WIP: Imperial Knight (freehand update)

Warhammer 40,000: Imperial Knight shoulder pads (basecoat)

It's been a couple of weeks since I touched this project so it's overdue some attention and another update. After working so hard on my Imperial Knight earlier in the month, I needed a break to work on some other things. It also meant I could actually finish some models. The sheer size of the Imperial Knight model means that the effort expended on it is comparable to painting several much smaller models to completion. By way of comparison, each of these shoulder pads is taller than a space marine. This should probably make them easier to paint, right? Well, not exactly. The shoulder pads are the last bits I have to do on the model. I admit that another reason I've put them off is that they require freehand and that makes me nervous...

I like freehand work. I think it can look great and really lift a model. I much prefer it to transfers. And I'm not terrible at it in moderation... But I wouldn't say I'm good. I don't have the steadiest of hands (thanks, Dad) and I'm also not the best when it comes to drawing, especially with a brush. What I tend to have to do is mark out my designs in pencil first, then paint them in. Here's what I have so far...

The first half of the design

The idea is to have the beige side of the shoulder pads facing front, each with an alternate design. The designs will be mirrored in reverse on the red side of the other shoulder pad. I've done the cog pattern first as it's the easiest. The next stage is to paint half eagles (from the Imperial eagle icon) onto the other half of each pad. That's the bit I'm dreading: so many lines! If I can pull it off, I think it will look really good, but I expect there to be a lot of tidying up to do.

The colours are very flat at the moment. That's because I'm painting them all as base colours for the time being (Rakarth Flesh and Khorne Red). This has the benefit that it makes it easier to tidy up any mistakes (of which there will be many). The final stage will be to shade it using very thin glazes of Reikland Fleshshade and Agrax Earthshade and highlight it with glazes of the original basecoat, mixed with slightly lighter tones. That's the part I'm looking forward to, mainly because it means my Imperial Knight will be almost finished!