Ser Vardis Egen, Champion of Arryn

The proposed project is inspired by the description of Ser Vardis Egen in AGoT, Ch. 40:

Ser Vardis Egen was steel from head to toe, encased in heavy plate armor over mail and padded surcoat. Large circular roundels, enameled cream-and-blue in the moon-and-falcon sigil of House Arryn, protected the vulnerable juncture of arm and breast. A skirt of lobstered metal covered him from waist to midthigh, while a solid gorget encircled his throat. Falcon’s wings sprouted from the temples of his helm, and his visor was a pointed metal beak with a narrow slit for vision.  . . .

. . . Ser Vardis held out a gauntleted hand, and his squire placed a handsome double-edged longsword in his grasp. The blade was engraved with a delicate silver tracery of a mountain sky, its pommel was a falcon’s head, its crossguard fashioned into the shape of wings.  . . .

This is quite an evocative—and compelling!—description. And it immediately had me assessing my stash of Imai knights to see if a Ser Vardis could be coaxed out of one—or more!—of these kits.

Imai released their “Armored Knight Series” in the US in 1984. I remember harassing a poor distributor at the IPMS Nationals in Atlanta until he finally agreed to sell me his samples! Appa- rently they had been originally released in Japan having enhanced, if plainer, packaging—I have seen but one of these. And I have never seen the [chrome] plated versions released sometime in the '90s. Given what these are, they are simply superb! OOB, they are excellent representative models of the harnesses in question, all of which I have researched to varying extents in person. If one is so inclined, one can indulge in a bit of super-detailing, and create a 1/12th scale master- piece! 

I have tried to suss the convoluted history behind Aoshima, Imai, and Imex to no avail (if anybody would share even a "Cliff Notes" version, it would be greatly appreciated!). All I know is that at some time, Imex began packaging and distributing the kits in the US out of Brooksville, FL. I have both the Imai and the Imex versions, and while there is no appreciable difference between the two, on the whole, I prefer the Imex versions.

So much for the background of the base kits . . . on to the subject of this venture. Ser Vardis Egen is a knight from House Egen, retained in the service of House Arryn. He was captain of Jon Arryn's Household Guard when the latter was Hand of the King, and then became Captain of the Guards in the Eyrie for Robin Arryn and his mother, Lysa Arryn, widow of his erstwhile Lord and the sister of Lady Catelyn Stark. Somewhat past his prime, he is described as having a “square, plain face, silver hair, a heavy build, and no humor whatsoever.” (AGoT, Ch. 38). In the trial by combat with Bronn (Bronn championing Tyrion; Vardis, House Arryn's claim against the latter), the Arryn champion fell to the blade of the Lannister sellsword.

The project will be a kit-bash of two Imai/Imex kits: the Milanese Armatura alla Francese (AaF) of Kurfürst (Elector) Friedrich I (no. 2 in the series) [Atelier Missaglia | ca. 1450 | Inv. No.: HjRK_ A_2]; and the Adlergarnitur (henceforth, AG) of Erzherzog (Archduke) Ferdinand II (no. 3) [Jörg Seusenhofer | 1547 | Inv. No.: HjRK_A_638]. Parts will be scavenged from the other kits in the series if and when the need arises. As of this writing, I also intend to incorporate elements of, or suggested by, the Faltenrockharnisch of Markgraf Albrecht von Brandenburg, Hochmeister des Deutschen Ritterordens [? | 1526 | Inv. No.  HjRK_A_78]: these will be sculpted.

By way of a brief sidebar, it should be noted that a convincing and satisfactory depiction of Ser Vardis could be had virtually OOB with but the Milanese harness of Kurfürst Friedrich I.

Progress to date:

•  AG tonlet separated from cuirass and assembled.
•  AaF fauld separated from cuirass; arms and cuirass assembled.
•  AG legs assembled.

UPDATE 22.03.2014. . . 

• AG sabatons assembled, and preliminarily fitted to legs.
• AG split-visor reduced to lower half. Reduced split-visor will be fitted to helmet of AaF.
• AaF waist plate roughed-in to AG tonlet, and cuirass preliminarily fitted.

 UPDATE 23.03.2014. . . 

• AaF/AG waist plate ~60% finished.
• AG lower split-visor (lsv) tentatively fitted to AaF helmet. This entailed a reduction in breath along join line, for starters. . . 
• Additional work to integrate the lsv into the bevor; required a reduction of both the upper and lower edges of the visor--the former as the first step to accommodate the sculpted falcon's beak upper sv. 

More to follow. . .