Mechanist's Plog, Chaos Knights (yes Plural)

[Mechanist]

Great work on the possessed, nice to see the old bloodletters getting some love!

Thank you. They've been shelved as I've not had the drive to sculpt recently and went with some quicker builds for my Vow. The bloodletters where actually mail ordered back in the day specifically to make the unit of possessed that got stripped. They where inspired by pictures in the 1st 3rd ed codex.

On the subject of my Vow I carried out some preliminary tests on the oblits but then moved onto to helldrake.

While I'll talk in more depth about Black Templar and how I use it once I have a bit of a step by step I must say I'm loving the Skeleton Horde for quick painting bone.

Just slap it over the Grey Sear, quick bit of recess wash Reikland Fleshshade for a bit more depth and a Dry brush with tyrant skull. The spine bit took about 5 minutes and the small claws and bits are so quick and easy.

I'm moving onto the arms and wings and the underside is well on the way, a second vow is probably unlikely though as I'm just not as focused on painting this year as I was last.

[Mechanist]

I've been a bit quite here mostly just posting to the event posts.

I did finish my heldrake for ETL

But that was it for finished models in the ETL so I wear my badge of shame.

Now I did have plans for a Call of chaos vow even hoped to get my knight ready...

But sorry not this time, various things have lead to limited energy and sculpting just isn't on my radar right now.

But on the back for the 6 year old heldrake and with Captain Semper now running 'Join Da Waaagh' I decided to visit another model that's had no love for a number of years.

So

"I Spanernick Grot make a Vow for (cos ee don't do skribbling) For da biggest, meenist Bla bla, bla bla bla (when is e going to shut up and stop blabbing) Mek Mechanist. Who will join da big Waaaagh and finally finish this Mork (or possibly Gork) anaught to go onna big stomping spree. Utherwise da boss will make im (my boss mek) wish he was a snot."

This model has been languishing unloved beyond one Game since October 2014 when I finished it and wrote about it on my Blog (Link).

The plan is to match my Killer Kan which has a newer recipe than my older Ork vehicles.

Thanks again (as I did with my black legion and the hellbrute) to writing on my old blog I've got enough of my Ork recipe recorded to get on with painting.

First up I used the base as a colour test to get a hang of the highlighting and weathering.

and then moved onto the doors. The one on the right has now had the marking cleaned up and highlighted and it's had a full agrax wash and once the other catches up both will get weathering.

the one on the left has had the black markings added and just needs it to be tidied up then move onto highlighting.

I'll see about a few pictures tonight of the marines and also hopefully bring the doors up so they are both at the same stage.

I'm enjoying the more free-form less precises painting on this so far and I think its a good break from the millions of little panels on the drake.

Let me know what you think

[Mechanist]

I've made more progress on the doors and the pictures all work well for a bit of a step by step for my recipe for me to look back on and maybe to inspire others to play with different techniques than your used to for different textures and results.

First up is the pic from before, the door on the left has basic base coats and the one on the right has the main highlights added.

Base layers are Vallejo Goblin green, GW Mephiston Red and then Ceramite white and Abaddon black for the patterns.

The Green then gets highlighted with Artists emerald green with lots of dabbing and up down strokes to get a streaky faded/stained effect with some dry/over brushing around the scratches and edges. The second highlight is Vallejo Foul green using the same method to enhance the steaks effect but with a smaller brush.

The red follows GW standard layers with Evil Sunz Scarlet and Wild Rider Red.

Metal is undercoated Abaddon black, the based with Leadbelcher dry-brushed with Necron compound.

The door on the left here is at a similar stage to the one above but before the black/white markings have had a second pass. I hope it goes to show that you don't need to be super neat on the first pass, just sketch in and tidy up afterwards.

The door on the right has had the black/white highlighted/shaded and then washed.

I shade white with grey sear and highlight the black with Mechanicus Standard Grey followed by Agrax Earthshade all over for the wash.

Which now it's done gives me a pair of painted doors ready for weathering up with some sponge weathering and rust technical paints.

I've even added some graffiti to the inside of the doors, but for me it's looking a bit empty. I think I'm going to go back and add some more layers over the top to make it look like different Orks have scribbled and painted over each others work.

If anyone has some goo ideas for Orky scribbles please feel free to share.

