Tuesday 13 October 2020

Barracuda Squall joins the King's Court

A new steed joins the fray

Barracuda Squall is the 9th Knight to join the Court of the Fisher King and the first Dominus chassis that I've painted.

Dominus Knight Valiant Barracuda Squall

I built this miniature over a year ago, but was never happy with the left arm electro-goad I had modelled him with. I left him boxed up for months while I pondered an alternative until I finally settled on the idea of creating a huge wrecking ball on a retractable chain for his replacement weapon.

The wrecking ball was made from a hard plastic ball with huge spikes from 40k building pillars pinned in place

I made this image with a little digital trickery to see how he'd look with his wrecking ball retracted.  The answer is... brutal!

The top cannon was converted to fire large explosive harpoons

The wrecking ball 'receiver' was made to resemble a deep sea creature's mouth, multi-directional and hook toothed

I was very pleased with the green and white stripes with skull and cog markings - they took a while to do, but look great!

I love adding tiny power / warning decals around the reactor and power nodes

Just like his fellow knights, Barracuda Squall is heavily weathered and dotted with kill markings

The carapace missiles were converted to be torpedoes which Barracuda Squall would be able to launch while hunting in the ocean depths 
Barracuda Squall's old, weathered chain-beard

The gathered might of the court - Mudskipper is the only notable absence!  He is undergoing the rights of colour and will be joining his fellow Knights soon...

New Scions

I've created a unique Knight Scion pilot for each member of The Court of the Fisher King - I've already shown 5 in previous posts, but it's time to introduce 2 more!

Sir Parcival Ahabius

Sir Parcival, the pilot of Barracuda Squall, is a thick set giant of a man. Possessed of a stoic, brooding personality, Parcival follows the edicts of his lord without question. Though he rarely speaks, when his opinion is given, Parcival's words are highly valued by the Knight's council who appreciate the wisdom he has gained over a century of loyal service.

Sir Parcival's body glove is coloured to match his beloved knight armour

Unlike other Scions of the court who delegate the maintenance of their warsuits to the capable hands of Sacristan Nautolex, Parcival frequently performs the rights of maintenance on his faithful steed, much to the chagrin of the wiley Mechanicus adept...

Quietly performing his duties to the kingdom of Corbenic, Sir Parcival is seen as one of the most reliable members of the court

Countess Caelia Hiralden

Caelia Hiralden is the pilot of the Cerastus Knight Reef Thresher - she proudly rides to battle alongside her husband Octillus Hiralden, their dual knight lancers filling their foe's hearts with dread as they crash into enemy lines.

Countess Caelia, seen here reaching for her sidearm, is renowned for her accuracy, holding the record for best marksman in the arc rifle contest at the annual Corbenic Solstice Tournament

The Countess where's a beautifully detailed cloak with a fur shrug; attire befitting one with such elevated status in the court

A final little flourish

And finally, I thought I'd give you a quick sneak peek of the coat of arms I've sculpted for the Court - I'll be casting it up in resin and will post some images of the final piece along with Mudskipper in the near future!



Monday 5 October 2020

Blackstone Fortress Progress

A nest of loathsome Ur-Ghuls stalk the depths of the Blackstone Fortress...

I decided to take a little break from making large miniatures for a while and instead concentrate on getting some more of my Blackstone Fortress miniatures painted up.

After completing several delves then our first Stronghold, we've ended up with the need for some extra gribblies.  In particular, the events we've triggered have left us with a higher alert level and more Spindle Drones being deployed during combats.  In order to ramp things up, I picked up 4 extra Spindle Drones and 4 more Ur-Ghuls as they're the most common enemies and I love the miniatures!

In addition to the sheer volume of miniatures required, I also wanted to be able to easily distinguish between the different squads as this can become confusing in the game if there's a lot of enemy groups on the board.  Having an extra set of each meant that I could paint them in opposing colours to make the squads clearly different.

As well as painting the new foes, I also managed to get a couple more characters finished along with an arco-flagellant retinue character.  I'll be back to working on giant robots again soon, but for now, enjoy the photos of my Blackstone Fortress denizens!

The motley band of adventurers grows! 
I simply reversed the leg and carapace colours for the new Spindle Drone squad giving a nice contrast while still keeping the colour palette the same

A veritable horde of drones ready to overwhelm our adventurers!

I have already assembled the large guardian drones from the BSF expansion Ascension - I intend to paint one to match each Spindle Drone squadron

Even the traitor guardsmen in the base game are gorgeously detailed

I've almost finished my first squad of traitors; the second squad's colouring will be different to help make them visually different during the game
My four new Ur-Ghuls have been painted in a very different contrasting scheme

The light underbellies and bloody mouths give the new pack a shark-like appearance 
My favourite of the four new Ur-Ghuls; 'Bony'