Empire Kitbashing With Darknight

Introduction
(or "In which I justify wasting your time")

The purpose of this article is to share with you a way of thinking which is possibly slightly new. This way of thinking can be summed up as;

Making do and mending.

All of us like to convert and paint - but often we find projects to be expensive. The focus of this article is to show you how to make models without spending any cash (or very little) from old tat you have lying around.

As examples in this I shall be focusing mostly on how I made my heavy-armour Empire crossbowmen, but it also includes a brief description of my army and some hits and tips on making the most of Moonduck's superb "Empire on a Budget" article. Moonduck's article was in fact the inspiration for this one, so I suggest you go and read it if you haven't. I'll still be here.

This article is a rather general overview of some techniques with some specific focus. A lot of the techniques here might not be useful unless you have the same sort of spare parts as myself, but I'm certain you can get something out of it. If you don't, well - I'm not in the business of pleasing everyone. If I was, I'd charge for it, make enough money to buy Canada, throw everyone out and rename it Hodgevania.

But I digress.

My Army
(or "Look, I am digressing")

I collect an Empire Army which is themed around the idea of a Knightly Order. Every model in the army is, to a greater or lesser extent, a member of the Order. Visually, this means they all wear the same design of uniform (gunmetal armour, black cloth with white accents) and have the same iconography (the shield design is a white Maltese cross on a black field and all models have a laurel wreath somewhere on them). All the models are also - obviously - in armour and (if mounted) have armoured steeds.

The army is based - loosely - on the Knights Hospitalier, Crusading Knights who dressed in black and full armour and whose device is the Maltese cross. My army is a religious order - following the goddess Myrmidia - and their fortress is on an island which belongs to them (and is hence nominally Imperial) in the ocean to the south of Tilea. Similarities between the situation of the Knights of the Temple of Myrmidia and the Knights Hospitalier during their time on Rhodes and Malta are intended, I assure you.

I won't dwell too long on the background or theme of the army, as that isn't the purpose of this article (but I might write such an article if people want). What I want to discuss is the making of figures from cast-off bits of tat, old models, plasticard, green stuff and imagination. This has allowed me to save an awful lot of money, and can do the same for you.

Purchasing Components
(or "How much did I spend to get a single sprue?")

When I initially conceived of such an army, I wanted to have a wholly cavalry force of about 2000 pts. To this end, I purchased several boxes of Knights and some militia. I had lurking around in my bitz box some part-used Soldiers of the Empire sprues (I had arms left over, mostly) from a project involving using them to make Frateris Militia for my Sisters of Battle army. Thus armed with these (and a few metal components I ordered) I made my Knights and some pistoliers.

The Knights were made basically straight out of the box, with a few metal torsos used here and there. I made sure I used only the plastic torso with the piping on (you get two of these on each sprue) and used the traditional "Reiksguard" helmets with the long plumes. Each Knight was also given a sword girt at his side (or an empty scabbard if he had a sword in his fist).

The pistoliers were constructed from Knights using militia and soldiers of the Empire heads, the bodies of the Knights with the sunburst on, Knight legs and the "poofy" arms from the soldiers of the Empire sprue with militia pistols on (this was long before I saw Moonduck's article on the same!) I gave them swords and powder purses etc. from the Mordheim accessory sprues and mounted them on Knight's horses.

All of this gave me two things; i) a really nice set of cavalry and ii) a HUGE pile of half or even quarter used sprues.

Doubtless you are in much the same position from many of your own projects; half-used kits, kits that were never used, models that you got for projects that were shelved, odd models you picked up in sales etc. This is not a good position to be in.

An even worse position is being less than 10 months from your wedding and having all this. While my fiancee is a delight and wonderful and actually likes me doing my hobby (although she hasn't played herself) the idea of me lugging in about a hundred-weight of old model tat to the connubial house is not the most attractive one ever.

So, what did I do? What is the magical trick which I can impart unto you?

