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

[JeffTibbetts]

Well I shall look forward to it, man. Must be something about us Raven Guard guys that draws us to Knights. You notice that?

 

Worked on the pistons and legs a bit more. A few pics up tomorrow morning. Night, y'all.

[JeffTibbetts]

She's got le-e-egs… And she knows how to u-use them.

She can stand now! Sorta. Everything is drilled out and pinned, but not glued. I'll show you the pistons in a bit, but there's nothing to keep them in place and I don't have like 8 hands to hold them all so you'll have to take my word for it. Test fits worked like a charm. I just need to settle on the pose and then glue and greenstuff everything in place. Woot! All the worrying whether it would work is gone.

So, with the default position of the hip joints, this is what her legs would look like. Not bad, not not quite there yet. I need her right leg up higher to get the drama I'm looking for.

So this happened. I was hoping I wouldn't have to, but I don't want to make compromises after all that work. More work must be done… Being able to put them wherever I want will give me freedom, but I'll def have to pin it now just to be safe. They were really stable before I messed with it. While I'm at it, I probably WILL end up cutting and redoing the hip banding as well. Because half-measures are for the weak. ;)

Here are the pistons. The four at the top were first. The fat ones are for the back of the leg and are much bulkier. The skinnier ones with GS are the front of the legs. The bottom ones are all 'working' pistons, drilled out and all that. I also cut some goofy little spacers off the back of the side-leg pistons. I still need to GS and clean up the bottom four side pistons, but they fit and work well. I don't even have to cut off and reposition the little side brackets where they fit on, like I thought I might.

And by request. here are the ankle beads. They actually DO have the measurement on the package. Go figure. Like I said, though, these were a bit on the big side so you could go smaller.

[That Guy Matt]

Really enjoying seeing your progress on here but I mostly wanted to comment on the fluff piece.  It's very well written and obviously took a lot of time and care.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.

[JeffTibbetts]

Thank you! My imagination has really been sparked by the Knights and I feel like this kit is going to have more personality than my entire chapter of marines. Which is as it should be. She's a real character. :D 

[helterskelter]

That is a stride and a half! Dude you gotta be proud of that after all the pain :p

[Excessus]

Of course a girly titan needs some neon beads as decoration! ;)

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

Right. Thats it - from now on you have to use a ZZ Top song name every time you update a thread title :P

Oh, yeah, and the knight is becoming incredibly epic too. She's gonna look sweet next to those Eagle Eyes

[EPK]

Great work here! I came across something that might interest you actually, since you've taken so much time with this model thus far - This fella actually added a cockpit.

[JeffTibbetts]

Great work here! I came across something that might interest you actually, since you've taken so much time with this model thus far - This fella actually added a cockpit.

 

Oh god... What have you done?! How am I ever going to finish this project now? I CANNOT RESIST! 

[Lykos]

Please do a cockpit. The conversion and step by step pictures is making this a very nice topic to follow.

[JeffTibbetts]

Haha. Thanks! I don't think I'll be able to NOT do a cockpit now. I just spent some time Googling titan cockpits and I'm thinking about how the Knights one would be different. I can do this pretty-much last, though, since I can avoid glueing down the top carapace. I just got some sculpting clay, too, so I think I'll end up making the pilot while I'm at it. I'd love to see any kind of concept sketches that GW's has for them, or their uniforms. Does anyone know if the Companion book has anything like that? 

 

But then I was like "how about something more like one of these" instead. 

http://atwoodwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/court-thrones.jpg

I wonder if that would work for the basic silhouette. 

[sugar-free]

Why oh why didnt i change my legs...? They are looking sweet. I might have to do a squad now.

Good job

[JeffTibbetts]

I'm thinking if I do the interior I want to do it a little differently. First, the thrones are something that is essentially alien to the Knight itself in that they spend most of their time outside of it. It has to look like it could drop in from above. The tall, narrow medieval thrones would both look like furniture and also they're super narrow. I think something like this as a basic shape could work.

I imagine the tubes could pop through the little cut-out above where one's head would go. I want to have a minimal amount of internal cogitators/gauges, and what is there I don't want to be digital. I like the idea of lots of brass pipes and occasional steam gauges as the only form of detailing. And tubes. Lots and lots of tubes. Good thing I just ordered a greenstuff tube maker (for the leg tubes).

Also, I think the engine would leave little room for the pilot, and as their own bodies are basically buried under the neural connection to the Knight chassis and senses, I bet little thought would be given to the body's ergonomics. I bet when they're done, the pilots really hate having to go back to their real body which is riddled with cramps and aches.

On the other hand, my girl is a Freeblade, and has none of the comforts of the Knights back home in the sense that her throne never comes out anymore. So, she's gotta have a way to climb in and out of the seat. I really, really want to do a little interior light if I'm going to do this, so when the hatch is down you can see it coming from the window. Anyone have a cool way to do a clear window on the hatch? I don't have any clear resin right now and I'm not sure I want to buy some for a tiny little drop. Maybe I can simply cut some clear thick plastic card from a package of something, right?

[YoungWolf7]

Blister pack material is perfect for scale windows. ;)

[JeffTibbetts]

Blister pack material is perfect for scale windows. ;)

That's what I was wondering. Thanks for the tip!

[ephrael]

I just paged through my copy of the Companion Book and i didn't see any pictures of Knight interiors or the Pilot's uniform.  There is a whole lot of background and heraldry info in it though.

[JeffTibbetts]

Thanks, Mikhail. I really want to get it but man, it's pricey. My birthday's coming up. Maybe I'll get lucky.

[ephrael]

Thanks, Mikhail. I really want to get it but man, it's pricey. My birthday's coming up. Maybe I'll get lucky.

It's actually worth the price in my opinion but only if you want background and color plates.  

[KBA]

Excellent progress! Love those legs. Your hard work and dedication are really showing.

[Onisuzume]

If you're wondering, here's an example of what it looks like in BattleTech. In case you want to go overboard with the details.

Nice legs, btw.

Not sure if I'm up for all the work it involves, though.

[Lykos]

Here is a concept picture of a mech cockpit.

http://www.desura.com/mods/mechwarrior-living-legends/images/concept-for-mech-cockpit

[Onisuzume]

Here is a concept picture of a mech cockpit.

http://www.desura.com/mods/mechwarrior-living-legends/images/concept-for-mech-cockpit

Not bad, except the one I linked it canon (Classic BattleTech RPG Companion).

[Lykos]

Kind of a moot point being cannon don't you think? I mean seems as how we are posting links to help him with ideas for his cockpit thats going inside an Imperial  Knight.

[Onisuzume]

Hm... true, although I find the over-abundance of displays to be somewhat unrealistic.

[Disruptor_fe404]

Yup, cockpit is a must!