Mingati - an East African Knight Titan project

[ElDuderino]

The feathered dinosaur might be a first as far as bases go, 10 points for scientific accuracy :)

[malika666]

Hmm, combine that reptilian creature's form with the manes of the lion!

[disease]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y264/Madoktopus/W30k/44b3660c-a7e1-422c-9ee2-65b618d2df1c_zpshhlklmna.jpg

[SalvationOfReason]

Hmm, combine that reptilian creature's form with the manes of the lion!

I agree with this statement wholeheartedly.

Also, giant raptor vs mecha? I'm getting a huge kaiju fight vibe here guys!

[Mechanist]

Good work on the carapace, any scratchsuggestions or damaged bits can easily be converted to battle damage or covered with gaffer tape.

I think it's the right choice to go with the Dinosaur as the lion may look a little comical.

[EdT]

Thanks all.

 

@SalvationofReason- Oh, definitely! I think the new fluff has backed away from the idea slightly, but as I recall in the old stuff Knight were first developed for precisely this reason, to protect herds of giant herbivores from Megafauna that might be out to eat them. In the case of Mingati, I like the idea that he was originally constructed to act as a mount for the Park Rangers of  pre-Old Night Kalenjin; when their civilisation collapsed, the Knights naturally became the remaining population's best defence against the various predators roaming the place.

 

On the Dinosaur vs Lion front, I'm not inclined to fiddle around with the Raptor too much, to be honest; I like the paintjob and it'd be a shame to have to repaint the thing after adding greenstuff and the like. I'd rather spend the effort on Mingati himself.

 

Now, some more progress to show tonight. Firstly, I finished off the interior- although it's a classic example of practicality trumping my original idea. I'd ordered some lovely ladders from Zinge and was hoping to add one to the remaining wall panel as a means of exiting the cockpit; but when my order arrived today, I relaised that though they were brilliant bits, they were just that little bit too big for the space available. It might have been possible to cut down the panel and fit the ladder component in there, but that would have left room for nothing else; so in the end I abandoned the idea and went with what I really wanted to add, which was a mirror, one of the lenses from the WHFB Luminark.

 

 

As I understand it, Knight Scions are not just interacting with the machine spirit of the Knight itself, but also with the accumulated residual personality fragments of their antecedents preserved within the Knight’s memory core. For a society as preoccupied with ancestor veneration as the Kalenjinites, this obviously has a spiritual component; Mingati isn’t just a revered ancestor himself, but is also a vessel for all the warriors who have piloted him over the years.  

 

Given this fact, and the more obvious issue that it must be pretty weird to disconnect yourself and suddenly go from massive stompy robot surrounded by your dead ancestors back to being a squishy human sitting in a smelly little compartment, I assume that Scions must suffer from a range of psychological conditions related to bonding with their mount. In the case of Miterienanka, he suffers from what past psychiatrists might have termed Dysmorphic Palinopsia; his brain takes a little while to reassert itself after the bonding process is over, so if he looks in the mirror immediately after disconnection he will often see one of the previous pilots of Mingati looking back at him. This gives Miterienanka a direct link to his ancestors, which must have a profound spiritual impact. 

 

Rather irritatingly, once I painted up the remaining panel I forgot to take a photo of it before assembling the rest of the torso- but here's a shot of the interior more or less done.

 

 

With the interior more or less done, I then started on the exterior of the torso section. I wanted this to look pretty beaten up, so I did a fair bit of work distressing things. I figured that years of wear and tear would also have detached a lot of the rivets and bolts, so I trimmed quite a few off and drilled holes in their place to represent where they had been; surprisingly effective at making the overall effect quite ragged. I also tried to simulate several centuries of hasty repair jobs by replacing some of the bolts, either with microbeads (which, handily enough, were a slightly different size than the original sculpted detail) or with Zinge-brand hexagonal bolts, which looked considerably more crude. This is the sort of maintenance you get when you rely on a cyborg mandrill! The overall effect was very uneven and patched together, which is exactly what I was after. Come the painting step, I will weather some parts far less than the rest of the model, to give the impression that they’re newer and replacements for the original.

