My latest Konquest...

My latest super secret project can now be revealed...

After stating I'd concentrate on painting a full Menoth faction I quickly bailed on this in favour of some Khador – what! I hear you say!!! I ended up purchasing a Conquest down at Maelstrom when I visited the Eye of the Storm for the Open War 18 tournament three weeks ago – it just called out to me :-)

Conquest - Source PP official website

Khador Red

It had been a while since I'd painted Khador red, but knew I'd followed the guide in the Khador faction book, with a couple of exceptions. The book suggests quite harsh layers, which are then smoothed by many thin coats of red ink – this would give the red armour a very strong colour as well as unify the harsh layering. I opted to do a smoother layering technique and not apply the ink, this makes my colour scheme a little more pastel, but I was happy with the result.

The basic technique (I use) is to apply about six coats of Khador Red base over a black undercoat, this is necessary to make a good strong base colour, the trick is not to be tempted to put the paint on too thickly, but rather apply several layers. Using a white undercoat may make this step faster, though the undercoat will seriously affect the overall finish and I prefer black.

Shading

The shading is a combination of pure Sanguine Base for the darkest areas and mixing Sanguine Base with medium/clean water to make a wash. The wash basically tints the Khador Red base and makes a nice transition with the pure Sanguine Base shading. I 'feathered' the wash a little and used some pure Khador Red later to make the transition smoother.

Highlighting

The highlighting was achieved with mixing successive amounts of Khador Red Highlight with the Base colour and applying it in thin layers. Finally a thinned (with medium/water) pure Khador Red Highlight was used on the upper most highlights.

Metals

The metals were done to previously discussed techniques and colour selection, basically from Tin Bitz to Chainmail for the silvers with Badab Black as a wash. I did the gold with the P3 colours, but used Griphonne Sepia to shade it rather than the chestnut ink technique discussed previously. I did this because I wanted the Menoth gold to stand apart from the Khador gold. Also the Khador Red is very 'warm' as a colour and the gold didn't really need the warmth that the chestnut ink would provide.

Work in progress

The photos below show some work in progress, the base was done first, then the legs, then the upper torso and finally the arms. From the WIP shots you can see that I pinned the legs and base, this was done to stop the huge machine breaking at a joint which probably has too little contact adhesive, basically the slate base won't tessellate exactly to the foot, nor will the gravel on the other. The pins make this important joint strong.

The ball and socket joint for the upper and lower torsos also has a large pin, again there is considerable weakness and potential for stress at this point and I felt a pin was needed. Lastly there are double pins which run laterally through the upper torso to support the shoulders and arms. As the upper torso is hollow I use pins which were about 3” long and traversed the whole upper torso – again I felt this was a weak joint that needed increased strength.

Legs (front) and base

Legs (rear) and base

Legs/base (close-up)

Upper torso attached

Basing

I spent quite a bit of time on the base and felt that this came out well, the mighty Konquest is smashing through a line of razorwire as if it weren't even there!! I tried to get the pose quite dynamic as his left foot crushes the wire, dragging it taught at the steel post. I realised that early on the Conquest didn't stand very well and his right foot was 'awkward', so I had to sever the join and repose with a pin, but still the pose was awkward. I therefore turned this to an advantage and sought a piece of slate to fit the right foot and make it level again. I mixed up a lot of undulating earth to give a sense of unevenness of the battlefield, the huge 5” base lends itself to this nicely. Regards to basing, I'll do a separate article on this as I'm going to do one for Dave. I'll try and take photos at every stage so that it is clear.

Base (ready for a Konquest)!

 To Chip or not to Chip?

I decided not to go for the chipped armour effect that the PP studio Colossals have, for a couple of reasons; firstly my other Khador 'jacks don't have this and Conquest would look a bit out of place perhaps and secondly I spent ages painting the highlights and shades, just to obliterate it somewhat! I've done chipped paintwork before on my 40K Orks vehicles, but these lent themselves to it a bit easier, being a bit more 'comical'.

Below are a series of pics of the finished Khadoran monster :-)

Next his buddy Judicator!  Can't wait until he arrives :-)