Court photo shoot and Troggoth Progress

Does my mech look big in this? 

At the risk of completely eating up the collective good will of people who appreciate my Imperial Knight force, I wanted to show some pictures I took of my completed Knights of Corbenic for the Titan Owner's Club.

Regular visitors to my blog will have seen these knights before, but I thought it would be nice to see them all collected together now that the knight part of the project has drawn to a close.  'The knight part?' I hear you say... Well, even though I've completed the knights and their scion pilots, I still have the household auxiliaries left to finish off and have added a few pictures at the end to give you an idea of what's still to come!

I've posted each knight on its own and with its scion pilot plus a couple of extra images - enjoy!

The Fisher King

Cerastus Knight Lancer - The Fisher King

Piloted by Count Octillus Hiralden

Reef Thresher

Cerastus Knight Lancer - Reef Thresher

Piloted by Countess Caelia Hiralden

Deepdive

Questoris Knight Mageara - Deepdive

Piloted by 'Mad' Baron Pellinore

Conga Blue

Questoris Knight Preceptor - Conga Blue

 Piloted by Hastur Mordent

Barracuda Squall

Dominus Knight Valiant - Barracuda Squall 

Piloted by Sir Parcival Ahabius

Shock Manta

Questoris Knight Paladin - Shock Manta

Piloted by Veles Meridian

Quake Hydra

Acastus Knight Asterius -  Quake Hydra

Piloted by Sir Marcus 'Thunderfist' Harnen

Tide Breaker & Shellback 

Armiger Warglaive - Tidebreaker

Piloted by Ivraine Hiralden

Armiger Warglaive - Shellback

Piloted by Patrocles Hiralden

Mudskipper & Trench Runner

Armiger Helverin - Mudskipper

Piloted by Sir Jayce Arron

Armiger Helverin - Trench-Runner

Piloted by Derrin Pike

Heraldry

The heraldic symbol of the knights of Corbenic is a trident wielding octopoid above a mechanicus cog and shield.  The colours of the Court are green, white, turquoise and gold.

A gathering of Scions

Now that they're all complete, I decided it was about time to photograph my Knight Scions together outside of their cockpits with their trusty Sacristan Techpriest Nautolex

Household Auxiliaries (Work in Progress)

My Knight household is supported by a specialised force of Adeptus Mechanicus troops; the core of this force being the Skitarii Aquis.  My blog has previously featured their Skorpius transport, The Blowfish and a Scout Sentinel walker, Snapper.  Today I wanted to show the rest of the force which I've already built and base coated.

Two small squads of Skitarii, four Kastellan Robots, two Datasmiths and a single Ogryn heavy!  

Skitarii Aquis squad Minnix

Skitarii Aquis squad Brink

Kastellan Robot squadron Alpha led by Datasmith Linerris

Kastellan Robot squadron Beta led by Datasmith Vermitax

Scuba Ogryn Hammerhead

It's a motley crew, but each unit has a lot of character, just like their Household masters!  Expect more pictures once they are completed in the near future... 

Dankhold Troggoth Colossus

Since my last post, I have been working away on my Dankhold Colossus and his Troggoth King rider.  They both still need a lot of work, but I'm pleased with how they're looking so far!

This picture was taken after I'd worked out the main forms including muscle groups and skin folds

I smoothed out the skin so I'd have a nice clean surface to detail after his first firing 

This picture was taken after the first firing - The ankles, knees and toes needed some repairing after being removed from the wooden base so that I could reach the underbelly.  The breakages were anticipated as I had (foolishly?) embedded the wire frame a bit too well into the base!

In this picture you can see that I have tried out some detailing on the first hand - I was quite pleased with the pores and veins.  I also started trying out the crystal geode spines on the back

The crystals were fired in advance and only placed temporarily so I could see how they would look and helped me estimate the gap I would need for the rider

Behold the Dankhold Trogg King!  He is slightly larger than a normal Trogg Boss and I played around a little with his features to make him look a little more intelligent than a normal Dankhold Troggoth

The next stage will be to complete the second leg, add arms, feet and details such as fungal growths 

And finally!

As a thankyou to a friend, I sculpted and cast a Legio Metalica Emblem - as well as sending him a couple of unpainted copies, I also cast one with an embedded pin, painted up and attached it to a purity seal!

The heraldic symbol of Legio Metalica 'The Iron Skulls'

The full seal which is about 10" long!

