Rise of the Fisher King

Greetings Friend.  Rest upon the dockside and I'll tell you a tale of the King...

So, I hinted at a Freeblade Knight I've been working on in most last post; The Fisher King.  Well, he's finally finished and I'd like to give you a little background before we steam into the pictures...

In Arturian legend, The Fisher King was crippled and able only to fish from a small boat in the river near his castle.  He was also charged with the guarding of the grail.

My vision of The Fisher King is that of a highly modified suit based on the Cerastus Knight chassis but with a number of modifications which allow it to be completely submerged and patrol the icy depths of the Oceanic world of Corbenic which he is honour-bound to defend.

Corbenic is almost entirely aquatic and as such, settlers in the distant past built artificial stretches of land, rigs and floating platforms in order to colonise the planet.  Costal walls stretched across thes borders and a host of Knights would patrol both the land and sea bed where they were also tasked with capturing and hauling in titanic creatures from the depths to feed the colony and provide an offering for the Emperor's tithe.

Most of the colonists and Knights have been lost to time, but a few have remained...

The Fisher King, a Lancer class Knight, piloted by Count Octurius Hiralden is one such knight.  His remaining cohort consists of two modified Armiger Warglaive class Knights piloted by his children, Ivraine and Patrocles Hiralden.  They also have the unceasing effort and blessings of Sacristan Nautolex to maintain their suits...

And now for some pictures!

So far I've completed the Fisher King and Tech Priest Nautolex, with both Warglaives built and ready for painting!  Note that due to their smaller size, both Armigers have retractable anchors which are required during particularly stormy conditions!

Hail The Fisher King!

 

Striding out to defend the coastal wall, The Fisher King stands firm against the tide!

The suit was based on an Atrapos model as the rounded components looked more nautical than the angular Lancer

The Trident was painstakingly carved from layers of styrene glued together in a rough approximation of the final weapon

Note the additional portholes in the Knight suit's hull - I imagined it to be like a giant diving bell...

The energy shield took longer to build than the rest of the knight put together...

Further use of the Count's personal heraldry - the Golden Kraken which also crowns his knight.

Bloomin' seaweed gets everywhere!

AHOY!!

The rusted lookout post is built into the cliff face; notice how the barnacles are building up at the tideline...

The base represents a small portion of the coastal wall leading to scrubby beaches...

The transparent energy shield also contains view ports which Hiralden can use to view prey through his shield...

Note the golden 'crown' of the king...



Sacristan Nautolex - the faithful Techpriest that serves the Hiralden family.

WIP Images

Original concept sketch - it turned out to be pretty accurate!

This is the trident concept sketch which I used to help draw up a template.  Note that the prongs were angled outwards on the final miniature.  All the better to snare a leviathan of the deep!

This is the template for the energy shield.  I cut the shape from a sheet of blue and a sheet of green acetate, then used clear blue and green paints to create the swirling water effect between the two sheets of plastic.

The shield transmitter frame template - two of which were required to sandwich the acetate and avoid any discolouration with glue.  The mechanical fit was finalised with multiple styrene dowels which were secured with glue then trimmed down.



The final hand / shield assembly.  Made from a stripped down thunderstrike gauntlet with scratch built fingers, as I wanted to avoid using the original 'angular' ones.  A decision I lived to regret by the second finger!

I painted the trident lurid orange during sanding to help me spot dips and imperfections in the surface!



You can clearly see the dowels through the shield which were only trimmed down after painting.  The shield was painted in 6 components to ensure that the transparent shield was not discoloured during the process.  It was painful... but ultimately worth the effort!




In this picture you can see the large amount of plaster, rocks, filler and milliput which all went together to make the base.  It now weighs a tonne.  He will literally never fall over.



The Sacristan was a kitbash mainly using parts from several Mechanicus models and the body of a Genestealer Magus

The lancer towers over his Warglaive suited children!

