Hey gang. Sorry I've been off the grid for the last week or so. I've been somewhat busy!
Not with work or anything IRL...I still have my busted wing and the usual moderate to lava in my veins levels of pain that entails; mainly because it's becoming quite evident that the surgeon probably knicked a nerve when he was digging around, causing my pain receptors to go a little bit batamphetamine parrot crazy at times. Nah, don't worry, it was all hobby stuff.
Which is nice.
So, I've actually stepped away from the Nighthaunt this week because I had more pressing matters to attend to. There was a store event today that I wanted to participate in and to do so, I was going to need to get my painting boots on.
I had to paint a Knight in a week.
Now, it's not as bad as all that. I had done all of the prep work way back when I had just finished the Armigers. It was also the time when Forgeworld stopped selling their clear paints. That led to some hunting about and testing. In the end, I settled on Tamiya Clear Red, but it took weeks for it to come through the post, by which time I had moved on to the Idoneth and Nighthaunt and a couple of other projects that may see the light of day at some stage..
But it was still a lot of work to do, because a Knight is a lot of work!
I also wanted to paint it in my Squadron's colours again. Black and red. Only this time, I wanted to incorporate more elements of the Squadron iconography into the work.
I decided to incorporate the Squadron 'flash' into the design:
At some stage, I'll also add the XXIV into each piece:
And I managed it...although the Icarus Cannon thingy obscures it a little, when it's attached:
I appreciate that the work isn't perfect. I was rushing and the paint hadn't totally dried, hence the 'damage'. That said, I've not yet finished the Knight, so it'll all be fine once touch ups and weathering have taken place. You'll not notice the shoddy bits of the work.
But enough flashing of thigh, I'll let you see where I have got to. Again, I'd reiterate that this needs touch up work and weathering plus some more work on the base (The green stuff was done at 0100 last night and I didn't have any time to make it look any better. I also need to source a groin plate. No clue where that thing has disappeared to!
So there you go! 95% complete. Just some tarting up to do now.
Plus some critical decisions...which is where I need your help.
The Squadron Crest has the motto 'In Omnia parati'.
'In all things prepared'. Or, put another way, ready for anything. Apt for a 60' tall walking war machine.
That's easy to work in. Lady Omnia, Keeper of the 7th Vale. Baron Paratus, Guardian of the Blessed Rhubarb. That kind of thing. Easy.
Here's the difficult part. The animal featured on the crest is a Black Cockerel.
Am I really going to name the Princeps in charge of this Knight World 'The Black Cock'??!!!
I'm thinking of tweaking it to The Black Cockatrice. That should work.
So here's the question; Can anyone think of any transfer set in any system (from any company for that matter) that produces transfers (In white, as it's the only colour that shows up well enough), of a cockerel. Or, failing that, anywhere that allows you to design and order transfers (as I can't print white using my printer at home)?
Any help would be amazeballs.
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So I mentioned a store event that I was getting ready for. It was titled 'A Knight to Remember'. Formally known as the All Night Knight Night.
And hells bells it was a giggle.
A 6' by 8' playing area. 2 teams. 6 people. 28 Knights.
Twenty. Eight. Knights.
Pffffffffffffffffff
fffffffffffffffffff
fffffffffffffff.
Turn 1 was about as good as it got for me. I moved up and claimed a couple of objectives (That granted rerolls or VPs depending on a D6 roll).
I also weathered a storm of 5 (5!) knights shooting at my brand new Errant. It only took about 2 wounds. Most of the shooting was from Crusaders too...so they were festooned with weapons. Seriously, we were joking that the shiny paint had been thrice blessed by the Omnissiah or something. People were whiffing shots or wound rolls left, right and centre. If they did get through, I was rolling 5s like a champ. Nothing was getting through. It would be a good day. An all conquering day. A day of heroes. A day of valiant deeds.
Yeah, that was the plan.
Unfortunately, the 6th Knight that shot it that saw things tumble off a cliff downhill for me! All 22 wounds stripped, an explosion and stripping half the wounds off the Armigers as a result. Yeah.
Fortunately, you could recycle Knights for 1 VP, so my Errant (And my Warden, to a lesser extent) were able to take advantage of this as I was left facing the fury of 3 Crusaders, 2 Armigers and a Big Frost Wolf thingy every turn while my team swung round the left flank and
won the entire game in a series of glorious engagements did sod all.
Seriously, our dice were stone cold. Like the grasp of a bloody White Walker. Theirs, on the other hand, were red hot. It was crazy how badly we played and how monstrously they capitalised on it.
But, you know what? Nobody cared*. It was amazing fun. Seriously, if you can ever get some mates together for this kind of beer and pretzels crazy fun, just do it...and don't let anyone calculate a single points cost, because that would immediately ruin it.
Thanks for tuning in fellas, take it easy!
*
Well, one guy cared. He only had 1 Knight and was the only guy that bothered claiming cover at any stage of the game and was rolling Tzeentch dice that nobody could decipher except him. I kid you not; he may as well have declared shooting, thrown some chicken bones into the air and then told you that everything was dead. Who the hell uses dice that even they struggle to read??!!!