 

 

With this done, I added a final bit of repair work using greenstuff. A few places got themselves duct-taped to plug leaks; I also cut the roll-cage bars that support the pauldrons, concentrating particularly on the left-hand one which will be holding the Ion shield and therefore presumably will have seen a lot more strain from heavy blows. Having made some cuts, I then stuck them back together deliberately a little askew, and gave them a greenstuff collar which I then gently scored with a knife to represent welding marks. I also added in some dangling cables wihich will protrude untidily from behind Mingati's arms, and suggest that quite a few bits and bos haven't been put back in their original place after repair. Finally, I put some Electro-priest collars on whatever mechanism it is that lies just above the Atrapos' hips; they fitted perfectly and I thought it'd personalise things a little more.

 

Next up, a painted tree and I get to detailing the rear torso.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Thanks all.

 

@Bjorn- that's a nice idea, and one I considered- but I didn't really want to buy a new Knight, and tbh I rather liked the Atrapos torso too. It's ok though; the operation is half complete at the moment and is going pretty well.  Who Dares Wins, and all that...

 

@Mechanist- definitely, that's a precaution I've taken- although so far thankfully I don't seem to need the moulds.

 

In the absence of any photos of this (yet), here's a very quick pictoral update; I think I've decided on Mingati's heraldry. 

 

One of the most striking aspects of the Masai ‘look’, and a major reason why I chose to adopt an East African theme, is the design of their shields. This isn’t just striking in terms of looks; as far as anyone can tell, before Masai society splintered in the 1890s when the Rinderpest plague killed their cattle, they had a heraldic system as almost complicated and elaborate as Medieval Europeans.

 

One side of the shield would bear the tribal and family lineage; the other would bear the warrior’s personal heraldry, with specific designs denoting particular acts of bravery. This seems to map across quite nicely to Mingati and Miterienanka; one side will display the Knight’s heraldry while the other will change according to whomever is the pilot.

 

 

 

Here's my initial thoughts on the overall heraldry. Mingati is on the left, and as you can see it is quite heavily cog-based to reflect his machine nature; the toothed wheel was actually a very common motif on Masai shields, so that's rather handy for these purposes. On the other side there's Miterienanka's heraldry. The black spot is an important honorific in both Masai and Kalenjinite culture; small circular areas on a shield signifies the bearer has committed some act of extreme heroism.

 

More soon...

Considering the Masai shield is shaped very different to the one a European knight (and the Imperial Knight who emulates him) wields, you may have to custom make one for Mingati.

[EdT]

Oh, I will- I'll need to make two custom shields, in fact. The first is the one on his chest to display the heraldry I've developed, and the second is much more elaborate - I'll be making an Ion Gauntlet shield mounted on Mingati's left hand which will take the form of an elliptical shield rather than the traditional European shaped one carried by the stock Cerastus Lancer. That's actually one of my next jobs, funnily enough...

[MosesGunn]

What an amazingly refreshing concept. On another note, the first thing that came to mind when I saw the Cyber Mandrill was that it would make for a great Jokaero stand in!

[Teetengee]

For the mirror, are you going to paint any reflections of the cockpit and the screen lights on it?

[EdT]

Hi all,

 

Sorry for the lack of update; I was away last weekend and unfortuantely this week has been dominated by an ill girlfriend and a couple of days in hospital. Thankfully that's all sorted now, she's back to her usual good form and so the work on Mingati can continue.

 

First off, I've made a lot of progress on the tree and the scenic base that Mingati will stand on. I'd left things having covered the tree armature in matte medium, to provide a flexible underlay for the final covering. Once this had dried, I got out some wood filler, which gives the tree the woody texture it needs, and mixed it with, a splash of water, a bit of grey paint and a tiny bit of brown. I then slapped on the resulting gloopy mixture, and let that dry.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I forgot to take any more photos of the method, but it wasn't too complex. Once the wood filler had dried, the result doesn’t look too far off a tree, albeit a dead one. I was particularly pleased with the colour of it, which seemed to approximate the light-coloured bark of the acacia quite well. A bit more variation was needed though, so I put on a wash of Agrax to bring out the texture, before doing two quick drybrushes, one of grey and one of white. Finally I did one more, very watered down wash of agrax to tie everything together.

 

At this point, I decided that having a visible root coming out of the ground near the tree would really help tie it into the landscape; so I twisted some wire together on the same basis as before and made some extra bits. The advantage of the method I used is that it lets me reposition it at will without things cracking, so I can make it straight and then bend to fit the underlying topography. 

