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

[JeffTibbetts]

 

What do you guys think? Are those fuel canisters, vacuum tubes or poison injectors (or something else, or something unfathomable)?

Lubricant tanks maybe, or cleaning acids. Last thing you want is the teeth getting gunked up and jamming.

 

 

Yeah, I can see both of those being the case! Good thinking. 

 

Any other ideas? 

EDIT: After brainstorming with my brother (a classic's major) about Latin terms, I think I settled on naming the sword Mordent. Not only is it the present active participle of the term "to sting," it also has nuanced shades of meaning. "Mor" recalls death, and "dent" hints at teeth, as in the teeth on the chainsword. I love it. Now I have to steel my nerves and practice my freehand so I can write it on the scroll... Wish me luck. 

[abraxus]

I believe even modern chainsaws have something similar that stores grease for self lubrication to keep the blade running smoothly, or at least I think I remember that from when I was a kid watching my dad with his.

[JeffTibbetts]

For real? I had no idea... Now I want to look it up. Any other forum peeps know if A )this is the case and B )that's what these canisters are for? 

[Subtle Discord]

Yep, even my little electric chainsaw has a small oil reservoir; the chain passes though the material and looses its lubricant very quickly so it need to be constantly reapplied. Consider that a chain is a moving part with many hinges. Most other saws are solid blades of metal in one form or another that have not actual moving parts, they are the moving part; lubrication will help those as well, but not in the same way as it being needed for a chain blade.

[JeffTibbetts]

Oh sweet! So I can probably paint it any color I want, huh? Thanks for the tip, Subtle. Your knowledge of power tools is daunting. 

[Subtle Discord]

My high school, many moons ago, was very comprehensive and well funded in its tech and material arts programs. I've learned in later years that the things I learned, and got to do hands on there where amazingly useful, broad, and advanced, if you took the time to get something out off it. Thankfully, I actually absorbed quite a lot while still being a bit of a delinquent. :)  Comparing that experience to that of the students I'm enrolled with now, I am floored at how sparse (non-existent) their programs are; real world hands-on skills and knowledge are virtually gone. Not everyone should be a master builder, but everyone should have some basic tool and tech understanding, in my opinion.

 

Rule of cool applies; I'd do a modestly contrasting or brighter color to add a bit of punch. Might not even need to make a 'fluid level' if the arm can change pose. it will look a bit off of it's not in the correct pose all the time. But that's just my OCD talking.

[JeffTibbetts]

My high school, many moons ago, was very comprehensive and well funded in its tech and material arts programs. I've learned in later years that the things I learned, and got to do hands on there where amazingly useful, broad, and advanced, if you took the time to get something out off it. Thankfully, I actually absorbed quite a lot while still being a bit of a delinquent. Comparing that experience to that of the students I'm enrolled with now, I am floored at how sparse (non-existent) their programs are; real world hands-on skills and knowledge are virtually gone. Not everyone should be a master builder, but everyone should have some basic tool and tech understanding, in my opinion.

Rule of cool applies; I'd do a modestly contrasting or brighter color to add a bit of punch. Might not even need to make a 'fluid level' if the arm can change pose. it will look a bit off of it's not in the correct pose all the time. But that's just my OCD talking.

Well said. As for the fluid level, even though this model will break apart for travel there is an "official" pose and I'll be modeling it to that. You'll notice my fiancé's hand holding the sword in roughly the position it will be on the model so I could sort of match that. It's not science, but it helped. So, I've been using blue as a spot color but the rest of the palette is reds, oranges and soon to be yellows. The cool side has a bit of greenish-blue and that will expand with the brass trim on the armor as well. I'm thinking the liquid will end up blueish for contrast, but then again the hollow part will be blueish gray. I may end up leaning towards the warm anyway if it's meant to be some kind of lube. Maybe it will be a good place to insert a little yellow (like gasoline/petrol gold) to tie it in. I'll have to be careful, though, because the Reaper's armored section in the front will be golden-yellow. Maybe I should save those little canisters til the end and decide on the color at that point.

[Hyaenidae]

Oh sweet! So I can probably paint it any color I want, huh? Thanks for the tip, Subtle. Your knowledge of power tools is daunting. 

 

Not sure if it helps any, but the chain oil I have in my chainsaw is a brownish-red.

[JeffTibbetts]

That does help. Thanks!

[WarriorFish]

This is fantastic Jeff, you should be tooting that horn (between painting, of course)! :D It's given me a couple of ideas for my Knight, including the personal heraldry no less - I don't think I'll be stretching to reposing but perhaps if I got a second Knight I'd give it a go... Keep up the excellent work, I'm sure this topic has generated some extra sales for GW! :lol:

[JeffTibbetts]

Thanks, buddy. If you learn nothing else from it, I hope you learn that it's not that easy if you're shooting for accuracy. Do things the easy way if you can. :)

[JeffTibbetts]

Happy holidays, folks! I probably won't be able to get any more painting in until next year, but I thought I'd show you all where I am right now. I've been working on more of the little details on the main assembly, and holding out some shallow hope that I'll get a new airbrush over the holidays. Such a pale, fragile, emaciated hope...

I tried to get the largest format photos I could, so you can get right in there. Rememeber, if you click the link in my sig for my blog (looks like my avatar) you can zoom way in on my website and I just about always double-post the same stuff on there. I made my fiancé go over the settings on the photo display over and over until I liked it. You can zoom way in and pan. It's wonderful.

The assembled weapon, now with heat-stained shroud on the front. I still haven't painted the armor bits or the pistons and the blue hose needs highlights, but it's almost done.

