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

[JeffTibbetts]

So, I want to get this finished before the post's anniversary, on February 27. That's my soft date. If I miss that (which is likely) I'll give myself a LITTLE more time, since I actually picked up the kit about a week later. I got it the day it came out, so I bet I can find the actual release date somewhere. That's the goal and I feel like I might be able to pull it off. I have about a month to finish the armor plates, the weathering on them, the metal trim and patina, and then the final details and assembly. The end is nigh. Even after that there are some things I'd like to do, such as finish some details on the base itself, some special effects (lightning arcs around the destroyed Necron) and then the little servo skull that came off early in the project.

[Disruptor_fe404]

Wow, it really doesn't feel like that long ago when you first picked it up.

 

Thanks for making me feel old.

[HighGothic]

Awesome, you've got to enter it into some competitions when its done. Surely it could win?

 

I hope to get a knight soon, and this thread has been really helpful!

[GhostMalone]

What's next though another knight?

 

Maybe a FW bad boy

[Lexington]

To quote every teen girl on the internet these days, I just can't even.

Jeff, this is a miraculously well-defined piece. You can feel the age that's seeped into these plates. There's stories behind this thing, hinted at in the wear and tear, then layered on with the unique patterning. I'd want to know more about this Knight just by looking at it, even if it was standing across a table ready to annihilate my entire battle line. The effort you're putting into the lady shows, and it's giving one hell of a payoff.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

So, I want to get this finished before the post's anniversary, on February 27.

 

I wasn't trying to rush you, man. :(

[Theduke08]

Loving the honey comb pattern.  You have taken an already amazing model and taken it to a whole new level. 

[JeffTibbetts]

Ah! Had a rough weekend and catching up on these comments just made my night.

 

Thanks as always for the kind words. I've been working on it some more, and I'll post pics in a couple days.

 

As for what's next? My Eagle Eyes. I have a new color scheme and a new commitment to battle damage and wear. They're gettimg redone and soon. Now that my airbrush is ready for base coating, there's no stopping me. I'm feeling like two storm talons, my land speeders, land raiders, rhinos, etc. could learn a thing or two from the Queen here.

[Disruptor_fe404]

The Queen is great and all, but I gotta be honest...

 

I'd rather see more Eagle Eyes.

[Ace Debonair]

Holy on a sandwich, that's a lot of detail now that it's all coming together.

This is going to be something spectacular once it's all put together.

[JeffTibbetts]

The Queen is great and all, but I gotta be honest...

I'd rather see more Eagle Eyes.

:D Thanks, I think. I'm really itching to get back to them, to be honest. It's a really new thing for me, breaking away from the clean marine style I'm used to. So, it will take a lot of experimentation and playing around to get them right, but that's really the fun part. I think painting Queen Bee has gotten me more interested in painting again in general. I was getting a bit bored with it before.

Holy on a sandwich, that's a lot of detail now that it's all coming together.

This is going to be something spectacular once it's all put together.

Haha. Thanks! I can't wait to get some more time in over the next couple of days. Keep your eyes peeled for more pics later this week.

[JeffTibbetts]

So... I've wanted to do some pinup art on the Queen since day 1, but I'm struggling now to see where it would fit in. There's so much visually going on already that I think it might be too busy. I've mocked up a super quick and dirty version of what I'm looking for, but again I just don't know if it's going to work.

I think it could fit in the tiny spot next to the ladder on the top carapace, but that's about it. And that's VERY small. Worth bothering with, you think?

If I do it, I plan on making just a black sketch outline as a decal, and then painting the actual thing by hand on top of the decal. Thoughts? I don't really think the ammo belt will end up looking much like an ammo belt, so that might go at that scale.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

There are pin up decals made for US WWII plane models. Here's one: https://www.etsy.com/listing/107995514/pinup-model-building-nose-art-decal-132

[JeffTibbetts]

Yeah, I saw those. I'd rather paint it myself for funsies. Plus I want to give her a specific color scheme. Thanks, though!  

[JeffTibbetts]

Okay. Just a small update for now.

Been working on highlights on the black side. Yellow still needs one more highlight stage before moving on. These highlights will get knocked back quite a bit when I wash them, so they're a little bit more contrasty than what I usually do right now. Also, I'll be touching up the highlights around the paint chips to make them much smaller.

