Converted Venators

In terms of productivity, I think April has begun more promisingly than March did. I have not yet painted anything, however that does not mean that I have been sitting idle. My Venators have now been converted!

27 converted Venators

A closer look at some of them

As you can see, some of these models are pretty keen to get a new paintjob. You may also note from the second picture that a number of the horses required new tails. Being second-hand models, the tails were always going to be an issue. I have far more horses than I do tails. I set about rectifying that particular issue by using Instant Mold and green stuff to create more. I think 9 of the horses in this unit have been re-tailed in the process.

All of the knights have been given custom shields in order to make them better match the proper Voland's Venators models. Again, I used Instant Mold to get the results. Any other course of action would have been far too painful when repeated 27 times. Below are the steps I ended up using.

Step 1: File off the detail on the existing shields. You can see the press mould waiting at the top

Step 2: Roll out a strip of green stuff and, using consumate Vs, apply it to the shield

Step 3: Apply the press mould, squish it around, and you're done!

My first attempt was just to jam the green stuff into the mould and then squish that onto the shield. However, the shallowness of the mould coupled with the stickiness of my fingers meant I had trouble getting the right amount into the mould and pressing it out properly without applying so much water than I couldn't get it to stick to the shield. The process above that involved making the basic shape on the shield before applying the mould looks like more effort, but it was far more efficient in the long run.

A whole batch, ready to go.

I did end up swinging through with a knife and cleaning up some of the excess green stuff on a few of the shields before they cured - it just depended whether I used too much putty for the mould on the particular shield.

In the end, my converted Venators have altered heads and shields. The remaining changes that I might make (if I'm keen) would be to add tufts near the lance tips, and maybe to alter the legs on a few knights to be wearing over-the-knee boots rather than wearing platemail right down to the toes - it would just distance the models further from their plastic knight origins.

A reminder of what I am trying to match. Some of these models (notably the standard bearer in the front rank) are already conversions.

On a side note, I now have my hands on the new Empire book and have had a chance to read through it pretty thoroughly. I'll share my thoughts later, however I should say that Reiksguard becoming a separate choice from all other brands of knight (and a highly desirable one) makes a bit of a mess of my knight plans (which included precisely zero Reiksguard). I hope I don't end up having to buy more models. There are limits, you know...