Topic: Demigryphs with 6e Knightly Orders riders - two completed units

[Konrad von Richtmark]

edit: Thread title changed 8.10.2020

So I'm going to make some war chickens. I have a rough overall idea of what I want to do, but I could use some help brainstorming.

All the knights in my collection that aren't White Wolves are Reiksguard, not thematically but I'm using those models. In-game, I've used them for both T9A Knightly Orders and Electoral Cavalry. Thus, I want to carry over the same look to the war chickens, and I have a large surplus of 6e plastic knights to use for the purpose. The general idea is that I want them to have a recognizable Reiksguard-ish look, but much more ostentatious to set them apart from the horse-riding knights, even a bit blinged out and overdone.

It'll be 3 models, with standard bearer and musician, but no champion. They'll be armed with lances and shields. I want a proper standard, not just a pennant on a lance. There should be a proper standard in the middle, with a raised lance on each side, nice and symmetric. For maximum symmetry, the musician shouldn't look that different from the third guy. I'm thinking that a horn suspended from the side of the demigryph should be all that sets him apart.

For the standard, I'm thinking of using the 7e greatsword banner. As standard pole and arm holding it, I'm thinking of using the 6e knight couched lance, only raised straight upward. That way, it looks to me like an entirely plausible arm holding a banner upright, supported against his arm and couched into his armpit, though I wouldn't really know, I have never ridden around with a cavalry banner. It shouldn't be too hard to file down the tapered lance into a cylindrically shaped banner pole. Using that bit gets me the correct knight arm too.

The fanciest Reiksguard helmet is, I'd say, the one with the two-tiered plume, so that's what they'll have (also, the fact that it isn't an obvious jousting helmet like one of them is helps too). Also, the demigryphs have some kind of armoured headgear with a spike. I'm thinking of taking away that spike and adding a plume there. Because why not?

I'm also thinking of using the headless pelt cloaks that come with the 6e box as lion pelts for the riders. I'm not entirely sure though they fit, I want them to reach down along the back of the rider, not flutter in the wind (I want these to give more a "riding in style" impression than charge at full tilt). If that turns into an issue, I might either have to cut down the cloak, or use some other bit, but I don't know which. They wouldn't necessarily have to be lion cloaks, but some kind of fancy cloaks they should be.

Various random stuff should hang from the saddles too, because more is more, and because why not? Should a cavalry sword be worn in a sheath at the left hip, or would it be more sensible to have it hanging on the right side of either the saddle or the barding? Also, if I manage to find spare pistols that aren't attached to arms, I could let them have a pistol or two at the ready, because pistols are cool, and (sense a pattern here) why not?

I think you're getting the point of what I'm trying to make. Does anyone have any ideas, or see any possible issues?

[Midaski]

The old metal Reiksguard knights had sashes.

That is something not on any of the current plastic bodies, though it is fairly easy to greenstuff.

[King]

The old metal Reiksguard knights had sashes.

That is something not on any of the current plastic bodies, though it is fairly easy to greenstuff.

If you take a look at one of my demi chickens posted recently, what Mids is suggesting is exactly what I did with on of the knights.

[Zygmund]

Just to recap: Would they still ride the war chickens, or are you planning to put them on horseback?

The new AoS chicken are much more interesting scuplts than the 8th ed ones. I don't know how much bigger they are; if the 6th ed plastic knights would look too small on them. Also they lack barding, which I think is an issue to you, since you're very keen on getting the proper look.

If go with horses, there are some heavier looking plastic (GW, like Chaos steeds with spikes etc. filed off) or metal (Gamezone) horses, which would separate them from your Electoral or Order knights.

Midaski's sash idea is excellent.

Hard to think of much else. Painting of course could separate and elevate them. Like adding engravings or etching, at least to some visible parts, like the shoulder plates. If you're not too keen on keeping the polished shiny Reiksguard look, you could also try out black armour, with the classic bronze/gold on the edges.

Will be nice to see how this project comes out. 

-Z

[Konrad von Richtmark]

They would still ride war chickens. That's only proper, considering how much of the damage output of the unit comes from the monstrous mounts. While I'm rather conceptually averse to the war chicken, I'm now taking it and rolling with it, making the best of it. These are meant to be noble rich kids with way too much money, who spared no expense not to just get the bestest, baddest mounts out there, but to play pimp my ride too, and buy all the coolest weapons and armour. Imagine the leopard-pelt-wearing Polish winged hussar and transplant him into a fantasy Germanic setting, and don't forget to bring along the towering superiority complex. These guys know they are the best of the best. A self-perception partly justified as they're the product of some vicious natural selection. Many men like them tried to do what they did, to pay-to-win their way to absolute elitedom, but ended up savaged by the war chickens.

