The chariot body needed to be overhauled to make room for the symbol of Lord Gorobei's royal line: a crescent moon. I spent some time (lots actually) with a pair of clippers in order to eradicate the little suns on the front of the chariot body. Then, I seriously filed down the clipped remnants, eventually creating smooth surfaces. I very carefully cut out a crescent moon from some thin plasticard and glued it in place. This took a few tries to get right – the first couple of "moons" were anything but. On the bottom edge of the chariot body, I added a strip of thin plasticard and two lengths of plasticard tubing to represent a reinforced area of the body. Finally, as an afterthought, I glued a small strip of plasticard over the area beneath the chariot where the yoke joins with the chariot body. This tiny detail just made structural sense to me.

Ah, the first of the Gondorian heads! I decided not to use the two banners that would normally stream from the rear of the chariot and instead went for the ol' "head on a stake." I'm a big fan of heads on stakes, and it turns out that Lord Gorobei is too. So, a simple length of thick-gauge rod served well as a spear haft, onto which I added two Gondor heads that I clipped from a spare plastic sprue laying around. Then, I did some minor Green Stuff work in the form of lank hair to wrap around the spear haft and cover the cuts. To complete the grisly totem, I added a spear tip taken from the same Gondor sprue where I got the heads. Finally, I glued the whole shebang to the flooring of the chariot.

For Lord Gorobei's personal banner, I used thin plasticard and some of the rod left over from the head-covered spear. I constructed an "L" shape from two lengths of rod using the tip of the unused banner as the connection point, and then fitted the "L" into the back harness that holds the banner. With the structure all set, it was time to add the banner itself. I measured and cut a rectangle of thin plasticard which I glued to the "L". The final and most difficult step was to add the tiny cloth strip attachments around the banner. I very patiently cut these strips from thin plasticard, bent them to shape, and glued them in place. Finally, I used a hairdryer to gently heat up the banner to the point where it became soft and malleable. Before it cooled, I added a ripple in the "cloth" with a few miscellaneous tools to keep from scalding my hands.

The Khandish King model itself is very cool, almost to the point where I don't want to even mess with it, however, there's always something that you can change to make a model fit with your army. I was pretty much sold on the idea of making some sort of headpiece and decided to keep the crescent moon theme going strong. Once again, I cut the crescent shape from thin plasticard. Next, I made room for the new bit by clipping and trimming the small flag away from the King's helmet. A little drop of glue and Gorobei's ornate helmet was finished.

The only thing this model is missing (and it's because of the metal casting process) are reins for the horses. The King is holding out his arm as if he were holding reins, but they ain't there, so, I decided to make my own. First, I drilled contact points into the King's outstretched hand and the two horse saddles. Then, I rolled out a long thin "snake" of Green Stuff using a CD case (instead of my fingers) doused in water to prevent sticking. This way, the snake would be uniform in thickness and wouldn't have any pesky fingerprints. Then, I set the "snake" aside by hanging it from my table lamp for about 10 minutes to let it begin solidifying (but not completely). After this time had elapsed, I cut and positioned my two new reins to lead from Gorobei's hands to the saddle holes I drilled earlier, and then let the reins set into this shape overnight. This way, they'd retain their shape and I could keep them separate for ease of painting and assembly later.

More Gondor heads! This time, I was set on heads in bags. These are the heads of powerful enemies taken and presented to Gorobei by hopeful Chieftains looking to advance their standing. I clipped off another pair of heads from my faithful (and quite mangled) Gondor Warriors sprue and trimmed them to fit snugly against the horse's body. I glued the heads in place, then wrapped them in a thin layer of Green Stuff to represent cloth. Next, I sculpted the head bag so that it appeared to be tucked under one of the saddle straps to seat it in place.