Like many people, I found HBO’s wildly popular television series
Game of Thrones and was immediately hooked. I looked forward to each week’s new episodes and seeing what all the “winter is coming” talk was about. Once I saw the White Walkers and their King, I thought, “Wow, it would be awesome to have a model of one of them!” Well, ICM must have had the same thought and released a 1/16 scale Night King, or King of the Night as the kit is labeled.
Inside the box are three bags, one filled with gray styrene parts, one with a clear “ice” sword, and one with three small circular parts for the base, as well as instructions and a nice piece of artwork of the King. All 21 parts are crisply molded with minimal seams and no ejector-pin marks.
The instructions are simple and easy to follow. There is no real painting guide, but you can find many references online and use the included artwork as a guide.
The build is straightforward but there are several parts that make up the head and hands. The head is in four separate pieces and there are several seams along the neck and back of the head that required putty.
The hands comprise two parts each and required putty to eliminate seams. This is where you will have to make a choice: You can either glue the sword in place now or keep it out of the way by gluing it in later. If you choose the first, you’ll glue the sword into the palm and then assemble the rest of the hand. Or, do as I did by assembling the hands, painting the figure, then cutting the sword hand into two pieces, sliding the weapon into the palm, and reattaching the fingers.
When joining the two sections of the long skirt, there are major seam lines on both sides. These obviously need to be filled, but take care to not remove any molded details.
I painted the Night King using Vallejo and Andrea acrylics. The last thing I did was apply putty to the base to add height and then covered it with scenic snow.
All in all, this was a fun project and even with the cutting and putty, I spent only eight hours building and painting this terrifying creature.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the April 2019 issue.