Hello, its been a little longer than I would have liked since my last post, but life has a way if getting in the way when it comes to the hobby. Anyway, as previously promised, this post is all about the start of my new Grey Knights project; more specifically, about it's leader, Grand Master Joros of the 8th Brotherhood.
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As you can see, Joros is based on the 2009 Games Day Miniature, Archaon on foot. I chose this miniature for several reasons, firstly its sheer size, it's massive! The model towers over even the new plastic terminators which is perfect as Joros is continually described as a giant even among the ranks of the grey knights. Secondly, the armour looks archaic, the grand masters of the grey knights wear some of the oldest and most venerable wargear within the Imperium. The grey knights are the only chapter still using MkI tactical dreadnought armour.
Using this model did however pose a few problems. First the chainmail that covered the back of the legs and also made up the tabard. Secondly, the string of skulls on the breastplate and thirdly, the tattered wholes in the back of the cloak.
The chainmail, was relatively simple to deal with, I started by sanding it down as much as I could while maintaining its overall shape so to not have to re-sculpt the entire lower back of the model later. I found small pieces of extra fine sandpaper perfect for this job as files just cut into the shape to easily. After the sanding, I simply placed thin layers of green-stuff over the now smooth area and then covered that green-stuff in clingfilm. This is one of my favourite tricks when dealing with large amounts of very thin green-stuff. The clingfilm allows you to work the putty without leaving fingerprints but also helps spread the pressure you put on it more evenly. The best thing is, it also stops things getting stuck to the putty while it is drying. Once the green-stuff is dry, simply peel the clingfilm away.
The skulls made for a slightly harder job as the only way to remove them was to cut into the chest plate itself. Now those of you who know me, know that I am no great fan of green-stuff and love to avoid its use wherever I can, so the idea of re-sculpting the front of the chest piece was not something I was even going to consider. In the end, I cut the skulls away using some round nosed clippers and then smoothed out the chest piece with some more sandpaper. The clippers did leave a few nasty wholes in the chest plate so I decided to use model filler rather than putting to fill these in. Adding a length of chain and two grey knights badges helps to draw the eye away from the less perfect areas of the chest piece, all in all, not a bad job.
As for the cloak, I decided to fill in some of the larger rips/wholes in the length of the cloak but didn't see the need to extend and smooth out the ends. The tattered ends of the cloak give the model a nice weathered look of a Grand Master who leads from the front.
Joros was famed as one of the few Grand Masters to use dual nemesis force falchions and this was a feature of his character I really wanted to focus on. The only problem, is that I hate, and I really do mean hate, the falchions in the terminator box. I think they are far too small and are only bladed on one side. In the end, I took a page from an eastern fighting style called "two swords from heaven". This fighting style uses a full length long sword and a shorter off-hand blade. For a more stylised finish, i reversed the grip on the off-hand blade below the stormbolter mounted on his arm.
I also decided that I wanted to include the scabbards for both the blades. For these I used two of the same sized swords, simply removed the hafts and glued them on below the waist. Simple, but I think very effective.
So, all in all not a bad little start to the army, I've also now have a unit of terminators and a nemesis dreadknight built along with a few more characters. More to come very soon and then maybe even some painting!!!!
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