Tundra Wolves

3D printing to the rescue

For my Halpi campaign I included a set of light cavalry to my army. That means wolves! The tundra wolves from Mantic, awesome looking and metal as they are, were a little too expensive to make two regiments. 

I went out to look for some wolves on MyMiniFactory and found me some wolves. These beasts then needed to be printed. After trying to find a service I turned to my friend Maikel who could help me out. 

Three models, 18 units to go over 75% MMR. That's a lot of the same... No worries, Maikel mirrored the models and suddenly we had 6 models, three each and presto!

Primed!

Some paint.

Better make some friends quick.

Ready to go on a base.

Basing the beasties

The actually most interesting part of this build is the base. Because these regiments are exactly two troops in size and number, we can break them up to use them in other configurations. Thank you Vince for your inspiration on this.

What I wanted was to create a whole, that felt like a solid base, but could convincingly be split up as well. So I turned to Magnets.

I wanted to hide the magnets as well as create some nog rocky outcrops for my wolves to stand on. That would also give them more height difference and make the whole model look more dynamic. So I got some foam and cement and went to work.

As you can see, I also smear a little cement on the base floor so the surface will get nice and rocky, in spots where the rock will peek out from underneath the grass.

I painted everything brown as my base colour, I do this for all my terrain and bases as it gives a very good under layer.

Because the cement was still wet, it kind of mixes in with it and makes the very white cement textured with colour.

Then I had to wait for it to dry, because the next step will involve grass. I painted in the grass glue only where I wanted to have the grass and went to town with my static applicator, 2mm first.

After brushing off the excess grass it was time for a test fit. This really shows the progress.

Putting glue on some patches on the existing grass after it has dried (enough), I went over with 4mm grass. This will give nice tufts and because it is a slightly different colour set, the idea of different grass species.

Skip ahead to after the addition of some bushes, a little tree and placing the wolves and we are ready with Batch 1.

Split up in troops they can also be used, you see the magnet, but I don't think its too bad.

I learned from the first batch that having one set of magnets can make the model wobbly when it is picked up. So for Batch 2 I used two sets in stead.

Two sets of light cavalry, ready to bite your ankles off.