The yellow armor bits are looking pretty good. Again, I'll have one more highlight on here but other than that they're ready for weathering.

Black shoulder, looking alright. Again, will get knocked back a little with the wash.

This piece has been washed, and you can see how much that takes the highlights down. Also, for funsies, I did the first layer of metallic trim just to see how it would look. It's going to stay pretty dang shiny compared to the metal on the chassis.

More later, just getting these out there for you all. C&C welcome as always.

[Daemon2027]

Looks awesome, I would like to see a little more of the honeycomb on the black side just because I think it looks awesome.

[KrautScientist]

The latest painting steps are, once again, absolutely excellent! It's stunning to watch the model take shape like this!

 

I am feeling somewhat conflicted about the pinup, though: and not even because I fear it would make the model too busy.

While a pinup like that would make for an excellent touch of its own, it seems too modern (in: too 20th century modern) for a model in the 40k universe. Maybe you could change the concept around a bit: Imagine that the origins of the Imperial Knights were heavy duty machines that might have borne just such a decoration, back during the dark age of technology. Wouldn't the 41st millennium version of the pinup have gone through the same "devolution" and "grimdarkification" as the rest of the machine? Maybe it would be fun to design a version that has the origin of the picture just barely obvious, but twisted into something suitably heraldic and grimdark -- am I making any sense?

 

Anyway, maybe this does help after all...;)

[JeffTibbetts]

Looks awesome, I would like to see a little more of the honeycomb on the black side just because I think it looks awesome.

I do kind of wish I had gone a little more crazy with it because, you're right, the yellow on black looks really cool. The reason it ended up the way it did was because I knew the weathering and paint chipping were going to look very different on the two sides. I felt the black side would be a little more plain than the yellow, and too much honeycomb would have popped too much against it. The yellow side needed a little darkening to break up the large bright areas. In hindsight I think I could have done more, but adding to it is really pretty difficult and I think it works pretty well as-is.

Next time...

The latest painting steps are, once again, absolutely excellent! It's stunning to watch the model take shape like this!

I am feeling somewhat conflicted about the pinup, though: and not even because I fear it would make the model too busy.

While a pinup like that would make for an excellent touch of its own, it seems too modern (in: too 20th century modern) for a model in the 40k universe. Maybe you could change the concept around a bit: Imagine that the origins of the Imperial Knights were heavy duty machines that might have borne just such a decoration, back during the dark age of technology. Wouldn't the 41st millennium version of the pinup have gone through the same "devolution" and "grimdarkification" as the rest of the machine? Maybe it would be fun to design a version that has the origin of the picture just barely obvious, but twisted into something suitably heraldic and grimdark -- am I making any sense?

Anyway, maybe this does help after all...

Yeah, that makes a heck of a lot of sense, actually. I hadn't really thought about it from that perspective. I feel like unless inspiration strikes me I'm going to nix the art just because I can't find a way to make it make sense to me 100%, and I don't even know where to put it. It's a cute idea, and I can imagine how grimdarking a pinup painting would be a really cool project, but I don't think it's right for this one. Some day, when I make an Adamantine Lance formation of actual House Tibbetts knights with proper white and yellow color schemes, I can work it into them.

[Battybattybats]

Well the medieval era had it's depictions of beauty and eroticism from the utterly NSFW Sheela Na Gig (do not google unless over 18! And even then you probably do not want to!) carved in stone on some churches to the illuminations in manuscripts of half naked women. So what would a dark age of tech pin-up become after thousands of years of tradition and repainting?

A saintly image, an Icon. Look at the depictions of France and Britain personified. Women, sometimes wearing armour and carrying weapons, sometimes painted as being in battle and occasionally half-naked based off classical Greco-Roman style like the Delacroix painting of Marianne figurehead of the French Republic. The basis of the pose could remain, the clothes could remain risque but would alter as the original fashion became romanticised and stylised over the ages. Alter the pose a little to be more regal and ritualised, change the expression from a smile to one of more noble regard, add some other symbols like a laurel wreath on her head or bees holding a banner.

I like the idea that a tradition started with a settler applying a decal risqué photograph to his machine before he goes out to work clear-felling trees for a new building for the settlement and tens of thousands of years later she has become a saintly symbol of righteous battle upon noble war machines.