[TheBlindPrimarch]

Honestly, you could look at any number of sources of graffiti for inspiration, and then just Ork-ify it. 

 

One Idea I did have that you might like is the idea of the crew of the gargant using the inside as a kind of hangout. Maybe they put up posters, or a number for Bloodbowl team sign ups (Bloodbowl could still be a thing lol) Stuff like that.

[Jukkiz]

Ork codexes seem to have glyph meanings that you could use too to make words and such

[Mechanist]

Honestly, you could look at any number of sources of graffiti for inspiration, and then just Ork-ify it. 

 

One Idea I did have that you might like is the idea of the crew of the gargant using the inside as a kind of hangout. Maybe they put up posters, or a number for Bloodbowl team sign ups (Bloodbowl could still be a thing lol) Stuff like that.

Interesting idea, Might go with some Klan rivalry.

 

Ork codexes seem to have glyph meanings that you could use too to make words and such

I used to have various links for this online so I didn't need to dig around for books but many of the links are now dead. Looks like I'll be searching again, trying to think of interesting ways of putting the together to look like various orks overwriting old stuff.

[Mechanist]

So i'm a snot....

Not really surprising I burnt out a bit when I had to start tackling the main body and my in laws visiting meant I needed to clear the painting desk.

After this was half term, which included 2 job interviews and a sifi con. Then after receiving a job offer was a busy time at my old work so getting all the painting bits out was a bit to much to face of and evening so I spent the time playing Kerbal Space program.

Now My wife then had a weekend booked to go see her parents with the kids while I got on with the task of prop building for a LARP the following weekend. Now I fully expected a lot of waiting about for things to dry so set up a little painting station in the lounge and as latex on the Stone Golem dried I watched the remainder of enterprise and got cracking.

However sadly while my wife was away she had a stroke and so the following week was spent in the hospital most evenings with her. Now she's doing very well and didn't need any surgery or hooking up to any scary machines but it was a heck of a shock and didn't give me much chance at my little painting desk during that week.

As she was settled into hospital we stuck closer to visiting hours and painting is a very good way to take my mind off things for a brief respite form the madness of this and moving Derby.

My wife is now out of hospital and is doing really well with her therapy and recovery I'm sure in a few months time we'll hardly be able to tell it had happened.

Now even though I didn't finish the Gork/Mork I'm really proud of what I've done so far.

Firstly I had a lot of fun with the interior after I managed to break down the body into more manageable chunks. The monitor screens I'd added inside took some insperation from my time in the marine industry doing engineering interface screens.

Then I had a play with Glyphs as I mentioned before firstly was the turn of Wazzarukk who has declared his great Beakie stomping prowess

But Grubgul wasn't having any of it

Both of the nobz naming glyphs come from Nobz in my army and their ongoing feud is now immortalised inside the transport section.

After that came ta makers/owner mark by the screens then the weathering of the inside ready to glue back together and finish painting the outside.

More Graffiti on the other side shows support for the bloodaxe warboss Tinklaw before weathering..

While on the subject of Ork scribbles I also added a cheeky Bloodaxe Zog off to some Goff graffiti on the inside of the door.

The inside of the top was painted up, I'd used bits of Tau drones to detail it after the weird discovery that under the head was detailed but not the inside. I also painted up the barrles

At the same time I painted up the core of the head and the back section with the barrels on, this was so I could put all of the electronics back in glue the body back together.

On my way up to Derby on Saturday I dropped into GW HQ and did a spot more painting too. This allowed me to get most of my travels out in the daylight and was a convenient place to stop before I could check into my room for the week.

I also managed to geth the outside of the body up to the wash stage so all of the most painted parts now look like this.

The legs and doors need the weathering completing having been sponged with scorched brown, so need Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust but the ladder and platform have been finished this evening and glued back inside. The other two headlight bits have been glued onto the body and will get weathered along with it. First though the upper body needs painting and gluing back on so i can weather the whole thing in one go.

I've made a start now on both the bit that holds the doors in place and the upper body section and plan to poke it a bit more tomorrow and Thursday evening. As always C&C is most welcome and I hope people like what I've done.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

First time going through your thread, and the Hellbrute at the beginning you started making is super cool!! Love how you used the bones from those dinosaur models for like the spine and other pieces that's great thinking!! And the pose is really neat too!! The chain making the Khorne symbol is such a great idea!!  Your green stuff sculpting skills are impressive!! The smoke stacks with the Khorne symbol another super cool idea!!

