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!