More Knight Variants

So how many viable Knight versions are there now, counting Forgeworld?  Six?  Seven?

There are a lot of things you can do with Knights these days.  And a lot of them can be done pretty easily with Paperhammer.  Rather than focus on the individual variants like the Warden or Gallant, though, I thought I could take a  few minutes and just go over the new weapons that come with them.  I mean, the basic body, head, and legs are the same for all of these models.  The weapons are the main difference, so let’s add a few more to the basic battle cannon/ reaper chainsword that come with the fantastic classic Knight Paladin template the Newobmij made.

The thunderstrike gauntlet is essentially a big power fist.  I talked about how to build an arm last time with the Knight Lancer.  However, while it’s much simpler, I don’t think the box-fist I explained then would work here.  It won’t have the Ion Shield to shift focus. In fact, now the fist is the focus of attention.

Print out an extra knee-cylinder.  It’s on page five and six of the template (one for each leg).  Build it, but don’t add on the extra rivets or 1/8” discs for detail.  All we need is the cylinder.

Defiler claw to show fingers

Now print out some of the claw-fingers from the Defiler model template.  This will need three fingers and a thumb.  Yes, the GW model has four fingers, but we’re a bit limited for space.  I’m sure a clever person out there can figure out how to do four without making it look too awkward.  Glue three of the fingers along the cylinder, perhaps “fanning” them out a bit.  Then attach the thumb so it lines up with the “pointer finger.”

Helpful Hint-- Whatever way you end up posing the fingers, consider having the thumb make contact with at least one of them and gluing it there.  It’s a small, subtle thing, but it will make this whole assembly much stronger to have multiple connections.  And you want it to be solid because you’re going to smack it against a Wraithlord or some Tyranid Warriors at least once a month if you’ve got a good gaming group.

Another Helpful Hint—It’d be possible to do some really nice detail on these with 1/4” and 1/8” in discs from a hole punch.  They could be mechanical joints on the sides of the fingers or “knuckles” on the tops.  I’d probably only do one or the other, though.

As a last touch, consider using a spare knee or ankle armor piece to form a vambrace over the back of the fist.  Or maybe cut something a little more custom.  Either way, add on some rivets and purity seals and it’d be a solid-looking power fist.

For the carapace-mounted rocket/missile pod, you could just build a variation of the whirlwind launcher I made way, way back at the start of all this.  A box 1” tall, 2” wide, and 1 1/2” deep is a good base to start from.  A thin 1/8” by 1” strip of cardstock forms a divider down the front center.  Then I can do a nice alternating layout of 1/8” discs and 1/8” spaces which should give me nine “missiles” on each side.  Yes, that’s slightly less than the GW model, but if the people you’re playing with are complaining about that...

If I was feeling exceptionally clever, I’d also build a double-wide version of the armored hood from the battle cannon to put on the missile pod.  It’s good detail and a nice tie-in, design-wise.  Alternately, a 1/4” strip wrapped around the front and back edge would look very nice.  Again, add rivets and some purity seals to finish off details.

The avenger gatling cannon is going to be a lot simpler than it looks.  All you need to do is print out seven copies of the heavy stubber—the one that goes with the battle cannon.  It’s on page eight of the template.  Okay, technically you need eight of them so one can go on the left shoulder.  But for the gatling cannon, you need seven.

Build six of the heavy stubbers just like I did for the Knight Paladin.  On the seventh, we want to cut off the majority of the barrel and just leave the thicker part at the base.  We’re going to call this the core, for reasons which will soon be apparent.

Important Note—Mark the now-missing edge before cutting off the rest of the barrel to make sure the core ends up the same size as all the other bases.

Once all seven elements are dry and solid, take one stubber barrel and the core.  Glue them together so the base of the barrel is flush against the core.  Keep their individual seams as close to each other as possible, and make sure the two pieces are parallel.  If they’re not parallel, this isn’t going to work.

Once the two pieces are joined, take a second barrel and glue it so it’s touching both the core and the first barrel (and its seam is close to the core).  Viewed end on, they should form a triangle.  Once the glue had dried, add a third barrel so it’s touching the second and the core . Now it should form a diamond.  Let it dry and keep adding, making sure each one touches the last barrel added and the core.  If everything is parallel and the same size, it should look like this from the front (with the core in blue).

           

Wait for this whole assembly to dry and then attach it to the cannon body.  It should fit perfectly with the existing armored hood, although it would also be easy to add a more rounded one that ran along the overall curve of the gatling assembly.  And that would be a little closer to the existing GW model as well.

And there it is.  You can spend five or six hundred dollars building an army of Imperial Knights... or you could spend five or six weekends and have them for maybe five or six dollars, total (not counting all the cereal and frozen pizza to get cardstock).  If you started right now, it wouldn’t be hard to have five different Knights done by mid-June, Fourth of July weekend at the latest.

Next up... I’ve been working on something big.  A crossover project with my friend Marcus who runs the Atomic Warlords page.  Let’s just say there’ve been a few too many Knights, and not enough for the xenos among us.

