Chaos Wolf's Conversion Clinic (pic heavy) Open topic

[Chaoswolf]

A lot of times, I see people asking for advice on how to do a conversion, or expressing uncertainty about having the skills to do one. So, I decided to create (what I hope will be) a helpful topic to cover that area. I'm aiming this primarily at beginners, or those that 'don't think they can', but hopefully everyone will find something useful or interesting here.

 

First off, let's dispel the 'I can't/I'm not good enough' myth. Nonsense! If you can operate simple mechanical devices, you have all the skills you need to perform simple conversions. It's easy and fun, all it takes is some practice. Just remember, you're going to want to practice on some inexpensive figures before you start in on anything really crazy. Bones figures are great for this.

 

So, here's what you'll need:

 

 

1.A hobby knife with a new blade--new blades are easier to use, and safer. Caution: these are sharp, please be careful.

2.Some green stuff, or whatever type of sculpting putty you prefer. This will be used for filling gaps and/or sculpting new details.

3.Some victims volunteers figures you want to convert. In this case, I'm going to be using some Bones Goblins (remember the practice on inexpensive figures part?) for 2 reasons; they're cheap, and I have a horde of them and don't like having a bunch of clones on the table top.

4.Super Glue; the stuff in my picture is the best that I've found for working on Bones, and it's not too shabby on other materials, either. There are many other types out there; find the one that works the best for you.

5.Something to pin parts with; in this case I'm using paperclips. They're plenty strong enough for what I'll be doing. Again there are a lot of things you can use, go with what works for you. I use brass rod for bigger and/or metal miniatures; it's stronger.

Not pictured:

A razor saw for cutting metal figures. Mine is missing right now, but the one I use is made by X-Acto.

 

6. A drill and bits for making holes for pinning your figures.

 

7. A bits box. This is where you keep all of your spare parts for conversions. I've got around a dozen of these things, all full of weapons, shields, body parts, and all sorts of other things.If you buy a figure that has different head or weapon options, the pieces you decided not to use go into your bits box. Got a figure that you've already cut the head and both arms off of to use elsewhere? Keep it. You might want those boots for something next summer. Never throw anything away.

 

Here we go!

 

The first conversion will be a simple weapon swap; a spear into a halberd.

Here, you can see I cut off the spear head in order to replace it with something else. This brings up a good rule: try to find a 'seam' to make your cuts at, if possible. Here, the 'seam' is where the head of the spear meets the shaft. Other good 'seams' are wrists, especially if there is a sleeve/gauntlet/wristband that will provide a guide for cutting and leave a nice flat space to attach the new part.

 

Not quite as good of a seam here, mostly because the top of the hand/fist isn't entirely flat. It's still a very good spot to use for weapon swaps, though.

 

(I'm sorry, I forgot to take pictures of these guys, but you can see them completed in the group pictures down below.)

 

Now, let's do some shield swaps.

 

This is the spear goblin. What I want you to notice here is that I was careful to cut the shield off in such a way that the straps were left intact on the goblins arm. Sure, you can just chop the shield off however you want to, but: a) you'll have to re-sculpt those straps, so why make extra work for yourself, and b) that shield might come in handy somewhere else. Never throw anything away.

 

Here he is with his new shield:

:

 

This is he mace goblin; I couldn't get a decent shot with his shield removed. This shows the new shield in place. Note that I made certain to preserve the straps on the shield arm again.

 

And from the front:

 

'Wait a minute!' I hear you cry, 'I just started this hobby 5 minutes ago, I don't have a bits box with lots of neat stuff in it for me to do conversions with'

No problem, the next 2 are for you.

 

These 2 goblins got a literal weapon swap. I cut the weapons off (again, I tried to do the cutting at a 'seam') of each figure and reattached them to the other figure.

 

 

And here they are all glued back together:

The sharp eyed among you will notice that the bottom of the spear is a slightly different color than the rest. I accidentally cut into the bottom portion when i was trying to clean up the points where it was attached to the figure.(See? I make mistakes, too. No matter, carry on! That's why we're practicing.) I used a little bit of modeling putty to smooth it out.

 

These next 2 are actually the first 2 that I did, before it occurred to me to document the process for others, so I don't have in progress shots of them.They are included just to provide more examples of what can be done in a few minutes.

 

 

You'll notice that these fellows have some green stuff on them. The goblin on the left has had his arm from the elbow down swapped with one from a pathfinder goblin. I made some wrappings out of GS to hide the join between the 2 parts. The goblin on the right had his shield and arm from the elbow down removed and the arm from the first goblin grafted on. The 2 parts did not align very well, so I gave him a chain mail sleeve from GS to hide the join.

 

Detail of the added armor.

 

And finally, here they are all together.

