"LoTR Rohan Horses Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" Topic

Why oh why oh why did GW decide that making horses attached to a base by one hoof of plastic was a good idea? A sort now shows about 70% of my horses are broken or just about to break.

Would like to find substitute horses I can re-seat my riders on. Suggestions?

Don't. Get a dremel with a narrow drill bit and run a wire reinforcement up into the hoof, anchored to the underside of the base by gluing it in a simple curve or angle. Takes about two minutes to do right, and if you're careful you won't even have to touch up the paint job afterward. You don't need a ton of strength for plastic minis, so you can get away with very narrow wire, and you don't have to go very far up into the hoof.

I assume you glued your horses to their bases with solvent glue? That's death on narrow joints in the long run. I've had to do fixes on a kajillion Tyranid hormagaunts that I made the same mistake on.

I used zap-a-gap….

The suggestion by Chief Lackey Rich was how I got started with Miniatures.

My Roommate paid me to help prepare his miniatures for painting, and aside from cutting them off the sprues, and shaving down mold-lines, one of the things he had me do was to drill a lot of holes and glue brass-rods (They were slightly thicker than "wires") into the legs of all of the horses (including the white-metal ones).

I also got to cut a lot of spears out of hands, cut the spear-heads off, and replace the whole spear shaft with a brass-rod (which was then coated in plastic-putty, and then smoothed).

That is one of the other problems with the GW LotR miniatures.

He (Matthew – roommate) gave me an Easterling Army, and their spears/halberds seem to be thinner than all of the rest of the plastic spears in the line. So, I am getting to replace all of them with brass-rods as well (I found some brass-rods that have a styrene coating on the outside, so that the hole I need to drill into the spear/halberd-head and the hands of the miniatures are smaller than would normally be needed – this speeds the process by omitting the need to coat the rod in plastic to make it the proper size, yet still be small enough to fit into the weapon piece without making it look too big or too small).

Also, for the horses that are still mounted on a base; it is possible to drill out their legs and insert the rod without removing them from the base. It's tricky, but it can be done (It only took me three misses before I got it down, and the three that I "missed" on, I just covered up the hole with putty and re-painted it).

What have you been doing with them? I haven't had a problem. Metal one or two-contact horses, however…

Why did GW do it?? Because that way, lots of people throw them away, rather than repair them, because they don'tknow how too or are not confident enough to or its easier to buy new ones.

The Iron Wind Metals (RP) and Essex Steppe Ponies are both similar in size. They would be a lot of work to convert…mostly grinding off the rear of the saddle for Rohan cloaks. They don't look as good IMO.

The Warlord ancient plastic horses may also work. They are very fat, so I had to really grind the bellies off the horses before mounting Foundry Roman riders on these.

I think working with the LOTR horses to strengthen them is the better approach.

In addition to pinning the frail ankles, consider using the plastic tufts of grass that came with the figure to secure one of the front hooves. Drill a custom hole in the base directly under a floating front hoof and anchor it against the plastic grass tufts.

A third option is the old "black-rod-under-the-horses-belly" trick. Find a thin, but strong wire to connect the horses belly with the base. Just drill from under the base all the way into the horse. Paint it a neutral color and get back to gaming.

@Alex,

I found some brass-rods that have a styrene coating on the outside…

Are you able to share your source? This sounds very promising for a couple of tricky repairs in my queue.

I agree the right fix sounds like reinforcing with a metal pin, either up into the hoof or a black rod holding the horse up.

For the quantity you're describing, installing the black rods is more suited to a production line and thus will be faster. I use thick floral wire for this (18 gauge possibly?), the kind that is steel core (not aluminum), plastic coated (not cloth covered). In short lengths like you would use here, it is absolutely rigid, and it takes paint well.

I would use epoxy for this although superglue will do the job (I personally avoid superglue whenever I can, it always breaks on me sooner or later).

Do not forget you can add stones to simulate rocks, flock clumps for bushes, twigs etc to give you something to anchor another leg on to.

Are you able to share your source? This sounds very promising for a couple of tricky repairs in my queue.

Not brass, but Plastruct sells (or at least used to sell – haven't needed to buy any in years) steel wire-cored plastic rod.

Yeah, I have used the black wire into the belly option. i also use Litko or Gale Force 9 2"x1" bases instead of the GW funky ones. My units look like a Cavalry unit. I drill out a hole in the MDF base and glue. Works great!

Thanks,

John

The brass-rod through the hoof is very sturdy.

It is a pretty thick rod (almost the diameter of the horse's ankle), and it extends at least halfway up to the heel of the leg (where it bends).

And that too is easy to do production line style. No more difficult than a visible rod. It just requires being able to learn how to check two angles before you start drilling (to make sure that the X-Y-Z axes are all aligned).

Its not just GW plastics-I've had several Warlord metals that have broken or near to breaking with similar situations.

Horses ankles are fragile, even on real horses….