 

The conversions and painting on the marines are excellent also! Painting on the wings of the Lord of Change is super nice too!! The  base is nice makes the model stand out so much more! The Necrons are really nicely painted too, the glow effects make them stand out, I'm just learning how to do the glow effects I watched a few videos think I have a good start on it. Not like yours though I just really looked into doing plasma gun coils to start off with. But the purple armor on the vehicles are super nice looking! 

 

The green armor on the Ork stuff looks really cool too and the paint on the Helldrake looks really good so far. Looking forward to seeing more stuff!!

[Mechanist]

@Kolgrim

Thank you, that must have taken a while. You'll be lad to know that as soon as the Gork/Mork is done I'm going back to the Knight and I'm determined to finish building it to paint in next year's CoC.

 

I'm also going to have a play with my nids come the new year as I'd like to test out a contrast recipe for next year's ETL especially If I can get a super fast paint job rocking.

 

I also have the next crop of Crons in WIP with 5 deathmarks and an overlord.

 

Having just changed jobs which involves relocating I'm going to be having a lot of evenings in an empty house while we slowly move up this way and deal with the old house. I expect I'll be able to get a fair bit done. Fingers crossed. 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your efforts on the Gork/Morkanaught are most impressive- the interior is so detailed!

 

My condolences for your wife's suffering. I will pray to the God-Emperor for her recovery.

[Mechanist]

Your efforts on the Gork/Morkanaught are most impressive- the interior is so detailed!

My condolences for your wife's suffering. I will pray to the God-Emperor for her recovery.

Thank you. She's doing really well and I'm so proud of how hard she's working.

The interior is fully finished and back together now, with the lights on it looks like this.

Not sure you can actually see half of the detail inside without dentistry mirrors to see round especially mow the doors are on.

Speaking of which the current state of the Gorka/Morka, it's had the doors top glued on so the doors still open and close, the legs are glued and fixed to the base.

Plenty of details and markings have been added to the sides, and the whole body and legs have been weathered.

The back is likewise finished for the main structure though I removed the engine and exhaust stacks to help paint in bits so less daunting as I find smaller parts easier to tackle.

As for now I've had to pack it away until after Christmas dinner :(

But I have a selection of smaller bits base coated such as the knee armour, Jaw and Face plates.

I also need to touch up the join between the red section that holds the doors on and the main body, this has had Typus corrosion added and just needs a little rust and bits to finish the blend. I also made the top of the two doors match better with weathering as I noticed the difference on the pictures.

Hopefully I'll be able to get it done before new year as then next year I can start with the next stages and finishing the Knight build.

[Mechanist]

SO the gorka/morka naught is slowly coming along, I've painted up a bunch of the missing bits for the Knees, Jaw and blade for the Klaw.

These have now all been weathered and other than the Blade added to the model.

The rest of the Klaw and the engine is my next area of focus.

These have also had a painting session further than the picture so they are now slowly getting there, I'll probably try to finish the upper arm Monday evening around getting some greenstuff out for something else.

So just before Christmas I started my new job near Derby (UK), and then a week ago on Friday I picked up the keys for a the house I'll be renting. Now around Easter my family will be joining me once the probation period and everything is fully sorted out. But until then the goal is to use the house to sort out a lot of my hobby stuff that takes up a fair bit of space, not to mention me rattling round the house of an evening.

At least one night a week will be a shared hobby time with my mate Gav who lives in Nottingham and as he's more age of sigma based I'm going to be building a daemon army to go with the lord of change which means the dining room table looks a little like this.

Pat of the plan for my tzeentch AOS is the endless spells which to be honest the official figures are a little lackluster.

So I'm going to be using spares from the lord of change, 3D printed bits (on my new 3D printer) and green stuff. But since I'll only be doing a little bit at a time on the spells I'll have greenstuff going spare as I suck at not over doing it. So my computer dest looks a bit like this

Which I think will interest people more as I'm going to aim to get the Knight legs 100% finished in the next week or two followed closely by the carapace.

Because then I can spray all the finished bits and focus on just the arms and weapons knowing that the rest is ready to paint.

So wish me luck and I hope I'll have plenty to share over the next few weeks.

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Nice work on the checkers they turned out really cool!!

