Queen Bee Knight -- Thank you! Please read the new post

[JeffTibbetts]

Hehe, so is there a possibility Lady Tibbetts might have some fellow Knights to walk alongside in the near future? Perhaps a distant relative from her old house or maybe another Freeblade she's become chummy with?

Yeah, I left that open just in case I fall into piles of disposable income. Not bloody likely, but I like to leave my doors open a crack.

[spu00sed]

Just read through all of tHe pages, really nice knight you have there. MIT is almost enough to make me buy and convert one of my own. Just need to learn how to make it some lower arms and hands and I'll be there.

 

On the head with the visor up, what about a chain mail vail on the lower face? Could hide some of the roboticy bits and keep it knight looking.

[JeffTibbetts]

That's a cool idea, man. I'll have to take a look and see if it makes sense for me. I actually like the crazy face, but that doesn't mean you couldn't see it through the mail. Hmmmm... Food for thought.

[JeffTibbetts]

I've been very busy as of late with buying a new home (we close this Friday!) and whatnot, so progress has been quite slow. On the uptick, I'm pretty excited to put together some really solid hobby space in the new place. I should have more room, and perhaps more importantly, I'll be able to put up shelves and whatnot to organize better.

I have been working on The Queen here and there. Here's a quick update:

A chain ladder! You know, not every Freeblade has a fancy dock with a cool Throne Mechanicum injector... Some of them have to get in and out themselves. But seriously, as I made some modeling concessions to her relatively independent and slightly impoverished attitude towards quick and dirty battlefield repairs, I realized she had no way to get down to the ground. Enter a very simple, practical solution: a chain that she can wrap scamper up and down. It's attached to an existing anchor point and could hardly be more simple.

And, when she's inside and doesn't want someone else scampering, she just loops it around the handle a few times. So simple. I love how much these details tell the viewer about her story and personality. But really, they're for me more than anything, so I can get into her head.

And I've reworked the base a little bit. Based on some solid feedback, I decided to trash it a bit more. Not to mention Owl and Moon Guy's amazing base makes me want to kick mine up a notch. Man, that guy's work is incredible. Here's a shot from the front, looking roughly like it did before.

From the side. You can see here where I'm building up some of the molten metal drops. Right now it's white glue and clear nail polish over sewing thread. I'll keep adding to it until it's the right thickness for me. I'm also starting to cram some stuff into the cut off hollows ends. I haven't gotten to the Necrossaisant bit, but I have the bits ready. I was letting the glue dry before I start messing with it.

A better view of the Necroissant piece. It's now bent and chewed up pretty well. I plan to add some flames curling up from the sides towards the rear, and adding a lot of kicked up dust, ash and dirt on it from the impact. Kinda hard to tell but it's pretty bent up now.

And the last view. You can see there's a little more debris now that has been tossed clear of the main area. I plan to add a few more bits and bobs. I used auto-body putty here (that's the red stuff) to build up variation in the ground and make it easy to stick stuff down.

Looking forward to doing the rest of the base now, and finishing up the Barge after it has some more time to set up.

[helterskelter]

You can see this is a labour of love to be sure! Digging that chain, and always fun to see necrons being smooshed further :p

[BassWave]

When you make the pilot's model, be sure to give her some killer biceps :D

[JeffTibbetts]

When you make the pilot's model, be sure to give her some killer biceps :D

Well, that's a given anyway. She's more Ripley than comic book super heroine.

[Forté]

Still no paint yet ;)

 

But damn that is just oozing character.

[JeffTibbetts]

Still no paint yet

But damn that is just oozing character.

I know, right? I'm burning to paint this, but I keep adding more and more details where I find places to do so. Once I get the model down, I'll be ready to paint. Right now I'm focusing on the base and legs. I have ALMOST taken it over to the paint station a few times, but I keep stopping myself. There's just so much to do...

I did hear today that my Green Stuff tube maker has shipped, so I'll be able to redo the cables on the back of her legs soon. After that step, I really think the legs and exoskeleton will be ready for paint.

[Forté]

Keep doing what you're doing. Really showing others how to personalize things.

[BassWave]

Might as well paint it for the ETL at this point.

