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 11th Knight, Raven's call and armies on parade

Knightly extravaganza!

This post is a bit of a mixed bag, with two new knights, a couple of new group shots and some armies on parade WIPs - enjoy!

Shock Manta; 11th Knight of the Court

Shock Manta has arrived!

In my last post, I hinted that I was working on one final Knight to bolster the ranks of the Fisher King.  

Well, Shock Manta is now complete and I'm very pleased to add him to the court.  Ever since the were released, I've been eyeing up the Chaos Knight chassis - their double jointed knees, exposed carapace piping and stylised plating just screamed Fisher King to me!

The concept for Shock Manta was for a kind of deep sea spear fisherman crossed with Murmillo a gladiator!  Murmillo's were famous for their large Ovoid helmets and their asymmetrical shoulder armour.  Although I didn't want to completely strip one shoulder plate from Shock Manta like a true Murmillo, I did decide early on that I wanted two distinctly different shoulders.

As for the spear fisherman look, I think that's fairly self explanatory, although I'm glad I went with the t-strike gauntlet to help him reload his giant spears as it gave rise to the spear hopper at the back as well!

All in all, I think Shock Manta has a very unique look while still dropping seamlessly into the army - I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Shock Manta pauses for a moment to take in the majesty of Corbenic's mighty oceans

Shock Manta's giant speargun, resting at his hip

The stilt-like double jointed Chaos Knight chassis really suits my household; good for wading in the shallows while on the hunt

From behind you can see the gigantic extra spears held in the hopper clamps until needed

Shock Manta is already clutching a double-pointed spear ready to load into his cannon after loosing his first deadly bolt

The carapace mounts a double harpoon cannon which started life as a pair of pistons and some Ambot armour!

The large grilled face plate protects the knight's delicate sensors and augers

Like the other knights in the court, Shock Manta has large engine filters instead of smoke stacks, allowing him to be fully submerged without flooding the knight's engine

Another view of the spear clamps - you can also see the large hoist which is used to help service and re-arm the knight

Shock Manta has a normal Thunderstrike Gauntlet, but with the digits from the Chaos Knight kit.  They needed a little alteration as the Chaos Knight is right-handed.

I made the half-mail shoulder pad with actual metal links.  This was by far the most complicated and time consuming part of the while build, but it looks fantastic!

Shock Manta's base was actually made with a combination of techniques which I had learned from making all of my other knights.  I think the frothing waves are especially convincing!

I was especially pleased with the weathered platform which the knights is standing on and the way that it transitions into the rocky beach behind

Veles Meridian - Knight Scion

What Knight of the court would be complete without a Scion pilot?  Meet Veles Meridian!

Veles Meridian eats fish and chips while waiting for orders

To tie him in with his mount, Veles has two mechadendrites extending from his carapace, just like Shock Manta!

Veles' left hand has been replaced by a vicious looking claw.  There are many rumours on how he lost his hand, including a fist fight with a herellion devil squid.  Whatever the truth, he's very tight-lipped (voxed?) on the subject...

Veles is adorned with packs and cases for maintaining his knight's systems while away on mission

Veles is never seen without his signature shock rifle

Veles Meridian - not the best at handshakes

Shock Manta WIPs

Veles Meridian before painting - many kits died so that he may live...

I started the build for this knight by constructing the base platform and cliff face so that I could then build the legs to fit.  I cut and repositioned the front toe on the right foot so that it was 'gripping' the edge of the platform. Go go monkey feet!

While building the knight chassis, I couldn't glue him to the platform as I needed to be able to detach him and the platform in order to sculpt the waves and cliff face.  I lost count of the number of times he toppled off the edge of the table...

I carved four spearhead variants and chose the brutal looking 'classic' spear to go in the gun barrel

As I've documented the process of how I create realistic resin waves before, I won't go through it all again.  Suffice to say that I sculpted, silicone moulded then cast the waves in resin as I have done for my previous projects

As with all members of the court, I applied all of the rust, weathering, verdigris and texture over a silver basecoat.  This is always a scary stage, but I am more confident that it will all be ok in the end now!  I also like that it makes them look like Talos the bronze statue from Jason and the Argonauts...

I always start the detailing by painting the trim and other gold details.  Next I give all of these areas a heavy fleshshade wash followed by some very strong verdigris (sotek blue watered down with nihilikh oxide) then carefully paint the coloured plating in their block colours

Because I start with the weathered metal, I can deliberately apply the armour paint so that some of the layer underneath is showing here and there

I work back into the most damaged rusty areas with more paint and texture where I think it's needed

I apply decals before I work back into the weathering to make sure that they receive chipping and water staining with the rest of the armour plating

I test fit the sub assemblies several times while painting just to make sure that the highlights and weathering are consistent

As I had just completed Veles Meridian, I used the opportunity to take a rather self-indulgent picture of all 11 knight scions together - I love these guys and girls so much!!

Armies on Parade

Due to Covid-19 lockdown measures here in the UK, the Court of the Fisher King hasn't yet made the trip to Warhammer World for a guest exhibition as planned.  Obviously I'm disappointed, but the display should still happen at some point next year once the world rights itself again!  While Covid measures have limited many things, Games Workshop have moved with the times and have shifted Armies on Parade to an online competition this year.  As I've already constructed an army, I decided that I should make it eligible for the competition and make an entry!

In order to compete, I needed to make a display board for the army.  I wasn't happy to simply display my themed army on an unconnected board, so I set about designing one which would not only incorporate all the bases of my knights, but combine them into one cohesive display piece.

First of all, I created a paper template, then cut an MDF board for the Knights.  I settled on the 22" X 30" board space allowed by the rules of the competition.  The knights at the back would need to be elevated to allow them all to be seen at once.  The bases also dictated the placement of half of the knights.  Although I had kept the waves and platforms consistent throughout the builds, they were at different heights.  I'd need to be a bit creative to make this work...

I used extruded foam and a hot glue gun to bulk out the basic shapes so that I could start testing the knight positions

Using the patented 'books for extra height' technique, I marked out the areas which needed to be adjusted

I sculpted all of the rockfaces with a knife and cut the base holes for each knight individually for optimal height matching!

From lower down, you can see that the display is very tall as it has three separate levels for the knights!  I did some basic gap filling which has now fully dried. Next I'll be working on texturing and detailing. Look out for updates soon as I only have two weeks left to get my entry in!

The ranks of House Raven swell!

Finally, I wanted to show some pictures of my most recently painted House Raven Knight Paladin, Cognis.

Cognis is seen here, bracing himself to fire off a salvo from his rapid fire battle cannon

Adhering closely to the House Raven livery, Cognis is a far cleaner and more uniform beast than anything in the Court of the Fisher King!

Cognis proudly sports the yellow, black and white hazard stripes which are synonymous with House Raven

Cognis is decorated with many honour badges, kill markings and purity seals

Although the style and colouring of my Raven Knights is always the same, I take the opportunity to move the hazards to different areas on each knight for some visual distinction between them

Cognis displays the symbol of Legio Metalica on his knee plate, confirming his allegiance to his princeps brothers

I used a spare Magaera head for Cognis as it fits the Questor Mechanicus theme very well

Arbiter, Cognis and Rygan stand ready

And all rejoice with the arrival of their beefy brethren, Siegbreaker

Although different, the knights work well as a cohesive battle force

The variety in carapace markings is more apparent when the knight are viewed from above