Which model works well as a highborn on a manticore?

[Dilvish]

Okay. Enough people have told me to not use the beastmaster figure that comes with the manticore but instead to mount a highborn on the beast. But which model should I use? The only one that jumps to mind is a Cold One Knight. But does it fit the manticore torso or does it need to be modified? Any recommendations?

Oops! Sorry about posting this question in the wrong forum earlier. I caught it and deleted it.

[Malekithau]

I used Malus on mine. he needs a little bit of green stuff/putty for a saddle to cover the gap but otherwise works fine.

[Fallen angel]

Personally, I use Darkblade, with green stuff to fill the gap between him and the manticore, etched to look like hair. He has a Cold One Knight lance to represent the crimson death, but that's coming off for the Necron Lord's arm. Gauntlet of Power, anyone?

Fallen Angel

[Dargo]

Personally, I use Darkblade, with green stuff to fill the gap between him and the manticore, etched to look like hair. He has a Cold One Knight lance to represent the crimson death, but that's coming off for the Necron Lord's arm. Gauntlet of Power, anyone?

Fallen Angel

I took Malus and put the Power fist from a Chaos champion (orwotever) from 40k in place of his right hand. With a little green stuff it fits great.
Also took the head off his left arm. Just left the hand empty - maybe add something later.

The advantages of using Malus are obvious, since he's a rider, wears a SD-cloak and looks noble enough. You might want to change his head, though, just to use the original model as himself too in the same battle.

[Thanee]

Actually, you were still in the wrong forum! But now, you are at the right place!

Malekith's legs + Cold One Knight champion torso should work pretty good!

Bye
Thanee

[Dark Alliance]

I used the Malus Darkblade model, with a little tweaking of his legs you can get him to sit well on the Manticore, especially if you pin it.

For the gauntlet of power, I used a Chaos warrior right arm, removed the halberd and pinned a large sword I had in my bit box. He carries a DE warrior shield to represent the enchanted shield and a modified chaos marauder cloak as his sea dragon cloak.

Oh and the Manticore has a bl**dy great big right hand sword arm too, which I found in the local GW store bit box!

[Hellebron]

What a coincidence, that I have just finished my conversion of a female Noble on Manticore. Here is how I did her:

First of all, I was looking for rider's legs that fit on the Manticore and are convertable. I tried Cold One Knights' legs, but figured that they were too slender regarding their hips and thus not usable for a rider that should appear to be female. Then I took a look at the Malus Darkblade model, and his lower body and legs were just fine. I carefully sawed off his upper body just above his waist. As some board members said before, a little tweaking of the Malus legs makes them fit on the Manticore, but this approach can leave them look awkward, so decided to take the hard path: I applied a little bit of watered down chaos black on the area of the legs that normally is in contact with the Cold One, and then put them on the Manticore where I wanted the rider to sit. This left some color on the raised spots of the Manticore's mane, which prevented the legs from neatly fitting on the Manticore. I then proceeded carefully filing away the marked spots, until I had a neat fit.

I already knew which torso I would use for this conversion before I even decided on the leg-part. I chose the torso of the female RBT-member, because I needed a heavily armoured torso with obvious female attributes to fit in with the concept of the character I had in mind. I carefully sawed of the torso just above the waist, which was a little bit annoying, because you have to cut through the metal forming the cloak this model is wearing. I also sawed off the head with helmet just above the scarf, because I wanted to give her a more excentric head (later more on this matter...). You should use a very fine saw when doing this, as the scarf should be left undamaged. I also removed the hand on her right arm, the left arm holding the sword I tweaked a little bit into a more aggressive position. After filing the sawed areas on both pieces until they fit neatly, I attached the torso to the leg part. The areas fitting together were big enough, so I did not have to pin them.

Next, I had to decide on a head, which should definitely contribute to the excentric character of the model. I knew that her head should not wear a helmet, not only because a cool helmet (Malus' helmet) was already attached to her waist. I finally decided on the head of a Dark Eldar character model (the one with the hair shaved off from the right half of her head!). Again, I grabbed my fine modelling saw, took a deep breath and carefully sawed off her head above the half of her nose. When you do this, it is better to saw off less than you want, because you can file away excess afterwards, and you have more control over what you do when you file away stuff than when you saw away stuff. After filing away excesses, I attache her (half-) head to the scarf part of her torso.

I had to attach a closed dark elf right hand to her right arm, and I positioned it so that she appears to throw a spear or javelin at a foe. For the spear (or lance), I used the one that comes with the new mounted Slaanesh Champion, but any cool looking spear-like weapon will do. When this was done, I mounted her on the Manticore, and then it was...

GREEN-STUFF-TIME!

Okay, I had two major gaps to be filled: her hair had to be elongated, and her cloak (you know, there's something of the cloak from the torso part left!) had to be completed. First of all, I filled the gap between her sawed off hair and the shoulder plate with green stuff, and let it set for 30 minutes. I also modelled green stuff to the part left of the cloak, and elongated it so that it flows down the neck of the Manticore between its wings, and let it set for 30 minutes, too. Then I applied a thin layer of green stuff on what I filled the hair-gap with, and carefully modelled a texture of flowing hair into it, starting from the texture on the metal-part of her hair that was left. To the top of the cloak I applied a thick layer of green stuff and gave it the texture of fur (I wanted to have something different from the ever-present Sea Dragon Cloaks). I also used green stuff to reshape small parts of the Manticore's mane which I filed away in excess to make the legs fit. Basically, the conversion was finished now, but had more in my twisted mind!

I sawd off the skull-trophies of the Chaos Knight champion and added them to the cloak of fur my lady was wearing. I also cut off part of the neck from the Beastmaster-head and attached the head to the Manticore's right-side-mane, as a High-Elf trophy. Since I was in the mood of cutting off interesting parts of certain models (castration comes to mind... ), and add them to my new masterpiece, I also cut off the skulls on the new Chaos Knight standard and attached them to the left-side-mane of the Manticore. Then I went insane, and began CAREFULLY cutting off the daggers that are attached to the new Black Guard models and deliberately attached them to the inside of the Fur Cloak, one went to the skulls on the back, an one hanging below the helmet attached to the waist... To finish the converting part, I used green stuff and a fine sharp modelling knife to remve small flaws, fill in gaps, and re-model some stuff, just to make the model look perfect and easy the painting procedure that followed.

Currently, I am in the process of painting the thing, and I just finished the rider. I hope I will complete the Manticore and base in the course of the next two weeks, if my schedule allows me to. I am very proud of the conversion, and I have to say it is the best I ever did (and I did a lot in my long painting and modelling experience). I plan to have some professional pics made of the finished piece in November, along with my revamped units pictures of which I swore to submit to this great site long ago, too long ago , but now I have the spare money to have them done!

'Bron

[Quasekomiki]

Thx for the elaborate explanations!

[Lord dalamar do'urden]

i just made a green stuff sadle and used the malakith model as you can see in the gallery.
Phil

[Lord dalamar do'urden]

'bron
Cant wait to see the pics the conversion sounds awesome.
Phil