Cold One Knights Odyssey

My Cold One Knight unit led by their General

Cold One Knights

Wow, I started this article in July 2019 to report about my progress on the Cold One Knights I made in March 2019. Since that a lot of things happend. First my work on the Cold One Knights were interrupted by painting the Warhydra for the #MakeaTrish painting Challenge in the Oldhammer FB group in April 2019. Second I realized that I miss a Cold One Knight lance type which turned out to be unreleased. I took the time to sculpt a replica of this lance in May 2019. Third, because I was into sculpting I decided to move on with my work on the unreleased Dark Riders. At this point the Cold One Knights were thus far below in my priority list that I skipped them everytime in favor of doing something else. I returned to my Cold One Knights in December 2020 when starting an initative cleaning my workbench of everything which was work in progress. In the first weeks of January I was able to finish two "work in progress" Knights and to rearrange the Cold One Kinghts Champion on his new Cold One. I quickly moved on with the next two Knights for which I had already finished painting the Cold Ones. This work was interupted again in February when finishing a contemporary "work in progress" Death hag for my Daughters of Khaine. End of February I had finished two more knights, but both still miss some work on the pennants and on their shields. Because my job was very exhausting at that time point I had no energy to finish these difficult tasks. Instead I went for the low hanging fruits and painted the Cold One for the Standard Bearer of the unit in March. When writing these lines we have mid of June and I am still working hard to finish my the second pair of Cold One Knights and the Standard Bearer . This would allow me having a full regiment counting six Cold One Knights. Lets see how far I have come and take a look at the details.  

Rearrangement of the Cold One Knights Champion

The Cold One Knights Champion was one of the first miniatures I had painted within this project. At that point the project was not that structured as today. Therefore, it was built with parts I had at hand. With more and more research in the Cold One Knights I wanted to rebuild the studio regiment. But, this required to switch the Champion to another Cold One. Some of you had probably read the article about the planing and initial steps of building that regiment two years ago. This process was performed so far that the Cold Ones changed the Bases but neithter were the bases finished and painted nor was the Cold One of the Champion finished. Additionally the former Cold One missed a new rider. The starting situation of my Cold one Knights regiment was even more chaotic. 

The Cold One Knight regiment on my Workbench in May 2019

Instead of finishing the started Knights with available Cold Ones I painted a further Cold One in May 2019. At this point I had four mostly finished Cold Ones without riders beside a nearly finished Champion on his new Cold One and two Knights work in progress. On each miniature some detail work was still needed. That was how I left this regiment in May 2019 when the lance problem occured.

 

The unreleased Cold One Knights Lance

When planing the Cold One Knights regiment I did a lot of research on the Studio army. I realized that there is a second Cold One Knight lance, which looks like it was released but was very hard to find. But until today I was not able to find one, neither on the marketplaces nor in anyones collection. Therefore, I think it was a rather unreleased bit, probably due to some casting problems. Already in spring 2019 I realized that this search could take a bit longer. Therefore, I started to sculpt a replica of it. The scultping wasn´t that difficult with having the reference pictures from the catalogue pages at hand. In the end it need a couple of days to have it finished in end of May 2019. 

Sculptured replica of the unreleased lance in comparison to the released one

 

However, I needed at least two of these to copy its appearance in the studio regiment. Therefore, the casting of it would be necessary. But the casting process makes only sense, when you have enough stuff to fill the mold. It needed a whole year and a couple of further projects and its greens and bits to perform this step. In May 2020 I was ready to do the mold making. The lance was very large and I had problems to fit it into my small mold. It was possible but with a very flat angle. I already feared that the casting will become a problem and I should be right on this. I ran more than two dozen castings of the mold and finally get four complete lances from this session. However, that was enough to fulfill my task.

 

The return of the Cold One Knights       

Due to a lot of other work in progress miniatures it needed until end of the year 2020 before returning to the Cold One Knights. The end of the year is mostly the time I clean my workbench from unfinished stuff. In this regard I had first finished my work in progress Executioners. Then, I started again the work on the Knights. Two were lying around on my workbench half way painted. I started with the one who would carry one of my replica lances. The Knight and his lance were quickly painted. But, I had a lot of troubles with the lance pennants. First, they did not fit properly, then I cut out their fixations to long and had to fill the gap and then the runes in NMM gold did not work. It was a lot of try and error to make this work. I was more than happy, when this guy was finished January 5th. 

Cold One Knight still with gold rune colour

I moved on to the next Knight to reproduce what I had learned. I started with finishing the base of the formerly Champions Cold One which should become his new mount. The Knight was then quickly painted and also the missing parts of the saddle of the Champions Cold One were also finished so that these two miniatures were finished just five days later. It was the end of the first week in January and I had finished work on these three Cold One Knights now standing in front of me on my workbench.

 

That was a very good start into the new year and into the third year of my 4th Edition Dark Elves army project. Quickly, I moved on with painting the next two knight where I had already the Cold Ones for.

 

View on my Workbench at January 14th, 2021

But, in contrast to their colleagues their finish took some endless time. I had several breaks on them because I finished / painted other stuff and also private life and my job drained most of my energy. I was able to get one knight on his saddle until mid of march and also the the pennant was already prepared and fixed. But again a difficult time in my private life appeared on the horizon.

 

The Knights at March 22nd, 2021

During this time it was very hard to motivate myself painting the penannts and shields. Therefore, I continued the work on the other Knight. Motivation and the energy was low and in the rare cases I sat down on the workbench I looked for painting something simple. At that point the Cold One of the Standard Bearer sneaked into my view and took its chance. During this time I painted the Cold One or the remaining knight always in depandance how much energy was left. With the beginning of April I finished the Cold One first and in less distance the knight and put him on his saddle.