[Sgt. Blank]

The Mork or Gorkanaut is looking good, looking forward to seeing it painted -not to mention that knight! It's an inspirational conversion and i hope to see it finished soon. Edited January 20, 2020 by Sgt. Blank

[Mechanist]

So my AOS game came and went and it was a blast, I got to summon my free bird meaning in my 1k army I got to add the over 400 points lord of change to it. It got hammered and things swung from one side to another more than I've ever had in a game but in the end the Tzeench and Skaven Cunning won out and snatched victory.

It was really great to have a deadline to work to and doing so lead me to push myself. Since my last post I've painted/finished panting over 50 modles if not 60 and post game I'm pushing on to get all of my Tzeench models painted which in 40k terms is about 1500 points (nearly 3K in AOS)

Included in this is 3 significant conversions which I'll look at later + the scratch built endless spell.

Jumping back into the forum I figured I'd start with my flamer models for the game I had 3 flamers and an exulted flamer.

Contrast paint really helped with these guys slopping on pink and blue and gently mixing it on the model has produced some really cool effects on these.

The next batch of flamers went the opposite way up but in minutes each they look like this.

This gets followed with drybrushing of pink, purple and blue before going back in with white to pick out all the details ready for their own washes or contrast.

Since the game I'm not only working on the 3 wip Flamers above (which are further along than the photo and nearly ready for their bases) but I fully painted and based a burning chariot.

I'll be sorting out the photos of the horrors and other bits this week and my current plans for this year are.

Finish painting all plastic Tzeench models

Sort all conversion work out for 1 herald, 1 Exulted Flamer scratch build, a daemon prince and the endless spell.

Finish the knight from toes to carapace so I can spray. weapons TBD.

Paint converted Tzeench stuff.

Finish Gork/Mork anought

move onto nurgle daemons including trying to scratch build a beast of nurgle or two with the spares from the kit.

Finish Knight arms.

If I do all of that I'll be taking a break from all things 40k to do another pure AOS army (which may involve big lizzards) as a friend and me have set our selves the challenge of getting projects finished with the reward being to start a new army.

[Mechanist]

So much for more posts. Things went a bit crazy as my Mum and brother are house sitting my house in Essex as we settle in in Derby and hopfuly sell it to them. However The bathroom tiling decided to come lose and let water down into the kitchen.... Not good.

Now technically I do have the time to sort it but didn't plan to travel back to Essex during the current outbreak and not more than a quick trip. Unfortunately the B&Q install once again proved how sucky it was as the timber work being the tiles was in a shocking state and I've had to rip back about 30 tiles worth and I'm now on my second nearly week long trip back.

At least now I should have everything I need and be finished and back in Derby doing hobby stuff by the weekend.

However thanks to the magic of one drive I have access to my photos and can upload and share my 50 horrors that where finished a short while after the game.

My original horrors predate contrast and have sat half finished for at least 5 years or more.

These guys have a much warmer pink and if I could remember how I did it I might do another unit like that, however contrast is so much quicker and having a bit of variety is always handy to tell units apart. As such next unit ended up much a colder pink thanks largely I'm sure to the zenthial undercoat.

These guys also feature a converted unit command and as yet haven't been fully based, I'm currently working on a new batch of floating rocks to 3d print to speed everything up especially as I complete more units ready for basing.

Now with pink Horrors you need some of the little guys so they can split.

I only managed 10 of these guys built for them game though I've since built a further 16 (including 3 for the burning chariot).

The new one's have a fair few conversions because I didn't like that all the stock models come with 3 arms, far to regular for the god of change.

3 are now finished as I did them in the same batch as the Burning chariot. 5 more are waiting for a fresh white basecoat on the small details (teeth/claws, flames and mouth and weapons) and the last 5 have had contrast and been drybrushed so they are at least blue.

Once of the things I played with on the weapons for all my horrors was the orange to black transition. now on the lord of change it took hours of careful highlighiting and shading but on these it's literally all mucking about with contrast and the odd drybrush. Over white slap Black Templar where you want it darkest use a touch of water at the edge where you want the transition to help feather it out. If needed just add a gentle white drybrush once dry to tidy up where you want transitions. Then I use Aggaros Dunes though I'm sure Snakebite leather or Gore grunter fur would work possibly better, This crosses over all of the dark Templar and a bit more. Again tidy up with some white where you want the orange to show the best (would probably also work fine anything with the right intermediate colour) and then use Gryph-Hound Orange. once this is dry I also add a final edge highlight of Fire Dragon Bright.

