Alternative black knights?

[LongFang]

Hi all!

I want to make a black knights unit but I don't like the Vampire count ones so I'm thinking on buying empire or bretonnian knights. Wich one do you prefer? Do you have some example pictures or ideas?

Thanks in advance

 

[spla5hmummy]

I used Empire knights. You can see them in my plog here:

They don't look as undead as I'd have liked, but I think they're preferable to the unrealistic looking and expensive metal GW models. You could go the route of buying skeletons to put on them but that will push the price up considerably.

 

[Josef]

as for using bret or empire i would pic the one that closest matches what you are trying to do with your army.

here is what i did,
I just cant justify spending 10 USD a model for the gw black knights so i got TK mounts (going to change to Glade riders horses) and then used some spare parts from the Grave guard and skeleton warrion sprews bfor the torso and then used the TK riders legs (hacked off the top half.

 

[LongFang]

Hi!

thanks for the replies, josef I think i will borrow your idea, that black knights look reallly cool, how did you paint them?

 

[Josef]

bone: white primer washed with badab black then highlighted with bleached bone
cloth: mordian blue>wash of asurmen blue>1st high light of 1:1 mix of mordian blue + Ultra Marine Blue> 1:2 mix of mordian blue + Ultra Marine Blue
wood Lance: Calthan brown> ink wash of chestnut ink
wood sheild: cathan brown with ither devlan mud or badab black (dont remember)
armor : boltgun metal > wash of badab black > high light bolt gun metal
Armor lining: brasen brass>washed with badab black> highlight with shinning gold
Fur: i dont remember.
rust: cathan brown>stipple blasing orange>stipple firy orange> dry brush bolt gun metal.

 

[bludsturm]

I made ethereal-looking black knights from the Empire Knightly Orders box & a Skeleton Warriors box:

 

[Count Homogenised]

I used the Zvezda undead roman cavalry and grafted on some GW skeleton bits as the zvezda spears are fairly small.

This was prior to the release of the new skeletons and grave guard - I would be tempted to try something like Josef has done if I was doing the conversions now.

 

[darknesseternal]

I picked up 18 of the new Grave Guard heads off ebay, and will grab a box of Empire Knights and will see what I can come up with... I already have 5 of the metal BK's painted, but wanted something that looked better.

 

[warpaintjj]

I am presently building two units of 5 Black Knights a Wight King and mounted Vampire. Used one box of Empire Knights, heads and shields from Grave Guard, one box of Empire General/standard set, bits from Flagellant set, corpse cart, zombies, and ghouls, plus three spare horses with the old metal chaos steed heads. They were great fun to build and are presently half painted.

One tip, if using Grave Guard heads on Empire knights, build a little spine in the hole for the head to raise the Grave Guard heads a little or they look like they have no neck, not a good look at all! Just use bits of spare spear shafts or the rope bound bits on the zombie standard.

I'll post some piccies when they're finished and when I figure out how to post them. In fact I should post a little blog thing as I only started this army in October, done 80 Ghouls, 3 Spirit Hosts and 10 Dire Wolves, not as much as I had hoped but been doing alot of commission work too, sigh!

Take care

warpaintjj

 

[dekeduffy]

as for using bret or empire i would pic the one that closest matches what you are trying to do with your army.

here is what i did,
I just cant justify spending 10 USD a model for the gw black knights so i got TK mounts (going to change to Glade riders horses) and then used some spare parts from the Grave guard and skeleton warrion sprews bfor the torso and then used the TK riders legs (hacked off the top half.

Josef-
Couldn't agree more on the costs. Your conversions are amazing. I didn't even know Tomb Kings had a cheaper plastic cavalry line. How did you do the leggings and cape? Did you use green stuff?

I think I'm going to attempt this as my next step is to start adding some cavalry. I think I will do this for Black Knights and might try using the new Chaos Knights for Blood Knights.

Here's a pic of my newly painted Grave Guard I'll probably try to match for the Blood Knights:

I'm trying to do a purple theme for magic stuff. Check out the painting contest thread for my newly painted Wraiths.

 

[The Dark Sheep]

Nice GG. You'll have to put the unit (and the wraiths) in a painting log.

Edit: I found this on warseer. Great knights... link