The Knights of Warhammer 40,000 are inspiring machines, both in the setting itself and for hobbyists. They present a massive canvas for painters, much greater in size than a Space Marine or Hormagaunt, and with untold forge worlds and Knight houses out there, they provide almost unlimited scope for colour schemes and conversions. Chaos Knights take that even further, offering the opportunity for even stranger conversions that break orthodoxy. With the impending release of Codex: Chaos Knights, we tapped up Jake from the Warhammer Painting Team to talk about one particularly vile creation he made a few years ago – before the Chaos Knight kit even existed.
Jake: I remember seeing the trailer for the original Chaos Knights release many moons ago – and being a fan of kitbashing, Chaos, and giant robots, I got way too excited and created a nightmarish beast: The Scab King. This was before the first plastic Chaos Knight kit had been released, so to conjure what I had in my mind’s eye, I knew I’d have to get creative. Whilst the thought of customising a Knight can be daunting at first, due to its immense size, in reality I found that it is surprisingly simple. You have a lot more surface area to play with, which makes things a little more forgiving – it just takes a bit more time!
I knew the first thing I wanted to do was to change the legs of the beast. Having already made a sizeable Imperial Knights army, I wanted to push things further this time and make the Chaos versions of these noble steeds into twisted amalgamations of flesh and metal. I had a dig around all of the Chaos kits I’ve accumulated over the years and found the Forgefiend.* Its weird canine body encased in thick armour was the perfect starting point for a new Knight.
The kit builds either a Forgefiend or a Maulerfiend, and so it has lots of spare parts. I built the torso first, turning it upside down before sticking all the appendages on to create a six legged core. I combined the neck and lasher tendrils pieces to make the tail, and finally the torso of the Chaos Knight was slotted into the neck of the Forgefiend. I used some spare pipes and pieces from various kits to make this as seamless as possible. To make the Knight look a little bit more Chaos-y, I used a multitude of kits to add spikes, bodies, and tusks.** My favourite part is the still-living Ultramarines Captain chained to the Knight’s shoulder pad. His face has been flayed off, and his exposed brain is plugged into the machine – wonderful, gory stuff!
Before I applied an undercoat to the miniature, the final touch was the sporadic application of Martian Ironearth across the miniature. I wanted to create the feeling of the metal warping and blistering due to the Chaos energies within, and when this Technical paint dries it provides an incredible cracked texture, which was just what I wanted. I painted the model relatively quickly and settled on a muted gold scheme with Chaos insignia applied in red across the model. The scabs themselves were wet-blended with a mix of pinks and yellows and sealed with Ardcoat varnish, creating oozing, painful sores across the Knight’s metallic flesh.
It’s been a few years now but I am still incredibly proud of this model, and my Imperial Knights collection too. The temptation to dive into a whole new force of Chaos Knights is ever present, and I have plans for a four-armed, Keeper of Secrets-inspired Knight Lancer and a Plague-spreader doing the good work for Nurgle…
Cheers, Jake! Codex: Chaos Knights is available to pre-order tomorrow, and the better behaved Imperial version will follow later in the year. We’ll let you know when, right here on Warhammer Community.
* This is why we call it a pile of potential, and not a pile of shame.
** Perhaps Jake was gifted with foresight during this process, as the Knight Abominant has its own pair of gigantic tusks.
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