All in all I can get a solid result in a fraction of the time which is great as I can then use that effect much more across the army instead of restricting it to just the special centre pieces.

Lastly for now I also painted up 20 bases of Brimstone horrors. These guys didn't use contrast as I inverse highlight them starting with Cassandora Yellow over a white undercoat and then drybrush down through Fire Dragon Bright > Troll Slayer Orange > Wild Rider Red > Evil Sunz Scarlet before finally adding spots and tiny dashes of black

The last step nearly did me in for this batch as at the time I basically had everything from the first big batch of models on the go at the same time, so the 50 horrors, 3 flamers and an exulted flamer. it was a lot of flames to deal with.

Next time I sit down to post I'll share my Herald the finished one on a disk and the two unfinished ones with conversions work.

let me know what your guys think and wish me luck sorting these tiles out.

[hushrong]

Awesome work on the Tzeentchian daemons! The fire looks fantastic such as on the chariot and the brimstone horrors.

[Mechanist]

Awesome work on the Tzeentchian daemons! The fire looks fantastic such as on the chariot and the brimstone horrors.

Thank you, I need to get the herald photos sorted out and uploaded. 

[Augustus b'Raass]

Your painting is top notch as always but I particularly enjoy those flaming bases, dude. Nice work! 

[Mechanist]

Your painting is top notch as always but I particularly enjoy those flaming bases, dude. Nice work!

Thank you. they take a lot of layers working up from yellow through 2 oranges, 2 reds then on the cracked earth brown and black.

I really enjoyed getting the skeletons to look burnt. I must get some better shots of them.

Right as promised some pictures of my heralds. My first finished Herald and actually a fairly in-depth conversion, starting with the disk and legs of a tzeentch tzaangor enlightened. I wanted it to be something a bit more than just a big horror so a big greenstuff eye makes up his body then a weapon swap and a ball of flame.

I'm not sure it it's a little busy though I may end up doing an arm swap on the flames at a later date, what do people think?

Second up is my old school combination.

This guy isn't finished yet starting as a mash up of the lower half of an old metal flamer and the body of a metal pink horror. I've been trying to sculpt on some more details to blend the joins better.

Most of the work left to do is to sort out the feather textures on the cape and at the back of the head.

Back to work next Monday though and with sorting the bathroom at the house in Essex I've not been able to get half as much done in derby as I would have hoped. Due to balancing drying times I'm now on my 3rd Essex trip so I've probably spent more time working on the bathroom than able to do models.

Still I have used blender to work on some more floating rocks and am looking at getting them on the 3D printer this weekend so I can finish my basing up and the second 3 flamers are nearly done. Wish me luck finishing this tiling.

[hushrong]

Heralds look appropriately Tzeentchian! I like the eye torso as that just has the right aesthetics. Second one is looking sweet too and he has those fingers that weird me out.

[Mechanist]

Heralds look appropriately Tzeentchian! I like the eye torso as that just has the right aesthetics. Second one is looking sweet too and he has those fingers that weird me out.

Thanks man.

I'm now back at work but have a three day weekend. I must get me some hobby on so I can get more pictures to show.

[hushrong]

Hope all is going well and going back to work! And I am always up to see progress when you can post it!

[Augustus b'Raass]

Nice work on the feathered wings! 

Also, the colour scheme on that ork mini gargant is lush! Awesome that you're going for the interior as well :)

[Mechanist]

Hope all is going well and going back to work! And I am always up to see progress when you can post it!

We'll after a week of evening shifts I spent most of yesterday asleep. today though I have the 3d printer running for more basing bits. I'll get some photos in a bit.

 

 

Nice work on the feathered wings! 

 

Also, the colour scheme on that ork mini gargant is lush! Awesome that you're going for the interior as well

Thank you. I'm crazy chuffed with the Gork/Mork. I need to get my Tzeentch basing bit sorted today which is going well and using up the end of a filament roll that doesn't have enough left to do anything big. Then I can change the filament roll ans start the super long print runs on the bit of paint rack I need. Once that is out of my head I'll be able to focus on finishing stuff.