Mechanist's Plog, Chaos Knights (yes Plural)

[Mechanist]

Hey mate. I've been out of action for over a year. Imagine my surprise to see a new bad ass chaos knight! Great work here mate and thanks for the shoutout. Glad you found inspiration from mine.

Thanks very much. been a bit out of action my self this last month or two. Work trip to south Korea and mental hours while out there put a spanner in the works.

However the other night I had chance to have a play, now normally I cringe a bit when people make excuses for bad photos but I'm going to have to plead forgiveness. Without gluing him to a base and setting up a proper shoot I just couldn't get the proportions to look like they do in the flesh. Since it was getting late this will have to do.

I've since made the head twist a bit more to his right to go in the direction of movement and you'll have to believe me when I say that it don't look as comically big in the flesh. I suspect it's to do with losing depth perception as the head is closer to the camera it looks much bigger but you lose that depth in a 2d image so the torso just looks much smaller.

Which reminds me of this from Father Ted

Ether way when I'm holding it it makes me smile and want to make stompy noises which is always a good sign.

[Magos Kasen]

That looks pretty cool, very bestial.

[Mechanist]

Progress at last.

I've been away with work and a combination of 10-16 hour days and not weekends getting on-line to prepare updates was a bit of a choir. I did however manage on a cople of evenings to progress as I brought the Knight away with me.

Firstly a bit of playing around with greenstuff meant I could call the flesh around the spine finished.

I'm properly happy with this as it should give plenty of layers once painted for some great effects.

Next up was the chains, having used jewellery chains and pins before on my fantasy chaos warshrine I knew it gave a great result for heavy nails holding thick chain in place. Along with some instant mould and greenstuff it wasn’t long before I had a load of chaos stars ready to add to the hull and mark out the attachment points for the chains. Ready to go the idea was to make a Chaos star in chains across the spine splitting out, forming part of the bonding rituals that kept the daemon locked within.

Best laid plans and all that…

The first two diagonal chains didn’t really have a good place to attach both ends for the cross point to be in a good place. This lead to a bend where they meet and when trying to get the third on in place it just built up to much and looked weird, while the spine would mark the final line on the cross it didn’t look right and adding the fourth chain flat out didn’t work.

While playing with the third chain and trying to work out where I could attach it without the half sphere bits getting in the way I was hit by how it looked like a crude mark of Khorn. Five minutes later and the placing came together nicely followed by some drilling and pinning to fix it all in place.

Likewise after a similar level of pondering and looking at the model I was on board waiting for something before being allowed to continue work on our systems and the idea struck me, a short scavenger hunt later and I had the materials I needed. A couple of nights later back at the apartment I carefully pulled the torso apart for easier access and stuck a few test pieces in place and came up with this.

A few more distributed around each side should finish the effect and it will mean much less greenstuff work to join the bestial face to the model. I'm podering what to do tonight a I'm in the apartment alone waiting for the washing to finish, I my well look a bit more at the neck.

So, all in all good progress and after this trip in Korea is over I’ve got a family break for about a week. I plan to take some modelling with me for the evenings so maybe more progress will be made. I'll keep you all posted when I can.

[JeffTibbetts]

It's back! That Khorne-symbol chain is incredibly inspired, to be frank. I love it. And I like the way the head's working out. I can't wait to see this all coming together even further. 

[Khornestar]

Those chains are an awesome touch! Never seen that before.

[Soldier of Dorn]

Wow. Those chains are awesome. I'm starting to think that Khorne himself has blessed this project.

[Dragonlover]

First off, that Knight is awesome. Looking forward to seeing it complete.

 

Second, you mention in your first post that I recommended the forum to you. When and where? I am intrigued, because I recommend this place to a lot of people and nobody ever follows my advice.

 

Dragonlover

[Chaeron]

The spine and flesh is sublimely done - kudos! Really great work.

[Mechanist]

Thanks guys. Managed to get some liquid green stuff round the symbols on the carapace the other night and the first attempt at sculpting fur is going well in very small batches, going to do some more this evening.

Dragonlover it was at gamerz nexus a couple of times, I don't make it past often but we usually have a good chat when I do. Might try a visit in the next few weeks though the other half made it to macro so I won't have that excuse for a while.

[DaBoiKyknos]

that`s an inspiring monster so far. I`m curious for how the head will look like...

[Mechanist]

Well I made a bit more progress last night, I'm definitely finding doing very small bits of greenstuff work makes it easier to get a good layered effect.

two batches of work have go into the Knight's Right hand cheek and neck and you'll see I've glued the torso back together.