 

Added weapon, swapped spear for mace,swapped shield, changed weapon tip

 

pathfinder goblin arm, shield swap, weapon swap, swapped mace for spear

 

Was this useful/helpful/informative for you? Is there anything I could do better? Is this something that you'd like to see me continue doing?

 

Please note that I made this an open thread; I'm not the only person that does this, and I am by no means a master at it. If you've got some tips/tricks to add please do so. Step-by-step pictures of what you're working on would be great; I'm still learning, too!

 

I hope that this inspires at least one person to give converting a try.

 

 

 

 

 

[ub3r_n3rd]

Awesome idea to start this clinic!

[hammer570]

Great thread!  Very well organized and informative.  As someone that's just getting into small conversions here and there, I have to echo the "it's not as hard as you think" sentiment and encourage people to give it a shot!

 

Here's a pic of a toothpick conversion I did for the Anhurian Spearmen to have more rigid spear shafts.  Simply used a hobby knife to cut the spear shafts at the seam where they met the hands, used a pin vice to drill out the center of the hand (magnification helped here), and then inserted the toothpicks.  The gap I drilled was pretty tight (which I'm glad for, as it didn't require me to use any putty or even superglue to secure the toothpicks), so I had to work a sort of twisting motion as I pushed them up into the hand gap.  Then, I drilled a small hole into the bottom of the spearheads, put a bit of super glue on the point of the toothpick and stuck the spearhead on top.  Super simple, didn't require any sculpting chops, and I think was very much worth the extra bit of time and effort.  Wish I had taken step by step pictures, but I think the description plus this one picture gets the idea across.

 

note:  For those that are interested but haven't bought a pin vice yet, I highly recommend the CML Supply Micro Drill Bit Set.  Pretty ergonomic and it comes with about 2 dozen bits of various sizes.

 

Thanks again Chaos Wolf, great post!

 

eta:  described mounting the spearheads.

Edited April 3, 2016 by hammer570

[Chaoswolf]

Thanks, Hammer570, I'm glad you liked it.

And thank you for sharing your spear man conversions, they look good, and are an excellent example of a simple conversion that looks good.

[Glitterwolf]

Good thread!

[BLZeebub]

Hey, I know that golden broadsword in the top left of your bits box!  What was that game called again?  Had some pretty sweet figures and terrain as I recall.

[Chaoswolf]

Dark World.

 

I never had/played the game, but I have acquired a few pieces and parts of it via ebay miniature lots.

[knarthex]

Good job with this!

 

I did some WIP shots while working on the Infamy Resin Goblin Chieftan, about how I put a pin into the leg to mount it to the base. (when I get that far!)

 

Here is a link to show how I did that...

 

George

[Chaoswolf]

Thank you very much!

 

And thanks for the link; that's a very fiddly looking process. I'm sure that will be helpful to people.

[Chaoswolf]

First off, here's two of the conversions i showed up above all painted up if anyone is interested.

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/68185-77024-bones-goblins/?hl=%2Bbones+%2Bgoblins

 

Here's another conversion that I did recently:

Half-orc Anhurian crossbowman.

 

Ok, here we go.

 

Check out the crossbow; it's cast kinda weird so that one arm is thicker than the other. Normally, not much of an issue, but I don't like it,so I'm going to replace it.

 

Here he is with the arms cut off the crossbow.

 

Here, I've carefully removed the original head in preparation for swap. You can see the original head, the replacement head, and the part I'm going to replace the end of the crossbow with.

 

The new head (taken from this fellow:http://www.reapermini.com/FigureFinder#detail/77042) glued in place.

 

Here I'm using some green stuff to repair/rebuild the back of his head.

 

Here, I've added some more GS to his head and sculpted it to look like a chain mail coif.

 

The bit shown above attached to the end the crossbow. It's the end of an old GW Dark Elf Crossbow; I left the blade on the end of it, as I thought it made it look like a weapon that a half orc might use.

 

Just another view of the crossbow.

 

Look for him to be painted in the very near future.

 

I hope this is useful/inspiring to someone; also, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

 

 

[hammer570]

Love it!  I got on the mini-painting train late so the minis I do have I buy one at a time.  Can't wait for KS3 to get here so I'll have reserves to do this kind of thing!  It definitely adds a whole new and very entertaining facet to the hobby.  Great work with the half orc and crossbow switch, and documenting it in a way that's easy to follow.

[Chaoswolf]

Thank you; I'm glad you liked it.

[Dr.Bedlam]

Great thread.

 

Bones were MADE for conversions.

[Pippin]

Excellent idea to do this thread! Can't wait to see how many people this inspires to do the first conversions (or the rest of us to do more conversions).

[knarthex]

Here is another link to a conversion I am working on...

 

This one will be fairly extensive....

 

George