Central Premise
(or "Let the Wookie win")

Well, inspired by Moonduck's article on the making of Greatswords, I decided that some footknights would be a good idea. I did not have the command sprues he recommends, but I had a fair bit of Knight tat. So, I used that.

I shall not dwell on how exactly I made the Greatswords - they are very similar to Moonducks, except using Empire Knight components. But, I shall share the methodology behind the technique;

I gathered every single Empire sprue I had - every last one - and clipped every single component off it into a box. Every last one. I then threw away the empty sprues.

Just consider for a second just how much space that saved.

I then went through my bitz boxes and extracted any and all components that might be useful - some old Dogs of War, some High Elves etc.

I also traded with "Me Mate Ginger Dave" for any bits he had which were Empire and armoured. I got a fair handful in exchange for some skeletons. I urge everyone to attempt this (not necessarily with Ginger Dave, as he might just tear your arm off and beat you with it if he hasn't had curry that evening) as it exchanges your tat for stuff you might actually want.

(Ginger Dave)

I then made the models using Moonduck's technique. I made extensive use of Green Stuff to create armoured skirts for them, a technique I shall discuss below when I discuss the focus of this article - making heavily armoured crossbowmen (see, told you I'd get there eventually).

Suggestions For Making Greatswords
(or "I ride on Moonduck's coat tails")

Here are a few additional suggestions when using Empire Knight components to make greatswords. Consider these an adjunct to Moonduck's article;

i) For the double-handed arms which have a left arm without a hand (it being moulded to the weapon - such as the militia greatsword and the Middenheimer greathammer) glue the right arm on as normal but replace the left arm with a left cavalry arm (the one that holds the shield) with the hand knocked off. It works great and gives a really fine armoured look.

ii) The Knight commander's sword is superb as a Greatsword if given a longer hilt.

iii) When using the Middenheimer greathammer, simply cut the right hand off partially, basically at the knuckles (there is an armour plate to follow) and cut the commander's sword at the same point. This gives a far stronger bond than trying to either cut it at the wrist or cut the sword off on its own and re-attaching it.

iv) Do not be afraid to go for a slightly "mix-and-match" look for the armour - provided you have some unifying themes (such as my laurels, for example) it will all come together and look fine.

v) Do not worry so much about trimming plastics perfectly to fit before gluing them - polycement melts them wonderfully and a touch of pressure often sorts out lots of issues. Alternatively, just leave them to dry thoroughly and then slice offending bits off with a knife.

And, finally and most importantly . . .

vi) If a component is not quite right, file, carve, convert or Green Stuff it until it is right rather than not using the piece and buying a different one. Decide what you want to do with your bits and make sure you do it. One model which is not perfect is better than spending about £5 buying bits - it really is!

I made 20 Greatswords and 20 swordsmen out of rubbish bits that were just languishing. That is an awful lot of money saved indeed, but you knew that already. And, if you have read Moonduck's article, you know how to do it. So I won't belabour the point.

Anyway, armoured crossbowmen . . .

Making Armoured Crossbowmen
(or "Finally!")

While clipping off the militia sprues, I was struck by the number of crossbows. It seemed a shame to just get rid of these or not use them. I thought that normal crossbowmen weren't very appropriate for my army, but heavily-armoured ones with pavaises - in a kind of Italian renaissance mercenary / Dogs of War style . . . now that might work within an Empire Knight army whose fortress was on an island near the mercenary states!

A vision grew in my mind - Braganza's Besiegers-style models, but in more Germanic style armour, with big square pavaises which echoed Roman Legionnaire shields. I considered the Greatsword and swordsmen models I had made - many of them had a rather "half-armour" look about them as the left arms were the armoured Knight ones and the right were something else. I reasoned that armour was expensive and heavy; and when you have a huge shield you don't need as much armour. I decided that the vision for these models would be of a heavily armoured left arm, a breastplate, full helm and with other areas being covered with chainmail skirts and sleeves if at all. This would be characterful, appropriate and - more importantly - could be done with bits of tat I still had left over.