 

 

With these done, it was time to get going on the base. Firstly I bought a (very festive) plastic plate from the Pound shop that was perfect for my needs (and wallet). There's a photo of it above.  Then, to form the base topography I put down a layer of das clay, which, after using plaster, papier-mâché and the like, I’ve decided is the most effective material for this sort of job. The only downside is that it takes a few days to dry; but that does mean that there’s plenty of time available to add other elements to the base where needed. First I plonked in my tree and the root next to it; then I placed a few stones taken from my garden which will serve as boulders. 

 

Finally, it was time to place my apex predator. It actually had quite a nice paintjob that I didn’t want to ruin, so I tried to avoid making any cuts; instead, I gently bent the model to the position I wanted using a hairdryer and a bowl of cold water. It was reasonably simple to change its pose from running to lying awkwardly on its side, and while connecting its arms would need some greenstuff work and some careful painting to blend everything in, this was doable. Here's the raptor ready for the table. I placed it on the drying clay to make sure that the underlying topography fitted it, but didn't attach it any more strongly than that- when the clay's dry I'll take it off again and finish the base before replacing it. 

 

This was also a handy moment for me to work out where Miterienanka and Oldea (that's the name of the Cyber-Mandrill btw) sit. I want them towards the front of the base where they can be seen, rather than overwhelmed by all the long grass that's going to go down.

 

Here's a photo I took before I put the boulders on- I also did a bit more bending of the raptor afterwards.

 

 

 

The final thing I needed to place was Mingati's foot. The pose I had in mind involved Mingati having his right foot firmly on the ground- the main point of connection between the base and the model- and the other foot raised, pinning the Raptor prone. As a result, the grounded foot really needed to be pinned. of course, clay is very helpful for this too, as it saves me having to drill a hole; it'll simply dry around the inserted pin.  Having selected a place for Mingati's foot to go, I did a very quick dry fit with blu-tack to make sure that the stance I had in mind worked. This was also my first opportunity to see how tall Mingati will be- he's pretty lanky!

 

 

At present I'm waiting for the clay to dry- then I can get affixing things to the base permanently.

 

I've also made a lot of progress with the torso. Originally, I wanted to take a leaf out of JeffTibbetts’ book and make the shoulder areas feel very lived in; the Cyber-Mandrill needs somewhere to bed down and keep his tools, after all. However, when I test fitted the carapace, I realised that on the Cerastus there’s clearly nowhere near as much space available as I thought. This isn’t necessarily a problem, as you wouldn’t be able to see this stuff anyhow on the final model; so I had a think about where else I could do something similar.

 

The obvious place was the rear exterior of the torso. This was visible on the model, would be protected from enemy fire and was close to both the exhaust vents and the power core, which would be good both for maintenance purposes and for warmth. After doing a bit of chipping and bolt replacement then, I added a couple of hooks. When I had it how I liked it, I rolled out some textured greenstuff and hung it from the hooks I'd added; this is the Cyber Mandrill’s hammock, where he dreams of electric bananas. Finally I added a small hook to the exhaust manifold and hung a leg of unidentified xeno-meat from it; this will be Miterienanka’s dinner, placed there in the morning and slowly cooked over the course of the day by the waste heat dumped from Mingati’s reactor (and yes, you can do this in real life).

 

 

 

Now I moved on to the carapace. Mostly this involved the same stuff as elsewhere, distressing the surfaces, removing and occasionally replacing bolts, etc. I will need to do some repair work to smooth out the areas damaged by my removal of the roof panels too, but I haven't got round to that yet.

 

I was keen to have something prominent that would further personalise Mingati, so I decided to add a nameplate to the front of the carapace immediately above his head. I figured that this is probably as old as the Knight itself, and even if Miterienanka can’t read what it says, he would realise that it was important and so polish it up whenever there’s an opportunity.

 

The only problem is that the Masai traditionally weren’t a literate people, and so the only way to render their language (Maa) onto the page is using conventional latin text. I didn’t really want to do this; I wanted something more exotic for Mingati, more along the lines of the very cool-looking symbols used on Forgeworld’s painted Atrapos. I rooted around for a suitable alternative, and in the end settled on N’ko, which is a West African script developed in the 1940s. Admittedly it’s from the wrong end of the continent, but I think it has that Afro retro-futurist look and could stand in very well for the written language of Kalenjin before the collapse of their civilisation and the onset of Old Night.

