Thanks for the encouragement guys : )
I'd managed to collect and hold onto a bunch of mixed metal and plastic knights from, well, quite a few years back, I just never got around to doing anything with them. The chevaliers rounded out my collection nicely, especially the Warden proxies (dear god, try to hunt down a Warden on e-bay, let alone for anything less than an arm and a leg...). I have some other alternative sculpts on their way too, mostly because the stock GW lancers don't really like being mounted on thin wooden bases very much (something about ridiculously top-heavy miniatures and tiny points of contact makes for a very frustrated modeler).
I'm a messy painter. That, and I've been breaking in some new brushes that, quite frankly, probably weren't worth the money I spent on them. Ah well. If nothing else, I have all of my base colors blocked out now. Next step: touch-ups on the yellow and purple, then shading, washing, and highlighting. There's actually a pretty good chance I'll have these ready for Saturday. Oh wait, then I have to paint on the heraldry and figure out what I want to do for the Baron's banner... maybe not...
So why purple and yellow with silver trim (ok, it's more of an orangey yellow, but I'll be bringing that up to a brighter shade)? Well, pretty most of what I've painted up to now has been power armor (so, solid blues, greens, reds, and greys), or BFG ships, and my BFG ships are largely in a sandy tan color. I really haven't used purple for anything yet, so a mid-range purple with bright yellow contrasting trim seemed like a good idea, plus it'll stand out against standard green/brown tables.
If I can find some time for it tomorrow, I'll also see about building a base or two for my warhounds. My plan is (a) Legio Metalica, and (b) urban terrain for those, so I'm aiming for something a little more in the way of a diorama (titan stepping through ruined warehouse back onto a city street, you get the idea. Let's see if I can execute it). I'm working with a set of proxies I got my hands on, so I have a pretty good range of poseability to work with on these.
The Iron Warriors are definitely next after I get the Knights painted up. If/when I get tired of painting purple paladins I might even take a "break" to IW-up my basilisk company, epic 40k-era vindicators, and decimator proxies while I wait for my infantry to arrive.