I already have a box of the 8e war chickens that I got at a discount from a friend. I'm going to use the chickens from there. While they're not strictly wysiwyg for T9A due to being barded, I'm taking them as they come. That barding has all kinds of ornamentation that can be gilded. Also, it's a convenient solid chassis to which all kinds of random stuff can be attached. I was thinking of letting them go unshielded to make them add up to a 2+ armour save either way, but decided against it. That would not just be aesthetically non-wysiwyg, it could make it slightly ambiguous which equipment option they have.

Another reason why I'm using 6e plastic knights rather than the riders that come in the box is to allow me to stash away the latter, to use as griffon riding heroes. I have the old 6e griffon and the reaper bones griffon, waiting to be mounted.

For army uniformity of appearance, I'll go with polished steel armour on the knights, but thinking of it, I could add gold features to the armour as well, to go together with the gilded ornamentation on the barding. Also, I just realized that I should use the knight torsos with the sun, since they're known as Knights of the Sun Griffon in T9A.

[Konrad von Richtmark]

The job is underway. First thing I noticed was that, unlike for the 6e knights box, the saddle is incorporated into the war chicken bitz, not the knight mounted legs. I thus had to shave off the saddle from the knight legs. I think I've managed to develop a filing technique that gets the faulds covering the waist and groinal area right. There, first unexpected obstacle out of who knows how many surmounted 

[GamesPoet]

The old metal Reiksguard knights had sashes.

That is something not on any of the current plastic bodies, though it is fairly easy to greenstuff.

I'm surprised Midaski uses greenstuff, or does he?

[Konrad von Richtmark]

First WIP war chicken, the standard bearer of the unit, from a few angles. It's not done yet, it still needs more ornamentation, blingz and gubbinz.







The chicken is from the GW 8e box. The knight from the 6e knight box. The cloak is that of the Gamezone Miniatures Imperial General. The standard pole and the right arm are the couched lance from the 6e knight box, slightly converted. The standard is the 8e greatsword standard, with the skull on top from the 6e knight box.

As you can see, I didn't use the knight head with the two-tiered plume. Turned out that the "rear" plume that runs backward and downward interferes with the cloak. Instead, I'll use the two-tiered plumes as headgear for the chickens, in the place where the bigger spike is.

That white thing on the rear barding under the cloak in the first picture is actually the result of a glue screw-up from me. It would, thus, be warranted to stick something else there to cover it up. I'm thinking just spare weapons and the like, but does anyone have any ideas?

[Warlord]

That cloak is an excellent fit.

You really stuffed up that bit at the back... was it also to do with the cloak? Perhaps a sword in scabbard will hide some, with a pistol in holster?

[Konrad von Richtmark]

Getting the cloak to fit that well took quite a bit of twisting and bending with tongs. Some of which left marks behind that I'll have to greenstuff.

Yeah, the ruin at the back happened when I tried to glue the cloak to the barding.

I'm currently thinking he should have a sword in a scabbard on the right-side frontal barding, for easy and convenient draw. Along with maybe two pistols. Farther back, such as on the ruin under the cloak, he could have other weapons that aren't meant to be quickly drawn. He could have a 6e and a 7e handgun both next to each other, representing a smaller carbine-ish thing and a bigger gun, because a gentleman needs a proper weapon for every occasion. Or alternatively, a greatsword.

I'm thinking though I should assemble the body of each of the three knights first, before starting to add gubbinz. That way, I can do it in a more holistic way, considering the whole unit.

[JAK]

Best thing to cover a large area is a shield; so either swop rider for one you can pose not holding a shield or remove from standard bearer’s arm provided it won’t cause damage to what you’ve already done.
Otherwise a reserve weapon (gun) as already suggested placed to hide as much of the damage as possible from a normal view point. After this if there is any more bend in the cloak use that to close the remaining gap.

I believe you’ll need to add a sword anyway for these knights – this is what I did with mine.

[Warlord]

So many tiny detail touches on that knight JAK. I guess unsurprising looking at everything that you do.

[Midaski]

The Regiment Shield Sprues from the Noughties with the separate icons were great for covering up mistakes.
The Icons were flexible enough to bend on curved surfaces.

[Konrad von Richtmark]

Midaski, that's an interesting idea, I might just do that.

[Midaski]

To be honest I half suspected that was what Jak had done on the right hand picture on the horse's flank, as it looks very similar to the icons.

Not too familiar with that horse as it came post-Goldswords when I lost interest in GW.