[Excessus]

Isn't the classic pinup a woman because the soldiers are male? What about a male pinup? :P

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Emperor pin up?

[KrautScientist]

Those are some excellent ideas! I would argue that the pinup doesn't have to be male because it's a relic from the times of original pilot, who may well have been male, all those millennia ago.

The idea regarding a quasi-religious icon sounds amazing, and there could be some odd, pinu-up like elements that seem strange at first but make total sense in the context. Oh, and purity seals: Lots of purity seals. And a motto in mock Latin (that translates to some typical pinup caption)...

@ JeffTibbetts: Sorry mate, I realise that you are already beyond the point where you are thinking about the pinup, but the concept keeps getting better and better, so you'll have to forgive us for coming up with new ideas all the time

[Daemon2027]

Or a saucy looking female commissar?

[Battybattybats]

Emperor pin up?

 

That reminds me, in the original Adeptus Titanicus rulebook from 89 one of the illustrations showed a Moderati or Princeps (i forget which and the book is in a box at the moment) with their lips pulled back by a dental surgery type device and their cramped cabin contained a framed image of the emperor with a dart sticking out of it and a pair of fluffy dice hanging above them.

 

Actually i just found the pic :) Though you need to see the 1st ed pic of the Emperor in the golden throne to know that is him in the pic.

 

[JeffTibbetts]

Bats, that pic is freaking EPIC! I've never seen that one. Didn't have Adeptus Titanicus. 

 

As for the pinup, you guys all have some excellent ideas. Here are my thoughts:

 

The Queen Bee is the machine spirit of the war machine. As stated at the beginning of the thread, I was thinking of the knight itself as female because of the way old sailors, pilots, etc. thought of their rides as female. Makes sense. So the machine would already have this sort of identity. Even in the service of House Tibbetts, it may have earned the nickname of the Queen Bee and may have had that sort of pinup idea like we've been spitballing. The male pilots would get a kick out of that in the most pragmatic sense.

 

Also, I've always (and the fluff largely backs this up) thought of the knight households as being something both within and without the Imperium's culture. They're basically allies. Of course over the years, many of them have moved closer and closer, but some maintain a fierce independence. I don't really see a problem with knight pilots using something very similar to what we'd consider pinup art. I think that some houses at least would look upon all the religious superstition, baroque art and elaborate rituals as something altogether silly and quite outside their preference. They may have their own rituals and traditions, but they're not always shared with the Imperium's. 

 

So, while the idea is absolutely sound, I see zero problems with knight houses having a markedly different and much more practical culture. In fact, the way the knights are talked about in the companion, it's clear that they did just fine casting, building, and maintaining their mounts as machines, outside the influence of the Adeptus Mechanicus, for thousands of years. While some houses fell in with AdMech, many did not. And in both cases there are varying levels of cultural overlap. I simply always thought of House Tibbetts as being fiercely independent and proud, and that's ultimately where the pilot comes from. 

 

Part of her story is that she doesn't care for the fawning flattery and toadyism of the AdMech, and sees them for what they are: desperate to get their hands on her machine and those of her family. When she went Freeblade, she started training the locals of Tonatzin (home of the Eagle Eyes chapter) to help her maintain the Queen. She negotiated to get the materials she needs, but she keeps her contact very limited with the AdMech as much as she can. She now has her own group of self-recruited Sacristans and they operate as an extended family, centered around the Queen. 

 

Aerelia's relationship with the machine spirit is complicated. On the one hand, she considers herself very practical and unpretentious, eschewing and even outright despising much of the stuffy culture that would see her oppressed, both in her own family and in the Imperium at large. On the other hand, her bond with the Queen is the closest thing to sacred she can imagine. They've become very much like a grandmother/granddaughter pair. Through the Queen, Aurelia can see all the things she grudgingly respects about her family, and has even come to some understanding of why they are the way they are. Don't forget that this bond to her ancestors is also quite real to her, as the Throne Mechanicum is also imprinted with many of her ancestors' personalities. She can feel their nobility, heroism and sacrifice every time she jacks in. So, to her, the idea of visualizing the haughty, feisty, rebellious personality of the Queen with some kind of pinup art would be a very personal and poignant gesture. Not just a pretty picture of a lady for the boys to show off.

 

Okay: rant over.