The Knights of Everfair

[Brother Lunkhead]

Excellent work all around The livery and posing you do with your models is first rate

[lalabox]

The modifications are well done; love that upright Armiger. I approve of the relocated missile launchers on the Knight; will you add the twin-autocannon atop the carapace, maximizing the firepower he may deliver unto his enemies?

Thanks very much. I'm thinking about it now that you mention it. I really like the design of the autocannons, but I don't love how they sit on top of the chassis, and what they do to the silhouette.

 

At the very least it's something that you can take on and off easily.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I really like the design of the autocannons, but I don't love how they sit on top of the chassis, and what they do to the silhouette.

Maybe modify the Knight's neck so you may mount a suitably kitbashed twin-autocannon in place of the head? (I had ideas for relocating the weapon in the ball turret at a Knight's shoulder, to the Knight's head.)

[lalabox]

 

I really like the design of the autocannons, but I don't love how they sit on top of the chassis, and what they do to the silhouette.

Maybe modify the Knight's neck so you may mount a suitably kitbashed twin-autocannon in place of the head? (I had ideas for relocating the weapon in the ball turret at a Knight's shoulder, to the Knight's head.)

I could maybe try some mountings to the side of the head where the heavy stubber and melta are supposed to go. I do really like the helmetted heads and i'd want to preserve them.

 

Although that might hide the good details of the guns if they're under the carapace.

[lalabox]

right

 

so

 

back at it again

 

 

one of my biggest roadblocks for the longest time was trying to finish the knight base

i really wanted to put on some hexagonal tiles to tie this knight to the hexagonal tiles on all my auxilia.  Unfortunately, nowhere was selling either mdf or plasticard that worked (especially after plastcraft games went out of business)

 

but finally, microart studios put out a hex pattern as the roof for some appartment buildings, which worked really well

 

 

 

 

I've put a bit of paint on it already, and i've bought a bunch of flower tufts and plant vines that i'm gonna use to make it look like an overgrown city planter box, but there isn't too much to look at it now.

what i have done is finally put a bit of paint on the knight's legs.  I love working on these, since it really is just a chance to try and make weathered, beaten and slightly rusted metal

i really like working with the typhus corrosion, and i picked up some rust pigment powders (a "burnt rust" ak interactive one and a lighter orange vallejo one)

 

 

i've actually nearly finished the legs since taking this photo. I added grease and oil stains to the pistons, added some verdigris stains to the brass, and just put in a bunch of grease around the joints (as well as painting some of the little details), but the sun's gone down and i don't really have a good setup to take photos without the sun.


there's still a few little bits and bobs that i've got to finish converting before i can paint them. I'm not sure if i want to convert the tabard similarly to what i did with my first knight (also how jefftibbets did it) or find something new. I'm not super into cloth or banners hanging down, but maybe there's still something that can give it some nice shape



as for the troops, I've been having quite a bit of fun with them while slowly working on them. I picked up a box of volkite gunners, and i've so far converted 4 of them into plasma gunners, and left 4 of them as the volkite guns (they look like the volley-gun equivalent of the las guns that the auxilia hold)

I was also super pleased with this grenade launcher conversion that i did back in August. I really wanted to make a couple grenade launchers that fit in with the aesthetic that the auxilia weapons have, so i made it using a bunch of different tubing (the grenade magazine is made from the tubing from a q-tip, and the transparent tubing is probably a brush protector).

 

 

i also made another one recently

 

 

I also finished painting up (pretty much every) auxilia model, and i based them as well. I've got two more volkite gunners to finish, but i'm pretty sure i managed to lose one of the guns (and on the model i actually wanted to have), so i've got to do some sort of conversion

 

I had a pretty good time working on the volkite gunners, and adding some plasma guns to the mix. Victoria Miniatures makes a really great plasma gun, and it fits right in with the auxilia aesthetic.

Not shown in the big group shot above is one of the other squad leader conversion i'd been wanting to complete for a while, but needed to wait for parts to become available on ebay (well, just the skitari blade, really)

 

 

converting up the squad leaders was really a bunch of fun. I liked reposing them, and i like the polearm and axe. It really makes them feel a lot more medieval, and almost knightly in their own right. Got that rather brutal style of just using a blade on a stick to kill other people.