Extreme close-ups of the heat-staining. I really like how this turned out. It took a really long time, and included some neglect of both my cat and my lady. But, they pulled through and I have this to show for it. Couldn't be much more pleased with the results, honestly.

Honestly this cog is a bit rough when you look this closely. Looks fine for the TT.

And then the little canisters of... Whatever that is. I wish I could have done these better, actually, but this took a really long time and I got to the point where I was just going back over the same things blending over and over. I built up a heck of a lot of paint on there and sooner or later I had to just call it quits and say I was done. I opted for the idea that this is some kind of lubricating oil for the blades, after all.

Gratuitous close-up. There were some things I wanted to capture and failed to, but ultimately I think it looks effective as liquid in a glass cylinder. Really, that's the important bit. I'll live if you can't see the light dancing through the liquid, and frothy bubbles on the water-line. I promise, I'll live.

And this pic shows how glossy they are. That's just 'Ard Coat painted on top. Honestly these look pretty dope from like 2 feet away. :P

And last, and probably least if we're honest, are a couple pics of my Tibbs-pattern heavy stubbers. Nothing crazy, but I do like how the extra holes make it look like a WW2 Browning machine gun. And those brass shells pop like bubble-wrap around all this crusty, dirty metal.

Here's the other stubber as well. If you squint you can kinda see the rifling I tried to add inside the battle cannon as well.

Anyway, hope you like the super-big pics, folks. Have a safe and happy holiday, everybody!

[Combat_Vet]

Did you actually put the rifling in that barrel or did you just "plant the idea" in my mind because I saw it plain as day.

 

Amazing work as always.

[Theduke08]

Loving the detail and the effects on your metallic's is beautiful.  Love the heat effects and the purples.  Works really well.  Cant wait to see it all finished. 

[ChromeZephyr]

Your family's sacrifice was not in vain, sir.  Utterly magnificent, and a thing of beauty.

[Forté]

All the time invested is really paying of. Others have churned out Knight after Knight which look good. But yours has so many little details and thought gone into it that it tells you it's story. Outstanding.

[Brother Paen]

Outstanding. The weathering is amazing. That being said,...no self respecting pilot would go into combat looking that poorly maintained.  I see corrosion and tarnish everywhere. A disgrace to your Household. ( Beautiful  work ).

 

Your punishment is to build another Knight. This one will be standing in a repair bay, with limbs in different levels of disassembly. These should be suspended by the lifting points  modelled on each part. I expect to see some of  the weathering you currently have demonstrated as well as  completely cleaned and repaired parts showing the arduous maintenance work being done. This is your penance, should you choose to accept it.

 

Keep up the work, always inspirational. 

[sockwithaticket]

Holy , every time you update this there's so much to look at and take in that you need to come back to it over and over again just to process it all. That weathering is beautiful (in a decrepit sort of way), the heat staining on the barrel is especially impressive for it's uniformity of effect distribution and seamless gradients.

[lionofjudah]

I've been enjoying it til now... The rifling... LOVE

[JeffTibbetts]

Thanks all for the comments. I really appreciate it. These were some of the most challenging bits so far, so I'm glad to hear you're liking the effects. The barrel rifling is just painted in, by the way. I'd love to say I thought of it earlier and actually textured it. Maybe next time.

 

Outstanding. The weathering is amazing. That being said,...no self respecting pilot would go into combat looking that poorly maintained. I see corrosion and tarnish everywhere. A disgrace to your Household. ( Beautiful work ).

 

Your punishment is to build another Knight. This one will be standing in a repair bay, with limbs in different levels of disassembly. These should be suspended by the lifting points modelled on each part. I expect to see some of the weathering you currently have demonstrated as well as completely cleaned and repaired parts showing the arduous maintenance work being done. This is your penance, should you choose to accept it.

 

Keep up the work, always inspirational.

 

That's such an insanely good idea. I mean seriously, how cool would this be?! As for cleanliness... You remember your first car that was like 25 years old and still ran? I don't care how much you loved that thing, it was never going to look clean. Now, close your eyes and imagine it was a battle tank and had been fighting once a week for 25 years. See how dirty and patchwork that is? Alright, now imagine it's actually been fighting for 2000 years, and has been stripped, repaired and rebuilt hundreds of times. That's my Knight. And that's why I love 'em. So much character.

 

It's been so much fun to think about how beat up she'd be, and what that would look like. the story I wrote in her model is better than any fiction I could ever produce.

[Brother Paen]

I totally understand. The scars of battle and the character blemishes of time should be as respected as any  little flag or purity seal.   

[ThroneWarden]

Looks really good. The rifling is a nice touch.

[Battybattybats]

Besides, as long as the feeding is done, the incense is burned and the prayers said and the sacred oils anointed those re the most important rituals of maintenance done ;)
It's only when the mechanism gets uncooperative (starts to seize up) that the longer and more complete rituals would be done by a lot of non-mechanicus-aligned house sacristans.

[JeffTibbetts]

Or, in her cae, by a family-crew of villagers that Aurelia trained herself. She prefers to avoid the mechanicus except in dire circumstances, honestly. Creepy.

[Lexington]

He put rifling. In the barrel.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, let it never be said that OCD can't be put to positive use. ;)

 

Seriously, tho, what an amazing job you've done on this little lady, JT. It just oozes character and detail (those canisters!), and looks the part of "ancient warhorse" better than maybe any Knight I've seen thus far. Just picked up a Knight kit this past weekend, and this thread's providing both inspiration and a little intimidation. Thanks for showing off this superb effort of yours.