Okay, I'm starting this thread to collect some fluff and prep work for now, to be filled in with the actual WIP on my Imperial Knight that I will be building. I'm really excited about this project because it's giving me all kinds of license to try new techniques and explore new ideas that my Eagle Eyes don't afford me.
For starters, here's the logo I'm working up for his personal heraldry.
This will be combined with the Tibbetts family crest, which features three azure cats passant on an ermine field. The blue will be complementary to the gold here.
And here's a quick mockup of the color scheme. I apologize for the crappy color on it, as I was having a tough time with the Photoshop color replacement tool.
My overall ideas are many. I'll try to break it down here:
I want to do a halved scheme. Gold/Yellow on his right (our left), with a modern simplicity, and add a very subtle honeycomb effect behind the yellow with an airbrush. This is his personal side, as a Freeblade, and is where he expresses himself. The other side will be a dark gray/black, and will have Victorian floral scroll accenting it to represent tradition and his link back to the family, as well as family symbols like the cats passant. I'll probably split his left leg like the official GW patterns and put the coat of arms down there as well. I would love to experiment with doing the floral pattern in a gloss black, so that it's (again) very subtle and pops more texturally than color contrast. Think of the books you get with a matte finish, and a gloss pattern highlighted on the front. Also, for the trim, I want to do a nice shiny buffed brass, with deep blue/green corrosion and patina, as the brass will look great on the black side, while the patina will offer a nice contrast with the gold side.
I want to add a pinup girl on there, because part of his fluff will include a pilot with a very amorous nature, including a love interest with a native girl from Tonatzin, where my chapter is based.
I'm also going to town with weathering and battle damage on this bad boy. For personal reasons, I have wanted to do rust and damage for ages, but I love clean marines and I don't want to start a second army. This model gives me the chance to do it, and there's enough to work with that I think it will still look awesome with a fair amount of crud mucking it up.
I do plan to repose and magnetize this dude. I want his black leg up, crushing something (working on getting bits) and I want to use the base to add some narrative scenery. His marine allies (click the sig link below to see them) have burned ash village bases, and this larger base gives me a chance to add part of a ruined building and maybe even a cowering civilian behind a half wall. It's just fun, but it also lets me keep telling the story I've been building with my main army.
I do plan to do a fair amount of customization to the machine as well. I think the lattice-work torso would be a great spot to add little touches to make this machine feel old/lived in. I'm thinking a couple cracked areas, reinforced with bolted on splints, maybe a fetish hanging on some rope tied around a beam, heck I even thought about adding a tiny bird's nest (or bee hive, but that's too much theme) would be funny for anyone who cared to look close enough to look. On top of that, I plan to wrap a few rags/duct tape-looking patches around some of the cables and wires bopping around this beast.
The scale of the model opens up all sorts of opportunities for super-detailing and really just going all-out of it. I can't wait to get my hands on it and really start telling a story. Keep an eye on this space and keep my honest. I want to take my time and actually do all the things I have planned, instead of rushing into it so I can throw it in a game. I will only be buying one of them, and it's probably as close as I'm ever getting to painting anything besides green and red unless I win the lottery.
Edited by JeffTibbetts, 23 November 2015 - 09:13 PM.