# Epic Knight conversion



## Beork (May 7, 2009)

*Epic Knight conversion - Done*

I have the honour of being asked to remodel an old plastic Knight from old faithful Epic. 
It was already build (well, build, it’s three pieces…) and painted but the owner wanted a more dynamic pose and maybe some small adjustments.
Upon receiving the model I was pleasantly surprised at the level of detail the old model had:

























I found it almost a shame to take it apart, luckily my innate drive for taking apart miniatures took over and delivered my from my reverie. 
I removed both arms forcefully and exchanged the chainsword for a SM chainsword, this wil be filed down a bit and decorated with some nice little details.









I also cut off the head and hollowed out the neck part so I could add some detail to the head attachments.








I might just make a ball joint for the head to make it easier to change it’s direction.

Things left to do:
-	Make a new head, Knightly style
-	Armour him up a bit
-	Repose his legs
-	Decorate chainsword
-	Reposition both arms

Ideas, criticism, comments?

Beork


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## Shogun_Nate (Aug 2, 2008)

Looks good so far. I'll be watching this one. I have a few of the old knights myself and I may just convert them following your example.

Good luck and good gaming,

Nate


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## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

Good to see an Epic project. 

You going for a Baron style look with this?

Theres a few Imperial Knights in the Gallery that may help you get some ideas.

look forward to seeing how this progresses.


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

you started! good man! all thumbs up! k:


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

what kind of decorations are planned for the chainsword?


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

I wanted to cut the poor little guy in half to enlarge him and detail him some more, but in the end I didn't think it was neccesary. I did remove some piping and a tank which I replaces with guiter wire and tau grenade holders.









Just to show you what kind of state the knight is in at this point. He's been quartered 









I also wanted to make a new head, but when going through my bitz boxes for some inspirational knight heads, I found the following. Who recognises it?
I shaved of some stuff, added a small piece of guitar wire and more wires will come. 









If Graf Spee agrees, this will be the head for his monstrous mini.

For the chainsword I plan wiring, some ingraved patterns if I feel up to it and rims of course. I'm also going file the back down a bit to make it less massive compared with the rest of the mini.

Beork


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

it actually hurts to see him mutilated like this. but maybe that's the price for him to pay for performing extremely bad last game. maybe he will do better after his beefing up :grin: i like everything you have done so far! great job! go on with whatever you like. the head is very oldschool and a definite yes from my side, though i don't recognize where it's originated from. gimme a hint..


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

It's one of the old school plastic chaos knight heads. Really tiny for a 28mm miniature, especially for a GW one. Their fists were bigger than this head...
Okay, that wasn't a really good hint.. oh well....
Anyway, I thought it head the old epic feel to it, before forgeworld started squaring and teching the models.
The head will stay then, some of the ridges will be filed down a bit and I'll add some extra pipes.

Beork


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

Beork said:


> It's one of the old school plastic chaos knight heads. Really tiny for a 28mm miniature, especially for a GW one. Their fists were bigger than this head...
> Okay, that wasn't a really good hint.. oh well....
> Anyway, I thought it head the old epic feel to it, before forgeworld started squaring and teching the models.
> The head will stay then, some of the ridges will be filed down a bit and I'll add some extra pipes.
> ...


i couldn't possible guess that one. never been in that fantasy business:nono::biggrin: but it suits just fine. i think i will not suggest that much, cuz i simply like what you've done so far. :good:


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## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

Nice use of the head, I have used those heads on CSM minis but would never have thought of using it for Epic though.

You raided 40k for the chainsword? I know the works done but have a look at the Khornite beserker chainswords they come pre edged up.


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

I thought of the berzerker swords or even the new chaos marine swords, but the berzerker swords are a lot thicker and the new chaos marine swords were the wrong shape in my opinion.
Also, adding a rim is not much work

Beork


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

Having cut of his legs was not enough for me. As I wanted to reposition the legs into a walking pose I needed some sort of joint. The ribbing which covered the joint originally seemed a bit ridiculous to me, so I removed most and replaced it with ball joints like the forgeworld warhounds have.










I tried to find plastic balls to use for this, but couldn't find any. Anyone know a scratchbuilding supplier with packages of different shapes? I know hobbylink japan has them, but shipping is to expensive for my taste. 

And I adjusted the basic shape of the chainsword a bit. 
The leg has been divided into two parts (upper and lower of course) and I'm thinking about replacing the upper leg with a more massive piece of plastic. (the white thingy) must still be filed into shape though. 








