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Just putting together my chaos knights ready for dakkacon.

They won't rank up, side by side. Their shoulders and shields are too wide and so the overhand on either side of the miniature's base means they won't rank up together. The steeds are a good deal longer than the bases so I am wondering how to field a second rank without it looking terrible.

I've been putting my river trolls together as well and again, these big buggers' arms and weapons hang over the sides of the base and make ranking them really difficult (though not to quite the same extent).

What tricks or tips do you have for ensuring a unit will fit together?


(and if any of you have sorted the knights, let me know how!)

I regret I can do nothing more than sympathise. GW seem to focus purely on aesthetics when scuplting a lot of Fantasy miniatures. This is not a crime as such, but a bit of thought as to how easy they will be to rank up wouldn't go amiss either.

Empire Halberdiers and Black Orcs are nearly impossible. The heads of Cold Ones won't fit under the tail of the preceding rank. Even something seemingly innocuous like Ungor Raiders can be a pain as their bows often extend over the base into the side of a neighbour (although skirmishers, they need to close ranks for for CC).

Currently enjoying Necropolis Knights as the models end up nowhere near each other

Mantic dwarves / Abyssal Dwarves are a bugger to try and rank up. The only practical advice I can give (and sorry if it is teaching people to suck eggs) is to have a movement tray to hand when assembling and dry fit and test each one as you go.

Ranking has been one of the parts of WHFB I hate the most. I also dont like square bases.

Honestly, with my Empire guys I've been experiencing the same issues when I blutac them down.

Hence, I started posing them so that they look dynamic while at the same time--ranking up. It involves a lot of careful finnagling and they really only fit together in ranks one way, but damn do they look nice when they do.

Things like certain horses leaning a bit farther forward than backwards, etc go a long way towards it.

I don't play WHFB, but couldn't you just put them on the base with their shoulders at an angle? You know, sorta like a photo line up (?)

...I guess it's hard to get across what I mean w/o a pic.

EDIT: Wow, that makes no sense...
I mean instead of squaring up the shoulders (and by extension arms/weapons) with the base, put them all at an angle (when looked at from the top-down) so that they hang over into each other's bases a little, but always at the same place where there's a space left by the next guy over.
Like a tessellation...

Its a conversion/modeling thing.
Most people Solve it like Kanluwen suggests - using bluetac before committing the pose to glue, and having the skill to shape soft plastic to your will. This involves originality, modeling skill, and other factors.
It boggles that you'd be hung up on making chaos figures (inherently chaotic) line up in prefect rows. Just make them doing their own thing, like the chaos god of your choice intended.
Also, maybe include a picture so specific details can be discussed. Your gallery only has one pic in it, and its not even yours!

Its unlikely that a cavalry line would be perfectly lined up at the best of times. I would try to stagger the horses on their bases so the shoulders overlap.

Flinty wrote:Its unlikely that a cavalry line would be perfectly lined up at the best of times. I would try to stagger the horses on their bases so the shoulders overlap.

That was my original idea, but that doesn't solve (and would exacerbate) the problem of a second rank.

Do you have to have the same number of models in the rear rank as in the front rank to get the bonus? I haven't played fantasy for years.

Blue tac dry-fitting is one helpful technique, but doesn't solve all woes.

Offsetting the models a little so that one model is placed slightly forward on the base (rather than centered) and the guy next to him slightly back, can make a big difference allowing enough space for shields and elbows to go in front of one another instead of butting directly into the same spot. If doing a second or third rank, those back guys can be offset in the same manner.

Sometimes putting some of the models elevated a bit on rocks (made from corkboard or whatever) helps them line up next to one another easier.

The other option is to just make the tray slightly wider and accept a few mm gaps here and there between the models. It makes the unit as a whole slightly wider, but that's not a killer. When you're actually in HtH, if the width/base alignment is off you just do a little quick math: "Okay, I have five wide cavalry, that's 125mm frontage, and you have eight wide infantry, that's 160mm. The middle six infantry are 120mm wide, leaving 5mm to split on either end (a bit more than corner to corner), so we know all eight are in base contact if we center the cav. Good to go!"

Strong rare earth magnets on the bottom of the knight bases then a small movement tray put some metal in there glue it to the tray and problem solved they may lean a bit but unless you flip the tray mine dont come off