# Samules' Knight-a-Week



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

Well, I haven't done much painting in the last 5-6 months while I still have almost 2 full units of unpainted Knights I got specifically because I love the models. I also need more practice painting and often get stuck working out color schemes or trying to finish models that just don't quite look done. Therefore, a project log! I'm going to try and finish one of my knights, complete with individual color scheme and heraldry every week.

This is one I painted a while ago:

















This is probably one of the best models I have painted, I'm quite proud of him. My only problem is the transfer heraldry is just a bit too shiny, which is why I'm planning on freehanding designs from here on out.

Next, this week's Knight:

























This is one of the first models I've done with white primer. He has much brighter colors than the last one, as well as more freehanding. Also, of course, he just ran down a cowardly fleeing orc and I think I got some very nice blood on there with the help of some 'Ardcoat. His heraldry is a Unicorn and fleur-de-lys. The mirror color looks nice, although I think my skull white got a bit thick in places trying to get the colors pure.

This week I think I'll work on a red knight with orange trim, perhaps a rampant lion for his heraldry.

Any comments/criticism/suggestions are appreciated! :good:


----------



## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

Always nice to see some Bretonnians, they don't get a lot of love from GW so it's cool to see somebody working on them. The trick to white is to keep the layers thin and lots of them, it's boring sure but it gets the job done. I know @The Son of Horus uses brown as a basecoat to get to white. Are you keeping purple as a common color on all the knights?

Love the orc skull btw!


----------



## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

These are off to a great start! 

Since Jac mentioned it, I'd be happy to go over how I do white if you like, but not everyone wants to take as much time building up to white as I do. If you're happy with the white primer method, that's equally viable, and looks like it came out fine on your knights!

If you don't want to mess with freehanding and like the look of the transfers, there's this stuff from Testors': http://www.megahobby.com/decalsolventsolutionbymodelmaster.aspx

That dissolves the film but leaves the ink of the decal intact (which enables the ink to settle in recesses and complex surfaces, which is what the solution is actually for), but it also removes that shiny appearance and removes the very faint outline of the decal film. This ultimately works better than the "gloss varnish then matte varnish" method GW used to push for applying and masking decals. If you do go that route, you'll need turpentine to clean your brush, and I wouldn't use a good brush for it to begin with-- it's an enamel base, and if left to dry on the brush will annihilate it.


----------



## Varakir (Sep 2, 2009)

When i read the title i thought you were intending to paint an imperial knight per week....:shok:

I really like the purple and blue scheme on the first one, and the freehand is very good on the second.

As you said i think the white is weakest part, try building up your whites with either brown or blue to add more depth, depending on whether you want a warm or cold look.


----------



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

@Jacobite Thanks for the feedback! I think I probably will keep a little purple token on everyone. #1 will probably be the gallant so it will help tie the squad together as his group.

@The Son of Horus Yes, I would appreciate a guide for white. I'll probably test it on a spare guardian before trying another white knight. That decal stuff sounds pretty cool, but the other reason I didn't mention for not using decals was practicing my freehand so I can have more freedom on the heraldry. If some is available at my LGS I might grab it to improve #1.

@Varakir Ha! I wish. Thanks for the advice.


----------



## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

No problem! Unfortunately, I don't have a step-by-step series of photos ready, but the end result looks like this: 









I kind of cheat by priming my model with The Army Painter Skeleton Bone. But you can get the exact same effect by spraying the model white, and then painting it Ushabti Bone.

I then apply a wash of Agrax Earthshade. 

Avoiding the recesses, I then apply a layer of Screaming Skull. 

I then apply a mix of Lahmian Medium and White Scar, avoiding the recesses and blend it into the previous layer. I use maybe a 95/5 mix of paint to medium-- you're really after a smooth flow to avoid brushstrokes showing. It usually takes two coats to cover evenly across the whole model.


----------



## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

@The Son of Horus, what do you do about the grainyness of the Army Painter sprays?

Samules, those knights do look pretty good, i thimk you've chosen colour schemes well. i personally prime white, wash with either black, red, sepia or blue as appropriate and then layer from 50:50 bleached bone and white up to pure white. Hope that helps too... I must admit Son of Horus' methods are probably more effective.


----------



## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

@Iraqiel-
While I'll admit the Army Painter sprays can be inconsistent, I think out of maybe 20 cans (of various colors--I have most of the range that I used before I had an airbrush when I was doing commission work for fast basecoating) I've had one can that was bad, and it was an internal pressure issue, not a grainy issue-- it came out of the can like silly string. 

If you have problems with grainy sprays, be sure to spray in a cool, dry place. Shake the can for 30 seconds before spraying, and hold the can upside down while spraying. Spray in short, two-second bursts, rather than one heavy pass, and spray no closer than 6'' to the model. Somewhere in there, you should solve whatever's causing the poor finish. 
Now, all that being said, if you own an airbrush, it's a lot better to just spray the model with your preferred primer color and then apply the bone color with the airbrush. Airbrushes are becoming increasingly common (I know I was VERY resistant to getting one, but I wish I'd done it years ago now that I have one), but not every hobbyist has one yet. They're certainly less useful for Fantasy models than 40k models, admittedly, but still a good investment regardless of what you paint. That being said, DO NOT buy the Games Workshop spraygun. It's a bad siphon-feed airbrush and only can use their canned air-- the odds of it working correctly in the first place are hilariously low, and if it does, it's cheaper to buy a Masters brand gravity feed airbrush and an actual air compressor-- it's about twice as much upfront than getting the GW spraygun and enough canned air to operate it for any meaningful amount of time (i.e, roughly $100) but it'll actually work.