Painting the Standard Bearers Cold One and the remaining Knight in the beginning of April 2021

The smiling thirds

While the two unfinished knights still fight for my attention, the Standard Bearers and the next knight which is already part of the reinforcement get on my workbench. After some first painting sessions on both I quickly focused on the Standard Bearer. 

Continue painting the Standard Bearer and more Knights

I had a good start on him but here as well I quickly loose my motivation when life became that hard that I did not paint miniatures for weeks. When I returned to my workbench again I was a bit out of practice and decided to do something completly different. I finished a Realm of Chaos Slaanesh Champion which laid on my pile of shame since 2009 and a couple of Daemonettes for some excercise. One evening I grabbed for the Standard Bearer instead for the next Slaanesh Follower. I had a lot of fun painting all the NMM golds on this evening and I was again on fire. 

Painting the Standard Bearer in end of July 2021

With this experience I went to vacation on the Baltic Sea with my family. We had a very good and relaxing time there. With new energy I returned home and I could not wait to start painting again and to finish the Standard Bearer. Meanwhile it was already mid of July. It took me a couple of painting sessions, before I was able to put him on his Cold One in end of July. 

The finished Standard Bearer between his comrades

 

Banner please!

Now there was only one thing left to fnish this dude. The Banner of the Cold One Knights Standard Bearer. The Banner wich was designed from Neil Hodgson for the studio army is one of the most beautiful ones and is beside his Army Standard my favorite Banner design. The banner design was published in White Dwarf #190. There was need to transfer it to a line template. I used a scan and photoshop to create my template. I adjusted the contrast to very light and printed it. The template was sprayed with three layers of matt vanish to seal the surface. Then I started painting my beloved banner design. Time and motivation was on my side and I fnished the banner in only three sessions in a couple of days in the beginning of August. 

Prepared print of the banner design ready to paint

First half done

Second half done

The finished Banner after adding some more details and corrections

However, two more weeks had gone by until I was able to fix it to the standard and give it its finish.

Freehand madness

Finishing the Standard Bearer was a great motivation. Especially, because the banner turned out that good was a big surprise as I had a lot of respect of its design. I thought it would be good to use the flow and continued with more freehand work. Time to paint one other point on my to do list of things I prefered to skive off... SHIELDS! They should carry also a skull design fitting to their pennant. I had already done one of these designs but I was a bit unhappy because the skull was slightly to large for my taste. This time I wanted to try a bit smaller design. The shields for three were already prepared and painted on their back side. This time I decided to paint them without mask and use freehand skills only.

I also decided to paint them ALL at ONCE to get a highly reproducible result. Therefore, the armory was very busy in the end of august with some Dark Elves shield mass production. The most important thing were the line sizes and arrangements in the beginning to get a reproducible result. Here I really used a ruler to check the correct size and location. Later lines and proportions were estimated. It is important to have a strategy what is drawn in which sequence to get the correct size and proportions. Later stages include corrections using foreground and background and vice Versa to shape the final design. Fine lining techniques were used to define the outlines and details. Blending techniques were used to create attractive areas with depth and details. I put the individual stages on different shields to demonstrate the process. I hope this helps you to get an idea what I had done there. 

Step by step process of the freehand development

One more finished and step by step development of the following

Three skulls finished, rough details on the forth and proportions on the fifth

All freehands finished and the golden edge was added

Finished shields with battle damage

My nemesis

Time to finish my nemesis. Time to finish the two remaining Knights. I started with the "low hanging fruits" and therefore with the Knight who misses only the finish on his pennant and base. The golden outline was added and the light situation on the pennant was adapted in depandance of the drapery. He also get one of my finished shields. At this point point it only takes one painting sessions to finish this guy. Insane that since half a year I was a couple of evenings away from finishing this Knight. But sometimes I have this blockade which need some distance to get through it. I moved on to the last Knight. I painted his pennant which was already prepared and ready for painting since a long time. It took me two small sessions to paint it and fixed it to his lance. Then I gave it its finish and added some more details to the base of the Cold One Knight. Finally, the Knight get also on of the finished shields and he completed my unit of six Cold One Knights.

 

 

 

These pictures just give an overview with the regiment in focus. I have planned to publish some more articles concentrating on single miniatures and groups of miniatures showing these knights more in detail. So far I hope these pictures give you a first impression and I hope you like the result. As always I would be happy to read your thoughts and your feedback in the comments. 

Outlook

People who know the Studios Dark Elves Army know that my unit does not cover it at all. There are some more Cold One Knights and Characters riding Cold Ones and I want them all! I want TEN Knights! That means two more Knights and the Battle Standard Bearer have to be included in this unit. While writing these lines a further Knight is already work in progress. He also will ride a bluish coloured Cold One which is already finished. The Knight is already half way done. The second Knight is ready to get painted. The conversion for the Battle Standard Bearer is finished and I am more than happy with this character. I can´t wait to paint this miniature and I am sure this Dude will become a centerpiece of this regiment and of this army. Here some teaser what will be on the workbench until end of the year.

 

 

 Two teaser pictures will show what will come next and that this regiment is not finished yet

Now I am at the end of this article. It is already clear that finishing this regiment swallowed most on my spare hobby time in 2021. Thanks for joining me on this trip. Thanks a lot for reading and I hope you enjoyed this wall of text and pictures. Stay tuned for the further progress on this mighty regiment.

 

Kind Regards,

GeOrc