Armiger Warglaive armed with Giant Harpoon gun, drill and wibbly face!  Note the Hiralden heraldry on both Armiger tilt shields.  I also added more streamlined ankle armour than that supplied in the original kit.

This Warglaive has also been heavily converted to give it a more nautical feel.  Of particular note are the hatch wheel and additional carapace ports.

Painting The Fisher King took a long time and consisted of multiple layers of paint to really drive home the corroded water damaged look of the suite without making it look as though it was no longer able to function.

  I did quite a lot of research to get him looking right.  Coastal corrosion is genuinely fascinating!

This is a selection of swatches I kept to help me get the corrosion looking right on the Fisher King...




At this stage, he reminds me of the Talos statue from Jason and the Argonauts!

Seaweed!

Although it was only a small part of the overall piece, the seaweed was extremely difficult to get looking right, so I thought I'd pass on the method in case anyone else ever wants to make some!

I took a regular sheet of transparent green acetate and used transparent green paint mixed with some GW Nurgle's rot to give some texture and manage the opacity of the sheet.  Although seaweed is transparent under certain lighting, it's not completely see-through. 

Next, I used some nail scissors to cut a section of acetate into irregular lines, making sure that each strand finished just before the end of the sheet as I needed them joined together for the next stage to allow me to hold onto them all at once.

Next I used a hairdryer on a medium setting to shrink and warp the strands, shaping them slightly while they were still malleable from the heat.  Don't apply heat for an extended period of time or you will set fire to the strands and / or make yourself stupid with fumes.  Burnt carpet is not the look you're going for and it would be a shame to commit suicide with toxic fumes before finishing your pretend seaweed!

Once you have reached this stage, I would highly recommend adding some more Nurgle's rot then twist and fold the strands at irregular intervals to simulate real weed which never sits in a uniform manner.

Once you've finished painting and shaping, simply snip off the pieces you need and attach them with a small amount of super glue or PVA!

Go-Knights!

Robots Undisguised!

As if finishing a Reaver Titan wasn’t enough, I’ve ploughed on with yet more Imperial Knights this week!

I’ve broken down my Imperial Knights into several themed factions.  The most straight forward one is my House Raven Knights which is unsurprising given that they are undeniably linked to the Legio of my Reaver Titan (and eventually my two Warhounds once they’re built and painted!); Metalica.

Metalica and House Raven have an unbroken bond dating back to before the Horus Heresy, giving a rich background for me to draw on and cross-pollinate.

So, to start with, I want to do a quick rundown of the Knights and Support units which I own and their current build status.  I do intend to try and add progress to my Blog as and when I complete a unit from the Force:

House Raven
Unit	Name	Battle Readiness
Questoris Class: Knight Errant	Arbiter	[Build Status: Complete] [House Colours: Complete] =!= Arbiter Ready to Walk =!=
Questoris Class: Knight Paladin	Cognis	[Build Status: Complete] [House Colours: Not yet applied]
Questoris Class: Knight Gallant	Furien	[Build Status: Complete] [House Colours: Not yet applied]
Questoris Class: Knight Warden	Crucius	[Build Status: Complete] [House Colours: Not yet applied]
Questoris Class: Knight Crusader	Indomitus	[Build Status: Complete] [House Colours: Not yet applied]
Questoris Class: Knight Preceptor	Rygan	[Build Status: Incomplete: processing STC plans]
Questoris Class: Knight Gallant	Furore	[Build Status: Incomplete: processing STC plans]
Questoris Class: Knight Castellan	Invigillus	[Build Status: Incomplete: processing STC plans]
Questoris Class: Knight Valiant	Ahabius	[Build Status: Incomplete: processing STC plans]
Questoris Class: Knight Mageara	Violatus	[Build Status: Incomplete: processing STC plans]
Armiger Class: Knight Warglaive	Infernus	[Build Status: Complete] [House Colours: Not yet applied]
Armiger Class: Knight Warglaive	Sythax	[Build Status: Complete] [House Colours: Not yet applied]
Armiger Class: Knight Helverin	Mordent	[Build Status: Incomplete: processing STC plans]
Armiger Class: Knight Helverin	Hastus	[Build Status: Incomplete: processing STC plans]
3 Armoured Sentinels	The Huntsmen	[Build Status: Complete] [House Colours: Complete] =!= Huntsmen  Ready to Walk =!=
3 Armoured Sentinels	The Outriders	[Build Status: Complete] [House Colours: Not yet applied]
Baneblade Super Heavy Tank	Impregnable	[Build Status: Complete] [House Colours: Not yet applied]
Sacristan Techpriest	Regulus	[Build Status: Complete] [House Colours: Not yet applied]