 

To add the nameplate, I downloaded an N’ko font, used it to write “Mingati” in photoshop (FYI it reads right to left) and then resized it to fit, along with something that would work as a backing plate. I then printed the shapes onto sticky-backed plastic (thus earning my Blue Peter badge), painted the vinyl black for contrast then stuck them to a sheet of styrene to use as a guide. I then very carefully cut around the edges using scissors and a sharp knife. Here’s the result.

 

 

I quickly realised that the backing plate was a tiny bit big to look right, so I ditched it and just went with the lettering. The styrene was thin enough to bend without any need for heating, so that was gratifyingly easy. Here’s the result.

 

 

Still some cleanup and tidying needed there, but it's a start, and should paint up nicely.

 

There's one more thing I'm working on; given that Mingati’s Ion Gauntlet shield is energy-based, that’s not somewhere I can easily display the heraldry I've posted upthread. The obvious place to do so is in the centre of the chest, where the stock model has a cog. However, the area provided isn’t really the right size and shape for what I had in mind. I wanted a proper elliptical area patterned after a Masai shield. 

 

There was only one solution to this; I'd have to convert the chest to fit a different-shaped shield. The stock model’s central cog is exactly the same size as a 28mm base; so I decided to make the new shield a 28mm/40mm ellipsis. Using my vinyl sheet, I made a template and cut it from styrene; I don't have a photo yet but you'll see it eventually. So far so good. But there was a problem; the longer shield didn’t fit particularly happily on the chest piece when all the surrounding bits of armour are added. This is the point where I'm very glad I did a test fitting! The armour plating also looked a little odd with the new shield- frankly it all looked a bit tacked on. To make the thing blend in and fit properly, I realised I'd have to change the shape of the plating, so that's what I did. Firstly (top photo), I carefully cut away the cog tangs and the armour trim on the inside of the chest plates. Then, I filled the recessed area with greenstuff, and once cured I cut it to blend in. The ellipitcal shield will sit on this and hopefully the whole thing will look like it was meant to be.

 

 

 

That's the plan anyhow. More soon.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I thought the plate should be placed upside-down- it doesn't have to hold food within, it just has to form a stable base for what you're gluing atop it. Oh well.

 

Good work, so far.

[Noctem Cultor]

Still really awesome, I'm enjoying watching this develop its a real treat.

[Hallar]

Keeping a close eye on this and great progress

[RolandTHTG]

Looking very good. Definitely watching.

[EdT]

Thanks all. Miserable weather and an empty house have given  me a day completely free of distraction, so I've really been able to crack on.

 

First up, a lot more progress on the base.  With the bulk of the tree done, I now needed to add the small branches. This was simple. Taking some polyfibre (which is what you use to stuff furniture- I nicked this from my decrepit old sofa before putting it out for collection by the council)  I first coloured it by putting some black paint on a newspaper and smearing the fibre all over it- a messy job.

 

 

Once that dried, I could then tear bits of the fibre off and place it on the branches using pva glue, making sure as I did so that the overall shape of the fibre matched the flattened dome of the acacia.

 

 

Having taken the predator off, I painted up the rocks using multiple drybrushes and washes. My next step was to add something of an extravagance; while it's possible to simulate soil quite well using DIY supplies, I'd bought some Vallejo Brown Earth on a whim and so applied a layer of this to the base.

 

 

Once this had dried, I did a quick drybrush of Rakarth flesh then a wash of agrax to tone it down. Things were looking quite good, I thought!

 

 

Lastly, I did the leaves on the tree; I borrowed some hairspray from my girlfriend, sprayed the canopy very generously, and dumped some of my leaves on them. I did several applications, periodically turning the thing upside down and shaking to get rid of the excess. Acacias are chartacterised by their leaves all being on the top of the canopy rather than at the sides, so I didn't go mad with them. When I was confident that they'd dried, I sealed the leaves in place using varnish.

 

 

The temptation now was to add the predator and Mingati's foot; but although I did do a quick test fitting to check that the soil hadn't got in the way of anything, I tried to resist doing too much. The base will be covered in grass of various lengths, and I figure that if I place that before adding the principals, then they will press it down in a realistic way, rather than looking like the grass has grown around them.

