Basing versatility

It has been a pretty quiet holiday period for me in terms of hobby activity. There has been a lot of other stuff going on and it's seen me either too busy or too tired to sit down and try to do anything productive. However next weekend is Cancon, and having committed a long time ago to going, I finally need to start paying attention and work out what needs to be done.

I've made the trip up to Canberra for Cancon maybe 15 times in the past, and every single time I have played Warhammer Fantasy. That is not really an option this time, with the choice coming down to either 9th Age or Kings of War for those who were looking for a game of that type. I chose Kings of War, put in my registration, and then gave it no further thought. It's only now that I've really started considering what army to take. I couldn't really pick something requiring a lot of preparation, so I've settled for something different that still uses what I have already available - League of Rhordia.

Unfortunately I am decidedly weak on the Halfling front, so my army will really just be making use of the human choices in the list so I can use some of my Empire stuff that doesn't get a run in the Kingdoms of Men. Exciting stuff like Wolfygryphs and Volley Guns and Steam Tanks...

Anyway, with this in mind I managed to get myself to sit down and finish my unit of Republican Guard, so I now have the 40 models I need to field a horde of Dogs of War in the Rhordia list. They're funny - pikemen so heavily armoured they waddle along at the speed of Dwarves. I also needed to do some work on my Wolfygryphs, because they're on 50x75mm Warhammer Monstrous Cavalry bases, which is not right for use in Kings of War (they should be on 50x50mm). So some re-basing was required.

Bases! As usual I cheated as much as possible and asked Pete to 3D print me what I needed. But wait, you can't fit Demigryphs on those...

Magnets and iPads

With my army list submitted for Convic, I have once again locked myself into using a number of models that are not yet ready for the table. As usual, I find myself using a tournament as motivation to get some more stuff painted. However, this time it feels like I'm cleaning up odds and ends rather than trying to get a whole regiment ready for the event.

My army list contains 8 Demigryph Knights, which happens to be exactly how many I already have painted. Unfortunately, my list contains a musician and no other command models - which means my standard bearer is in the way. The champion can easily pass as just another knight, but the standard is a bit hard to ignore. Something must be done.

I had always planned to paint 10 Wolfygryphs, and to use them in 2 units of 5 (when the points allow). I fell short of this in my initial wave of productivity, largely because I was keen to get them done, but also because I figured the final 2 models were surplus to requirements for most occasions. These last 2 models were to be the standard bearer and musician for the second unit of 5. However, if I assemble them like this now, I still won't have the number of regular guys I need for my Convic list. Good planning, huh?

Enter the magnets.

You see a lot of people using magnets on their models online, in particular where things have different weapon options - so 40K vehicles and dreadnoughts are common targets. Using the magnets allows the player to have the choice of different configurations without having to proxy, and without having to buy and paint up multiple versions of the same thing. It's a very efficient strategy, but one I've never really employed before. I generally just double up on the models, figuring I will hopefully get to use them at the same time at some point. However, the Wolfygryphs are a bit different. I don't need more than 10 of them, so I really just need to make sure that I cover my needs with the models I have already. Time to try my hand at magnetising some models.

My plans are simple - the final 2 Wolfygryphs will be able to be either a standard bearer and musician, or regular knights. I decided the best approach was to make their shield arms interchangeable, so that they would have a weapon regardless of which magnetised arm I was using. It did mean making a left-handed standard, but I can live with that.

My second Wolfygryph standard bearer. His banner is less impressive than the first one, but I'm fine with having a main banner and a secondary one.

Demoted! The same guy, this time with his shield.

My second musician.

And the same guy, having dropped the horn and picked up a shield.

Wolfygryphs finished! ARROOO!

 Last night I finally managed to get my White Wolf Demigryph cavalry (converted from Thunderwolves) to the point where I'm happy to call them  finished. It feels like I've been painting these guys forever - 6 of the last 7 nights have been spent on them - but in  truth it only adds up to around 18 hours, which is 2 hours and 15 minutes per model. When I think about that, it's not too  bad. It's probably also true that the time feels greater because of all the time I spent converting them, but thankfully  that's all done now too.

There are things on these guys that I could potentially go back and change, but at this point I think I will leave them  alone. If I get inspired later I might change their claws from black to a bone colour, but I realised this would take an  eternity and decided against it. They may not even look better, against the brown on the bases. I also didn't do any skin  colour inside the ears - I feel like I've left them unpainted, but to be honest a fluffy white wolf probably has fluffy  white fur inside his ears as well, and I'm not sure the skin colour would have added anything.

I've included a couple of close-ups of the banner, to show how it came out. Being a green stuff copy of the original heavy  metal banner, the detail was never going to be perfect. The results are a little rough around the edges, but this effect is  probably accentuated by my slightly rough painting. I tried to repair a couple of ill-formed details with paint, but with  limited success. As usual, I have cheated and not put any text on the scrolls on the banner. Another thing for later, if I  get inspired. The fur could also stand to be cleaned up a bit, but it would take a disproportionate amount of time for little reward, so that may never happen. After all, I'm painting armies - I'm not some Cool Mini or Not artist lavishing attention on individual models.

Anyway, I ended up taking a lot of pictures because I know these guys are of interest to a lot of people. I'll include  further comments in the captions. Right now I'm looking forward to being able to move onto other stuff, as these guys have  absorbed my attention for over a month.

My White Wolf "Demigryph" Knights of Ulric. They don't rank up perfectly in every configuration, but given that I didn't plan it very carefully, it's quite acceptable.