 

 

 

This also means that i have a somewhat viable kill team setup: two plasmas (one sniper), two volley guns (one heavy), my leader, comms and 2 folks with hot shots

the only 18inches range thing feels a little silly with the very long lasguns, but oh well. Hoping to finally be able to play my friends, if the stores are able to start allowing folks to hang out and play anytime soon

 

 

apart from that, i picked up some of the charadonite ogryns on ebay a bit back, and i'm converting them to have actual hands and carry shields and whatnot like bullgryns. Nothing to really see with them atm, but dang was it hard to find right handed powerfists. I've got some now, but dang.

I also, for the life of me, can't seem to find anyone selling slab shields, so i'm going to convert up my own with some plasticard. Maybe a bit of a cuved, roman-y shield? I have to find my plasticard first. Annoying that i misplaced it.

I also grabbed one of the old oop auxilia quad laser artillery pieces. It's pretty dang cool. Also on my to do list eventually. I definitely think i could make it look great on a big base. I should probably just actually get working on my knight again.

anyway, thanks for reading

[Lord_Ikka]

right

 

I also, for the life of me, can't seem to find anyone selling slab shields, so i'm going to convert up my own with some plasticard. Maybe a bit of a cuved, roman-y shield? I have to find my plasticard first. 

You could model one to look similar to the sergeant with the axe, that might be a fun tie-in.

[lalabox]

 

right

 

I also, for the life of me, can't seem to find anyone selling slab shields, so i'm going to convert up my own with some plasticard. Maybe a bit of a cuved, roman-y shield? I have to find my plasticard first. 

You could model one to look similar to the sergeant with the axe, that might be a fun tie-in.

 

that could work

 

although it is a pretty standard empire shield, and i don't think it would be great if i made one that was too huge? but maybe i can use one of the knight shoulder shields to count as a brute shield (or whatever the littler shield is called).

 

 

maybe do what i did with my other knight, and glue the little empire shield onto the big shield

 

cheers

[Doghouse]

I think you have a great army here and the conversions are very characterful. I especially like the bright colours of their armour, in whole the force comes together really nicely as a themed army and the basing really brings it all together. I get some sort of medieval Spanish or Italian vibe from them.

[Guest Triszin]

These are great.

 

The basing game is on point. That bench, those tiny leaves!!!!

Where did you get the arms for the Titanfall armiger?

Edited May 23, 2021 by Triszin

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive work.

[lalabox]

Thank you all very much. Nice to get back to working on these and then also sharing them.

 

These are great.

The basing game is on point. That bench, those tiny leaves!!!!

Where did you get the arms for the Titanfall armiger?

Thanks, i'm almost more proud of the basing than i am with the models themselves (almost...). The idea for this army was "mechs in an overgrown, abandonded but not destroyed city", and while i don't think i've managed to make my more outlandish ideas work, i'm very happy with how it's all turned out.

 

I would have loved to have made some buildings like therealbrokenfingers , but knight bases aren't quite big enough for that.

 

The arms come from a gunpla kit, the UGY-R41 Man Rodi.

 

I think you have a great army here and the conversions are very characterful. I especially like the bright colours of their armour, in whole the force comes together really nicely as a themed army and the basing really brings it all together. I get some sort of medieval Spanish or Italian vibe from them.

Thank you very much. I really like painting brighter, heraldic schemes. I've never quite figured out how to make darker schemes work, but i've got a lot of respect for folks who pull off the blanchitsu look.

 

But yes, i was really trying to go for a the medieval look, where everyone and everything has a mix of iconography and heraldry, but it all ties back to a unified look. Very happy to see that those are the vibes people are picking up.

[lalabox]

Right

 

so i spent saturday just painting and working on my models. And I gotta say i'm pretty happy with my progress

 

So, i really wanted to mess around with flower and plant scenics, which is why this knight is stepping over a planter box. I am really happy with the result.

 

 

 

The base is still a little empty, and I think i need a rubbish bin or something to go on the upper layer, just because the tiled area is a little sparse from certain angles. But dang if i'm not super proud of the planter boxes. I used some random mdf cuttoff bits just to vary the height of the flowers a little, and i think it worked pretty well. They're just all from a portuguese brand called Gamer Grass. I quite like them, and i've also got some of their neon alien grass to make an alien base for a model in the future.

 

I also managed to get the body finished (mostly).

 

 

 

I actually also finished the cockpit for the mech as well, but the sun had gone down by that point. I also finally managed to replace the shoulderpad on my original knight, which I lost. I think i need to give it just a last little touch up with some mud splatters, but it'll mean that i can finally actually start taking some more photos and some better group photos.

 

I should hopefully make a little more progress tomorrow. There's still a few armour pieces that i've got to convert before i can get to undercoating them, but at least that's something i can maybe try tacking during the workweek. I don't really need to get my whole painting setup our for that.

