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Before the Imperium came to Caliban there was a group of power armored knights called The Order. They had a more archaic form of power armor than the imperium and they also had a kind of bolt pistol and chainsword. The Order maintained a fast attack unit of cavalry called the Ravenwing, who were infamous for their lone wolf attitudes and winged helmets. Keep in mind all this comes from the Dark Angels book Descent of Angels, so for those who don't know what I'm talking about it's not made up.

Anyways, this is my rendition of Ravenwing Cavalry; I tried to essentially simplify space marine armor and make it less ornate and the horse is from a Brettonian knight.

I like the concept!

Here's the Lexicanum entry on it now that I think of it.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/The_Order

The painting is neatly done, though it could due with a little more highlighting.

I also feel bad for that horse too, but only because that space marine must weight a crap ton.

Perhaps you could use scout arms with the pauldrons on them? In my head I think it would work for making a "less refined" power armor, and it wouldn't look quite as goofy as 2000lbs riding on a horse....granted 1800lbs on a horse probably wouldn't look all that plausible either...

Keep the work up Bro

Space marine on a horse?! Cool idea, and I like the paintjob.

I don't think it goes well together.
I like the concept but the bretonnian horse doesn't fit the bill.
I second the suggestion of using scout armour, and would love to see the horse getting some armour too. Make it look more futuristic and less medieval.

while its a great idea, the horse is just way too small. try the empire mechanical steed or chaos knights.

i converted the chaos knights for my twc:

Enzephalon wrote:I don't think it goes well together.
I like the concept but the bretonnian horse doesn't fit the bill.
I second the suggestion of using scout armour, and would love to see the horse getting some armour too. Make it look more futuristic and less medieval.

That's the whole point. The Order was a medieval King Arthur style group of knights. They aren't space marines either, they are just normal people in power armor, which wasn't nearly as dense because it didn't have all the complex equipment housed inside it. I've had mutiple people say "oh that doesn't fit" but it even says in the books they rode Destrier war horses.

I like the idea but I agree that the power armour looks too modern.. TBH I'd like to see something more like medieval armour but with servos and wires etc..thats what I see when I think primative power armour...

Looking pretty sweet man keep it up
-Alex, PlusD6

I like the idea but if you could use a bigger scale would be cool

DODcrazy wrote:

Enzephalon wrote:I don't think it goes well together.
I like the concept but the bretonnian horse doesn't fit the bill.
I second the suggestion of using scout armour, and would love to see the horse getting some armour too. Make it look more futuristic and less medieval.

That's the whole point. The Order was a medieval King Arthur style group of knights. They aren't space marines either, they are just normal people in power armor, which wasn't nearly as dense because it didn't have all the complex equipment housed inside it. I've had mutiple people say "oh that doesn't fit" but it even says in the books they rode Destrier war horses.

Dude, it is a very cool idea conceptually, and I support using a 'normal' sort of knight's warhorse, but I think you should order one from a larger scale range. I think the author of the book may have been using the concept (which I first came across in some books by Gene Wolfe) that the 'destriers' are genetically modified horses, larger and stronger than what we think of - they would need to be to carry a man in power armour for any distance. Even on the models they were designed for, GW horses are too small, it's part of their heroic scale, and your model is really pushing the boundary of that. This conversion might look really good on a 40mm scale horse from a historical range, I think.

I like that idea, I like that idea a lot!

but is there some way you can explain a space marine on a horse? that fact that I highly doubt a horse could support that weight slightly bothers me

Ok seriously, google "knight on horse" and on average you'll see that their feet come down just past the belly of the horse. If you look on my model, the feet come down just past the belly of the horse. People are so accustomed to the big over-the-top comic book-like thunderwolves and stuff. If you look at the scale of a thunderwolf, it's literally like the size of an elephant.

Dual Face wrote:I like that idea, I like that idea a lot!

but is there some way you can explain a space marine on a horse? that fact that I highly doubt a horse could support that weight slightly bothers me

The fluff is fully explained and linked, it's not a space marine.

DODcrazy wrote:

Enzephalon wrote:I don't think it goes well together.
I like the concept but the bretonnian horse doesn't fit the bill.
I second the suggestion of using scout armour, and would love to see the horse getting some armour too. Make it look more futuristic and less medieval.

That's the whole point. The Order was a medieval King Arthur style group of knights. They aren't space marines either, they are just normal people in power armor, which wasn't nearly as dense because it didn't have all the complex equipment housed inside it. I've had mutiple people say "oh that doesn't fit" but it even says in the books they rode Destrier war horses.

To be fair, the armor described was also basically Mark I 'Thunder' Armor. Thunder Armor was power armor in the broadest sense. There's also the matter of course that the riders from The Order and the other Knightly orders on Caliban were not genetically enhanced to the proportions of an Astartes.

