Chaos Knights (no, the other ones)

My first proper unit of heavy cavalry. Tally ho!

My Warriors of Chaos army project continues apace, and finishing off my exceptionally minimalist Core units are the Chaos Knights.

These came with the Warriors of Chaos Start Collecting! box I picked up many years ago, and I had them all assembled and based ready for Age of Sigmar. Only I never found the motivation to paint them, so they were ripe for a rebasing and a more urgent deadline.

In many ways, my procrastination worked in my favour. For one thing, these heavy cavalry now get mounted on the new 30x60mm bases, so they have a bit more elbow room to rank up. For another, in the interim, contrast paints were released, which was the key to getting these done.

Such spiky and detailed models were intimidating me, but I gave them all a Chaos Black undercoat and a heavy drybrush of Leadbelcher to find all that metal and chainmail. Then the plate armour was picked out with Sigvald Burgundy contrast paint (which was the method I was planning for my Word Bearers - if I'd ever got started with them).

The armour came out a treat, followed by Wyldwood contrast for the horseflesh and Black Legion contrast for the manes. With all the contrast, the troop was nearly done!

• Armour: Black Primer, Leadbelcher drybrush, Sigvald Burgundy contrast
• Horses: Black Primer, Leadbelcher drybrush, Wyldwood contrast (flesh), Black Legion (hair)
• Hooves: Rhinox Hide
• Boots and gloves: XV-88 base, Snakebite Leather contrast
• Horns: Zandri Dust base, Agrax Earthshade wash
• Bone: Zandri Dust base, Skeleton Horde contrast, Ushabti Bone layer
• Reins and straps: Zandri Dust base, Snakebite Leather contrast
• Shield covering: Bugman's Glow base, Reikland Fleshshade wash, Cadian Fleshtone layer
• Weapon hafts: XV-88 base, Agrax Earthshade wash

These Chaos Knights have since been updated for Age of Sigmar, although they still don't feel like a kit that was desperately in need of it. They still look respectable, and have aged better than their infantry counterparts.

In comparison to their newer versions, they're trotting along more amiably, rather than galloping pell-mell. That works better for Age of Sigmar, but would be a bugger to rank up for The Old World. Also, the new versions come with cloaks, which are admittedly cooler, but would add more painting time to my already tight schedule.

One handy time-saver I found was with the banner. A Black Legion sigil from the 40k Chaos Space Marines fits perfectly, being a nice colour gold and fairly system-agnostic. Getting it to fit properly over the creases of the banner seemed a challenge, but a carefully applied hairdryer to the decal wrapped it into the folds perfectly. It's a technique I'll be using for all my transfers from now (and credit to Monkey for suggesting it).

Finally, the unit champion with a glowing sword (Frostheart contrast, if I remember). He may find himself promoted up the ranks if I need a mounted character (at the moment, I don't have one), but until then, he's slumming it as a champion.

And that's my Knights all done! Having been on the receiving end of a few Bretonnian charges, I look forward to going at the enemy with lances dipped.