----------



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

Well using GW's handy conversion chart since I mostly have older paints:
Basecoat bleached bone, wash devlan mud, I'm not sure what screaming skull corresponds to so I might just need to buy some, as well as Lahamian medium to mix with my skull white.


----------



## Jolnir (Feb 11, 2014)

Varakir said:


> When i read the title i thought you were intending to paint an imperial knight per week....:shok:


Evidently we all have the same things on our minds. I thought this was an IK thread as well.

Those Brets are looking great! Keep it up. Anything special planned for the bases?


----------



## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

Just be careful with that conversion chart... it's not going to give you exact matches at all.


----------



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

Jolnir said:


> Evidently we all have the same things on our minds. I thought this was an IK thread as well.
> 
> Those Brets are looking great! Keep it up. Anything special planned for the bases?


I was planning to do them all as a batch at the end of this unit (probably 12 models) for unit coherency. Possibly as a muddy field with a few orcs and peasants splattered around. That's also when I'll add a bit of nitty gritty to the models, mud, blood, weathering, ect. Not too much though, Brets need to look pretty.

I'll keep that in mind Jacobite.


----------



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

Ok, Here's some progress on #3:









I started with two thin layers of red gore for a basecoat followed with some blood red. The color was still a bit splotchy however, I did a quick drybrush of skull white to help with highlighting and then a watered down blood red wash which resulted in a good even shade.










I went ahead and coated the metal bits with chaos black since metal on white looks plain awful. I also added a basecoat of calthan brown to most of the leather and some bleached bone to the horse. I figured I'd try out the method for white on the horse since organic colors tend to be easier than artificial ones. By this point the arrow in his shield had fallen off twice so I went ahead and drilled a hole to glue it in. It should hold on much better now.

I'm really trying to work on improving my brush control and layering, which are very important for the knights with their bright, solid colors.


----------



## Jolnir (Feb 11, 2014)

Should be a nice looking army when done and tabled together. Lots of vibrant colors.


----------



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

Well, things are progressing much faster than 1 per week so far as #3 is already done, I'll just keep the one per week as a minimum for myself.
























He came out quite nicely, I was originally planning to go with orange trim rather than yellow but I prefer the contrast like this. The horse looks good, much better than my last try at a white animal. The only problem might be that the pink/gold scarf on his arm doesn't stand out from his own red. It's meant to be a token from the woman he's courting but came out looking like part of his own clothing. The time I spent on getting the right shades and touching up all the colors certainly did not go to waste as the contrasting clear colors really make him stand out.

Also a damsel I painted a while ago:
















This model is one of my favorite GW has ever made, along with the questing knight musician that has mysteriously vanished from the store. It's too bad it won't fit in my all-cavalry army, unless I can figure out some way to convert her to justify it.


----------



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

Here's number 4:

















This one has made a very good friends with a dwarf. I wasn't able to completely remove the sword but it's covered up pretty well. His color scheme is a bit odd and isn't completely mirrored but I think it turned out okay.


----------



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

Here's #5.

















I was a little dissapointed with last week's but this guy I love. I finally got around to getting some brighter yellow and a smaller brush so I put them to good use! This guy is very vibrant and the lions I am very proud of. I tried to do them on #3 but I just couldn't pull it off with the brush I had. With this guy I tried out the method of painting before assembling and I wish I had tried it sooner. It made things much simpler with these large complicated models and it just looks better with all the nooks and crannies properly painted. As you can see I am experiencing a problem with my bases, They're probably somewhere in my terrifying pile of leftover boxes with sprues in them, I'll find them eventually.


----------



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

Well, life this week so no update. I do have a half finished awesome model though.
EDIT: Also, I'm open for suggestions on the lord, I need to do him before the standard bearers and I want to convert him somehow to make him stand out.


----------



## torealis (Dec 27, 2006)

You're making me miss my brets! One tip though: washes.


----------



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

The only ones I have right now are Badab Black, Devlan Mud and Ogryn Flesh, would you reccomend the more colorful ones?


----------



## torealis (Dec 27, 2006)

I guess it depends what you're going for. 

Have you seen the two Henry V movies? The Laurence Olivier one and the Ken Branagh one?


----------



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

No, I haven't.


----------



## torealis (Dec 27, 2006)

Oh, well...

Laurence Olivier made a version during WW2 that had to paint the whole thing in a very glorious light, so it's a very shiny, sunny film filled with tall, noble nights charging (and some bows)

In the 90s, Kenneth Branagh made a version intended to be much more realistic (but sticking the Shakespeare's script) so it's much darker, grittier, muddier and wetter. The knights are slogging through mud and getting shit on from the sky by arrows. 

I, when doing my army, went with the latter. Mud everywhere, darker colours on caprisons and everything, and shitloads of peasants.

Which way do you want to go?


----------



## Samules (Oct 13, 2010)

I'm going more for the brighter style. On the knights at least, any peasants I use will be covered in shit.

Here's number 6.

























The white came out better on this one than 2 and the stags were a real pain but they were worth it. Now I have 1 regular knight, the musician and the standard bearer left in the unit.


----------