Imperial Knight Lancer

So, a few weeks back I finished up my Imperial Knight Paladin based off the template by Newobmij.  During the many, many months it took me to complete (hey, I had a lot going on), Forge World put out a variant called the Knight Lancer.

Anyway, I saw a couple of easy ways Newobmij’s Knight template could be adapted to build a Lancer without too much trouble.  Now, I don’t really have the time to build this version, but what I thought I could do is go through the process of building a regular Knight again and point out the places where I’d change things if I wanted to build a Lancer.  You can get the main details there and the tweaks and options here.

Ready...?

Parts I and II are going to go pretty much the same.  It’s just some basic, core stuff with the torso, the engine and the head getting assembled.  Nothing different there.

The first big change is in Part III.  The head and neck are assembled the same, but when I go to gluethem together I want to flip the head so it’s pointing up rather than out.  That little point where it all comes together?  That should be the top now, not the front.

Helpful Hint--This arrangement may need a small spacer in the back when it's attached to the torso.  There’s enough neck for the head to make a solid join, but these things are always stronger if you can come from two directions.

With the head being a little higher, I’m going to skip the extra piece I called the cowl.  Which is fine, because the Lancer doesn’t have that element.

As seen on the template

The Forge World Lancer model is taller than the standard Knight, so my suggestion for Part IV is to use the “wasp waist” piece that I skipped in the original build.  This will also help give the Lancer a slightly more gaunt figure like the Forge World model.

Like the cannon barrels, this waist piece is very well done in that all the detail is built into this one piece.  I just need to cut it out, give it a curve on my hobby knife, and then roll the whole thing up.

Helpful Hint--This is now the major join between the hips and the chest, so I want more than just the thin edge of the cardboard connecting them (even if it’s doubled up).  Cut a strip and run it across the inside of the wasp waist, so it has a lot of surface on top or bottom for glue to grab at (I’ve done this before on the Baneblade and the Defiler). Don’t worry if it’s a little messy—all of this is going to end up inside the Lancer.  Just make sure it’s flush on the top and bottom.

 

The heraldry shield is the only thing in Part V.  It goes on the opposite shoulder for the Lancer model.  You could also give it a different shape by hole-punching the top corners rather than the side.

Part VI and VII and VIII are all just about building and assembling the legs. Nothing changes here.  Unless you want to go for a different pose.

There are some esthetic choices for Part IX.  Personally, I’d cut out the shin armor, but mount it so it runs together as a single piece across the front.  You could add a detail/ decorative strip or angle in the front to hide the seam.  I wouldn’t use the knee or ankle armor.  We want that chicken-leg look

Now the big one.  Part X is weapons. The Lancer has a very different weapons loadout, so let’s talk about how to do this.  We need to build a lance and an ion shield.

The Lance is pretty simple.  It’s just a narrow gun barrel extending in either direction.  I could do it either like the Baneblade cannon (but a little smaller) or, in all honesty, the battle cannon barrel that comes with this template is a pretty good size.  Whichever method I use, I’d put a few “rings” along the length of it to help sell both the round aspect and the sort of  energy/magnetic/gauss aspect of the Lance.

The tip is a big diamond shape.  It looks tough, but it’s actually very simple.  I’ve made tapered points before for the Plaguereaper and the Silver Towers of Tzeentch.  This just tapers in both directions.  I could even be super clever and make one side shorter than the other.  This will sit right in the end of the barrel and... done.  A lance, just like that.  It can connect to the shoulder pad with a 3-4-5 triangle block, just like the chainsword did, so it can be posed a  bit. The other option would be building another knee joint, gluing that to the underside of the shoulder, an then using that as the “pivot” for the Lance.

The Ion Shield is a little trickier.  First it needs an arm.  Then it needs a shield to mount on the arm.  So, first things first...

 

The arm is just the knee and calf again.  Use the knee under the shoulder as another elbow (it’ll match the one on the Lance).  And now this arm should end in a flat surface (where the ankle would normally connect). To make a fist, just assemble a small box—something I’ve done here many times. Adding a few cardstock strips and shapes for detail helps sell it as a fist ( 1/4” circles would make good knuckles).

Alternately, if I wanted something a bit more elaborate, I could expand the idea of the Defiler’s power fist so its less of a claw and more of... well, a fist.

To build the ion shield, look for some basic shield clipart on your computer or on the web. I’d use a simple shape, but if you feel confident enough to go a bit more elaborate, it’d be a nice bit of “customizing.”  Print out two or three copies at what feels like an appropriate size (probably no more than 4” top to bottom)

I think the easiest way to add detail is to make layers.  Draw a new outline (inline?) around the inside of the shield, then make a wide X across that.  Add a circle in the middle (maybe quarter-sized).  Then cut this all out so you have a kind of shield-lattice with four quadrants. 

(Please pardon my attempts to explain with more childish pictures...)

Then take another copy of the clipart, trace and quarter it again, but this time make all the beams maybe half as wide.  And this time actually cut the inside of the center circle out, too. Now when these two pieces overlap the edges and center should look multi-layered.  Another 1/4” disc at the center gives some nice detail, or you could make a ribbon-less purity seal that size and give it a real “arc reactor” look.  Carefully glue these together (this is going to be one of those elements that draws the eye), wrap it in wax paper, and stack books on it.  Lots of books.  I’ve done this a few times when I really, really need something to be straight.  When it dries, it’ll be double-layered and very rigid.  Attach it to the wrist and arm in a dramatic way.

