"Dismountable figures and hard plastic horses." Topic

I am looking at doing some skirmish gaming, the sort of thing where I will want mounted and dismounted figures and the horse besides.

Painting one mounted figure with horse, an empty horse, and a dismounted figure seems a lot of work. The 25mm figure just "sitting" on the horse seems to me prone to falling off. I was thinking of doing something with small magnets like these, countersunk into the saddle with magnetically receptive material on the rider.

link

but I wonder what other folks have tried, and how well it has worked for them. How do you create dismounted/mounted sets of figures?

I have been happy enough with blu-tac for such purposes, though it might be a good idea to remove it from the figures after the game, otherwise it might harden up.

I've used tack for shields – removable, with good results. I use the white stuff from JoAnns.

@Lentulus:

Those magnets MIGHT work if you have plastic horses and plastic riders. I would counter-sink a magnet in the saddle AND the rider to maximize the magnetic pull since they are small magnets (very small) and secure them with superglue. Don't use accelerator with the superglue, do use the exact size drillbit when drilling the countersink hole, and be careful NOT to drill too deep. If you do drill too deep, if you can get the magnet out (unlikely), you can drill deeper and install two magnets in the hole. Don't use a metallic bit and a magnet, use two magnets – they are fairly cheap and they do hold together much better.

I've got the Perry Napoleonic Dragoons which I am working with right now on this same issue and will have them complete one of these years, but the magnetizing them was an issue.

Blue tac or white tac works fine as well for play, but storage is not recommended. The magnets will keep the rider securely in the saddle, even in transport.

Best of luck!

I used magnets on horses and riders of my Perry CW Cavalry, or at least on 3/4. It allows me to have unmounted horses and have one man in four mounted as a horseholder. The prep time took longer, but the gaming flexibility was worth it. Since both horse and rider were plastic it was easy to sink a 1/8" magnet in both.

Much easier just to "pin" the rider to the horse with a length of wire attached to the rider and a hole drilled in the top of the horse's saddle? Just like you would pin together a miniature in assembly, but done without glue. The pin in the hole holds the rider on securely enough for gameplay.

When the rider dismounts just pull him off, hey presto, a riderless horse! I've done this with LotR miniatures and it works a treat.

Cheers

w.

What I used for our D&D group is the Safari Ltd Horse TOOB set, here: link

These horses range from true 25 up to large GW 28mm, which to my way of thinking is better for skirmish or RPG gaming than if they were all the same size. They are pre-painted although not to a very high standard. But still, now I had tons of horses already painted.

I prefer GW cavalary bases (rectangular 25x50mm) for horses than the D&D bases (50mm circle), so I used cavalry bases with magnets, then painted up some 2" fender washers as sabot bases for D&D. (Flocked too where the magnets won't go.)

For rideable horses, I cut a number of the horses in half behind the front legs. (The Horse TOOBS are vinyl, a little slippery stretchy for a razor saw but it worked.) I mounted the two pieces separately on 25x25mm square bases (so when pushed together to make a complete horse, their bases equal a cavalry base). This took some pinning. The bases of the horse halves are magnetized, and can go on the fender washer sabots, to serve as dismounted horses.

For mounting riders, I made some pedestals on the same 25mm square magnet bases. The pedestals are just pieces of dowel with 1.5" washers on top, painted brown. We swap out the rear part of the horse for the pedestal, then stand the player's RPG figure on it. (Mine have magnets but it works fine for those without, just a little more topple prone.) I misremember the pedestal height I settled on, but the figure heads are as tall as those of normal mounted figures.)

It looks a little silly although not as bad as you'd think, as the eye sees the figure's standing legs and thinks they are cavalry rider legs against the horse body.

I do agree with wermacht, that if you just want to adapt a bunch of hard plastic riders to be easily removeable from their horses, that a wire in the rider's seat fitting a hole in the saddle, that is the most flexible way to go.

I use the tacky stuff. I've found it in blue, white, and a nice grey. Easier to hide, I think.

Just buy extra horses.

Sorry, but I fail to see how it is easier to drill and pin than it is to drill and put in a magnet :-) Really it works and works well, if that is your plan I say run with it! I used my xacto to create a pilot "dimple" chocked a 1/8" bit in the drill and when to town. Now my saddles look like saddles (no giant hole in the middle), my horseholders are mounted as they should be and for skirmish gaming it works great!

RE "Painting one mounted figure with horse, an empty horse, and a dismounted figure seems a lot of work."

If you only need a few figures, then it is much easier and quicker to build and paint the mounted and dismounted options than to try to do a removable system.

Actually the Perry's tend to do similar figures foot and mounted in several ranges.

Mick

Thanks for the input, guys. Having considered the choices (and the work involved), I think I'll start with blue tack and move on from there.