Warhammer: The Horus Heresy - Knights Errant

In February 2016, Forge World published The Horus Heresy Book VI: Retribution which introduces a number of exciting additions to the Age Of Darkness such as new rules and units for the Legiones Astartes and Mechanicum, the Shattered Legions (including, but not limited to the survivors of the Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre), Blackshields (Astartes who fought for themselves before any other faction) and the Knights Errant.

Along with rules for making your own Knight Errant, the profiles for two of the Dramatis Personae from the Horus Heresy novel series were also included: former Battle-Captain of the Death Guard Nathaniel Garro and former Codicier of the Ultramarines Tylos Rubio, who were the first two Knights Errant recruited by Malcador the Sigillite. Around the same time Forge World released miniatures for Garro and Rubio (though now I think about it, Garro may have been released in late 2015).

I picked up both miniatures on release, but wasn't too keen on the scenic bases they were supplied with so decided to build new ones that fit their poses but were a little less over the top. Garro is braced upon some mangled wreckage while Rubio is utilising a 'tactical rock' - a little unoriginal but it fit the pose of the mini at least!

I painted them both up and based them to match the Ultramarines army I was collecting at the time, but these days my main Age of Darkness army is a Legio Cybernetica Battle Cohort. At the time of writing, any loyalist army can take a Knight Errant as a non-compulsory HQ choice so as a wee break from working on Rippa's Snarlfangs I decided to dig Garro and Rubio out of storage, spruce them up a bit and repaint their bases to match the theme of my Legio Cybernetica army.

Before applying any paint to either model, the first thing I did was to use an old paintbrush and some warm water to carefull remove the weathering powder that I had used to originally finish them from the lower legs, boots and bases because the dusty finish wouldn't fit with what I now had in mind for them.

Nathanial Garro

A former Battle-Captain of the Death Guard Legion, Garro witnessed the horrific betrayal at Isstvan III and along with the Iacton Cruze and the Rememberancers Mersidae Oliton, Euphrati Keeler and Kyril Sindermann, bore word of Horus' actions back to Royal Dorn aboard the Eisenstein.

Finding himself a warrior without a Legion, Garro swore a new oath that bound him to the service of Malcador the Sigillite and saw him take a prominent role in what would become known as 'The Silent War' and would ultimately be present at the Imperial Palace as the Solar War began.

To bring Garro up a few notches, I first of all set about resetting the highlights on his Artificer Armour with Citadel Ironbreaker before shading the gold areas with Seraphim Sepia and roughly layering them with some Skullcrusher Brass and then adding some extreme highlights with Stormhost Silver . The armour also got some highlights of Runefang Steel on some of the prominent areas.

I decided to repaint all of the leather on the model - the pteruges, cloak and pouches at belt were painted Dryad Bark, shaded Agrax Earth and then highlighted with Gorthor Brown and Baneblade Brown. In contrast, Libertas' scabbard and the holster of his bolt pistol were painted Abaddon Black and then highlighted with Skavenblight Dinge and Stormvermin Fur.

I painted both the brown and black leather to look worn rather than factory fresh - after all, as the Agentia Primus, Garro is pretty active during the Horus Heresy, especially while he's recruiting the other Knights Errant so I wanted to convey a feeling that his wargear has seen some use. This is echoed in the mild corrosion of some of the details on his warplate, especially the Aquila Imperator (his incredibly ornate cuirass) which was achieved using a roughly 50:50 mix of Caliban Green and Sotek Green that was heavily thinned with water and then applied directly into the recesses. 

The final couple of touches for Garro were paint the casing of his Paragon Bolter black, this is actually one of my favourite 'paint recipes' as it's so quick and easy it's actually quite relaxing to paint: Abaddon Black, edge highlighted with Dark Reaper. The edges that will catch the most light (usually the upper edges) are then highlighted with Thunderhawk Blue before any rivets and the corners of the panels are hit with a dot of Fenrisian Grey.  

While writing this post, I realised that I didn't finish re-highlighting the frag grenade on Garro's belt, but I'll sort that out soon. 

Tylos Rubio

The first of the Knights Errant recruited by Garro, Rubio was serving as a line trooper in the 21st Company after the Ultramarines' Librarius was dispanded following the Council of Nikea. He and his squad were among those mustered at Calth when the Word Bearers revealed their true colours and declared their allegiance to the gods of Chaos to the galaxy. 

Shunned by his battle brothers after unleashing his psychic abilities in desperation during an attack by traitor forces, Rubio would ultimately join Garro in the service of the Sigillite and would instrummental in the recruitment of several other Knights Errant, as well as during the 'Silent War' and the Traitor Legion's assault upon Terra.

Rubio received some of the same treatment as Garro, with highlights being reapplied to the silver and gold areas of his armour, though I also applied some new highlights to the brass finish on his pauldrons as well, paying particular attention to the engraved sigil that denotes his allegiance to Malcador. When applying the corrosion, I decided to add some to the recesses of the pauldrons as well to help create a bit more visual interest and to tie the areas on the model together more. 

I also repainted the scabbard of his force sword using the same method I used for Garro's cloak, pteruges and belt pouches, again adding some scratches and scuffs to suggest thay Rubio has been in action and his wargear is well used.

I also revisited the tome that Rubio is carrying, in this case because it had frosted slightly when I had varnished the miniature. The first thing I did was apply a couple of thin layers of Vallejo Matt Varnish before thinning some Khorne Red and carefully painting it onto the flatter areas of the cover to 'reset' a nice deep red. I think reapplied highlights to the edges using Wazdakka Red and Squig Orange. These were added in the same style as the other leather areas on both models to give a slightly worn appearance - I don't think power armoured fingers would be particularly delicate on synth-leather.

The blade of Rubik's force sword also got a couple of layers of matt varnish as it had frosted a bit too, and I reset some of the highlights on the hilt and pommel. 

Finally, I painted the casing of his Paragon Bolter to match Garro's and he was done.

I'm pretty happy with how both models are looking now, theyre not going to win any awards, but they're much closer to the standard that the army they could be used alongside is painted to and that was the objective in revisiting them. 

I am thinking of adding some grass tufts to the bases of the Legio Cybernetica army to make them a little more visually interesting so I'll do Garro's and Rubio's at the same time so that everything works well together. 

I hope you enjoyed reading about another of my tangential contrivances and that perhaps you might be inspired to revisit some of your own past projects - I'd love to hear from you if you do!