I'm not sure about this replacing, the old leg seems really thin, but the plastic seems to thick... maybe when I file it into shape it'll look better...
Oh, and I detached the foot and repositioned it a bit to help him walking (front part of the foor upward, heel downward) detailing still needs to be done.

Beork


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

yeah, the white plastic tube looks a bit too massive. almost like a sm leg. but its a machine, not armoured flesh. so the size of the original upper leg was ok to me, since its all epic scale. (scaled up the thing was already about 1m thick. so not really fragile)


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

the tube is about half as thick as a sm leg, but still rather thick for the machine. I might file it into a shape which resembles the leg more, making it thinner, but thicker than the original, we'll see what looks best then.

No work tonight, I have to train (after a 3 week hiatus) 

Beork


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

Put his leg up on a base (well, petri dish, almost the same). I choose the original leg because although I made a pretty nice upper leg, I could not replicate it the next few times.
I need a mini lathe.









Beork


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

i thought no working this night? what about sports? 
hounestly, i will tattoo your name on my ass when your finished!! :biggrin: 
love it! 
have you seen that thread of the 40k knights? geez..


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

Yeah, well, my girlfriend had a pretty painfull dentist treatment and I stayed home to help her a bit. Half of the group couldn't train anyway... Oh well, next week then.

I'll try and put the knight on his feet tonight. that way you can check if you like the pose.

Beork


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

It Walks!










And with the gear tagged on:

















I really like the way the thing is working out, he's become a lot more menacing than it was:









Graf Spee, do you agree with the general pose? 

Now to add detail to the chainsword, add wires in general, maybe some extra plating and a backbanner.

Beork


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

YES! fantastic! looks great. walking pose and all. makes me want to redo the rest of the household as well. they look so very immobile in comparison. looks like you spliced the feet? nice. the head looks great with the assembled mini.i hope my paintjob afterwards will do him proper credit.


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

mweh, painted he'll look better than unpainted anyway. 
I don't mind doing the whole household for you, it's pretty fun to redo these old mini's.
I didn't splice the feet, I cut it in three pieces which I imagined to be the moving parts and remoddelled those. The toes were already seperate, but not completely yet. I just enhanced the idea of the loose toes.

Well, if you like the pose, I won't try and repose the arms (I think it would be a waste really, they are nice enough). I will add some wires to the arms and gun and sword and stuff, and the japanese style backbanner of course, that too.

Beork


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## NerdyOgre254 (Jul 16, 2008)

Beork said:


> Really tiny for a 28mm miniature, especially for a GW one. Their fists were bigger than this head...


and the halberd heads were the size of their torso and legs put together. damn, they were weird.


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

Yes, I remember, they re-released them with a halberd sprue which was even more misshapen than the rest of them. The hands on the halberd were bigger than the already big hands on the normal models.

Beork


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

Beork said:


> Well, if you like the pose, I won't try and repose the arms (I think it would be a waste really, they are nice enough). I will add some wires to the arms and gun and sword and stuff, and the japanese style backbanner of course, that too.
> 
> Beork


yeah, arms positioning is good with me. any idea for the swords decoration? engraved or as superstructure? i had an idea for a piece of extra armour. you know those grey knight terminators? with the ornamental shield on the front of their shoulderguards? just post the link:
http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs11/i/2006/201/7/7/Grey_Knight_by_CursedChaos.jpg 
maybe something like this would be fitting. or over the side of the gunarm? though i dunno if it would go well mith the mini. just came to my mind..


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Looks good, I am a fan or redoing old models as well, I need to track down my phantom and finish it.


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

Smallish update, didn't have much time (again...:angry thanks to a too busy social life (who needs those anyway...)

Legs are as good as don, just need to touch up a few parts and add cables to te hip joints and the armour skirt. He has a hole for the banner pole in his back, Graf Spee can choose himself which of the available poles he'll want. 
The small shield for the shoulder still needs to be made, as well as the decoration for the sword.
I also want to redo some cables.


















Beork


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

an update!








what kind of poles are we talking about?


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

Banner poles, you wanted a japanese style banner, I'll post pics tonigt somewhere

Beork


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

And of course, my tomorrow is a few days off...
Anyway, I was a bit to enthusiastic and glued stuff together already:

















This wasn't too wise because I wanted to add detail to the hip joints, which was a lot of fiddling now but i got is done. I hope it is visible:









And progress on the sword:

















And the optional banners (I prefer the second from the right) 









Cheers,

Beork


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## AM. (Jun 16, 2009)

It's coming along really good.


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

hey.. been away for some time. looks really nice by now! time to get my fingers back on it againk: the second right banner is good in thickness, but i'd prefer a sharp 90° angle. the sword turns out really good!


