So here, now, I'm able to share the second character model of my Lightning Hawks project. I said back in an earlier post that figuring out the characters was a special task for me in planning this army, and I just wanted to reiterate that because it is still absolutely true as I begin to write about Hermesia Whisperwing, my Knight-Azyros, bearer of the army's second lantern, the celestial beacon (again, I find the lanterns a particularly inspiring idea). Knights-Azyros are described (on page 66 of the 2018 battletome) as ambassadors, scouts, messengers, bringers of Sigmar's power and wisdom, and illuminators of the battlefield, which for me seems like such an interesting and vital character for a project aiming to distil the essence of the Stormcast Eternals into a dark, beautiful vision. Since the Lightning Hawks Stormhost has no (canon) place of residence (that I'm aware of), I have been making my minis with a thought to them being on the move, and so all those roles the Knight-Azyros character fills are perfect for an army detachment constantly travelling across the Mortal Realms in pursuit of Chaos. Furthermore, as carriers of Sigmar's 'wisdom' and the 'pure' light of Azyr, the Knight-Azyros functions as another character who so poignantly bears the scars of the Stormcast's plight as altered, manipulated, battle-hardened in/humans.
I like absolutely no part of the actual Knight-Azyros model, save only the sword and lantern bits, because I don't think it captures the described roles particularly well. I knew I wanted my Knight-Azyros to be dynamic, even to the point of being the most dynamic model in the whole army, to really get that sense of activity, movement, and power the character is supposed to posses. The Neave Blacktalon model was the perfect base with its running and striking pose, but I did need to strip away some of the Vanguard Chamber details to make it fit within the Strike Chamber portion of my army, as well as figure out how I was going to add the required equipment and wings. Early on, I played around with a few different ways of having Hermesia 'flying', but ultimately decided none of these tricks looked convincing enough (another reason I don't like the actual Azyros model) and thought that on the cusp of jumping off a large rock, about to slash a foe, gave off a much stronger sense of dynamism. All the plates and especially the wings also made for some interesting extensions of the colour scheme, which made painting a partly-joyful-partly-frustrating challenge.
Anyway, more photographs follow, including some top-down images where I've tried to capture the nice big scenic base I was able to do because of the wings.
-Jamie
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