Still a little more to do here around the lips but going well.

Then his left hand side has had an initial blocking out around the cables, fleshifying them a bit similar to the hellbrute. Next up will be more fur.

The trick will be making it look shaggy like the other side but without obscuring the cables.

Travelling back home today from Hampshire, just packing up and then off. I should get some more done this weekend though and will keep you all posted.

[Mechanist]

Took a few more days than hoped to get time to do some more on him but I've now finished the Head and Neck. So on with the pictures.

The cables have all been blended in and various tufts of hair now sprout.

Though Once the Carapace is added some of its obscured, I think it's work it though as I Know the detail is complete and its often easier to sculpt in full than try and line up an end point.

I've also managed to get a few better angel of the head on the body, it helped that my daylight lamp was to hand this time and I think theses give a much better idea of the relative sizes for the head and body.

and one more for luck.

I hope you like him, he's really starting to come to life and just looking at these pics give me plenty of motivation to press on.

I also went halves on a Renegade box set with a friend so I'm planning on adding a Paladin or Errant to the Black Ruin, the aim will be something less elaborate but will be quicker to finish. Though The opportunity to do the cockpit will take some pondering.

All set to do some more tonight though and Should be back with more pics in a day or so depending on success.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Shibari for the Shibari God.

[Soric]

That is pretty brutal looking, can't wait to see this thing painted up :)

[Eldrick Shadowblade]

That looks incredible!

[JeffTibbetts]

Oh wow. I thought the back looked cool, but now that I see the head I'm falling in love. This guy is just oozing so much bestial personality, I really get the feeling that it's an awoken machine that's become possessed and is slowly becoming more daemonic. Fascinating! 

[Mechanist]

Thanks all for the feedback, I'm really enjoying building this and like a said before, getting the head and Back complete and together (though carapace isn't glued) has really given life to the machine.

No more pictures yet and Hopefully I'll get a bit more done over the weekend, last couple of nights had me spraying and brown washing a start collecting Nurgle Box set so that I also have something to paint. Vague plan is that I can paint a bit while green stuff sets and not ruin sculpting by trying to do to much.

[Mechanist]

So I did a bad thing.

Now I'm sharing this with a friend so it's only one knight. The plan is to make a paladin for "The Black Ruin" something simpler than the daemon knight with much less sculpting to do.

I'm going to make this guy a recent addition to the Household, an aspirant whose only just be released from the forge ships of the Household.

This way I can get it assembled fairly quickly and the most complex part will be making and detailing the cockpit, the rest of the detail will likely be made from my collection of press moulds and this.

I couldn't resist a couple of hours playing about with a small piece of plasterboard and some sharp implements.

Now this a a technique I'd seen a few years back on Dakka I think, using plasterboard to make moulds for this

After a quick dig about in the shed I dug out some flux, a suitable melting spoon and the best bit, the blowtorch.

It took a few attempts to get the coverage I need a can be seen here,

this gave me a fairly good positive of the shapes I'd carved, some instant mould and then green stuff have since been used to get something more useful.

With more pics to come now the green stuff should have cured I'll have another update tomorrow, right now the metal work isn't much use than as a master for instant mould and I've some ideas to help improve the process including a second sheet of plasterboard. I'me also not sure the detail is fine enough for my purpose but for initial experiments it was entertaining and had some results that may be of use.

If anyone has seen this sort of thing done before and remembers who did it that would be really handy, I'm sure it was for a scratch built chaos titan when I first saw it.

[Mechanist]

So last time I promised some results from the casting.

The metalwork came out like this.

Definitely on the rough side and in places overly rounded, still the next stage was to use this for making a press mould as being able to build up a stash of texture will give me a quicker and easier way to detail Kights of the black ruin.

For this quick test I didn;t melt down enough old bits to fully cover the metal but is did ok to see how things would come out.

TBH they didn;t come out as well as I would like and at this point I'm considering starting again and making something finer as I may have gone to bulky with this, and I'll look into it this weekend.

However experiments to one side I've been playing with the Khorn Knight again and have made a fair bit of progress, especially when it comes to how I'm going to tackle areas that had left me a bit short on ideas.

First up I've been working my way round the torso, corrupting the metal structure with the taint of the dark powers.

This is the first stage and next up will be the tattered skin, it also occurred to me after finishing up last night that I could do with more fur here and there so it's not isolated to the head and neck.

As I'm working on the Knight Left hand side I also began some sculpting work on the fist, adding the first layer of bony detailing that should tie in with the main carapace and the left pauldron rim.

