Imperial Knights, Part IX

So, much thought was had about how to do the armor plating on the Knight’s legs.  While the current GW model has a single large armor piece over the shin/calf area, this paperhammer model has a pretty elaborate set of sections that go around the leg.  I debated trying to merge them into a single piece, but I didn’t feel confident that I could do it in a way that would look good (and that I could re-create here).  In the end, I decided to simplify.  I’d do the two big side pieces, the knee, and the front ankle, but not the back sections.  That would match up a little more with the GW model, too.

I added the armor supports for the upper sections.  They’re the oblong boxes on pages five and six of the template. 

Helpful Hint—the boxes attach so their small/short end is at the top.  This is important so the armor ends up angled in the right direction.

I also added one of the longer supports for the front ankle—it sits between the two armor supports, but its top lines up with their bottom edge.  The angle on this one is steep, so it’s a bit tricky getting it in the right position.  Patience is important on this one.  I held each one for a good six or seven minutes while it dried.

 

However...  this left some empty sections around the ankle.  This is one of those models where a lot of detail is “printed on,” so not adding the armor (or its support) would mean, well, a hole in the detail.  I decided to make up for the lack of printed pistons by adding real ones.  Or, at least, something close to real ones. 

My first thought was round toothpicks, but I decided pretty quick they’d be too small.  Small coffee stirrers might work, if I could find single ones somewhere (instead of the double-shaft ones).  Inspiration came from my girlfriend’s garden bag, where she had a bunch of bamboo skewers she used for marking plots and making small frames for seedlings to climb. And these came from the dollar store, so they’re still keeping this project cheap.  I used two of them and cut sixteen pieces (eight pairs), each one 1” long.

I arranged these so they lined up between the armor supports.  The front ones went on either side of the support for the front ankle armor.  A dab of glue on either end held them in place.

Then it was time for the armor itself.  First off was what to use.  Again, this looks very complex, but mostly because (as mentioned before) the template assumes you’re just working with paper.  All of this is supposed to be doubled up.  But since we’re working with cardstock, I only needed half of these pieces.  And only one of the eight ankle pieces (since front and back are identical).

I gave each piece a gentle bend around my utility knife.  That’s the knee, the ankle, and the two large sides.  The large sides got more of a bend, because they need to go around the entire leg.

Helpful Hint—If you look at the lines for the side pieces, you’ll see they’re not straight up and down.  That’s because the side armor flares out (like huge, 41st Millennium bellbottoms).  So putting a bend in them involves moving the knife shaft across the piece and bending along each line individually.  Don’t roll the whole thing around the shaft or nothing will line up later.

Then I attached the ankle armor.  This one was tough, because the support’s angle makes it hard to put any pressure.  It’s another exercise in patience.  It also sticks out just a tiny bit more than I’d like, but not so much that I feel the need to tear anything apart.

I took the small box that’s supposed to be the kneepad support and cut it into four parts.  I layered these together to give me a spacer that was about 1/8” thick.  Once it was dry, I glued it right below the knee joint.

And this made the legs pretty much armored and done.

Which meant it was time for the best part... weapons.

The design on this cannon is kind of magnificent, to be honest. As I mentioned, it’s made around the all-paper idea, but it still works great in cardstock. Simply put, the designer made the barrel and details all one piece.  I cut it out, wrapped it around the hobby knife twice to give it a good curl, and then glued the main part of the barrel (where the tab lines up).  I put some clothespins on this and let it sit for a while.

Once it was dry, I wrapped the rest of the detail work around the barrel.  Normally I try to go easy on the glue so nothing slips, but here I went a little heavy just for that reason. I wanted to be able to slide the cardstock a bit so I could make sure things lined up.

Helpful Hint—Pull these pieces very tight.  It’ll make the whole piece more solid and it’ll also help all the seams line up as much as possible (which makes them easier to hide).

The co-axial heavy stubber barrel goes together the same way.  I gave it a curve on the knife.  I glued the main section together and then, once it was dry, I wrapped the detail around.

Helpful Hint—Because this barrel is so narrow, I had to fold the tab in half.  I couldn’t bend it enough for it to fit well inside the rolled-up barrel.  You may want to trim it with a hobby knife.

The body of the cannon is a simple box. Rather that cut out the three circular vents for the back, I just used my 1/4” hole punch to make three discs.  They’re slightly smaller, but it’s so much easier and faster... I decided I could live with that.

The cannon also has a “hood” of sorts that fits over it.  The extra section actually folds under the hood, so when it’s in place the front edge is double-thick and has a small ridge underneath it. This ridge will but up against the box when they get put together.

There’s a big magazine for the cannon. It looks a little complex, but it goes together very easily (alas, most of the detail here is only printed on). Just remember to score the top half on the opposite side, because it’s going to be a concave bend, not a convex one.

(yep, I’m bringing geometry into this...)

I glued the hood onto the main body.  Once it was dry, I added the magazine to the bottom.  I also punched out two more 1/4” discs and used those for detail on either side of the cannon. 

Helpful Hint—If you’d rather have a Knight Errant with a thermal cannon, there are lots of titan models out there with other weapons options.  You could use part of the melta cannon from the  Warhound Titan template and I don’t think anyone would question it.

Next up is the chainsword. Which we will get to... next time.