Preparing more knights

Knights! Everyone loves knights. Well actually, since the arrival of 8th edition, a lot of people don't seem to rate cavalry at all. I think this is foolish, and I've discussed it before. In fact, I ended up fielding all-cavalry armies in both Book of Grudges and Axemaster last year. I admit, this was partly to prove a point to the nay-sayers (I'm stubborn like that). But I don't regret it in the slightest, and nowadays I find myself drawn more and more heavily towards knights when I am making lists.

Partly as a result of my repeated heavy use of knights, I have painted up a large number of them. Nevertheless, my plans require more. A lot more. Thus I find myself preparing my remaining 21 Knights Snow Leopard for painting, in order to round the unit out to 40. If I can get these done before the end of the month, I will have achieved my painting goals for February.

We're waaaaiting...

Naturally I want to get these guys moving as quickly as possible, and the addition of the cloaks is the biggest hurdle before they can be undercoated. My solution was to make 11 moulds for the cloak out of Instant Mold, meaning I only need to produce 2 waves in order to make all the cloaks I need.

I have what I need...

And soon there is a whole raft of cloaks on the way

I figured with this approach, I'd be able to get the cloaks onto all the knights in a single evening. As it turned out, this was optimistic. I didn't get started early enough, so it would have made for a pretty late night. I settled for doing 12 models, knowing that I am just one sitting away from having the whole lot finished. I should be able to base the lot of them at the same time.

12 Knights Snow Leopard, cloaked and ready to go

The cloaks from behind

Speaking of bases, I have shifted a few of the models across to some resin bases from Tiny Worlds Wargaming. I ordered a very large batch of these about a month ago, intending to work them into my Empire army. They should intermingle with my regular basing approach reasonably well, and just help to break things up a bit and add some interest. I've never used resin bases before, so this will be a new experience for me.

As before, I was too lazy to bother making more than a single shape of cloak for the knights. I added variation when I was pressing the cloaks into place on the models. Some flap in the wind (especially on the horses that look like they're moving faster, to try to give the model some consistency), whereas others are just draped close to the rider's back. Part of the reason I have not bothered making a different cloak is that this one still tickles me. I love the paw draped companionably over the rider's shoulder, whilst the leopard whispers tricksy things into his ear.  

A closer look at a few of the cloaks

Another angle of the same cloaks. They vary from draping close to the knight's back through to flapping a fair bit in the breeze (as much as I am willing to do, without making things too weak)

When they're all done, all 40 of my Knights Snow Leopard should look pretty much like my first batch. I still haven't managed to make myself go back and add leopard markings to the cloaks, but that's still a task for the future.

The completed knights await reinforcements