Mingati - an East African Knight Titan project

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Question: What do the runes on the Knight's torso mean? Do they simply spell "Mingati"?

[EdT]

Hi all,

 

@Bjorn- Yes, the lettering says "Mingati" in N'ko. Although I suppose strictly speaking it says "ITAGNIM"; N'ko reads rigght to left.

 

@Malika66- Thanks. In terms of the writing, I've always been a history buff and have written several books on Counterfactual History, exploring what might have happened had things gone a bit differently. I think it's a great way of exploring what really happened, and how likely that outcome actually was. If you're interested, I've recently had them published by Sealion Press and they're available on amazon as ebooks; there's "Fight and Be Right", which looks at what might have happened if Randolph Churchill, Winston's Dad, had become Prime Minister, "A Greater Britain", which explores Oswald Mosley remaining in the Labour Party rather than becoming a fascist, and "The Bloody Man", which is the first part of a three-part series looking at what might have happened had Oliver Cromwell emigrated to New England and become one of the Pilgrim Fathers. There will be more soon, I hope!

 

Some pre-Christmas progress for you all this morning. First, I sorted out the outstanding hip piston. @Depthcharge12, you're completely right- the whole thing was a massive pain in the arse. Here's the result- it works ok, and while there will be a visible join between the greenstuff extension and the original resin bit, this works fine in context; it's clearly a slightly cobbled-together repair to keep Mingati on the move.

 

 

 

This little addition finishes off the legs, so I've finally been able to slap on some paint. Here's the result so far!

 

 

It's currently a study in metallics; I've done the pistons in Mithril silver, and the knee and hip armour is currently just a layer of gunmetal ready for the multiple layers of ink to darken it down. The rest is done in the signature aantique pewter look that I shamelessly nicked off JeffTibbetts- it's a gunmental/grey mix liberally slathered in typhus corrosion to give tecture and grit, washed in badab black and then layered in the initial mix again. Finally, some mithril silver is drybrushed on top. There's a long way to go with it yet- it'll look way dirtier when done as I haven't started on th weathering yet- but I'm really pleased with the texture it currently has. Here's a close-up.

 

 

I'm off home for Christmas now  but first order of business when I'm back will be the Ion Shield. When that's done and the remaining repairwork on the uppper torso is complete, then the model should be more or less constructed. Exciting stuff! Thank you again everyone for your interest and support- as ever, it makes the project worthwhile. Hope you all have a great festive season.

[Black_out]

Hell yes, Mingati is really starting to come together now! I like the use of different metallics to help add contrast and texture.

[CommodusXIII]

You can get rid of the joint between the greenstuff and resin piston parts with Liquid Greenstuff. Slather it around the joint and then sand it from highest to lowest.

[JeffTibbetts]

That metal is looking suitably filthy, so far. Nice! 

[EdT]

I am back- and with updates, both positive and negative.

 

So, the bad news first- the Ion Shield. I promised that that's what I'd get on with, but it's been a massive pain to sort out. Basically, the plan was to use some styrene I-beams and bend them to form a structure similar to the girder frame on the stock knight, but in an ellipse; unfortunately, this is a hell of a lot easier said than done. I can bend the beams, but not evenly, and not sufficiently to get the shape I want; one set just snapped, while another looked great for about 30 seconds before neatly bending reverting to a slightly squashed version of their original shape.

 

I've got enough styrene for one more go, after which it's back to the drawing board! But then it's always interesting to work out new techniques- I'll get there in the end.

 

On the upside, I have made some progress on painting the legs. Here's where they currently are- I need to tidy up the hoses and wires, but apart from that basically I'm all ready to start on the proper weathering.

 

 

Here's a close-up- I love how the oily pistons have come out. Great technique there, JeffTibbetts!

 

 

I've also basecoated the armour plating. This still needs weathering, and more to the point it also needs the red ochre patterning put on. I'm not sure which needs to be done first, tbh.