With this in mind, I set to work!

The first thing I did was slam together a couple of models to use as test pieces. I used some Soldiers of the Empire legs and bodies (if there are blue components in the pictures this is because I assembled them and sprayed them blue years ago, did nothing else with them and am now using them for this!), crossbow arms (with the left arm replaced with the armoured cavalry one) and Knights' heads. I tried to use torsos with breastplates on, to give the look I was aiming for.

In order to get the knight arms to fit I had to cut and re-glue the arms. This isn't hard at all - simply follow the lines of the armour plates and slice with a sharp knife. You can cut out small wedges of plastic and then glue the model back together with polycement. If the contact surface is too small, either use a pin or some Green Stuff and superglue.

(The "reloading" model - sorry about the awful quality of this picture!)

I made one model using the "aiming" crossbow arms and one using the "reloading" arms. This gave me some sort of indication of the size and positioning of the models.

Making Large Shields
(or "How many pieces of plasticard?")

I then worked out what size shield I would need to have and cut a piece of plasticard that size (mine were 23mm x 15mm). I actually cut a strip that width and then cut off a piece from the end to ensure that the shields would be the same size. The plasticard I used was a piece I had lying around; I don't know what gauge it was. The design for the shields I had would require two thicknesses of this with the edge going up to three, so about a millimetre or less would be good - which is what I had.

I then measured an Empire shield (the ones from the soldiers of the Empire set) to see how wide it was. Note, this is actual width, not the surface width of the shield (which is greater as the shield is curved - I'll need that distance in a moment!) I then deducted this figure (roughly 10mm) from the width of the square shield, divided it by two, and cut two pieces of plasticard that thickness and as long as the shield is tall. I glued these onto the surface of the large shield at the sides, leaving me with a gap in the centre the width (more or less) of an Empire shield.

Finally in this stage, I cut some 1mm wide lengths of the plasticard and used short pieces of them to fill in the top and bottom of the large shield - leaving me with an effect not entirely unlike a picture frame with the sides being rather wider than the top and bottom. I then left this whole assembly to dry thoroughly while I worked on the curved centre piece.

(The flat piece of plasticard and the basic "picture frame" shape)

What curved centre piece, I hear you ask? Well, I wanted to place the Maltese cross emblem in the centre of the shield. It is designed to go over a curved surface, not a flat one. Also, a curved centre section would add some interest to the shield.

I cut a piece of very thin plasticard as long as the gap between the top and bottom edging on the shield and as wide as the Empire shields are on their curved surface (this is about 11mm). I drilled a small hole with a pin vice into this piece (for the small lug on the reverse of the emblem) in the middle of the vertical axis but offset slightly from the horizontal so the emblem would sit in the centre of the shield. Careful measuring is needed here. Once you have worked out where this hole should go, make a note of it so you can do it again! (This goes for all the measurements in this section, to be honest).

I then carefully bent the piece of plasticard until it would fit into the space left. This was fairly tricky and delicate - I heated the material by holding it near a lamp bulb. I daresay other sources of heat - such as a hairdryer - could be used. Take your time. When it is curved nicely, glue it into place.

(The curved section glued in place)

Once that was done, it was a simple matter of gluing the emblem to the curved section and then gluing some strips of plasticard to the edges of the shield. I let it dry and then sanded the rough bits smooth.

(The completed shield)

I did not glue the shield to the model at this stage, as I had a large amount of Green Stuffing to do with the model - mostly armour.

Modelling Chainmail
(or "Is it really that easy?")

Yes, I assure you it is that easy. I began by rolling out a piece of Green Stuff about three millimetres around and long enough to go around the waist of the model. I then wrapped it around the model, just below the point where the torso joins the legs.

