Night Night

The Crypt Angels have been feeling neglected.



What better way to cheer them up, indeed what better way to cheer anyone at all in the world up, than to paint a trio of Imperial Knights?

Been a while since I did one of these. I kind of missed them. 

Two freehand Maw symbols later, I'm totally over the nostalgia.

It's taken me the best part of three weeks, although that's in part because I was away for one of them. Say what you like about the Imperial Knight, you can't say they're small. Even though I generally find larger models quicker and easier to paint, I think I bit off rather more than I could chew by trying to do all of them at once.

And their weapon options.

Pick'n'Mix

Oh yes, they're fully magnetised. Between the three shells, you can combine them to build any of the official GW variants. None of the weird, cheaty Forge World ones, of course, but honestly, if you've already got three of these ludicrous mini-titans, you aren't going to need any more. Are you? Are you, Kas?

Black and red was the request for these, so they can be fielded alongside the Crypt Angels without disobeying the Codex Astartes and clashing with their allies. Of the three knights, one was to be their veteran leader, one a more Adeptus Mechanicus themed brute, and the other could do his own thing within reason.

I started off by trying out a new technique for me, salt weathering. As well as sounding faintly like it might be something you do to fish, it's a way of getting rust effects on vehicles. After coating them all black, I dabbed water on the bits that were going to stay black, then sprinkled a healthy dose of table salt over the water and left it to dry.

The salted bits were all chosen to be places water would sit for the longest on the Knight. To help get it into cracks, I added a dot of washing up liquid. Once it was done and dried, I sprayed Mephiston Red over the top, then scrubbed the salt off with a brush. Instant chipped paint effects! If you don't include the three hours of prep and drying time. I also used masking tape to block off any bits that would end up having being black anyway, because it would be quicker and neater than trying to paint the chivalric bits in later.

All three Knights got some of this, but most of it went on the Ad/Mech one, who I decided would be older and more battered than the others. After that, I started working up the base colours. Black was easy enough (Abaddon Black, Eshin Grey edge, Dawnstone double edge, Longbeard light drybrush), but I decided to vary my reds a bit.

One got a bright, fire engine red, done with Mephiston, crimson wash, Evil Sun Scarlet and Wild Rider trim. That's the one the pics are taken from so far. He got gold trim and a few black panels, but he's mostly red overall. He's also got the least edging, and a chunk of spare Tau Tidewall on his base, painted to look bashed up.

The Ad/Mech Knight got black and yellow warning stripes, as custom dictates. His red was Khorne Red, Nuln Oil and Wazdakka highlights, so he stayed duller. Silver edging, although it got a lot of weathering of various types. A dust of red powder, a blue/green ink wash that looks like old oil, lots of Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Red drybrushing.

The yellow panels came out very nicely with a plain Averland Sunset undercoat, then Seraphim Sepia wash and nothing else bar weathering. The wash dried streaky, but in a good way, and I didn't think it needed more fiddling. 

Google translate helped me with the Latin, which is why it's all a bit People called the Romans, they go the house. Which is fine, in the 41st Millenium.

The last one, I decided to go with standard Crypt Angel colours. So Khorne Red, Drakenhof Nightshade wash, Wazdakka edging and Evil Suns Scarlet highlights on the armour, a few giant Maw murals on the shoulders and shins with brass armour trim to finish. 

He got the most random bit of basing. The other two both had chunks of Tau here and there, either a wrecked gun from a walker or some smashed up firebase. This guy got part of a broken Frozen hairbrush discarded by my young, which I reckoned could be made to look like one of those big military radar globes you see on battleships sometimes. 

And that was that. Which means all my commissions from last year are done! Just in time for Woffboot XI, where I can pick up the next batch. Sigh. I'm sure I'll get my own stuff done eventually. 

I've painted quite a lot of 40K stuff in the last three years. Not used any of it, sadly. But that may change - the new edition is coming out, and seems to be borrowing a lot of rules from AoS (morale, the I-Go-You-Go melee phase, simpler rules and stats lines). I loved 40K back when I played it, second and third edition that was. I still like the setting more than Fantasy, actually, but 7th ed struck me as a cumbersome mess of rules that I couldn't get my head round. 

Worse, it was very clearly prone to ridiculous min-maxing nonsense, combining armies to create stuff that could be hell to play against. I know in theory you can do that in AoS, but it always feels like your models still can do something back, something that WFB and 40K sometimes struggled with. Nothing worse than fielding a pointless army, only to remove it bit by bit without scoring a single kill. 

As the new edition will have free core rules, I'm quite up for having a crack at it. So perhaps all this stuff I'm fielding will get some action, probably hosted remotely. I know Kas took the Crypt Angels to Warhammer World recently (and where are the pics of that, General Kas? I demand proof!), which makes me all the more keen to get a piece of the action. 

Crypt Angel for scale. Expect their fluff page to appear on the blog at some point in due course. 

Roll on Woffboot 40K in due course, but first - the annual 'Boot, for which I need to get some painting done. In less than a week. Sheesh.