The elements of the force which I’ve completed so far are the Huntsmen, 3 Lascannon equipped armoured Sentinels and Arbiter, my one finished Knight Raven Questoris suit.

The Huntsmen

Below is a picture of the Huntsmen and some shots of an objective token I made from spare parts to go along with my Knights:

Ranging ahead, these Sentinels risk it all for the honour of House Raven!

I loved the idea of smaller machines crewed by House Serfs, lowborn residents of Kolossi who are given the opportunity to emulate their masters, riding out ahead of the more heavily armed knights as a scouting force.

This is probably an extremely hazardous profession, hence them being given the honour of wearing the House colours.  One even sports the House symbol on his hull – he must have made a good impression on the battlefield!

Life as a Servo-skull radar walker must be... fun?

What better way to observe the enemy than with a scuttling radar dish?

Arbiter

Arbiter was built shortly after the original Imperial Knight kit was released.  I loved the old Epic Imperial Knights and decided that I would build Arbiter to emulate the old Epic model with a gigantic smashy fist.  On reflection, there are few goofier red robots out there than the original Epic Errant…

Only this guy springs to mind….

 

In case you’re unfamiliar with Scooter, he’s one of the Go-bots.  A shameless 80’s cartoon rip-off of Transformers produced with epic levels of laziness to sell some of the worst toys ever made…

Seriously. How did they make him look more like a mobility scooter than a vesper?!

 

A toy so tragically bad, it resorts to cheering for itself in the box:

 

There was always something a little off about Scooter in the cartoons…

To be honest, Scooter wasn’t the only Go-bot that seemed to enjoy exposing himself to children on the telly either…

Anyway!  Back on subject! Arbiter was given a scratch built power fist of epic proportions to match the scale of the original epic model– I worried that it would look ridiculous, but I think it worked out really well!  Even though he’s recently had a refit to include a carapace Autocannon array and some extra base detailing, I’ve never even considered replacing his fist with a newer Thunderstrike gauntlet – I think it makes him wonderfully unique and can easily be used to represent a relic weapon from the new Codex; The Paragon Gauntlet! J

 

Freeblades

Next up are my Freeblades which are organised into 3 distinct factions that are each centred around a single Legendary Knight.

Each one has a really strong theme as I see them as named characters, travelling the galaxy with their own select retinues...

The first up is the mysterious Faded Remnant which are centred around the legendary Knight The Spectre who you can see in the images below.

The Faded Remnant
Unit	Name	Battle Readiness
Questoris Class: Knight Paladin	The Spectre	[Build Status: Complete] [Remnant Colours: Complete] =!= Spectre Ready to Walk =!=
Secutarii Hoplite Squad	The Spectral Guard	[Build Status: Incomplete: processing STC plans]
Sacristan Techpriest	Mortan	[Build Status: Complete] [Remnant Colours: Not yet applied]
2 Kastellan Robots	The Haunt	[Build Status: Complete] [Remnant Colours: Not yet applied]

 

I’ll feature my two remaining Freeblade factions, The Banner of the Bear and The Court of the Fisher King in a future post.  I’ve already shown the Kodiak in a previous post, but he’s getting some friends to make sure that he doesn’t get lonely!  As for the Fisher King… well. He’s nearly ready to walk…