[JeffTibbetts]

Quick update... I've been pretty busy with the new house, packing and all that. I did have a little time to start on the other half of my base, though. The idea here is to advance the theme set by my Eagle Eyes' bases with the burned out village.

Sorry for the grainy pics. Terrible lighting... You can see the wall pretty well though. This is just thin cardboard with a thin layer of Milliput over it. I haven't gotten the inside yet, nor is this even close to finished.

And here's the other one. So, my plan is to rough out the bricks first to look like simple hand-made mud bricks. We're talking uneven, funny angles, not a consistent size and all that. Once I'm cool with that, I think I'll do a thin layer of GS over the top and add some cracks and peeling to look like thin plaster or mud. I want the shape of the bricks to come through underneath and around any bits that have cracked. I also plan to add rubble and detritus inside the frame of the house to show the devastation. A couple of burned bodies, cracked and burned furniture, etc.

Like I said: small update but I'm excited to get this base done. After that I'll be able to start painting!

[Dragonkin Arenis]

Saw the pictures and just read "new house" and thought you were making a joke

The mud brick walls look good so far, but my first thought when seeing them was that they were 'dry stone walls'. I'm guessing paint will solve that issue.

[JeffTibbetts]

Saw the pictures and just read "new house" and thought you were making a joke :rolleyes: 

 

The mud brick walls look good so far, but my first thought when seeing them was that they were 'dry stone walls'. I'm guessing paint will solve that issue.

Haha. Thanks. Actually, mud brick looks an awful lot like stone usually. So I'll take that as a sign I'm on the right track. :)

[incinerator950]

Reminds me of what I want to do with my (epic scale) Imperator Titan.

I want to get a knight, but until they make Chaos Knight rules I can't justify getting one, even if its just a free blade or that I would love doing the conversions.

[JeffTibbetts]

Alright, folks. The new hobby room (that's right, a whole room!) is finally put together for the most part and work has resumed on The Queen Bee. I've got a couple other things in the works but she remains my #1 priority. Without further ado, let us strike the first rune of activation.

Just a quick shot of what's going on with her (very attractive) backside. You can see the two GS tubes have been added. I need to patch up the joins a bit, clearly, and the one on the right is actually a really tough angle! It's going to end up corkscrewing just a little bit to even fit in place and I'm quite concerned that it may have a hard time staying in place. Now I know why some people make their tubes with a piece of wire inside so it can be posed. I'll do just that if I need to. I'm letting the CA glue cure before I work the bend here and try to finish with this. The tube on her left leg is totally fine. In fact, I could have simply used the tube that was intended for the right leg. As you can see, though, the GS tubes have thicker ribs so I didn't want them to look out of place, and also the bit that joins the leg has what looks to me like a quick-release coupler on it and I wanted to keep that intact. These tubes are drilled and pinned in place just on the ends. Only a tiny bit, but it seems to add some strength. They're still weaker than I want them to be.

And now for the bit I'd like your feedback on. I'm probably going for a different face style than before. I can't make the tilting helmet look right in my head, so I started playing around with the other two. At first I was going to try to combine the skull mask with the trojan one, but the skull seemed too small and not quite right. I had been ignoring the trojan mask because I was thinking that it would look funny to have the two sides flipped up in the style of a tilting helmet. Then it occurred to me that they didn't need to tilt like that and I started messing with alternates. I tried it with a hinge like the doors on sports cars first, and then I tried to make them flip out sideways like the back shell of a beetle. That ended up looking kind of cool, very different, kind of high tech, and also oddly like a 'flying nun' habit. :D I present to you the new face of death:

And there you have it. The Queen Bee, flying nun style. I think it looks pretty rad, myself. I wasn't really liking the conquistador helmet look all that much, but this new style is really growing on me. Looks like: horns, samurai helmets, beetle shells, dolorean doors, and other things that are pretty cool. From the top especially I think it's cool. I also like to imagine how strange it would look to watch the face armor "unfold" as you're looking at it. Also, like the tilting mask before it, you can almost feel the *chunk* sound as these plates slam back down into place.

What do you think?

[Nykidemus]

Hey Jeff,

 

Been following this for awhile, just wanted to tell you that your instructions have been amazingly useful for my work. Been following along pretty much step by step, and I've been absolutely thrilled with the results.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/593191.page#6878802

Thanks man!

