miniatures

Last Monday Corvus Belli arguably squatted my beloved Montesa Knights. The unit exists in name, but is now an impetuous motorcycle rather than a forward deploying offensive-defense piece. That was unfortunate because I had just spent the night before making lists that were based in no small part on the Montesa. After the update the lists not only weren’t playable, they crashed the army builder…

With a tournament in a few days (yesterday), I decided to just roll with it and use the new unit. That meant figuring out in very short order for some practice games how to physically field the newly motorcycle-equipped unit, for which no model exists or has even been hinted. CB of course trolled everybody by posting detailed instructions:

A flat marker like that didn’t feel right at all, and I didn’t have time to get models and make some kind of conversion. So I made some 2.5D markers (I did not draw the underlying motorcycles) to get me by while I work on a conversion or a model comes out. They’re also cheap and easy ways to appropriately mark that momentous occasion when some lucky trooper rolls a motorcycle on a Panoply!

3D printed Motorcycle marker.

Papercraft Motorcycle marker.

3D Print

The 3D print version is available on Thingiverse.

Papercraft

Here are the steps and resources to make the papercraft version:

Download this PDF and find a 55mm base.
Print the PDF on cardstock, or print on paper and affix to cardstock (spray adhesive works best).
Cut out the outer box and then the inset corners with a straight edge & knife.
Score (break the surface with the knife but don’t cut all the way through) on the printed face along the dashed centerline.
Score the unprinted underside along the tops of the inset corners.
Fold the marker at the centerline and glue the halves together (spray adhesive is best), careful to not get glue on the tabs (i.e., temporarily fold the tabs up printed face to printed face while spraying).
Cut out the dashed outer perimeter and two interior pockets, trimming to have a clean and smooth outer profile.
Glue the tabs to the base.

That’s it, ready for action!

Download the PDF linked above to print at the appropriate size.

Trolling

While I’m interested in the Motorcycle Knight, I will miss the previous Montesa Knight. With its mix of weapons, Mechanized Deployment, and Lieutenant options, it presented interesting choices between aggression and efficiency versus army cohesion and keeping an expensive unit alive. I don’t think this impetuous motorcycle shotgun (or rifle) will play in the same fashion, even with Mimetism. That’s not to say the new motorcycle doesn’t present its own interesting choices and strategies, it certainly does. But it’s a bummer to no longer have what I thought was an interesting set of strategies unique within the faction. Frustratingly to me, several other models, including ones with only funky old sculpts rather than the very nice modern Montesa model, seem to have profiles and play styles much more in line with becoming motorcycles and more duplicative of other units. I can’t quite convince myself that the decision for Montesas to undergo the transformation is not actually largely a giant joke: In addition to the actual knightly order, Montesa is the Spanish subsidiary of Honda motorcycles…

In any event, time to move on and start using this new trooper!