Knightly Order of the Blazing Sun (Part 3)

 

Unit two ready for action.

I have set my sights on getting more units for this army completed. In particular the second group of Knights. I took a different approach with these models at the priming stage. Instead of painting the whole model white, I instead only painted the riders white and primed the steeds black.  I painted the areas I wanted to paint with Contrast Paints using Corax White. 

Primed black with areas picked out Contrast Paints.

Everything else pretty much follows the same steps that I used on the first unit which I go into detail about in Part 1 and Part 2. The exception being that the unit champion for this unit has yellow wing feathers and all of their lances are yellow instead of black.

A regal champ.

I gave these models a bit more grass tufts on their bases than the first unit and I also added some fallen leaves as well. 

Sally forth! 

On to the next unit! 

Knightly Order of the Blazing Sun (Part 2)

 Tally-Ho!

The Knight of the Blazing Sun charge forth! As I stated at the end of Part 1, I was unsure if I could motivate myself to finish up the unit. Well, having two weeks off for medical reasons, I was able to find that motivation. 

Following the steps laid out in Part 1, the process was pretty simple. In fact I painted the unit's remaining four miniatures, including the leader, in a single afternoon. 

All-in-all, I am quite pleased with them, despite how simple they are. They'll look good on the tabletop, even though two of them have bent lances (hey, it happens! No judgment here).   Ending them back has been futile so  decided to just leave them alone.

Well that's unit one done, but I have at least two more units to go! Keep a look out for Part 3. 

Knightly Order of the Blazing Sun (Part 1)

 Recently I got a bunch of Battlemasters Empire Knights and Halberdiers for a pretty good price. I have the Battlemasters game but there is no way I was going to cannibalize it.  I really hadn't put any thought into doing an Empire of Man Knightly Order Army of Infamy but when I saw this offering on eBay I was totally inspired. Sure, the Battlemasters miniatures are now over 30 years old and showing their age, but painted well and massed up for battle, I think they'll work just fine. 

Assessment of the loot.

To test this out, I needed to model up the first squad. So I picked the guys on yellow horses and affixed them to the newer sized bases. And so far, they look fine. I had to clip off the old slotta bar from the horse hooves and super glue them straight on. It was more of a process than I want to describe but the in the end I think this should work out. 

Based.

After flocking the bases with some grit, I took them out and sprayed them with primer. 

Primed

I picked out a random guy to try out first.

Sir Rando the Chosen.

Then I painted the barding on the horse black. Abaddon Black specifically. The rider was painted using Black Templar Contrast Paint. I then dry brushed Auric Armour over this which produced a very satisfying result.. The horse was painted using Gore Grunter Fur Contrast Paint. 

Basecoated plus.

But this gold was a bit too bright compared to the examples I have seen from GW. So I I gave the armor a wash of Carroburg Crimson.

Auric Armour layer

A subtle layer of Auric Armour was applied as a highlight. I am very pleased with this look so far, and with how easy it is to do.

 Carroburg Crimson layer

The feather topper on his helm was painted using Bad Moon Contrast Paint which was glazed with Bloodletter a d finished off with a modest drybrushing of Averland Sunset. 

Emblem base paint.

I freehand painted the sun symbols on the shield and barding using Corax White. 

Badmoon yellow.

I then carefully went over these symbols using Bad Moon Contrast Paint. 

Touch-up time.

I did  touch-ups using Abaddon Black. I got to confess, this was way harder than I assumed it would be. The current Empire Knights kit comes with decals for the Blazing Sun but for what it goes for on the secondary market it.. .forget it. 

Finished model.

Sans flocking, this model is done. And I am fairly pleased with it. Now to motivate myself to do the rest of them!