Fright Knights: Night Lord's 'Bat-lista'

[Mr Maniac]

Unlike my first two entries in this little project of mine, this one's a bit of an outlier. While Witch's Windship and Traitor Transport seemed most of the way there and just needed a few more mods to do it, I can't say I cared too much about Bat Lord's Catapult, and was considering leaving that set in the dust, since the (initial) name of the game here was to create a medieval-themed Halloween display for future use.

But fast-forward to November of last year when I'm mired in my Witch's Magic Manor MOC project, and a thought occurred to me: Why should the Dragon Masters have all the fun with their thematically-appropriate Dragon Defender? So after a few more Bricklink orders and some free-building, I came up with a bat-shaped ballista. As Robin might say: Holy Horrifying Weaponry, Batman!

 

 

 

And of course you can see I wanted to keep the fancy ornamentation for the horse's harness in the original set intact. Thankfully the carriage that came with the IDEAS Medieval Blacksmith proved to be very useful in terms of giving me a way to update this in proper Fright Knights colors.

And lest you think I didn't work to make sure you can adjust the angle of the ballista for...ballistic purposes, here's a few angles of a little Technic doo-dad I cobbled together. Minifigures can access it, but it works better if you do the heavy lifting here.

 

So there you have it! One bat-themed siege weapon, designed by yours truly to emulate everything I love about the Fright Knights! Strange as it may sound, this didn't come together as quickly as I'd hoped, and there were quite a few versions which I attempted before finally giving up and sticking to the four-wheeled, single-horse model you see here. While there are obviously compromises and other nits I could pick, overall I think it blends in pretty well with the rest of my 'Neo-Fright Knights' designs. For more photos, feel free to check out my Bricksafe folder.

Hopefully you've enjoyed this small palate-cleanser in between your adoring looks at your newly-built Lion Knight's Castle! Next up, we're going to gather 'round the cauldron to boil and bake while we have some fenny snake fillet, er, I mean a remake of Witch's Magic Manor! Thanks for reading!

 

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Mr Maniac

[Agent Kallus]

Lovely, if it were a set I'd add it to my wish list in a heartbeat.

[Feuer Zug]

Sweet "Bat-Lista". The bat theme is strong with this creation. From the wing decorations along the arms of the ballista, to the head, you have the perfect themed siege weapon.

[Mr Maniac]

On 8/17/2022 at 2:34 PM, Agent Kallus said:

Lovely, if it were a set I'd add it to my wish list in a heartbeat.

Yes, this is what I like to hear! Worked really hard to make this MOC feel like a LEGO set, so glad that's the interpretation for you.

On 8/18/2022 at 8:50 AM, Feuer Zug said:

From the wing decorations along the arms of the ballista, to the head, you have the perfect themed siege weapon.

Very happy you noticed that, since I definitely spent quite a few hours monkeying around with the wings, to get them to read as 'bat-like.' Needless to say this is a fixture in my house this year for October, so let's just say I'm glad to see some appreciation!