 

So, that's a lot of progress there- what else have I been up to? Well, I sorted out the chest plate. The styrene went on fine, and rather than bend it too much to fit the curvature of the other armour plates, I decided it'd be more fluffy to use the spare space to mount some feathers behind the heraldry. I also distressed the rest of the armour plate. I'm pretty pleased as to how it looks now- should be pretty different from the stock Atrapos.

 

 

So that's all good. While I was looking at the upper torso, I did a bit of work on the head. Throughout this project, I want to stress that Mingati is basicallly just another Kalenjinite warrior, albeit one who just happens to be five stories tall and made of metal. So to visually link him into Miterienanka, I got some mechandrites and gave him dreadlocks.  This would also be a brilliant, if highly expensive, starting point for a super-cyber skull conversion.

 

 

Here's what it looks like on Mingati's torso- it's awkward to dry-fit the chest-shield so I'll need to find a way to do that at some point and make 100% that the cabling doesn't get in the way.

 

 

 

One more thing; it's been a productive day. I started work on Mingati's spear. Now for all that Mingati is a Lancer, because I bought the Atrapos Knight it came with a completely different weapons loadout to the one I needed. This means that I have to make both the Shock Lance and Ion Gauntlet Shield from scratch. When it came to the Shock Lance, I decided to make a virtue out of neccesity and convert the big las-cutter that comes with the kit; the business end of it already looks a little like a spearhead, after all. This meant that "all" I needed to do was to add a spearshaft to the existing weapon.

 

So that's what I set out to do! First off, I carefully sawed off the power core bits that sit at the back, and cut a length of plastic tubing to replace it. The idea was to continue the cylinder established at the front of the weapon before the generator bits. I also cut the back end of the Atrapos' other gun (the graviton singularity generator?) to be the butt of the spear. Here is everything dry-fitted as a mock-up; I'm quite pleased with how my concept has translated to reality.

 

 

 

 

While the greenstuff cured on the spear butt, I realised that it would look a little strange if the connection point between the spear and Mingati's arm was so far forward on the extended weapon, so I decided to shift it backwards to be closer to the new centre-point. As the connection also involves some bracing arms that fit in the little socket you can see just above the fllexible tubing, the obvious thing to do was to make the new connection point right on the rear of the original weapon so everything wouls still fit naturally; so very carefully, I cut the connector off and replaced it in the new position (below).

 

 

 

So that's all great progess in a number of areas; now I just need to wait for all the greenstuff to cure! Mingati really feels like he's beginning to come together now.

[AlphariusOmegon108]

the amount of thought you are putting in this model is extroadinary, please keep it up

[Black_out]

The cyber dreads are so cool!

[GhostMalone]

Loving this man seriously amazing stuff!

[Doghouse]

I have to agree, this is amazing to watch come together.

[depthcharge12]

Lol those dreads are hilarious and awesome at the same time!

[Mechanist]

So much progress. Intrested to see how it all goes together. Expecially that chest peice.

[EdT]

Glad people are enjoying this- I certainly have been!

 

Progress on several fronts tonight. Firstly, the greenstuff on the spear shaft had cured, so I was able to move on with it. Firstly, to add a bit of interest to the shaft I added a couple of styrene spacers to each end. These were just strip stock sections bent round; one was the perfect circumference and fitted on perfectly, while the other was slightly short and so needed a bit of greenstuff to hide the join.

 

 

 

This was also my opportunity to hide the gap where the attachment point had gone. While I connected the shaft to the business end of the spear, I also added a bit of greenstuff between the shaft and the attachment point. When everything has cured I'll cut it so it all looks straight, and I'll probably wrap some wire round the remaining part of the spear shaft to match the ribbed section at the front and add some visual interest.

 

 

 

Elsewhere, I started work on the uppper arm. Unfortunately, one of the arm sections was quite badly miscast, as you can see below; I didn't really mind, though, as things still fitted together and it added to the general sense of Mingati being a bit bodged together.

 

 

Finally, I scuffed up the shoulders- one of them will have a large fur pelt dangling from it, but I need the spear arm done first- and assembled the lower right leg. This is the one that goes right in the ground, so I wanted to pin it.

 

 

 

I feel that I'm now at a point where things will come together on Mingati very quickly; the first bits of painting are beginning to loom on the horizon.

[BeatTheBeat]

This thing is looking better and better for every pic you post. Amazing work! Shaping up to be the best Knight out there, IMO.

Cheers,
BTB

[Legionary Pallas]

Can't wait to see the finished product!