"To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it."
Elizabeth I, Queen of England
"We will not attempt any alliances with kings"
Giuseppe Mazzini, Italian Revolutionary
"...from my investigation, I can only see one truth, as difficult to accept as it is: the Freeblade Questoris know as the Skull Knight, King Crimson, Old King, Knight of the Death Rose and Rosa Mortis among other names, has not gone rogue, nor mad.
The Knight has a pattern, a plan I may say, in its seemingly random acts.
Unrequested support of Imperial forces, usually seen as miraculous apparition of a God of Death by guardsman, have saved lots of lives...still I can confirm reports of the Knight side with the forces of Chaos and Renegades.
The "Skull King" seems to have no known base, but operates in some known subsystems, and his acts of heroism and treachery can only have one meaning in my opinion.
He is protecting something, somewhere, a hidden system I think
This is where I'm headed for."
Inquisitor Seraph Verastirpe, Ordo Hereticus
Excerpt from one of the last letters
Disappeared and declared Traditoris Excomunicate from several members of Ordo Malleus
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Knights are fantastic kits, and they deserve, in my opinion, long projects and dedication.
So I started my first Knight project, inspired by KrautScientst Gilgamesh and Tibbs Queen Bee, not aiming at the same results, as it would be frankly impossible, but simply to do my best with my current set of skills.
I started first to work on a background, taking bits from a lot of Ideas I found or created (mangas, history, 40k fluff, previous projects backgrounds and role play campaigns); after all making models is telling a story.
I aimed for a difficult task: a knight I could use with my forces, where they Imperial or Chaos. I wanted a Knight you could look at and ask "Is it loyal or traitor?".
There is not so much room for grays in the grim darkness of the far future, even aesthetically, but I manage to have something to work on.
Skull was my first thought as a unifying theme. Spikes, but small, not too pointy and arranged in a certain way. 30K aesthetic helped a lot!
Then I remembered this guy.
A lot of you probably recognized the Skull Knight from Miura's "let's hope he finishes it before dying" BERSERK.
He got everything I wanted from an inspirational view. Knightly, Mysterious, Noble, Damned, Spooky and obviously very Skully!
With that dangerous, evil but not monstrous look, spikes, skull, the rose heraldry on the shield...all seemed perfect to me.
The ghostly appearance fitted greatly with the looks and fluff I wanted, after all we have precedents as knights goes (Gerantius anyone?)
So, full with Ideas I started with mounting the knight with LOTS of TAC
Then I needed to do something with the pauldrons
I settled for this
I put some skulls 'cause why not? they are the previous nobles, reciving the honor of be buried in their own war engine. Seems appropriate
So this is how my knight looks like now, save for the :cussty picture
Last it needed heraldry. This was an adventure in itself and a long story I will gladly tell you if you manage to follow me in this WIP log