(the Green Stuff wrapped around the model's waist)

I then simply used a GW sculpting tool (although you could use whatever you normally use to work Green Stuff, but I found the little round doohicky on the end of the GW sculpting tool to be great for this) to squish the Green Stuff into a skirt. The basic technique I used was to press the putty upwards towards the torso, applying less pressure to the bottom section. You should end up with a sort of "tennis skirt" affair.

(the skirt of Green Stuff)

I then took a Pointed Tool (TM) - in my case, it was a spare Knight lance and I used the point. I find this to be ideal for this, but you might like to use a needle, pin, bit of thin wire or whatever. Whatever you use, simply push in parallel, horizontal lines of shallowish holes in the Green Stuff going around the skirt. Push the first set of holes from one direction (e.g. from right to left) and with the tool angled slightly. Then reverse the direction and angle for the next line, and again, and again.

Take care when you reach the bottom of the skirt - you may have to put the last line of holes partially "under" the skirt, on the very edge of the Green Stuff - or the skirt will look like Green Stuff with holes in it, not armour. Trust me.

The chainmail is now complete.

(the completed chainmail skirt, actually the completed model. Note the Mordheim quiver and the chainmail around the right arm. Click for a larger image)

This technique can be applied to all sorts of areas of models - I have used it to create armoured sleeves on these crossbowmen. When painted and drybrushed, this looks just like the chainmail on actual sculpts.

Command Group and Other Ideas
(or "What I Did Differently")

The above techniques are the basic ones I used to make my crossbowmen - I hope they are useful and show you that you can made some rather nice models without too much expense or effort. Here are some other pictures of other models in the unit which show what I did with them.

(my version of Luka Brazanga, Sergeant Keitel - click for a larger image)

The commander of my unit was built from a wide variety of plastic components. The legs are from the cannon sprue, the body is an armoured torso and the arms are from the Empire Knight sprue (the right arm is the commander's sword arm.) I then replaced the hand with the hand and stock from the Mordheim blunderbuss arm and stuck a cut-down crossbow from the Mordheim accessory sprue on the end. This gave the impression he was pointing the crossbow to fire.

In order to show his butchness, I had him hefting the big pavaise in one hand. Fear my strength, fools! (Yes, I know Luka doesn't have a pavaise - do you want to argue?)

For the head I used a trimmed Space Wolf head - there is one which I think looks just like Harvey Keitel. But, then again, I used to eat a lot of models when I was younger, so you don't have to listen to me.

I finished the model off with a laurel wreath from the Empire Knight sprue and the quiver from the Mordheim accessories

(a crossbowman based on a pistolier)

Ginger Dave gave me a few pistoliers in exchange for some undead tat. Dunno what I am going to do with them, but this lad made an excellent crossbowman. I simply lopped off the pistol and then pinned and glued a crossbow to the end. He is mounted on some militia legs.

Obviously, serious Green Stuff work is needed here - but the basic concept can be seen.

(standard bearer - click for larger images)

The standard bearer is a real mix and match! The legs are from the cannon sprue, the torso is from the Alcatani fellowship (or some sort of Dogs of War) and the head is a classic Bretonnian footknight (I was using the torsos to make swordsmen). The left arm is a Middenheimer one with a Space Marine biker hand (seriously!) holding the pavaise. On his back I stuck a quiver and crossbow.

The standard is taken from the Sisters of Battle vehicle accessory sprue topped with a Knight finial (is it finial? I like the word finial. It's like the word "pish-tosh" in that we should use it more often, even if it is incorrectly). I had to use a short length of brass rod to complete the standard below the fist, but I daresay a length of spear or something would do fine.

Obviously, you might not have all these bits lying around - but you will have some bits! And that is the thing I want to impart here; don't ask "What bits do I need to make this conversion?", ask "What conversion can I make?" or "What bits do I have to make this conversion?"

Necessity and invention have some sort of familial relationship - I forget what it is.

(Please note: Some of these photos suck and some are good. I would like to thank Yellowfish and Monkeigh Magic for their assistance in getting the ones that are good. Suckage is down to me)

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