Knight-Titans: House Nordcote

[miteyheroes]

I'm currently preparing my Adeptus Mechanicus army (see [url="http://admech.blogspot.com/"]http://admech.blogspot.com/[/url] for more details) for Armies on Parade. And I wanted some big impressive eye-catching centrepieces - I wanted Knights!

Step 1 was to do some research (you can tell I'm a librarian in real life, right?) So I devoured the original fluff and scoured the internet to see how other people had converted their Knights, and gathered all my findings and links into the uber-post here: [url="http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=248882"]http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=248882[/url]

My plan is to make a complete feudal Knightly household - House Nordcote (named after my mother's family, using their heraldry).

In the original fluff there were 7 different types of Knights. For now I'm making 4 of the 7:

• the basic Paladin, with battlecannon and chainsword
• the scout Lancer, with battlecannon and power lance
• the heavy Warden, with carapace-mounted missile launcher and twin gatling guns
• the anti-tank Crusader, with mini-quake cannon and twin-linked lascannon

If I get time I'll add an Errant (meltacannon & powerfist) and a Baron (individualised & fancy suit), but this current list covers a nice spread of styles. I want each type to be clearly distinct, made from very different parts (and stealing ideas from all the coolest Knight models I found on the internet!) But I also want them to share common unifying elements - sentinel-cockpit-heads, loin-cloth-banners displaying matching family heraldry and a matching half-and-half colour scheme. My first challenge was the Paladin, the basic Knight. Here's the Epic models:

[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47446154@N08/7197290158/in/photostream"][/url]

I made a non-specific Knight model from a Grey Knights dreadknight at the start of this year. With a bit of work, this became my Paladin. Here it is before any changes:

[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47446154@N08/6946505093/in/photostream"][/url]

To update it into a Paladin it needed to have a battlecannon and a chainsword. Later I'll also repaint it slightly, and add the loin-cloth.

[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47446154@N08/7197290564/in/photostream"][/url]

After testing out a few options for the battlecannon I decided that having it fire solid shells is hugely impractical - it'd need an absolutely massive magazine! So I made it into a sort of las-battlecannon instead, firing massive bolts of energy at the enemy. Much more AdMech. The gun is made from a Tau Ion Cannon's rear end and 3 sizes of plastruct tubing.

The chainsword was another difficult choice. The giant chainswords people put on their conversions always look a bit unwieldy to me, and cutting out all those individual teeth did not sound tempting... So I went for a spare Ork Killa Kan buzz-saw instead. It's still got teeth, and is clearly different to a powerfist or lance?

Everything's magnetised so that I can change it's armament for gaming purposes, but this is what it'll have in my Armies on Parade entry.

[turiya64]

i love the idea you have going and the model looks good so far + magnets are alwise a great idea.
my only small criticism is that the battle cannon arm looks odd the way it is mounted. maby under slung like how terminator assault cannons and heavy flamers would look more natural.
any way i look forward to watching this progress. I have wanted to do some knights my self for some time and maby this will get me started

[miteyheroes]

i love the idea you have going and the model looks good so far + magnets are alwise a great idea.
my only small criticism is that the battle cannon arm looks odd the way it is mounted. maby under slung like how terminator assault cannons and heavy flamers would look more natural.
any way i look forward to watching this progress. I have wanted to do some knights my self for some time and maby this will get me started

The battlecannon (and the model's pose in general) is meant to be a copy of the classic "Paladin 2" model. But it is rather an odd pose, I agree...

[faolan]

Do realise the old poses are a bit "flat" like they are not because they were deemed cool, but because they were easier to cast.

[miteyheroes]

Do realise the old poses are a bit "flat" like they are not because they were deemed cool, but because they were easier to cast.

True. Maybe I should re-pose a bit. I'l see how I feel once I've got the whole household assembled.

Here's the second Knight. This guy is a Lancer, a fast scout Knight armed with a battlecannon and a power lance. I wanted to keep some unifying elements (sentinel head, loin-banner, colour scheme), but shake things up and make it clearly a different type of Knight. And as it's meant to be a scout I wanted it more stream-lined and lanky...

[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47446154@N08/7202069472/in/photostream"][/url]

[url="http://z15.invisionfree.com/The_Great_Crusade/index.php?showtopic=4095&st=0"]King Fluff's amazing Knights[/url] were obviously a huge inspiration, both to this whole "build a Knightly household" project and to this model in particular. He uses the Blood Slaughterer torsoes to absolutely stunning effect. I can't hope to approach his standard of painting and modelling, but I can steal his bits choice!

[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47446154@N08/7202069704/in/photostream"][/url]

The torso itself is actually rotated 180 degrees from the standard Blood Slaughterer, with a whole new armour plate added to cover the wires & dead bodies (made out of half a GW paint pot!)

The legs are Defiler legs with Chaos iconography removed, and to make it look more stream-lined than my Paladin all the armour plates were cut from round plastruct tubing. I'm still waiting for some better feet bits to arrive from the internet (I've ordered Ork Deff Dread toe-caps), and looking at the pictures that crooked leg needs to be straightened, and they need to be rotated so they're more upright and in line with the centre of gravity to stop it toppling over backwards... So yes, more work is needed!

[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47446154@N08/7202070008/in/photostream"][/url]

The lance is a mix of a killa kan arm and a missile I found in my bits box, the las-battlecannon is the same design as my other Knight.

[miteyheroes]

The Warden is my third Knight. Wardens are heavy support Knights, crewed by semi-retired veterans, which are only used in the direst of circumstances. The Epic models were very varied, but Warden 1 is probably the most famous: overlapping armour plates, stubby arms with gatling cannons, carapace mounted missile launcher.

[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47446154@N08/7260721944/in/photostream"][/url]

Ever since I saw the Decimator I knew I wanted to make it into a Knight. It just looks so perfect... Here's my chance! The overlapping armour plates and general bulkiness of it compared to my other Knights made it a good Warden. Like the Blood Slaughterer, I ended up rotating the torso 180 degrees and mounting the head where the daemon-engine-hatch is meant to be. Then with a Sentinel's engine on the back and a Defiler's Havoc Launcher on the carapace we're almost there! There was also lots of removing Chaos iconography - I wouldn't approach this job without a dremel, lots of files and a pile of green stuff.

[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47446154@N08/7260722082/in/photostream"][/url]

The guns came from a kid's toy, the "Kung Zhu Rhino Tank". I thought they had a good AdMech look, with hints of the Thunderfire Cannon? The arms are actually a Blood Slaughterer's arms, swapped with my Lancer who has the Decimator's arms.

3 down, 1 to go, and then on to painting! Coming up next: the anti-vehicle Crusader...