The White Queen Walks!

I've finally finished my Knight Tyrant, the White Queen! In this post I'll show off a few pictures and talk about some of the conversion and painting ideas I used. Alternatively (or additionally, if you so desire) I have a background piece which can be found either in the side bar or right here. It's a bit horror-tinged, appropriately for the season.

In short though, if you're too busy (or jaded, you sour old veteran you) to read that, the idea is that the White Queen is an initially noble Knight which has fallen to the sin of Pride*. Accordingly, it looks beautiful and pure with only a few subtle hints that All Is Not Well**.

Since the White Queen has no House, its chest-scroll proclaims 'Salvation'

So, on to the modelling stuff. Having decided that I was going for 'pretty' as opposed to 'soul-shreddingly horrifying' for the Tyrant, I hit upon the idea of making it look almost like a fairy-tale castle, with lots of flags, bunting and pennants. To this end, I first drilled holes in the tops of the turrets for the Siegebreaker cannons and inserted a couple of flags from the Drukhari Raider kit. Initially I was going to use the robe parts from Shalaxi Helbane as weapon banners, but it became apparent that they were so long that they'd make transporting the Knight extremely hard and would also fall in an odd way. Instead, I used a couple of pennants from the Witch Elf kit on the arms and attached the Helbane robes to the legs of the Knight at the hips.

This side's banners read 'Honour' and 'Defender of the Weak'

I also added some of Helbane's jewellery on the carapace, the chest-plate and the loincloth, using Green Stuff here and there to add extra little balls to the beaded ropes where they didn't quite fit. In addition to these details, I also decided to add lots of sculpted armour plates to make the hull of the Knight prettier.*** In order to do this, I used some moulding material and took casts of the back of the mirror from a Cauldron of Blood and the floor of a Seeker Chariot, which I then pressed into wet Green Stuff on the pauldrons, carapace front, and armoured hood. To these I added a couple of Doom Sirens I'd taken a cast of some time ago, and a cast of the Slaanesh Icon from the legacy CSM command sprue, which was added to the right leg and left shoulder. 

On this side, the banners read 'Virtue' and 'Praise and Worship'

To cap things off, and make the thing look just that little bit weirder, I took a cast of Helbane's face and pressed it onto the Knight's head without the mask on it. After a couple of tries, this came out cleanly enough that I was able to fit the head jewellery from the kit into the slot in the face before gluing the beaded ropes from it to the inside of the hood. I also took a cast of a Daemonette's face and pressed it into the Mechanicus symbols on the twin reactors and the back ends of the weapons. The hull was further accessorised by replacing the railing with spikes and trophies from a Raider.

The Daemonette faces are a bit twisted and distorted, but this seems completely appropriate.

To paint the thing, I left the fully-assembled carapace off, allowing me to remove the arms and work on them separately. I also put a couple of magnets inside the dome of the leg fitting, and two more inside the body so that the Knight could break into two at the waist for transport. A small Green Stuff socket prevents the model from sagging forwards at the waist, which it otherwise liked to do. I sprayed everything apart from the top of the carapace with good old Chaos Black, doing the carapace itself in Wraithbone, before painting the armour panels and banners with more Wraithbone. From there it was a case of laying in the metalwork, using drybrushing on the gold to bring out as much of the moulded detail as possible. The white was based with Apothecary White Contrast paint and the pink with Volupus Pink before conventional paints were used to highlight the pink and smooth out the white. As always the white could be smoother, but that sort of thing is why you're reading this here and not in White Dwarf.

I'm well aware that the pink-tipped Shieldbreaker missiles look like lipstick, but that amuses me so I'm keeping them that way.

For a few special effects, I painted the inside of the sculpted Slaanesh runes pink, then filled the hollow with water-effect gel. Though it's very hard to see in the pictures, I painted a bloody hand-print on the cockpit glass and covered it with a couple of thin layers of Water Effect before adding a final highlight and lowlight to the glass, which was then varnished with 'Ardcoat to give the impression that the print is on the inside. It sort-of-works when you can see it past the shine. 'Ardcoat was also used on the various lights and gems, as well as on the eyes and lips to add some life to them.

I added a couple of small transfers to the banners, but other than a few slogans I didn't add any extra details to the armour panels. I prefer the pure, clean look and my freehand skills largely suck.**** The metal was finished with Grey Knight Steel, both because the blueish metal fits in well and because it probably annoys them a bit.

Overall I'm very happy with how she came out. Stay tuned for some War Dogs some time this week, and don't forget the background piece if you're thirsty for more right now...





*Yes, Pride. You thought all my Slaanesh stuff was only about the Lust, didn't you? Admit it!

**Or less subtle, if you're not an innocent Imperial citizen who doesn't know what the Rune of Slaanesh looks like.

***And also to avoid having to paint too much insignia. Yes, we've got some Sloth going on here too.

****Also, Sloth again.