I’ve been painting Games Workshop miniatures for decades, most of the time I’m just painting the modern renditions of the same things I painted decades ago, like my recent Aeldari and Blood Angel projects, where I painted their predecessors in the 90s. It’s rare something new and different comes along that I’ve never experienced before. Enter the Chaos Knights…

This item was kindly provided by Games Workshop. Thoughts and opinions are our own.

I’ve painted two Imperial Knights in the past, the Chaos Knight isn’t completely new to me. It’s still a very similar silhouette to its Imperial cousins, however, I know nothing about the Chaos Knights. What makes them Chaos? Why do they prefer spikes and chains to their “noble” brethren? Many Knights turned traitor during the Horus Heresy and many more have forgo their oaths since. Disfigured and tainted by the warp Chaos Knights become a nightmare parody of their formal loyalist selves, sprouting spikes and displaying grisly trophies. Worked on by Idolators and Dark Mechanicum magi they are kitted out with cruel and devastating weapons like the Darkflame Lances and Fellbores.

Games Workshop kindly sent me this model, but they didn’t send me the Chaos Knight Codex book so I had to wait until recently to be able to pick that up and learn more about my Ruinator. From what I can tell it’s a bit of a jack of all trades and master of none. It’s Dark Flame Lance is auto hitting (torrent) with 2D6 strength 8 shots, but it’s easily -1 armour penetration is going to see it bounce straight off marine armour. Its small saving grace is that it’s at least damage 2, so each failed save is a toast Adeptus Astarte. It does have another 2D6 shot weapon in the form of Terrorpulse Missiles, these hit on a 3+, they’re also str 8 and damage 2 but this time the armour penetration is -2. Overall it’s quite a lot of shots. I feel like the Darkflame lance auto hitting makes it very useful when used with the Overwatch Stratagem.

The Ruinator’s left arm is its melee weapon called a Fellbore. Vicious claws sink into their target whilst the three headed drill bit chews through what ever it touches be it fortification or bio titan. The Fellbore has two profiles, basically, an anti-monster/vehicle profile with less attacks called a strike attack or it’s sweep attack, which isn’t as strong but has 10 attacks and will make a mess of Space Marines. The Fellbore model assembly is rather clever, check out the picture above. You can extend and retract the weapon!

The Ruinator isn’t just “another knight” it has a title and a battlefield role. It’s known as a hound master and its throne Mechanicum’s machine spirit is closely entwined with Amiger Class War Dogs. In game terms the Ruinator has a 9″ aura ability that improves War Dog’s ranged armour penetration by 1 when targeting the closest enemy. That’s not much use with a Daemonbreath meltagun which is already -4 AP, but it could turn an Avenger Chaincannon into -2AP pretty useful for its 12 shots. I guess my next purchase will be some War Dogs.

How to Paint Chaos Knights

Painting in sub-assemblies

I left all the armour pieces separate from the main endo-skeleton to make painting easier. I also sprayed all the armour panels Skullcrusher Brass with my airbrush. It’s easier to get all the trim painted this way and then paint the armour panels over the top by hand. I also left the model off the base and painted the base completely separately. Because it’s a huge model you should just glue him on top of your basing material, he’ll just pull it straight off. You have to pin him to the base with drill holes, paper clips and superglue.

This Chaos Knight Ruinator was an incredible model to paint and I’m really enjoying reading the codex I bought and learning about a faction I knew little about. Even 30+ years into my hobby journey there is still new and stuff that excites me. Now, what to get next War Dogs or a Knight Abominant?