This is one of the more fun projects I have done, a looted Imperial Knight!
This project started out as an idea for some heavy hitting power for my Ork army. I didn’t really like playing Orks since they did away with clans, but I was already deeply invested. My solution was to play my Orks as Astra Militarum, or as I call them Blood Axe Boyz. This solves two problems – it makes my Orks enjoyable to play again, and also gets rid of the alliance issues since both are now technically Imperium units.
Eventually I would like to find a way to ally my Blood Axes and my Orks into something fun to play in a casual setting.
For this project I used the Imperial Knight kit, a faceplate from a Deff Dread, trukk tires, and a Gorkanaut Klaw from Games Workshop. I also used a Field Cannon, Goblin Artillery Crew, and a Goliath Mine Operator from Kromlech. I kept the design simple and clean (for orks) since historically, the Blood Axes maintain their gear and openly trade with the Imperium.
I started this by assembling the legs, torso, and arms, but not gluing the three sections together. The pegs on the dred faceplate matched up to the eyes on the knight head perfectly, taking out any guesswork as to whether or not it was glued in the ideal spot. One of the jaw pieces in the dred kit also made an awesome spiky shroud. I used half of an ork trukk tire on each side of the knee joint and to replace the shin plate that comes with the model.
All of the assembled bits were then given a primer/base coat of Krylon Olive Drab Camouflage paint.
I decided that the rapid fire battle cannon would be a lot more orky than the thermal cannon (boom > whoosh). I wanted a more orky gun shield on it, but then I noticed that the shield that comes with the kit is also what couples the barrel to the mount. Undeterred, I broke out my hobby knife and tapered the bottom of the barrel so that it would fit directly into the mount.
The field cannon gun and shield ended up fitting almost perfectly on top of the main gun, its rear nestled neatly between the hydraulic pistons which helped to hold it in place. It almost looked like it was meant to be there!
Next, I needed to come up with a suitable beefy left arm that would complement the size of the right. The reaper chainsword was a little too wimpy for my guy, so I tried a few different things to make it look more ferocious. I wasn’t happy with any of the results, so I looked around for something that would be a suitable replacement. The Games Workshop Gorkanaut kit had just what I was looking for – a big ol’ klaw. I ordered the part only on eBay, and once it arrived, I was back in business! I did a straight cut across the chainsword to mount the klaw on, and it was a perfect join!
I also swapped out the tilting shield for a radiator from an ork trukk. While looking for stuff on Kromlech’s site, I stumbled across the Goliath Mine Operator. This took me back to the old days where orks used a crude remote control to operate mobs of tinboyz. I thought the idea of an ork operating a knight with a remote control pretty amusing, so on he went!
All that I have left on this project is to finish the base, and I’ll have a pretty cool model to support my army!