised I had the beginnings of a pilot.

The cockpit, on the other hand, was almost trivially easy to build: I used some tech-y leftover bitz (from a Heldrake foot, IIRC) for the reactor section…

 

 

…and if you take a closer look, you’ll see that I even included a small control panel for the pilot:

 

 

So here’s another comparison shot for you: The 28mm version of the cockpit and pilot:

 

 

And my WIP version at the Adeptus Titanicus scale:

 

 

Of course I realised that the pilot was still looking slightly too primitive, so I added some tweaks to him, greenstuffing in the tiniest shoulder pads and placing some teeny tiny plastic nubs on the model to suggest both the medals on the bigger version’s chest as well as the cranial augmetic implants:

 

 

The rest of the detail will be suggested by the paintjob — at least that’s what I hope! Now in all fairness, the pilot is probably still a tad too big, but there’s just no way I can come up with an even smaller version, so I’ll call this conversion a success!

 

As always, let me know what you think!

 

 

Edited October 30, 2018 by KrautScientist

[Gederas]

Oh now that is cool. I was thinking you might have been crazy for trying to make a pilot for a Titanicus Knight, but that looks good!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive Knights. Khorne surely approves.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Inspired! That's another feat for which you deserve a medal!

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the kind words, guys! :)

 

The paintjob is nowhere near finished, but let me share some PIP pictures with you, if only because I am pretty happy with how the tiny pilot is shaping up:

 

 

 

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[Augustus b'Raass]

It's so cute, it's adorable! ;) Seriously though, I'm loving this little project: well done one the pilot. :tu:

Incidentally, maybe drill out the exhausts?

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, mate! :)

 

Regarding the exhausts, I would have, but they aren't flat on top, but have this weird indentation that is supposed to create a more interesting surface, I suppose? And just drilling a hole into that would probably end up looking weird -- I'll have to think about it...

 

I'll be at a conference for the rest of the week, but here's a small update regarding the paintjob. Nothing special, certainly, but with most of the base colours blocked in on the body and some washes in place, I do think the new Chibi-Knight is really starting to resemble big Gilgamesh:

 

 

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[crimsonhand]

You sir are INSANE! 

AND I LOVE IT 

[Eldrick Shadowblade]

Your dedication to the fine detail continues to impress me for years now. I ,too have a bits pile of shame and am fairly certain a number of WFB bretonian archers and knight heads / shields are there!!!

[Kizzdougs]

Nice work bro! I've never really been inspired by Adeptus Titanicus, but I'm loving the work on your converted mini Knights :tu:

[KrautScientist]

Thanks, guys! :)

 

Another short update -- in every sense of the word ;)

 

 

 

 

All the base colours are on there now, and I think we are definitely going somewhere. I apologise for making such a big production out of this one small model, but I guess after spending the time to actually add a cockpit and pilot to an Adeptus Titanicus-scale Knight, it only makes sense to be a bit metiulous about the paintjob as well... ;)

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work. Do Adeptus Titanicus Chaos Knights come with the cool-looking skull on their breastplate?

[ElDuderino]

Yoda_size_matters_not.gif

 

I think the effort and thought going into a model aught to count for more than its physical size.

 

Sweet work anyways as usual! Any thoughts about the new minis from Blackstone Fortress btw?:)