[JeffTibbetts]

Hey Jeff,

 

Been following this for awhile, just wanted to tell you that your instructions have been amazingly useful for my work. Been following along pretty much step by step, and I've been absolutely thrilled with the results.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/593191.page#6878802

 

Thanks man!

 

I hereby dub thee: Captain Morgan. :D Looking good! Thanks for letting me know that I helped out a bit. I can't see the back, though. Did you have to adjust the two soft tubes that plug into the upper thigh in back or did you leave them off? 

[Nykidemus]

they are visible in the bottom pic, they were reasonably flexible so i just bent them.

The biggest problem was that the piston on the back of the calf is very tall, it bumps into the back of the thigh, i had to grind down the connection point on that side and attach it kinda sideways

[ChromeZephyr]

Man, this is why I love this hobby.  Wonderful craftsmanship and attention to the tiniest detail, even if you're the only one that'll know it's there.  Bravissimo, Mr. Tibbetts.

 

 

Though I will say I like the conquistador-style helm better, the side-folding plates just look...out of place.  I think that's just a matter of taste, though.  :)

[JeffTibbetts]

Thanks for the kind words and the input. Yeah, the helmet thing I think is just a matter of taste. The conquistador helmet grew on me but I just couldn't get the hinges to work. Ended up cutting so much away after a few shots at it that there wasn't enough left to work with. I'm sure someone will tackle it sooner or later. As for the side plates, I really dig the way it looks. I think it will look even cooler once it's painted. I'll make a convert out of you yet.

 

@Nykidemus, I hear ya about that limit on the knee bending. I have mine bent as far as it can go without altering the design of the model. It's not that far, really. I'll try to remember to get some pics of the back of the leg, but yeah the tow hook is lined right up with where the cable connects. Odd placement. Most aspects of the model are very meticulously planned out, but that seems like a misptep there. They had to know people would mess with the knees as some point.

[JeffTibbetts]

Just to prove that I actually do own paints, and (kind of) know how to use them... Here's another quick update:

Just a little airbrushed Vallejo Air black surface primer. The bits of orange you might notice are silly putty masks over spots that would be glued later, but they didn't work out all that well to be honest. I kept hitting them and knocking them off.

And then the real fun began the next night:

I based with a big ol' Citadel Tank Brush using 50/50 Leadbelcher and the old Adeptus Battlegrey. I stole the idea from someone, as it makes for a wonderful aged metal look.

And a quick shot from the front. The dull metal look doesn't come across all that well in pics, but it's great in person. Looks like old pewter, almost.

Now to dirty it up.

This is just a test, really. I picked out the pistons in (really old) Mithril Silver, and then added some Typhus corrosion around bolts and any nooks and crannies in the metal. This is just one stage in a long process... That stuff is really cool, though. You can see the very fine texture in some spots. It's a really cool effect, to be honest. It looks a bit harsh right now but it will smooth out/get knocked back by additional metal treatments.

I'm really digging the dull, oily metal look right now, and I'm super excited to see where this will go. I still haven't decided which bits I'll pick out in another metal color yet. I plan to use a dulled brass for the other color using the same method. Probably a mix of a metallic gold with a yellow base paint. I love the look of old brass. I think I'm NOT doing brass trim on the armor plates anymore, so that means I can use it on the skeleton instead.

Also, sorry these aren't 'exciting' updates but I really need to document my paint process on here or I'll forget it. :P

[Jolemai]

An update is an update, so don't apologise for it.

 

Did you decide to skip doing a cockpit?

[JeffTibbetts]

An update is an update, so don't apologise for it.

 

Did you decide to skip doing a cockpit?

 

For now. Now that FW is doing them, I'm going to hold out to get one from a Cerastus set or see what other ones they make. I'm sure they'll do a Warden frame as well sooner or later. There was an early rumor that they might do an interior kit for the Paladin/Errant model and that would obviously be ideal. At any rate, the top beetle shell doesn't need to be glued in so I can get to it whenever I like. No rush. It still helps me to think about who's piloting it, and getting her personality across is important, so in my mind there was no time wasted. :D 

[deathspectersgt7]

She is coming along Nicely.