Monday 16 September 2013

Cocoricooo Messire ! (plus some other silly things) - Bretonnia Part 4

OK, last time I told you about the "knight project" I started on the oldhammer forum (no longer Blood forum) and told you to have a look at Axiom's very good blog and involvment in that project. I feel being the initiator of that projects implies I should not get too late on the others, it's why I tried to make some progress on this.

If you remember previous posts, I decided to mount my Knight on a rooster for it is the symbol of my Region on France (Bresse). I found a perfectly fitting model here and found out the scale was exactly what I was looking for. These are made in some kind of hard rubber or soft plastic with paint on top. 

I tried to remove the paint with a 3 weeks Dettol bathbut couldn't remove any paint from it. I decided to dip a part of it in acetone to see the result and the paint immediately began to fall off. It just took a few dips in acetone to remove the paint with a toothbrush (I would not recommend a long bath of acetone since it seems the rubber/plastic melts slowly in it).

Next step was to remove the silly details at the feet (this is mainly grass and branches sculpted next to the legs to make them more sturdy since the rubber is not rigid enough) removing these made the model fall apart so I just pinned in the legs and added some wire and now it stands proudly on its 2 feet. I will have to sculpt back the legs properly with GS but no big deal here.

The giant rooster waiting for a rider
 As you can see, the sculpt is quite good fro a rubber touy and I hope the paintjob will make it look convincing.

Now, for the rider part, I chose the easy way over the oldschool way and ordered a plastic pegasus knight to ride the bird. As the legs come in 2 parts , this enabled me to glue them a little wider than normal to fit exactly to the chicken body. The upper part of the model has then just been glued slightly orientated to the left and I put a "Louen Leoncoeur" on top of it. I'm considering adding magnets to the right arm to be able to choose from magic sword, lance or even the arm holding an eagle.

Some decoration wil come after that in the form of a blanket and some treasures in his back. I will also add a saddle with leather straps to attach it to the chicken. Maybe some decoration in the feathers could do the thing but I will sort that out as it takes shape.
Oh and the total cost for the parts is 3.5£ for the rooster, 2.5£ for the knight parts and 0.5£ for the base which mlake it a very cheap project for once ;).


So here is the Rooster knight for the time being...

Another thing that got my attention recently was the stripping and basing of some old eldar pirates. A few Ebay purchases here and there, got me to get some of the models I didn't already have.
Amongst them is the eldar captain with a demon mask. This is one very interesting model. It's actually built from the more classic captain you can see on the left in the picture below. But if you look at the cpatain on the right carefully you can actually see that all the details have been added on top of the other details. You can see the soulstone under the left horn and you can even see the remnants of the left holster under the bag with a face. Seeing models with common parts is no surprise in these ranges but I was more used to seeing parts used for several models. This time it's just the same model but with lots of things on top (plus an arm swap).

  
Rogue trader eldar Captain (sculpted then converted by Jes Goodwin)
 
But what to do with that particular model. For some reason I want this army to be compatible with both Rogue trader rules and 6th ed and I wanted a normal leader. This means an autarch for the 6th ed rules. I remembered reading about autarchs in the compilation book so I gave a quick look yesterday but couldn't find anything. It does say some exarchs can change aspects and wear gear from multiple aspects but I couldn't find the actual word "autarch" in the book. Maybe I dreamt of it, I'll have another look. If any of you know if it's actually really in there, please tell me. Another things is I want to equip the guy as the model is but couldn't understand the true advantage of an autarch in 6th ed (if anybody knows please tell me, what's a good use for an autarch equipped like this guy?).
If I don't find a use for him as an autarch he will make a perfect dire avenger exarch.



Anyway, I decided to put this little fella on a nice base with some shale I looted from my hollidays hunt (remember this post). These shale pieces proved worthy since you can easily break them with bare hands to the shape you want and they can be drilled with no effort. I even believe drilling is essential because I think just gluing them means it'll break in no time.



BUT, pinning a mini to its base means cutting off its tab and You know this is 1st class heresy right?


Eldar captain on base
 I found a way to concile both the hobbyist and the archiver in me : I just cut the tab off but glued it under the base to keep it as a souvenir :

Now I still have the model and its tab to remember this model is just 6 years younger than myself...

On the painting range, the Khornish boys are very close to being finished, the final details awaiting a bit because I decided unexpectedly to add freehand on some of them to make them more sexy. Here's the bunch as they were yesterday night and next time you're seeing them , it's gonna be party time with varnish and complete basing !