And there’s a lance and ion shield.

Parts XI and XII are some of the final details.  I skipped the tabard, then took one of the unused ankle-armor pieces, flipped it upside-down, and used it as a codpiece.  And then there’s all the purity seals, aquillas, and other items you can add at your discretion.

The basic T-piece I built to give the head some more detail will still work here.  If you wanted to give it a little more, two triangles with the tips cut off make a fine visor more in the Lancer style.  You can even give them a faint curl around the edge of a hobby knife so they sit right up against the head.  Glue one on either side of the head.

And there it is.  If I’ve got this all figured in my head, these tweaks to the template should give you a more-than-passable Knight Lancer

As a little addendum, since I started this post, Games Workshop announced their Warden/ Crusader model.  I was going to add on some thoughts about those, but I think that might have to wait for next week.  Right now, I need to get set up for Texas Frightmare Weekend in Dallas.  Stop by table #155 in the Made In Texas room and say hello.

But next week... more Knights.

Promethium Pipes

I have to admit, I like that scenery is a lot more interactive now in Warhammer 40,000.  Different buildings have slightly different rules, bunkers are more durable than office buildings, statues can inspire, and all that.  Just recently we’ve seen the Plasma Obliterator (limited edition, already gone) and the promethium pipes (not limited, but also already gone).  It’d be nice if Games Workshop made something besides Imperial scenery, but... well...  You can’t have everything.

Where would you put it?

Anyway, for no reason whatsoever... I thought I’d show how you can build some great refinery/ pipe pieces that’ll cost you, well, pretty much nothing if you have some really basic modeling supplies and a few empty boxes.

I stumbled across these basic templates in a scenery pack five or six years ago.  This led me back to the creator’s DeviantArt page, where taerSliver (his spelling) had created a few more options (including a horizontal bend, a T-intersection, and a double support).  I’m also going to try to get all of them up into the STC Archive in the next couple days (there’s some kind of recurring error happening at the moment).

I decided to build some basics and printed these out two each of the basic pipe length and the ground pipe.  They look a little complex on the page, but I was impressed how well they quick they went together.  The two ground support pieces took about an hour to mount on cardstock, cut out, and assemble.  Once I started folding it,  taerSliver’s template became clear and easy to work with.  I built the bottom first, sat a spare bottle of glue on it while it dried, and then folded the top over and used the bottle to hold that in place, too.

Next was the actual ground pipe.  This is probably the most complex part out of all the different components.  There are regular and inverted folds, and on some of the underside points they’ll actually triple up.  This piece requires the most time and patience.  It’s complicated to cut out and most of the joins require you to just hold them—it’s not possible to get a clothespin on them.

Helpful Hint—There is no actual bend to the underside of this piece.  It’s a right angle.  I wasted about ten minutes assuming taerSliver had left off a fold line or two.  The template’s fine—just assemble it as directed and be amazed by the optical illusion.

The pipes themselves are very simple octagons, just like a lot of the gun barrels, engines, and towers I’ve made in the past.  Once they were scored and glued, I clamped them and let them dry for about ten minutes.  One nice thing to consider is it’s very easy to extend or shorten these if you’ve got a specific layout in mind you want to build.  Either cut the template short, double it up, or just extend the lines as long as you’d like.

The other support was very simple.  It’s not much more than a box with two angles at the top.  Again, it went together without any challenge.

There’s a plug piece as well. This gives the pipe a bit more solidity, and also a surface to fasten the pipe ends to the supports on either end. I didn’t build them for this example, but they’re good to use if you want to make this whole thing rock-solid.

And that was pretty much it. I’d built two groundpipes, two regular pipes, and two supports in a little over three hours.  That’s from printing them out to dried and done.  Well, done as they are on the template, anyway...

I decided to toss on a little more detail.  I used my 1/16" hole punch to make a bunch of rivets, and these gave me some nice texture.  I almost put a little control/ monitor panel on one of the regular supports.  They’ve got tons of room for such things.  And once this was painted, it’d be very easy to add on tank decals and such to the pipes.  Numbers, aquillas, warning signs.  These templates have so much empty space it’d be easy to load them up with whatever details you want.  You could mount the whole thing on a piece of foamcore and have a great, solid scenery piece that matches up with a refinery or fuel depot or whatever else you may have in your collection.

I joined these pieces up so you’d have a sense of what it looks like.  I also realized, at this point, I’d had my printer settings off and these template were a bit larger than they should’ve been. Maybe about 10-15% larger.  Even then, that would make these about chest-to-neck-high on a Space Marine.  If you wanted to get these very close to the GW Promethium Pipes, you’d probably want to print these out at around 80% normal size.  This will make that ground pipe really nightmarish to assemble, but it’ll be worth it.  In fact, on that scale it almost might be worth doing some of  these components on heavy paper rather than cardstock, but that’s going to depend on your own tastes and comfort.