 

Thanks for reading

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive work.

[Dwango]

Agreed, really impressive!

[lalabox]

So, with replacement shoulderpad painted yesterday, I could finally take some group photos of my finished models. I'm pretty chuffed with how they look as a combined force.

 

 

The Auxilia themselves are just arranged in rough groups. I've got no idea how to actually run them (or scions, which is what i guess they are gonna be counting as), so it's just my 32 auxilia divided into 4. But it still looks like a force.

 

I've also been making some decent progress on the new knight. Yesterday i got the cockpit done, and so i manged to take some photos today.

 

 

 

I had to run a bunch of chores toady, but in the couple hours of painting i put in I managed to finish the pilot. The colours in the photo are all a bit wrong and flat because of the yellow light, which takes away all the blue tones. This is kinda why i mostly just rely on the sun being out to take photos, since i can't really manage a better indoor setup. But oh well, the sun had gone down.

 

 

And so, final progress for this weekend is:

 

 

I really love the knight head. Of all the faces gw has made, it's probably my favourite. It's gonna get covered up by a faceplate (still gotta decide which one to use, or if i just keep on delaying things to try and convert something, or find someone who sells alternatives. My ideal head would be the Archeron, but most of my attempts at conversions last year didn't pan out.

And unfortunately neither Taro nor Gadgets Plus have quite what i'm looking for (although I'm almost certainly going to use some taro bits when i make some more armigers).

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I commend your painting and detailing skills.

[lalabox]

Thank you very much

 

This has been a really fun project to really push myself with

[lalabox]

i'm probably only a couple steps away from just getting rid of the huge mechs and just focusing on making little urban dioramas

 

 

It's a bit big, but i'll fix it

 

[Dwango]

So, i am currently in the process of painting some IFs and a raven guard successor force. I am planning on basing them in an urban setting with a view to create a large scale diorama of an incursion into a city. It's come from a book I was reading. The details you are including is very inspiring!

[Commisar Necros]

Amazing knights. Bases are really inspiring.

[lalabox]

Thank you very much

 

I definitely recommend just going for it and trying to make cool bases. Mdf is great for this stuff, and 400 grit sandpaper makes for a great tarmac road texture.

 

I was lucky with getting inspired by having a good hobby store where i could go in to buy a bunch of different scenics. It makes a difference being able to browse, rather than trying to order products from a bunch of places.

 

But i also i had to order the leaves (which are just aome sort of seed pod) from overseas.

[lalabox]

So, after another weekend, i have completed the most important part of the model
 

 

it's made from some plasticard strips, i used an old tank hatch as the base, and the bin liner is made from a teabag that i cut open. tea bags are actually great, because they are designed to get really wet and not break apart.

 

i am, legitimately, very proud of my rubbish son

 

 

Also i'm getting a lot closer to finishing the rest of the knight

 

 

 

 

I've still got a bunch of other weapons to work on. As i said earlier in the thread, i've magnetised a whole whack of them. And I haven't even gotten round to making and posing the fist weapon, let alone undercoating it.

But dang, it's coming along.

 

most of my weathering process is just a bunch of different agrax earthshade washes, with varying amounts of water added. I try to steak it a bit so it's not just one even coat, and some of my brighter colours still shine through. I also flick a bit of scorched brown onto the model. I occasionally mix a bit of the typhus corrosion in with a wash just to have a bit of a thick, muddy consistency that i can then gently streak in places

 

I also used a bit of gap giller to make the cockpit sit a lot better.

 

 

Might mess around with some plasticard this evening or this week to see about those shields for the ogryns. Should be fun

 

once again, thank you very much for reading.

Edited June 6, 2021 by lalabox

[Skidman]

Love it!!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work so far. Where'd you get the rocket/missile launchers to upgun the Knight? Forge World? A third party?

[lalabox]

Excellent work so far. Where'd you get the rocket/missile launchers to upgun the Knight? Forge World? A third party?

thanks so much

 

the rocket launchers are converted from the regular missile launcher. I just cut the thing in half and then tried cutting it up a bit. it took a bit of work, and they're not completely symetrical, since i kinda just had to play it by ear. I actually accidentally put the main housing on backwards, but i don't mind too much since i ended up with some of the better detail on the visible sides.

 

i've got a few photos from earlier in the thread

 

 

 

i was inspired by Binary, who did a similar thing, but with plasticard arches to make it look a lot more cathedral-ish