Speaking of which I've been using the left over greenstuff from the various bits going on to fill out the flayed flesh over the pauldron.

The structure of this is now complete and the next stage will be a very thin layer of green stuff for the creases, stitching ect.

For the sides of the Knight Torso the final piece of the puzzle has begun to come together,

I've been pondering for a while about how to deal with these, and really wanted to use the braziers from the Warshine kit. However I know KrautScientist discounted this on his knight as an awkward conversion and I can see how that could be, I do have one advantage though in that I'll don't want to have the carapace removable.

However the braziers presented another problem for me in that they have 4 different chaos symbols on them and I want all of the Khorn...

Instant mould once more came to the rescue and just before my holiday the other week I had these.

There is some work to to do to clean them up but should be fine for my plans. The next problem was how to fix them to the model, playing about with the existing exhausts they are clearly incompatible. Last night though the idea hit me, Dinos had the answer,

What I needed was vertebrae instead of the piping and a more organic look, much like the Hellbrute.

A while later and I had this little set up, which was all hardened and ready to play with a little this morning (no pics of that yet.)

From a couple of dry fits this morning I now know exactly what I want it to look like and next time I sit down will be able to plough on with this along with the other detailing. Not only that but the inspiration back to the hellbrute has also given me the answer as to how to approach the back of the torso. So plenty more progress to come over the next week or so time allowing.

With such a bumper update I'll leave you with one last photo of the new progress so far in situ.

[Isengrin]

That knight gets weirder with every update and I mean that in a most positive way.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive, and as intimidating as hell. Can't wait to see this bad boy painted.

[KrautScientist]

Man, that Knight is getting crazier and crazier as you go -- and that is very much a compliment! ;) The one thing I don't like is the choice of head, but then that's strictly a matter of personal taste, and your way of blending it all together using brilliant GS work certainly cannot be faulted!

 

One small clarification: I really only didn't use those braziers on top of the regular exhausts because I wanted to keep the carapace detachable. From a purely visual perspective, I would have looked cool enough -- on a related note, the smokestacks from the Forgefiend kit also work really well on a Chaos Knight!

 

Anyway, keep up the inspiring work! :)

[Pearson73]

Great greenstuffing, looks very organic.

[Mechanist]

That knight gets weirder with every update and I mean that in a most positive way.

Thanks. I'm trying my best.

Impressive, and as intimidating as hell. Can't wait to see this bad boy painted.

Might be a while, I have a vague plan now to work round the Torso and then paint that as I work on the rest.

Great greenstuffing, looks very organic.

Thank you. The Knight has enough Hard lines so I've not needed to try that yet I thing organic is actually easier in some ways to begin with, I would never have expected my sculpting to come out this well 6 months back so I'm very happy.

Man, that Knight is getting crazier and crazier as you go -- and that is very much a compliment! The one thing I don't like is the choice of head, but then that's strictly a matter of personal taste, and your way of blending it all together using brilliant GS work certainly cannot be faulted!

One small clarification: I really only didn't use those braziers on top of the regular exhausts because I wanted to keep the carapace detachable. From a purely visual perspective, I would have looked cool enough -- on a related note, the smokestacks from the Forgefiend kit also work really well on a Chaos Knight!

Anyway, keep up the inspiring work!

Thank you. I originally got the Stonehorn kit purely for the Mask and horns with no intention of using the rest of the head, initially I'd discounted is as far to big. It was only when messing about with bits after failing to match the image I had planned in my head that I got that happy feeling when something just seems right. Still not quite managed to find the best angle for photos yet but in the flesh I'm very happy.

As for your reasons for not doing it, I remembered it was primarily the removable carapace and my own investigations showed that the Barziers and the existing pipes really don't gel well together and couldn't remember if that was another reason or not. I've not yet got round to getting a forge fiend so will look at that for one of the other Black Ruin Knights, Thanks.

So last night I sat down a played with super glue, the bits for the exhaust stacks and a touch more green stuff to help hold them together and this is what I came up with.

The press moulds managed to keep enough detail that I get what I want but I definitely have a fair bit of cleaning up to do and the opportunity to add my own flair to the process, They fit quite nicely and once so smoke and flames are added should work really well without being to big.

kids are now in bed so time to make up the next batch of greenstuff. I'll keep the update coming.

[KBA]

Wow.

 

This thing will be legendary once you're done. Like, potentially Queen Bee legendary. Such an awesome Chaos Knight :)