You painted it well, but the Bretonnian horse(Is that one of the older ones by the way? It looks smaller than the ones I've seen) and Space Marine body don't look to fit together that well.

It just makes the piece overall lose a little something, like if you see a Guardsman carrying a Heavy Bolter and firing it one handed.

Thats cool and nice paint job. I also feel bad for the horse power armour must be heavy.

DODcrazy wrote:Ok seriously, google "knight on horse" and on average you'll see that their feet come down just past the belly of the horse. If you look on my model, the feet come down just past the belly of the horse. People are so accustomed to the big over-the-top comic book-like thunderwolves and stuff. If you look at the scale of a thunderwolf, it's literally like the size of an elephant.

Dual Face wrote:I like that idea, I like that idea a lot!

but is there some way you can explain a space marine on a horse? that fact that I highly doubt a horse could support that weight slightly bothers me

The fluff is fully explained and linked, it's not a space marine.

You seem to be taking this very personally man, I think it's a cool idea and a lot of the conversion work is really good. But the horse is too small. It has more to do with the bulk of the space marine and the proportions of the horse than the relationship in height. A horse (especially large horses, which meideval warhorses certainly were) has a body like a barrel. Your feet come down to below the belly if you're a tall man, but your legs are very widely spread and your feet are far apart. Your model (and I am not trying to insult you, just talking about scale) could almost touch his feet together under the horse's belly - the space marine is simply too large on the GW horse, which has a very short and light body in relation to its head and legs.

So yeah, it probably looks fine on the tabletop, you should use it, it's cool. But up close it does look a little strange, and I think it could be absolutely awesome if you find bigger horses from somewhere.

HamHamLunchbox wrote:while its a great idea, the horse is just way too small. try the empire mechanical steed or chaos knights.

i converted the chaos knights for my twc:

Why does your wolf have hooves?


The one thing I would change is the helmet, other than that it looks great. Always loved the lore behind the knights of caliban

One thing I just realized is the photos are making horse look smaller for some reason






Definitely puts a different perspective on it I think.

It's pretty cool, but I think that using the Chaos Knight armor (and modifying it to look less Chaotic with Space Marine bits) would work better. The conversion is good, but the Chaos knights actually have their legs curved to fit in stirrups and the like. I think that would work to mesh together the two parts of the model better.

Also, since these guys aren't really Space Marines, you might lose the backpack power plant and ceramite shoulder pads. That would make them both a little smaller appearing (which might appease some people) and break up their visual signature. As it is, they look EXACTLY like Space Marines on horses, which is not the look you are going for.

I don't know that I would go with Chaos Steeds, but you might try to 'armor up' the horses a little bit. There's not much sense protecting the rider with power armor, and giving the horse just a cloth covering. Even a little bit of sculpted chain or plate would go a long way.

Given that these suits of armor are more primitive than Space Marine armor, you might also look at ordering just one or two Forge World Heresy era armor kits and cannibalizing them to make each suit of armor look archaic. Having a current mark of helmet armor also makes the wearer really look like a Space Marine. You might achieve the same effect with some of the Chaos Marine helmets, suitably de-horned and de-spiked.

I think you have a great idea, and a good execution, but I think that a version 2.0 could look more awesome. I do really like the clean, smooth paint job as well. Are you going to do a whole unit/lance/whatever of knights?

Nope I was really just making one for kicks, I guess I might make more at some point who knows lol.

I don't really remember them in power armor. I thought of it more as regular armor like knights just beefier. I don't know its been awhile. Looks pretty neat though. Thought about it myself, but didn't get around to it.

sweet idea.

search for husaria stuff if you want inspiration for further work.

DODcrazy wrote:That's the whole point. The Order was a medieval King Arthur style group of knights. They aren't space marines either, they are just normal people in power armor, which wasn't nearly as dense because it didn't have all the complex equipment housed inside it. I've had mutiple people say "oh that doesn't fit" but it even says in the books they rode Destrier war horses.

Those that were too old to undergo the rigours of the space marine implantation process were left as pure Knights not all of them. And your right knights both in the fiction and in real life knights did ride destriers into battle, but they were powerful warhorses trained for use in battle and more akin to the massive shire horses of today, not the Arabian styled palfreys of the Bretonians.

I think that is what people are saying, not that the concept doesnt work but that the horse looks to small, also the barding would have been used for the tournie not so much for the actually field of battle, so as others have said some armour wouldn't be out of place. All in all, nice concept though.

I like him. The wings look awesome. If you want to improve him, then maybe add some detail to the livery. But I don't think it really needs it.