 

 

There's one final element that needs to be added to the legs once the weathering is done- but we'll come to that!

 

Oh, and one final thing- the bits box sale continues apace, as I gradually ease myself out of the hobby (sob); do have a look at my ebay profile for a list of what I'm selling. There are some great bargains in there, not least the web exclusive Knight Scion who came with Mingati.

[CommodusXIII]

If you're having trouble bending the beams into shape, try using a jig.  Build a form out of a rigid, heat-insensitive material and bend the beams around it.  Maybe a thick piece of balsa wood?

[Saul Invictus]

Looking good, I've been waiting for an update for a while on this. Can't wait to see more.

[JeffTibbetts]

Man, this is shaping up well. The pistons look great, IMO. Still jazzed to see the rest of this. 

[Ace Debonair]

Hot damn, that almost looks suitably ancient and battle-worn before you've even put the weathering on.

 

Definitely looking forward to seeing how this goes!

[EdT]

Thanks all. @CommodusXIII you are completely right, I should stop trying to do it in a half-arsed way with pots and pans and do it properly! About to head off abroad for work for a week, but when I return I will give it a go.

 

In the meantime, here's some more progress on the weathering, this time making it look less monochrome. First off I followed the Queen Bee example; I placed a few spots of burnt umber oil paint here and there, and then blended it into the background with liberal use of white spirits. This gave a lovely dirty look, but was a little heavy for me to use everywhere, so I also ended up dipping a cotton bud in the now very muddy spirits I used to clean my brush, and wiped that here and there too for a more subtle look. With that done, I then added my usual weathering layer of modelmates rust and oil brown, although given everything else on there I tried to be a bit more sparing than I sometimes can be. Finally, I gave all the metal bits a very light drybrush of mithril silver, to highlight scratches, bring out the texture still more, and make everything pop. In some places I also picked out a particular rivet, giving the sense that it might be a new one that hasn't yet weathered down to the level of the rest of its surroundings. Here's a photo of what the whole leg section looks like now;

 

 

And here are two close-ups in different lights which really sell, I feel, the battered and weathered look.

 

 

 

I also did the same with the armour plating; here it is!

 

 

It's always possible to keep tinkering, but I think it's more or less done now; there are now three things left for me to do before the legs are done. The first is the red ochre patterning, which is my next job; I want this over the majority of the weathering because I assume it's freshly applied before every campaign, and it also lets me have the rust etc show through underneath it where it has flaked or run. I've started masking off the armour panels to apply this- I'll be using a red oxide weathering powder so the matte finish constrasts with the shinier metallic hull.

 

The next stage is something I've had in mind from the very beginning, but only wanted to add once the armour plates were done; and that's strings of beads. As I've mentioned before, the Masai love their beaded decoration, and Miterienanka has a fair few on him. As Mingati is basically treated as a tribal elder like any other, albeit a massive metallic one, it made sense for him to be festooned with the things.

 

This was very easy to model; I just spent a couple of quid on some cheap 3mm beads from ebay, and then strung them up myself. I’ve drilled holes at various convenient points on the model to thread the wire through. These days the Masai use beads of all colours, but I’ll be much more restrained in my painting choice; to contrast with the armour plating they’ll either be red, ebony or ivory. The idea is that each of the ivory and ebony beads are shaped from the bones of one of the great beasts that Mingati has killed in honourable combat (the ones whose deaths were not honourable don’t merit remembrance), while the red beads represent the more notable war parties that Mingati has joined.

 

Interspersed between these beads will be the odd skull. I like the idea that during his service in the Great Crusade, Miterienanka spent some time fighting alongside the Luna Wolves, and adopted their tradition of dipping the skulls of notable foes in gold before displaying them as a sign of respect. While some of these defeated enemies will be human, the majority will not, and I’ve raided my bits box for as many interesting-looking xenos skulls as I can muster, before drilling a hole through them to allow them to be strung. Hopefully these will hint at all sorts of interesting adventures in Mingati’s past.

