In our Road to LVO series, we’re following several different players and hobbyists as they prepare to play in one of the largest wargaming conventions on the planet. This year’s Road to LVO series is sponsored by Frontline Gaming.
September started off with the fun of NoVA, but soon it was time to get down and prepare for the Las Vegas Open. I only had one model I needed to paint for NoVA, but it was a big one, an Imperial Knight. The problem in getting the Knight finished on time, of course, was having about a week where I was traveling across multiple states in not fantastic weather, vaccinations, and some other stuff (1). But when I had a few hours here or there, I was able to make a lot of progress on the Knight, and finished a very nice model with three days to spare. This means I can relax hobby-wise going into the LVO and spend more time worrying about which models to bring with me to paint at the LVO. So, here’s my recipe for getting a very nice Knight done with speed painting techniques.
When I build my Warhammer robots, I tend to leave the various armor plates off as much as I can. This is extremely easy for big Knights, harder for little Dreadnoughts.
First, most of my armor panels will have sections that are given a marble effect. My technique here was to airbrush the entire panel with ProAcryl Payne’s Grey. I then took a Bounce dryer sheet that had been through the laundry a couple of times and very gently pried it apart to make the gaps bigger. I then held the dryer sheet tightly over the armor panel and sprayed in the following order: Army Painter SpeedPaint Metallics Glittering Loot, Army Painter Airpaints Storm Wolf, and then ProAcryl Bright Ivory. This creates a pretty lovely marble effect. I then gloss-varnished the panel and let it set for a few days while I went out of town for a work conference.
And yes, the use of a Bounce dryer sheet is important. The generic brand I got at the local 7-11 doesn’t cut it. The generic dryer sheets have a grid pattern that can’t be pried apart, and thus gives the resulting marble effect an unnatural grid.
Upon getting back from my work trip, I then masked off half of the marbled panels in order to add the bright blue of my Ultramarines and their allied Knights and Guard. I then resprayed Payne’s Grey, Army Painter Airpaints Omega Blue, Army Painter Wolf Grey, and finished it off with spot highlights of ProAcryl Bold Titanium White. I then filtered this with Army Painter SpeedPaint Magic Blue, which is a close match for Games Workshop’s bright Talassar Blue. I then again gloss-varnished the panels, so I could use panel liner to blackline the internal panels.
The next step, and the most daunting step, is the trim to all this armor. Since my Superheavy Walkers are all Ultramarines, that means gold trim. However, we have a new tool in our arsenal: AK Interactive’s Playmarkers. I first tried these out at Adepticon, and then later on used them a fair bit more at the Goonhammer Open. These markers have a pretty fine tip, and so I used them for the trim on my Knight. There are some pitfalls with these: the way the paint comes out of the reservoir has a chance of leaking when the marker is first opened. That’s a major concern, but once I adjust for that little issue I found using the markers to get a solid coat of gold on the trim went quickly. I then shaded the very smooth gold with Druchii violet, and then painted over this with DarkStar Metallics Royal Gold to give it that richer, Retributor Armor style trim.
With the armor panels done, it was time for the skeleton of the model. The skeleton received an all-over airbrush spray of Snakebite Leather. I then drybrushed Citadel Balthazar Gold, Canoptek Alloy, and then ProAcryl Silver to get a good, aged metal. For bits I wanted to ensure were bronze, I went back in to give them a solid coat of Balthazar Gold. I then shaded this with a combination of Citadel Snakebite Leather, Citadel Luxion Purple, and Citadel Leviadon Blue to get the metallics a heat-warped effects. The model then received another all-over drybrush of Silver. I reinforced the Brzone with another coat of Balthazar Gold, relying on the relatively thin coverage to let the underlying texture and highlights/shading shine through.
Now it was onto painting the various lenses of the model, the rockets in the rocket pod, and the Las Impulsor’s coils. I like my Las weapons to be giving off a reddish heat, so that’s what I did here: each coil was painted Citadel Khorne Red and Mephiston Red. I then did an increasingly brighter blend of ProAcryl Bold Pyrole Red, NoVa Orange, Warm Yellow, and finally Bright Ivory to make it pop. The gun casings got two coats of Citadel Black Templar Contrast Paint.
And some last edge highlights of the central carapace and the toes, the majority of the model was complete.
For the base, I used the stock base and some cork board I had lying around. I tore these off my roll, and glued them onto the base to serve as destroyed slabs of concrete. This Knight Lance is fighting in the ruins of an Imperial city, and atop walls of destroyed buildings. I also cut up some more of the Old World Movement Tray bases to serve as fragments of a road destroyed in the fighting. Lastly, I used ProAcryl’s Coarse Grey Earth texture paste to serve as the urban rubble/debris. This was all primed black, and the ground was hit with some airbrush blues. I then stippled Citadel Dark Reaper over ground, and Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey on the slabs. I followed that up with stipples of Citadel Dawnstone and Citadel Administratum Grey on the slabs, before giving the base an all-over highlight with Citadel Ulthuan Grey. I then glued the Knight onto it.
Once fully assembled, it was time to add some decals. I searched through my drawer of decals for various fun Imperial and Ultramarines decals. Sadly despite owning a bunch of Ultramarines decals, the battle honor sections were surprisingly dull. So I dove into my Imperial Knight, Imperial Guard, and Horus Heresy sheets for additional inspiration. And once they were applied, my Knight was finished.
Two hours later GW revealed a new Ultramarines decal sheet.
What’s Next?
With that, it was time to start packing up. This means packing up my Lucent Light, my ProAcryl Paint bag, my brushes, my assembly tools, my travel Wet Pallet, and picking some models to paint while I’m in Vegas. Unlike my time at Adepticon, I intend to spend some time at the LVO Hobby Hangout painting and chatting. So if you’re there, come find me and say hi.
Going into the event, I’m looking forward to the Afternoon with Games Workshop event that GW is hosting at the start of the LVO. This looks to be similar to the LVO event, but with Vermintide instead of Space Marine 2, no bar trivia, and with JoyToy Space Hulk. So maybe I’ll bring a unit of Space Marines for JoyToy Space Hulk. Because this time around, I will be able to play and do the paint and takes instead of showing off my small dog to all my friends.
Accordingly, see you out there!
Also, because I finished my Questoris Knight, I had to do it. Sorry in advance:
(1) When it’s done, there will be an article. I promise.
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