Hobby WIP: KoM Knights and... Halflings

One of my goals with the Kingdom of Men was to get away from my old Games Workshop models and explore other ranges. Eventually I wanted to field a totally different army than the one I started with back when this blog started. I really dug the Warlord Games Romans, and started reshaping and replacing my army with more Roman-style minis. While the infantry were easy to replace, one perpetual stumbling block were the Knights.

I wanted to field some kind of cataphract-looking model, but was having no luck finding something that looked right. The closest I got for months and months were these guys, which I decided to buy on a gamble. They were really close to what I wanted, but were at 1/72 scale. The other Roman minis were small... but ultimately not that small. Teeny tiny knights were not an option for the Kingdoms of Men.

For better or for worse, these smaller models did catch my interest though, and browsing online, I discovered that this scale of miniature is quite cheap; way under a dollar per model. For some reason, "cheap" was enough to convince me to buy more models, with an eye to making up a small (ba-dum-tss) halfling-themed army, which I have been slowly hobbying on since May.

I have no real desire to play the League, but I figured they would be nice to have for intro games; something simple and underpowered for my opponent to beat up on for a few games in order to learn. I typically like being the underdog in most of my endeavors, so it would make those intro games fun for me as well.

They were supposed to be done quickly... but having started on them mid-May, that obviously didn't work out as intended. The low low cost is really the only thing the models have going for them. The plastic is really soft, making removing mold lines or and any customization really hard to do, as things just give way. I basically gave up on cleaning the mold lines, as filing and scraping did nothing, and I wasn't about to patiently use a knife on all these models.

Additionally, I had a self-inflicted wound of trying to show their halfling-ness by giving them furry feet. That has eaten up a lot of time, and honestly doesn't look the most inspiring. In real life it looks a tiny bit better, but they still look like they are wearing furry snow boots.

I have a plan for 750 points, and its relatively close to completion. There is a lot of paint on the models, but there is a lot of basing work left to do, since they all have little stands as part of the model. The models furthest along at the Halfling Knights, using the original cataphract models.

Now they just need to switch out their greaves for apple-bottom jeans...

These were the easiest to work with of all the halfling models, but still not fun to hobby on. About half of their hand holes were too small to fit the spears, requiring a lot of drilling... which was no small feat with the bendy, giving plastic. A further issue was they were were only 4 poses to work with... a common issue with this army. The units of this army will all be afflicted with "same-model-syndrome." Oh well. If worst comes to worst, they will just demonstrate to new players that "table-top standard" is not an impossible goal to reach... from a distance, I think it will look like a decent army.


Also on my hobby table, are actual knights for the Kingdoms of Men. After a few months of searching, these were the best I could find, so I ordered two boxes... which may prove to be a bit of overkill.

I really like the expression of this white horse. It looks thoroughly unimpressed.

Each box has 15 models, plus a dinky casualty model, which I may have to find a use for eventually. So, that's 30 usable knights. The plan for the real models is for 4 troops of 4, and 2 regiments of 7. I'm going to focus on the troops first, and so far have most of the bits for those clipped and filed. More to come on these later, but work on them should go swiftly I think. The plastic is good and the models are really simple, which should speed up painting.

I think I can finish up the Halflings within a week, and then it'll be on to these knights and other fun things. Hopefully the halfling army post will be up soon!