Upgrading the Skeletal Steeds

In this post, I give my skeleton steeds a bit of an upgrade...

 

I almost never build models "stock" anymore– My favorite aspect of the hobby is converting the miniatures and making them uniquely my own. When it comes to my Tomb Kings army, this also provides me with the opportunity to give all the models a makeover and conceal the fact that they are relatively static 20-something year old miniatures.

For these horse archers, the conversion also became necessary because the skeleton riders didn't sit very well on the steeds; there was barely any attachment point, and the body just teetered loosely on the horse's spine.

 

 

The skeleton's legs, however, clipped perfectly around the Empire war horse, with its butt planted nicely in the saddle:

 

 

I thought adding a saddle and a bit of cloth would be a great way to add more stability for the rider and add more detail to the horse's bare skeleton.

I started by carefully slicing the saddle off of the Empire horse. (And, of course I saved the barding so I can use it on another project.)

 

 

The saddle has a peg underneath it where the two halves attach. This required me to cut a notch in the back of the horse so it could fit.

 

 

The saddle wasn't a perfect fit, but adding some cloth underneath would help stabilize it.

 

 

I started by mixing some brown stuff modeling putty and rolling it out into thin sheets. I draped these over the back end of the horse, made some minor cuts in the putty to get the basic shape, and let it cure completely.

 

 

The brown putty cured rock-hard, which created a nice under-structure over which I could sculpt the detail layer of the cloth. (The portion of the brown putty that covered the notch in the spine was cut away before sculpting the next layer to allow the saddle to fit properly.)

 

 

I used Aves Apoxie Sculpt to sculpt the surface, adding folds and tears, and I pressed the saddle into it to make sure it sat level. I didn't concern myself with the edges, as they would be trimmed after the Aves had cured.

 

 

I sculpted two different styles of cloth, and once they had cured, I popped off the saddle and split the cloth in two halves so I could make resin castings of it. (Much easier than sculpting cloth on what would eventually be dozens of horses!)

 

 

Here is the resin cloth, glued onto the skeleton steeds:

 

 

To get the unit champion to stand out a bit more, I decided to make his horse rearing up. I cut the horse's back legs and pinned them in a new position to angle the steed up.

 

 

The saddles fit pretty close to the original positions, but I needed to gap-fill with a bit of putty, and I also added more Aves under the front of the saddle. I didn't bother with the two-layer sculpting this time; I just sculpted the top of the cloth right on the horse, and left the bottom long so I could trim it once it had cured. I also added a cobra-emblem on the saddle to create a stylized saddle horn.

 

 

Here are the horses with the cloth trimmed. I left a bit of a gap in the center to accommodate the strap for the saddle.

 

 

To make the straps, I just cut a strip of thin styrene card and clued it around the horse's rib cage.

 

 

The archers look great in their new saddles!

 

 

One final detail I came up with was a scorpion-themed headpiece. I'd also like to add reins, and possibly a bridle, but if I do it for these five horses, then I'll have to make a bridle for every horse that I eventually add to the army. (That might be more work than even I am willing to do!)

 

 

'Til next time!