 

Here are my first two bead strings; I haven't yet decided if they will go on both shin plates, or if one plate will have both.

 

 

The final stage once the beads have been painted and have gone on will be to add the last bit of weathering, which will represent the dust kicked up by marching through the Xeno-Serengeti for a few months. I really hope that this final layer will really bring everything together.

 

[Montuhotep]

This is all kinds of brilliance - in fact I don't have the right words to note how impressed and indeed envious I am. If a final project this must be, then it's a worthy note to bow out on.

[Macloren]

This is superb! My knights are all very clean and 'proper' as it were, but I absolutely love the vision you've created here.

[Stercus]

This is such a great project.

If I may, I'd like to suggest putting both bead strings on one leg. I'm not sure why, I just have a gut feeling that it would complement the feeling thAt you have going for Mingati.

[malika666]

A cool picture I found that might motivate you: link

[EdT]

Hi all,

 

So it's update time, albeit a relatively small one. Sorry there's been a bit of a gap- real life has been rather busy.

 

One of the things I've found interesting about bringing Mingati to life is that because I've been building him in stages, the whole thing occasionally ends up becoming some demented logic puzzle rather than the straightforward creative modelling I'm used to. I've had to think quite carefully about which bits I'm 'safe' to continue with and which bits need to be saved to later, in case I end up messing up the posing, greenstuffing over painted model, or worse- having to unglue bits I've already stuck together.

 

A case in point is the torso, which I've put off sorting out for quite some time. Without the Torso, I can't really do the arms or the head. And while I could keep concentrating on the legs, I'd need to get going on it eventually!

 

You may remember that I had some issues in giving Mingati an accessible interior- the model wasn't designed for it (or more frustratingly, was half designed for it, with a detailed cockpit that was impossible to access) and in creating a hatch, I had to do some quite drastic surgery that left a fair few scars. This left me with two problems- firstly I needed to repair the damage, but I also needed to do so in a way that would let me slip the top carapace off the torso so I could paint both bits seperately.

 

To make matters more difficult, the damage was a little more extensive than I had first realised- it was only when I dry fitted the carapace that I realised that I had left a big gap in front of the cockpit interior, meaning you could look down and see the top of Mingati's head through where the armour plating had been. There was also a smaller, less visible but equally irritating hole at the back between the cockpit and the engine assembly- this would let light through and be really obvious when painted. I wanted things ramshackle, but not that ramshackle! So as well as sorting out the sides of the cockpit access, I also needed to plug these gaps.

 

To do this, I used styrene and greenstuff. This is the point where I really should have taken a 'before' photo- sorry, it didn't occur to me. Hopefully the after explains it though; here's a photo of the underside of the carapace to see what I did;

 

 

First off, at the rear (top) I added a thin strip of styrene and cut it to fit the top of the torso, filling any gaps with greenstuff. This will seal off the back of the cockpit. Then, at the front I added a small additional armour plate using a strip of styrene bent to mimic the curve of the carapace. This was also gapfilled with greenstuff; I stuck the torso on, added the greenstuff to cover all gaps, let it cure and then removed it again for smoothing and finishing. I find the best way to get straight lines with greenstuff is to slap it on willy nilly, let it cure and then cut it using a sharp knife; anything else and you end up getting something that looks far too organic.

 

Finally, I salvaged two of the chunks that I had removed from the carapace in doing my surgery, and replaced them more or less where they originally had been.  I also did some repair work to smooth out the areas damaged by my removal of the roof panels; as I did so, I also added a rail on either side, the idea being that this is how the open and close to give access to the cockpit. Here's the top of the carapace now...

 

 

I still need to do a bit of sanding to make everything match up (more on the resin than the greenstuff, really) but it's looking a lot more watertight than before.

