What is old is new again…. I have been collecting 28mm wood elf miniatures for more years than I would like to admit. Included in my collection were the first version of the wild riders from GW. I loved these models when they came out and painted up a couple of boxes of them to use in my old Warhammer Fantasy Battle wood elf army. Unfortunately, that game went the way of the Dodo Bird and the models were even replaced along the way. With the Ninth Age, I had the opportunity to use these old mini in a new game!
The old models are all metal with plastic body horses. The old riders are animated and dynamic. Some of my favorite models in the GW wood elf range. When GW redid the models, they changed the mounts from horses to deer (the new ones were also all plastic). The older models have a more feral look that I preferred. The newer models also came with shields.
When the T9A rules came out with the unit, they also have the cavalry riding deer and included a shield option. This left we with the option to just proxy the unit, paint up the newer models (using the old models for something else) or doing a conversion to get them up to date. I opted for the last option. I liked the riders too much! So, I ordered some bits online to get the newer deer mounts and some newer shields.
With the new bits at hand, I assembled and painted the deer in a conservative color scheme and painted up some of the new shields. Did my basing to match the exiting scheme. I then removed the riders from the old horses and glued them to the new deer, added the new shield and now I have an up to date set of minis that are recognizable to all my opponents!
- Mantueffel