My last progress post was about my Blood Axe Rough Riders unit. This was a unit for bonus points in the friendly tourney; it’s a pity that they aren’t as good on the table as they look. My initial design had a spear tip, but I decided to model it to bring it in line with the description in the codex. The rough riders are equipped with explosive lances which detonate when the unit initially strikes. I took some brass tubing and cut it to length, then took an ork stikkbomb and wrapped it in wire against the tubing. I then added a little bit of glue to make sure it stayed in place.
I painted the pieces prior to assembly – this definitely made it easier. On the downside, it is way more time consuming. I feel like the amount of customizing I did on this unit warranted it though, as I doubt there is another unit like it. Ironically, the unit I put the most time and money into was probably the least effective in my army. “Rule of cool”, right?
The models ended up being a bit top heavy, so I had to flatten some lead sinkers and glue them to the underside of the bases to keep them from tipping. The grenades on the end of the lances were lead, which made them front heavy. In retrospect, I probably would have looked for more stable bases, but I made do with what I had!
I bought an airbrush and compressor and did a simple enhancement to the bellies to make them look more lizard like – this was super easy and gave them a little more color.
Here is the end result of this unit:
Overall, I am extremely happy with how this unit turned out. I love having access to so many after market bits for making my army unique! The mounts from Blight Wheel were ace, and Kromlech always delivers with its awesome ork bits! Though this unit didn’t perform very well, it got lots of compliments and is full of character!