19 comments:

  1. Fantastic results there, loving all the work on the Eldar especially. Took me a while to get over all the innuendo jokes for the Knight if I'm honest, but I think I've calmed down now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, th elink between French and roosters has always been a peculiar one. Some say it's just because latin names for Gauls and chicken sound the same and some because French ar like the Rooster, the only animal sining proudly with his feet planted in a shitpile...
      Anyway, I'll paint mine white with blue legs because in my region it's what they look lilke and they're considered the best in the whole country (though I love the idea of having my rooster knight standing in the middle of a shitpond ;) ).
      If you like the eldar captain now, you're gonna love the rest of the army ! (plus he's definitely getting a back banner like in days of (g)old)...

      Thanks Paul

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  2. Those Khorne chaps look fantastic - I can't recall having seen them all painted together en masse before! Looking forward to progress on the Cock Knight (is that what we're calling him now?)

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    1. Well the whole group is soon to rock the party!

      As for the name of the Knight, his real name is "Hugues-Edouard de l'Ain, Baron de Bresse".
      For your information, he's a perfect gentleman always keen to help a damsel in danger or looking for a way home, inviting them to ride his giant cock.
      I don't really see what innuendo joke there is to make about such a nice person just because he has a monster between the legs. I don't get it.

      Delete
  3. Excellent looking Rooster, really great idea with good background reasons for it. Really nice.

    Will be good to see how the Eldar progresses, he's a cool looking miniature.

    I love the way you have painted the Khorne warriors, keeping an overarching feel to them and yet retaining their individuality.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you Lee!
    Yep, I'm really looking forward to the rest on the rooster knight. I believe I can make something characterful with him.

    The eldar are also quite high on my motivation list but I have Yet to determine the proper paintscheme. i'm looking for something unified (even for aspect warriors) with slight modification depending on the unit type to haev a strong visual coherence.

    As for the Khornish boys, let's hope this WE sees the end of them, I primed them nearly one year ago now...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For the Eldar you could go for some of the old Eldar Pirate paint schemes.
      They had a couple of the schemes in the 1988 Book of the Astronimican, and some in White Dwarf #100 in the article on the Dreadnoughts.

      Delete
    2. Oh Lee, you cruel friend. I don't have the book of the astronomican and its remains a deep wound in my heart. I could look for it on scribd but you know it's not the same.
      Anyway, I'll see what I can find. In fact, I was tempted to go for bone with red weapons and helmets on everyone or red armour with black weapons and bone helmets. I want something really striking I could easily paint with sprays and washes.

      I have a few space crusade eldars that might come in handy for paintscheme testing :D

      Delete
    3. Sorry :(
      If I every get my printer working I could scan it and the White Dwarf #100.
      There is a link here for the Book of the Astronmican here:

      http://ramshacklefort.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/my-oldhammer-narrative-part-one.html

      What you have planned sounds very good. :)

      Delete
    4. What a nice lad you are ! Many thanks !

      Delete
  5. Nice idea with the tab - I've never thought of that before. Strangely, I have no problem customising an old miniature, but I've never been able to cut off the base!

    Also watching those eldar with interest!

    Regards
    Gaj

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, like a complete moron, I've always kept the cut ones in my bits box and it's only this time I thought of gluing it under...

      Now I have an audience on the eldars, I know I have to behave, I'll try to get the best of them!

      Cheers

      Delete
  6. The knight on a chicken is fantastic. I love all the work you are doing. It all seems very fun and inspiring.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Sean.

      The chicken is indeed a very fun project and it reveals very inspiring too thanks to comments here and on the blood forum.
      I actually started to sculpt him some straps and the saddle yesterday knight since I had some spare green stuff. As the project takes shape, I'm getting a good idea of his character and will make a small campaign for him (might even place in on magnets to have a foot version...)
      I'm actually working on several little projects (all part of bigger plans) and it actually keeps my mojo up because I don't get bored. If I do or I don't have any ideas (like what hair colour to give to khorne champions) I just move to another project until I find what I was looking for.

      Delete
  7. Great to see the Khorne champions being close to finish. Elder project looks promisning as well!

    Your knight on a rooster is really cool. Really like that project. Would love to join, but a bit limited hobby time at the moment and of course being totally obsessed to continue on my chaos army :)

    /Hans

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Hans.

      Don't worry for the knight project, it has no real deadline, you can join when you want (that and I want to see Hyeronimus come to life). I'm actually thinking of another group project which could be perfect for your army. Check out the oldhammer forum.

      Delete
    2. Sounds good - will definitely check out the oldhammer forum for this mysterious project /Hans

      Delete
    3. I Just opened the thread at noon, it implies goats...
      You haven't added any beastman to your band right? now his the time!

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    4. Not yet - I have though a nice collection of pre-slotta beast men. Plan to add them to the army sooner or later. Maybe it have to be sooner :)
      /Hans

      Delete

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