Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Adeptus Mechanicus - Knight Errant built

My plans for the hobby have been altered fairly dramatically of late, with the World Eaters army project coming to a premature halt. Nevertheless, my enthusiasm for the hobby continues unabated! After doing a mess of Thousand Sons and more recently a mess of World Eaters, I have to admit I'm a bit ambivalent about painting any more marines in the near term. The fact that I'm forced to pillage my hobby fund account to help offset the IRS bill means that I'm not buying much in the near future either. So, into the depths of the Closet of Doom for project fodder I went and my eye fell on a couple boxes marked "Ad-Mech Bits"...


The continually amazing Ulfhedin and company over at the Tempus Fugitives forums have been hard at work updating the various codexes they've done for the Age of the Emperor events. Most recent of which has been a massive update to the Cult Mechanicus codex, which I've rather enjoyed reading and has gotten me fired up to work on the cogboys for a while!

At the moment I'm still pawing through the bits boxes sorting out what's going to be used on what models/vehicles, but one bag in particular stood out. Several years back I'd worked on a pair of Knight Paladins from two different sculptors. The one done by BigDaddy (now of Blight Wheel Miniatures) was by far my favorite, and at the time I'd also purchased a Knight Errant from him. However it has just sat in a box in the Closet of Doom for the past two and a half years. But no longer!


The Knight Errant is designed as a close-range mauler with its power fist and Thermic Cannon. In the context of the Tempus Fugitives rule set, it's treated as a Walker with 4 hull points and armor of 14/13/12 (with a few various special rules) and runs about 265 points as shown here. In previous incarnations it was treated as a Superheavy, but at this point it's more of a large vehicle. It's far less resilient than it was in the previous TF codex, but far more reasonable for normal play.


The kit was a joy to assemble, with multiple hinges and joints which allow for some dynamic posing. I tried to give it a real sense of motion as it strides across the battlefield, and I'm really looking forward to painting it! I'm bummed that I didn't pick up a few more of these when they were available, but unfortunately due to rampant re-casting and people trying to profit off his hard work, BigDaddy discontinued production of these years ago. Nevertheless, his sculpting talents are being put to excellent use over at Blight Wheel Miniatures, and while the range is limited, it's definitely worth looking through their store!

7 comments:

  1. Love the knight! I just wish they were more readily available! I'm planning on getting back to my Warden sometime in September.

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  2. Yay! Mechanicus! ;-)

    Looking forward to seeing what you'll come up with this time!

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  3. Thanks folks!

    @Sir Tainly - Awesome! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

    @KrautScientist - There's a whole army on the way, just putting it together on paper and matching up what I have in the boxes. There's enough so far for a good 1500 points easily, but when all is said and done it'll no doubt be another 3000-4000 point monster. :)

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  4. LOVE IT. plain and simple. while I mourn the loss of your World Eaters, I love what you've picked up :)

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  5. Thanks Tim!

    I have to say, while the World Eaters came together nicely, I'm rather relishing the opportunity to really do some kitbashing to build the Ad Mech. Building wild and crazy stuff is the best part, to me! :)

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  6. Wow, that's quite a model. Really is a good homage to the old Epic Knights sculpts. Sad that I missed out beign able to get one.

    Have you seen the ones Three Stage Studios has on sale? Not bad sculpts also. Wish I had to $$$ for one of them too! :)

    Hurry up and get this baby painted!

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  7. Thanks! I'm a big fan of this style as well. There's another fellow selling a knight paladin on eBay that's interesting looking, it's a bit more streamlined than this one. I've owned one of the ones that TSS is selling way back in the day. It was a fun model too but was a little bulbous for my tastes.

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