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

Imperator, a micro Siegebreaker & the Blowfish

This week's progress update is very much a mixed bag which I hope you'll enjoy, including a long overdue update on the Imperator build, & a couple of teeny weeny Knights.  But first, a quick photo of what's on my painting table...

The Blowfish... now in glorious colour (sort of)!

I've now painted the crew of the Blowfish and have given it a lovely coat of my patented rusty coastal weathering recipe.  I always do this layer for all members of the Court of The Fisher King as it helps tie them all together regardless of the specific paint patterns I use.  I also took some time over painting and sealing the underside of the watery resin base to add some depth and colour variation to the waves.  I still need to build up the wave patterns and spray with heavy medium and some surf texture, but for now, I think it's coming along nicely! 

The old rust bucket so far!

Imperator Build Update

It's been a while since I posted an update on the Imperator build.  It's not because I haven't been busy working on it, but more because it's such a large project, I could write a post after every weekend spent measuring, designing, drawing to scale, cutting, fitting then filling the various components, but it would be dull for you my dear reader!

So, I have decided to only post when I feel that I have reached a milestone of interest.  The most recent milestone was the assembly of a foot, some torso detailing and the completion of the neck socket.

Neck socket

Although it's not the most interesting element visually, making a neck socket which could hold the weight of the head with only magnets and still allow me to make something aesthetically pleasing was a tricky prospect.  It has taken me a lot of fiddling and testing to come up with a solution!

I started by gluing some large steel washers into the neck socket to give my magnets something to grip.  I didn't use magnets on the receiver as I didn't want polarity or repositioning issues later on 

Next I filled the socket with Milliput and smoothed it to a nice rounded finish.  This was my plan all along, so I had intentionally left a depth of approximately 5mm of space to make sure I had room to fit an attaching mechanism 

Once the putty had cured, I drilled into the surface to the depth of the washers using a dremmel bit the same width as the magnets I'd be using

Closer up, you can see the surface of the embedded washers peeking through! 

I used an old slow cooker lid handle which I had squirrelled away for the base of my next coupling.  I used a very strong, viscous glue to set the magnets into the right position.  This picture cannot even begin to convey the frustration of mounting five magnets which just want to hold hands...

Once the glue had fully set, I used more Milliput to set them in place.  This will be sanded a little more cleanly once it's cured, but it fits perfectly!

And there we have it - the neck coupling sitting nicely within the neck socket with a pull strength of around 2kg.  This give me a nice solid plastic disc  to work with and a pre-set screw in bolt which I will use to help make a solid mechanical join on the head

It may seem a bit dull, but the socket assembly is vital in terms of set up for the head sculpt.  Below is a draft floor plan of the head interior.  I've decided that the head will house only the Princeps who will be suspended from the ceiling on a large mechanical arm where she can easily see all of the view screens at the front of the cabin.

A small platform extends from the command module door at the back of the head cavity. View screens behind the titan's optics are arrayed before the Princeps

As this is a scale drawing, I've been using the Princeps miniature to ensure that there is sufficient room for her to be suspended from the top plate

Torso Progress

As the torso is one of the main components and certainly have the largest surface area, I'm taking my time in constructing it. Now that I'm happy with the practical structure, I'm moving on to some detailing and reinforcing the structure where necessary.  The sub assemblies will be 1) the carapace, 2) the torso, 3) the head, 4) & 5) left and right arms and finally, 6) the legs and pelvis.  The miniature will need to be broken down into these parts for storage and transport, so the design process needs to incorporate practical mechanisms to allow this.

Since the last update, I have magnetised the carapace plate and made a large waist section which the carapace now plugs into.  I have also added the belly section to the front of the torso

As well as the magnets, I've also added guide rails to the underside of the carapace section to make sure that everything locks into place properly.

This is the underside of the carapace showing the bar magnets and guide rails as well as the underside of the macro cannon tower power plant

The rear of the titan torso now houses a dual reactor, an observation / maintenance platform and an external hatch for access.  I'm really pleased with how this stage is coming along as it's already starting to look more like a real titan!

I've started detailing the underside of the carapace platform now, leaving a gap to incorporate the base of the rear mounted macro cannon tower which extends over the edge of the platform

A close up of the carapace ceiling vent

These exhaust vents were hand crafted to sit the end of the largest rear facing support struts

Here they are in position.  The two smaller outer struts will also have vents while the ends of the forward facing struts will have Legio designs and optics built into them 

Feet

The other main structural elements which I'm keen not to underestimate is the feet and legs.  I've previously shown the underlying structure of the feet, but today I wanted to show the components which have gone into cladding just one of the foot assemblies and the process I used to get there.

First I drew up the patterns - this is just what I needed to cut to clad one of the outward facing toes!

I cut all of the toe components at the same time so that I could make sure they were all matched

This is the side cladding for one of the toe sections

Test fitting the parts

And now all glued in place!

Once both side facing toes were clad, I moved on to the front facing toe and the stairway to the entry hatch

The basic foot assembly - solid as a rock!  Once the legs and pelvis are completed, I will affix these permanently to the gigantic 80cm MDF base

Further detailing added to the forward toe.  A lot of filling is still needed on the feet, but I'm holding off on that until all of the structural elements are complete

And now for something a bit smaller!

AT Scale Porphyrions

I recently completed my 40k scale House Raven Knight Porphyrion Siegebreaker and have been dying to recreate him in Adeptus Titanicus scale the same way I did for my Reaver titan Ferrum Dominus.  Well, I finally got round to doing it and I also made him a friend! Enjoy the pictures and I'll post an update on these little beasts soon!

Mini AT scale Siegebreaker!

40k scale on the left and AT scale on the right

He even has a friend to accompany him in Adeptus Titanicus battles!