And for those of you who wish to recite the canticle of the Iron Brotherhood, the binary on the seal translates as follows:

Canticle of the Iron Brotherhood:

We are wrought by the furnaces of Metalica

We are born of fire, devotion and honour

We crush the enemies of mankind

We are bastions of righteous fury

We bring death, hope and obeisance

We walk for the glory of the Omnissiah

We are the Brotherhood of Iron

The King's Court Grows

The Fisher King's Court has now grown by two new Knights and there are more reinforcements on the horizon!

Hail to the king baby!

Deep Dive

I finished most of Deep Dive some months ago, but never got round to tweaking the last few elements and taking some decent pictures.  Unfortunately I didn't take any WIP images, but you should be able to make out most of the details in the images below...

Deep Dive is an ancient Knight Magaera pattern Knight armour piloted by Mad Old Baron Pellinore.

The additional armour plating on his thighs makes Deep Dive appear heavier and thicker set than other Questoris knights.

Deep Dive's huge Siege Claw is complemented by a prehensile tentacle which can be used to pull smaller prey toward his crushing grip and a rad cleanser to 'purify' areas at range.

The bronze plating at the back of the hull is intended to give the impression of a diving bell.

The deadly lightning cannon...

Deep Dive's face was a straight swap for one of the now out of print Forgeworld alt heads.  I think this head really fits the theme of the force, having the look of a modern robot submarine about it.

At Deep Dive's feet is a combination of industrial plating and sand - a common sight on a world where artificial and natural land masses go hand in hand.  The base is finished off with a little sea snail!

While at the back of the base, a small eel-like creature is hiding in the grates

Reef Thresher

Reef Thresher is piloted by Countess Caelia Hiralden, wife of Count Octillus Hiralden.  The Yin to his Yang.  The cheese to his pizza, etc...

Reef Thresher is a Cerastus Knight Lancer which I converted from an Atrapos chassis in a similar way to the original Fisher King conversion.  I needed a second Lancer class knight in order to use a Cerastus Knight lance (minimum of 2 Knights) at the next Titan Owners Club walk in June.  She was a lot of fun to convert and I'm really pleased with the final result!

I wanted Reef Thresher to be a little more feminine to contrast with her counterpart.  The pose makes here appear lighter on her feet than the Fisher King.

Putting the knight up onto the toes make it appear to be skipping forward lightly.

Reef Thresher is armed with a brutal looking drill which I converted from the Genestealer Cult Tectonic Fragdrill set.

The large torso lamp was an intentional nod to Gypsy Danger from the Pacific Rim movie

I installed a pressurised hatch into the Knight carapace, adding a nice feature to the clamshell armour

I used individual links to make the hanging chains on Reef Thresher - they look great but drove me slightly mad by jingling the whole time I was painting her!

I wanted the gauntlet to be different from the Fisher King, so I added long talons to the fingers; this had the added benefit of looking more feminine than her partner's stumpy digits.  Note the kill markings on the inside of her shield.

Again, I came up with a transparent shield design to bring her in line with the theme

I added extreme rust and weathering along with some sculpted barnacles to Reef Thresher's shin and knee pads, simulating the look of a machine that has spent long periods of time knee deep in sea water.

I added a lot of texture to the rusty areas to replicate the fuzzy look iron takes on when it starts to disintegrate 

Here are some WIP images I took while making Reef Thresher...

I spliced the drill with armour plating from a Knight Warden Gatling cannon, adding a small harpoon gun where the heavy flamer would normally live.

Stage 1 of painting Reef Thresher - spray silver then texture and weather the whole model liberally...

...this stage is always scary as it feels like you could ruin the miniature if you go too far!

This image shows all of the sub assemblies used to make Reef Thresher's shield.  Each component had to be fully painted before assembly otherwise I'd be risking marking the delicate transparent plastic

Getting everything to line up when assembling the shield was very tricky - there were a ton of dry-fits before anything was glued!

Much like the Fisher King's shield, I made sure that all of the parts fit together mechanically rather than relying just on some glue to keep it together.  This is important when you're working with clear acetate as it can very easily warp or cloud if you use too much glue

What the future holds....

Mudskipper is the third Armiger class knight which I've made for this force, adding the long-range armament of a Helverin Knight

I have a further two Knights in progress, but I'll be saving them for a future post.

For now, enjoy a couple of group shots - thanks for reading!

One big happy family!

I can't wait to use my Lancers to take on a titan!