[JeffTibbetts]

Interesting. I had the same experience of a logic puzzle on the Queen, where the project had so many facets it was hard to even manage what was next half the time. Glad to see you're working your way trough it. The cockpit is really interesting. I had been wondering about that sliding mechanism since I first saw the design on Forgeworld, and it seemed to me it would be all but impossible to make it work. It would seem you're going to leave it in the open position, correct? Either way, it does look pretty cool open like that. Even cooler if you can somehow make it actually "work." 

 

I wonder, on the two points where the segments overlap on the closed version, would it look cool to have two curved support bars across the open gap on top, like a roll cage almost? Right now you can see where the cut has left a little extra material sticking out, and that seems like a natural design you could take advantage of. If you decide you don't want to add support bars, I might consider removing those. They seem a bit odd in their currently unadorned state.

[depthcharge12]

The thing I've been wondering about with the Atrapos (and subsequently the Styrix/Magaera), is: Can the pilot get out? It seems that this one is intended for the pilot to be wired in similiar to amniotic tanks in warlord Titans. I know the cockpit doesn't reveal that, but there's no escape hatch on the top of the model like there is for every other knight.

 

Which leads me to believe that the pilot is permanently wired in until he dies or goes crazy. I do think you've done a wonderful job with the sliding door, but that thought has just been tickling the back of my mind. I was thinking of using one of the Reaver gun servitors in mine :)

[Skalpynock]

The thing I've been wondering about with the Atrapos (and subsequently the Styrix/Magaera), is: Can the pilot get out? It seems that this one is intended for the pilot to be wired in similiar to amniotic tanks in warlord Titans. I know the cockpit doesn't reveal that, but there's no escape hatch on the top of the model like there is for every other knight.

Which leads me to believe that the pilot is permanently wired in until he dies or goes crazy. I do think you've done a wonderful job with the sliding door, but that thought has just been tickling the back of my mind. I was thinking of using one of the Reaver gun servitors in mine

Looks like the top just slides back.

[DaBoiKyknos]

Hey, I just wanted to say, that I really like your project.

Considering that I`m thinking about a similiar project (east-african space marines),

which I never get to present properly on this forum :P, because of general lazy-ness after work I guess,

this was naturally an insta-subscribe.

I just wanted to thank you for:

a) showing me that Blood Reaver heads work on loyal/ "indigenous"- looking warriors

b) showing how to make good dreadlocks!

Most of what I wanted to adress, has been said already I guess; I agree with most of the other commenters

that 40k is generally to euro-centric. (If tabletop was mainstream, there would probably exist the twitter-hashtag

" #warhammersowhite ;). )

Keep following your path war-chief, for your ancestors favour you, truly!

P.S.:

I`m glad you didn`t do Samurai, they are kind of a cliche themselves!

[EdT]

So, after some glacial progress I am pleased to say I have a reasonably large update today...

 

@JeffTibbetts, that's a brilliant idea with the support bar! I'll try and add one,- not sure how but I'm sure something will come to me- and then cut away the other buttress. Perhaps with a third, central rail for the carapace armour plates to slide over... Sadly everything will be stuck in place but I would really like the suggestion of how it all works.

 

@Depthcharge12, that's actually a really good point. Given the background for the Atrapos and the way the chassis machine spirit is meant to drive the pilot mad, a brain-in-a-jar style crew member would make a lot of sense. Of course, Mingati isn't a normal Atrapos- I like to think of him as a particularly unique survivor from the Age of Technology and not a 'stock' model at all.

 

@Lord Velype, I'm glad you approve! I entirely agree that the grim darkness of the far future can be a bit monocultural; this strikes me as a shame, as grimdark can come in lots of flavours. I'm always really keen to use a wide range of skin tones and (if fluff-appropriate) sexes with my models; if nothing else it makes everything a bit more individual, but it also makes sense given the sheer size of the galaxy and the evident gender-blindness of the Imperium. If anything, it makes more sense during the pre-Heresy era, when the Imperium is brand new and a pan-Imperial culture hasn't yet taken root across human-controlled space.

