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

Armies on Parade and a Monstrous Engine of Pain

The Court on Parade

After a couple of years painting them and a few weeks creating their display board, the Court of the Fisher King were finally ready to be submitted for the 2020 Armies on Parade online competition!

Shock Manta prepares to enter the drop zone while Trench Runner leaps from his own platform

The court stalking down the shoreline to enter the icy depths

I created the staggered board so that all of my knights can be seen at once

The most challenging part of the whole build was getting the platforms to line up correctly with the base cut-outs; particularly as the water levels were also different for each of the knights!

Deep Dive and Barracuda Squall perch on a rocky outcrop where they can be easily seen above the knights on the shoreline

There's a real feeling of intent now that all of the knights are moving toward the ocean as a united force

Trench Runner is jumping into the depths from a vertical aqua deployment ramp (a knight sized diving board...)

From a more elevated position, you can better see the transition from sandy cliffs to shoreline platforms to the ocean itself 

I love this image so much! The smaller knights picking their way forward while the lancers easily traverse the cliffs up above!

It was important to me that the Fisher King took the prime spot, higher even than Reef Thresher; fitting as the most senior member of the Court, he can be seen towering above them all

Reef Thresher marches with the King on the top tier

The diminutive Mudskipper working his way down the flank

Quake Hydra towers over Mudskipper!

Sacristan Nautolex watches his mechanical charges deploying for battle 

Conga Blue leads the Court, striding out confidently into the bay

Shock Manta appears to be taking one last look at the horizon before his drop

I even managed to find a place for Snapper who is found near a cliff face entry hatch

Building the display board

In my last post, I showed a few images of the poly sculpting I was doing to get the basic structure for my display.  Here are some more images covering off the rest of the process!

The rather naked looking polystyrene shapes!

The next part of the build was to add all of the platform cut-outs and other plastic details which I made while poly sculpting.  I hot glued these in place then began the process of coating the display with external filler (on the cliffs) and plaster on the water areas

This stage was extremely messy and it was difficult not to get filler and plaster on the plastic elements!

I waited until the plaster was starting to cure before creating the wave patterns with gloved hands

After the whole display had dried (this took about 24 hours), I then went back and added additional sand and gravel before priming everything with a mix of pva and paint.  Note that I was using this mixture rather than biscuit spread which the jar suggests!

The base coat of glue and paint took a whole day to dry fully, but it was necessary to seal everything, strengthening the plaster and foam

It was then just a case of painting the rocks, sand and sea to match the army!

Once I'd finished the basic painting, I tested the knights on the display and made small colour alterations to better match them up, then blacked out all of the edges with a mix of thick black acrylic paint and pva.  Again, this took 24 hours to dry, but it levelled and protected the edges nicely for handling

A torture engine like no other!

I realised a couple of weeks ago that with all of the knights and titans on my blog, I have completely neglected to produce anything even vaguely resembling a giant monster for some time and that I needed to remedy this by finishing some of my kaiju backlog!

 

As a result, I finally completed my Drukhari Wrack Knight with a lick of paint!  I'm so pleased with how this monster turned out; he's so unique while fitting perfectly into the coven.

My Wrack Knight in all his gory glory!

Not as bulky as a regular Wraithknight, he is still an imposing presence!

The bladed sails jutting from his back project a shadow field over this mighty monstrosity

Just like his smaller kin, this Haemonculous' creation is studded with dark technology

Double jointed legs give this construct a much more alien feel

As with all servant of the Haemonculi, the creature's face is hidden behind a Wrack mask

The huge trophy rack on this beast's spine displays victims from a wide variety of species...

A twin disintegrator cannon makes for a devastating secondary weapons array

While disintegration is scary, the thought of being killed by a titanic husk glaive is terrifying! 

What Wrack is complete without an exposed spine and hunch back?

Like regular Wracks, the Knight wears his torturer's apron with pride.  The hooks at his back are used to hang trophies during battle

Where the Hex are the rest of them?

As I've not shown them on the blog recently, I thought I'd also take a few group shots of the Coven so far - enjoy!

The Hex in all their dark majesty

Last but not least...

I decided it was time to dust off the Tantalus and start painting...