A Year in Miniatures 15: Knight Abominant Pilot

So remember yesterday when I wrote “Up next - something much smaller! Or maybe, a small part of something bigger…“? It’s almost like I know what was coming…

Corvix Valka, my knight desecrator, has been looking lonely. It’s time she had a friend to play with. And since GW put out an updated chaos knight that comes with adorable birds, it is clear that the stars have aligned to provide the ideal playmate to the 40-foot war machine.

This is going to be a longish process, even by my standards. I have some pretty elaborate plans for this knight, and it’s going to be a while before any of it sees fruition. However, I’ve planned to do the work in manageable chunks, the first of which is building and painting the pilot for what is eventually going to be Lady Nemain, second knight of House Morrigan.

The cockpit and body actually come from the Canis Rex kit, with some modifiications to make it fit the chaosy theme a bit better. Given that pilot is going to be pretty hard to see, and shadowed by the carapace and hatch when she is visible, I’ve been pretty loose with the paintjob, focussing on pops of colour and readable shapes that will work well from weird angles in bad light rather than technical perfection. Hence the choices of red and white as the main colours, with pops of contrasting purple and green and very heavy blacklining.

We’re going with red rather than green for the lights and dials, primarily to help differentiate Nemain from Valka (the latter used green). Like her sister, Nemain is going to have more than a few actual lights, but I want her to have quite a different, more violent vibe. Just as Valke isn’t technically a Desecrator, I suspect Nemain to end not being play legal as an Abominant, but then anyone I’d play against is fine with ‘counts as’ so it’s unlikely to matter!

I wanted to emphasise the sense of a once noble hero gradually corrupted over time. Armour that was once shining white is now chipped, pitted, and corroded. This is actually the last time I used chipping medium, I’ve some to dislike how it looks on 28mm (or thereabouts) scale human armour, and it feels easier just to stipple on some damage. I still find it excellent for things with larger surface area, and was expecting to use it a lot as Lade Nemain progressed. However, I’ve recently decided to take it in a different direction. More on that next time!

29/10/22
Weeks Elapsed: 43
Miniatures Finished: 36