 

 

So. Remember how in my last post I described Mingati as occasionally resembling a gigantic puzzle? Well hopefully I've completed a fairly large and important piece. Over the last few weeks I've gradually got the torso section painted- which means that I can attach it to the legs and start sorting out the arms etc. The carapace is still to be finished, but that's fine- for the time being Mingati is really beginning to come together. Here are some photos, first up some shots of the side and front;

 

 

 

 

This one shows the cyber-mandrill's xeno-skin blanket and the joint of meat that has been left to slowly cook by the exhaust manifolds.

 

 

Finally, here's a photo looking into the cockpit interior. Much of this will be concealed once the carapace goes on, sadly.

 

 

 

Adding the torso on like this lets me start thinking about Mingati's final pose. You'll have seen the Las-spear before, but getting the torso done lets me complete both arm assemblies. Here's the spear arm, with the weapon part-painted;

 

 

...and here's the shield arm. You might remember that the Thunderstrike Gaunbtlet from the Knight Warden was one of the very first things I put together; I found it pretty easy to attach the Warden wrist section to the Atrapos arm assembly.

 

 

Obviously the Ion shield still needs to be done, but I will get there! Thankfully it will easily slot on the mounting on the back of Mingati's hand, so I can get all this painted without worrying about it for the time being.

 

All this together lets me mock up Mingati's pose for the first time. Basically, he is at rest, the las-spear pointing at his dying quarry and the ion shield at ease to one side. Here is how it all looks placed on the base and held together with blu-tack.

 

 

For the first time I have the makings of a complete Knight! It's quite exciting...

[CommodusXIII]

Absolutely stunning!

[Teetengee]

Looking good!

[Augustus b'Raass]

Lovely thread. It makes me sad you're leaving the hobby, seeing your talent. But I understand and greatly respect your reasons. Just don't make it a life-long decision. Maybe you'll be back.

 

In the meantime, I'll enjoy this thread. :tu:

[JeffTibbetts]

Okay, now that I'm not half-asleep I can type up a real reply. First of all, holy cow this thing is really happening. You had a VERY ambitious project planned, and now we all get to see your mad genius produce real results. I can not believe how cool that hide and meat-on-a-hook thing works on the model. I absolutely love how the story is starting to flesh out. 

 

Now, it's really hard for me tell what you've converted here. That's a good thing, really, since that means your stuff is blending in sensibly. For starters, it looks like you wrapped the 'handle' of the spear and that's a really cool touch. Similarly, I can't tell if you added that cabling hanging out the back of the shoulder joints, but it looks awesome. I love the ad-hoc look it lends to the piece. 

 

Suggestions, if you don't mind... First, is it common to cook meat with the skin still on, in this way? I guess all bets are off when you're cooking meat in the heat-wash from a Freeblade Knight, but maybe if it were skinned it might be more clear it's being cooked instead of some kind of trophy? By the same token, maybe browning or greying the meat a bit could help show that the meat is no longer raw? You could even brown it more, closer to the heat source. How cool would it be to add 'grill lines' the exact shape and distance as the vanes on the heat sink, like he held the meat on the exhaust to 'sear' it before hanging it up to cook low and slow? It traps the juices in, see. :D 

 

The only other thing is maybe the spear arm would look slightly more dramatic if the elbow was pulled back a bit further, to show a bit of tension and potential movement? I don't really read comics, but when I'm posing models I ofter think of the exaggerated positions they use to show dynamism in still shots. I mean, I get that he's at rest but it's almost too restful, if you know what I mean. 

 

Incredible work. It's such a pleasure to see this really happening. I'm getting closer to organizing an intervention group to commit you to a hobby asylum so you can never leave. You're mad, but in all the right ways.