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

okidoki, I'll try and get some more of that wire and bend it at 90 degrees. I thought this would make for a nice futuristic design.

Tonight I'll add wires to the legs and cut a shield and it should be done.

Beork


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)




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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

On the shield:

























I could make anouther shield for the other arm, or could make those round shield parts you see on late gothic armour. 
I think he looks okay as he is.

On the banners:
























I still like the double bended one best (top one). You'll have to cut it doen yourself to fit the flag you want him to have. The top one was made to a length I thought would be okay, but I later realized this could be different for you.

Beork


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

I like the second banner pole though it sems a bit tall. The tickness of the wire makes it look as if it is made for thgis titan, the others are to thick and make it look top heavy.


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

I like the thickness of the seond one as well, but I like the shape of the first one more.
Anyway, the idea is that Graf Spee will cut the pole down to the correct length himself as he knows how long the flag will be 

Beork


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

mhmm, tough choice seeing the things together now.. i go with djinn24 there. i'd say the pole's size of the first example executed with the wire of the second or third.
why do you prefer the double bent layout? the banner would have to be of matching shape with one corner cut off then. and it woud be hard to get a small icon on top of the angle. but please suggest. well, if we don't decide just include some small lenght of wire in the return and i will experiment a bit myself. shouldn't be too hard. even for me:grin:

on the shield: very nice. enough space to paint the house house icon on it. seeing it on the chainsaw arm i now wonder if it would limit the knights movement with that arm in close combat too much. so maybe put it on the gun arm. but actually i'm not really decided.


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

I put it on the sword arm as this is the place you would put it when equipped with sword and shield (and it looks best). It should not constrict movement as you would have it mounted to move with the arm or enable the arm to move under it (similar to the shoulderpads) remember that this is a large machine so fitting the shield on the end of an arm or something should be possible.

I like the double bend because it looks more SF too me, just taste.
Did you want an icon on the banner? what kind? I have a bunch of those eagle winged skulls the space marines use. Or I could make another shield for it.
I'd like to include some wire so you can make your own, but I couldn't find any wire strong enough (normal wire and plastic rods bended too easily) so in the end I used metal sequencing capilleries I had lying about. I don't have much more of them so I'd rather not part with the few remaining. Also, you have to heat them before bending else they break (don't want to know how I found out...)

And to end a question; Do you want to include the wires fromthe pelvis to the legs? I thought about it andI think he looks finished as is and I fear extra wires would look off. But it's your beastie so what do you think?

Beork


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

allright, convinced. the shield stays on the swordarm.
with the icon, i thought of a real small cogwheel (as it's an adeptus mech knight) i have at hand. and concerning the pole again, didn't know you were using tubes. they're pretty expensive i guess. i normally use a chrome-cobalt-molybdaen alloy wire from dental technicians supply (the kind of wire used for braces). about 20 euros for 15 metres. its thin and ultra tough but can easily be bended without heating using a 3 point pincer. in all other respects it behaves like a strong spring and it takes real force to deform. and it comes in thicknesses from 0,2 to 1,2 mm. just as a thought, if you're in need of some good wire (i guess you stung yourself quite good when you broke your tubes  ). so it's ok, i will take care of the pole myself since i still have a metre or so of that wire.
about the leg to pelvis wires: i think wires would be of no use there. so it's good the way it is.
oh and i noticed you cleaned the moulding lines :so_happy:


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

It's not that the capilleries are expensive (I get them for free) but I just don't have many and I don't have a way to get more quickly.
Dental wire sounds like a good idea, is this available from a website or something? 
I did clean the mould lines, all of them I hope as there were many.
If you think he's okay like this, I'll glue the shield and will wait for payment before shipping him off to you.

Beork


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

allright! you already pmed me an initial estimate of the price, so pm me the final one.
i'll have a look where you can get that wire cheapest. 
cheers


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## Graf Spee (Apr 29, 2009)

just found that pincer on ebay for a very decent price. it's a incrdibly useful tool when it comes to wire. with a bit of practice one can easily bend perfect circles or extremly sharp angles.

http://cgi.ebay.de/Zange-Aderer-Adererzange-Zahntechnik-KFO-Dentallabor_W0QQitemZ310133690743QQcmdZViewItemQQptZZahntechnik?hash=item4835689177&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1229|293%3A1|294%3A50


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## Beork (May 7, 2009)

Finished!
Before:









After:
























He will be shipped once the cash pours in 

I am seriously thinking of scratching a couple and making a diorama or something. Thes models can be made quite easily from a spare space marine and styrene.

C&C?

Beork


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