[Konrad von Richtmark]

While waiting for my magnetic base order to arrive, I finished up the conversion/kitbash of my Reiksguard War Chickens:



Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the result. They look clearly Reiksguard, just more bling and swag. I'm still a bit unsure though about all the extra weapons, it will remain to be seen when these are painted whether they will look good or just cluttered.

[Artobans Ghost]

I don’t think many peeps would be in a hurry to make wings out of those chickens 😸 very nice

[Konrad von Richtmark]

Semi-related post. I decided yesterday I'll make a second unit of war chickens, ordered the box. The idea will be much the same stylistically, only they'll be using Knights Panther heads and pelt cloaks.

How would one go about painting a panther pelt? This is what one looks like, apparently:



So a very dark, almost black blue, and a bit glossy at that. Just basecoat black and drybrush progressively lighter? I have no idea how to keep it appropriately dark while still glossy. For once, those old glossy GW inks might have been useful.

[Zygmund]

From "official" GW illustrations and photos, I've always got the picture that the Panther implied by Knights Panther was actually a Leopard. The cloaks in the illustrations and painted miniatures have always been spotted yellow rather than black.

I know this doesn't help. Just an observation.

Painting black pelt, I'd avoid going glossy. Some kind of satine would be better. You could actually get the effect simply by basecoating black and then washing/shading with black or dark blue. Just my idea - haven't tried this out myself. But the black spray undercoat is not 100 per cent matte, it shimmers a bit.

-Z

[Konrad von Richtmark]

Browsing for pictures on Knights Panther, I too realized that they're in fact Knights Leopard. Still, since my army has black as a tertiary colour (with the bog-standard Talabheim red and white being the two primaries), painting them as actual panther pelts would fit. I'd probably also paint the feline crests of the Knights Panther helmets black.

[Warlord]

Yeah that is weird hey. I dont think many people have put those 2 ideas together - panther vs leopard.

[White Knight]

I always figured that the people who thought up the concept didn't know much about felines and since this was before the internet days, didn't think to do some research. 

But since this is a fantasy world, who's to say their panthers can't have spots?

This being said, black knights panther should look good and should give you an interesting take on the war chicken colour scheme, so go for it.

[Dark Lord Galax]

While waiting for my magnetic base order to arrive, I finished up the conversion/kitbash of my Reiksguard War Chickens:



Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the result. They look clearly Reiksguard, just more bling and swag. I'm still a bit unsure though about all the extra weapons, it will remain to be seen when these are painted whether they will look good or just cluttered.

Truly love them, do you mind if i get inspiration for my own unit?
(and by "getting inspiration" I mean "drastically copy them without shame"  )

The only thing I don't appriciate so much are the hanging pistols, especially the bannerman's one. It seems it's just put there, with nothing to held it in position. 
Did you use Reiksguard bodies and torsoes from 6th Edition imperial cavalry?

[Konrad von Richtmark]

Copy to your heart's content! Might be you'll get yours done before me, and then I'll be the one inspired and influenced by you. I'm building a second unit as I write this, along the Knights Panther ideas of the last few posts.

Those are indeed 6th edition knight bodies. The banner pole is actually the couched, charging lance from the same box, just turned upwards, cut a bit to fit, and filed to be of equal thickness all along it, unlike the tapered lances. The banner itself is from the 7th edition greatsword box, though the skull on top is from the 6th edition knight box too. The plumes of the demigryphs are also from the knight box, cut off the heads of knights.

Trickier (or costlier) to replicate as such would be the cloaks. The standard bearer's cloak is that of the Gamezone Miniatures Imperial Hero, I got that one as a birthday gift ages ago but never found any use for him, not being much into mounted characters. The two others have cloaks from the 7th edition general/bsb box, I was lucky to have obtained an extra from a package deal of all the Empire stuff owned by a guy.

[Dark Lord Galax]

Well, thank you for providing me the complete list of bits needed. 
I might have some trouble to find all those heads (3 and 3 of my favourite ones from that kit, by the way) so I'm currently deciding about using different bits or just make them like yours. I'll probably go for the latter anyway, since I should have a friend with some spare heads here.

As for the cloaks, I'd probably go for the General/bsb kit for all the three of them, for a couple reasons:
-I'd like to have a completely plastic army in order to get it with me wherever I want without any issue.
-I should have a couple hanging around and to find a third will not be so difficult after all... If I have to I'll probably buy another kit, 'cause I'm always needing another body of the bsb on foot and I truly love both the helmeted head and the one with the plumed hat.

Maybe after I've finished them I'll post them here before my usual black primer coat. 

About Knight panthers I admit I never make the obvious 2+2 about the pelts. Having seen the rest of your army I suggest you to go for black pelts, too.