Mounted Bones, part I

By TomOctober 11, 2020

Continuing with the random minis for now: Cavalry.

Bones Cavalry that is. Over the course of 4 delivered kickstarters of Bones models, Reaper has released a total of 9 mounted models. (11 if you count the flying saucer from the Bones 2 Chronoscope Expansion and the chopper bike mounted Sophie (the one and only Bones KS model delivered in metal!) in the first Bones kickstarter.)

Well, “mounted” is also a theme to use to get something painted, isn’t it? And with 9 or 11 models to go for, it should be possible to get done in a timely manner.

Here are the first pair of them that I have painted up.

To the left: Bones 4 44091 Anhurian Cavalry made in Bones Black material, sculpted by Jim Johnson and Sandra Garrity.
I expect Garrity did the horse, as it is a more elegant and accomplished sculpt in keeping with her masterful style. The rider had something strange going on with his lance arm, and was originally holding the lance out at a wierd and painful angle, with something just wrong with the sleeve. Maybe I built it wrong (but I used the keyed hole-and-peg, so I don’t really see how). What I ended up doing was ripping the arm off and cutting off the top part, pinning and gluing the stump at a more pleasing angle and then using some putty to rebuild the arm.

I did a blue and white paint scheme in keeping with many of the other “good human fighter” models I have. At some point there will be enough of them to field as an army. Or at least a contingent.

To the right:

from the Bones 2 Expansion #2: 77354 Sir Danel, Mounted Crusader. Sculpted by Bobby Jackson and Sandra Garrity, I expect the horse here as well is by Garrity. This one was delivered in the classic soft-style stark white Bones material, and was a mess upon arrival. A fixer upper for sure.

The rider did not sit properly, the sword was a perfect 150 degree or so arc. The horse was completely bent out of shape, the base being folded into the legs at an almost 90 degree angle. No amount of boiling managed to correct any of these issues properly. Even if I got the legs straightened out, the thin legs could not take the weight and simply bent back over time. I believe the model I received has a defect in the plastic, it was -in places- softer than usual and seemes to have weaker structural integrity than normal. For this reason, this model teetered on the brink of getting binned. It ended up going into a box together with some other rejects.

However, a few weeks ago I rediscovered this box and I decided I would try to experiment a little to see if I could fix it.

Out came my trusty lighter. Can Bones be repositioned using it’s cleansing flame?

As suspected the answer is no. No it cannot. Don’t try this at home, kids.

Or rather, it certainly repositions… too fast, too furious. Melts and burns. Trust me, you don’t want those fumes in your house.

Faced with an utterly ruined sword, I opted for the solution of a simple weapon-swap conversion. Now it is sporting a polystyrene hard plastic sword which is nice and straight.

The bendy legs were fixed with some paperclip-wire, my pin vise drill and a lot of patience. It ended up with both back legs about a centimetre up in the air, and I put some stuff on the base to give it something to step on. Not very elegant, but it stands straight and what’s more the rider also sits straight at last.

And when painting it I also discovered something wierder. Either this dude is a Rakshasha in disguise, or the factory workers who assembled him glued the arms on wrong. The hands are backward on this model.