So, with the points reduction in the Chapter Approved 2018 book, I decided it was about time I put my Wraithknights back together. A good year ago I had decided that I didn't like the look of my Wraithknight’s, so I stripped them of all their paint and their glue put them in little bags, and consigned them to the 'for the future' drawer.
Original pose and paint job
After pulling them out of their bags I decided to pose these particular models in a far more interesting manner than their previous incarnations. This meant that I would need to position them using wires and magnets, and thus make the process more time-intensive.
The key to getting interesting poses for these models was to make them look as though they were performing some kind of action, be that running, jumping, walking or slashing with their swords. To this end, I decided I was going to have one that looked like it was walking and one that looked like it was jumping.
Re-posed Wraithknights
Obviously standing a model of this size on one leg requires the standing leg be reinforced in some capacity. To do that in this model I took two pieces of wire which I then twisted to form a nice strong cable and super glued it at either end. The distal end of the cable was inserted inside the knee joint and the proximal end of the cable was inserted inside the ankle joint. I also ran a cable from the foot into the ankle.
I used a Dremel to drill the holes in which I would insert the cables. Typically, I would start the smallest drill bit and work up in size until the cable was able to fit the hole but still remain snug. Once achieved I needed to make sure that the tension on the wire was sufficient to provide the strength needed to carry the entire weight of the torso. The wire works like a hamstring in a human leg, with fixing points in the ankle and hip.
Internal 'hamstring'
In this image, you can see that I have placed two magnets at the top of the Torso.
This allows me to separate the torso from the legs, therefore making it easy to transport the model. The magnets are strong enough to support the weight of the upper body. The importance of this cannot be over-stated as failure to support upper body results in a Wraithknight torso that just swings around wildly due to the weight of the large Wraith Glaive. The magnets towards the front of the torso are to stabilise it and stop it from spinning around. There are lots of voids and cavities where magnets can be placed without looking conspicuous making the Wraithknight a good candidate for magnetisation.
