Proofs of Concept - How I Plan a Conversion

My approach to converting is twofold - some conversions I make up on the fly, using pieces from my bitzbox that look good together. Others I plan meticulously, especially when I'm looking to match something stylistically to an existing figure.

In my last blogpost I mentioned that I often create some very rough proofs of concept for conversions to help me decide what components I want to use. This is a very simple process, primarily using images from old catalogues (try Stuff of Legends for catalogue images) and roughly manipulating them in MS Paint before I start any cutting, or in some cases, before I've bought the models I intend to convert.

To illustrate how the process works, below are some rough concepts for my Adeptus Arbites captain.

You can see that I was experimenting with a number of different looks using components from a variety of different figures (in this case I think it was Imperial Psykers, Arbites and Space Marines. I decided that the bare-headed #3 was the direction I wanted to go, which resulted in a pretty intimidating hard-as-nails captain:

You can see I altered his equipment for in-game functionality on the final model.

Tutorial - Simple Display Bases

It's a known truth in the hierarchy of miniatures that a painted miniature trumps an unpainted one. A nicely based miniature is better than a painted green slottabase. And miniatures ALWAYS look better in decent scenery or a diorama*
*true fact

Don't believe me? Check out Eldar v Squats from p180 of the Rogue Trader rulebook.

When Trolls Meet Elves Part 3: Painting

Hopefully you'll have seen my earlier posts on my Blood Bowl mini-diorama I'm entering at the NAF Championships in Nottingham in May. If not, you can catch up on the earlier posts:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: The Build

Colour selection
Over the course of the last week I've been painting the model. I started off thinking about colour schemes. I wanted the elf to match my elf team, as I'm fond of the bright turquoise and white strip with the red. I used the online colour wheel tool I've used previously to establish a nice looking colour scheme; with the turquoise strip on the elf, I could go for a sort of mustardy-brown colour on the troll's skin and a purple strip.

http://colorschemedesigner.com/

On with the painting
With the colour scheme decided, it was onto the painting. I painted up the troll first using Vallejo heavy goldbrown for the base coat on the skin. The skin was washed with Citadel brown ink and Asurmen blue wash, before being higlighted. The highlights were simply adding white to the heavy goldbrown. The pustules were then given a wash of Citadel Baal red and a dot of pale yellow in the centre.

When Trolls Meet Elves Part 2: The Build

Back in December, I showed off the WIP conversion of my Blood Bowl mini-diorama I'll be entering into a 'Duel' modelling competition at the NAF Championship in Nottingham in May.

The project started off purely on the premise that I happened to have lots of spare Elf catchers kicking around, as well as a lonely Troll. These two chaps in fact:

Blood Bowl 2nd edition Troll (Michael Perry) and Elf Catcher (Jes Goodwin), from 1988

Tutorial: Greenstuff Pustules / Armour Studs

Over at Talk Fantasy Football I'm organising a Legacy Team project (a bunch of people sign up to paint and contribute a player to a pre-agreed Blood Bowl team; a lottery determines the winner who gets the whole lot).

This year, it's a Nurgle themed Chaos team, and my contribution is a disease-addled Pestigor (beastman of Nurgle):

WIP Pestigor conversion

 

Tutorial - Converting Complex Figures

Up until a couple of years ago the extent of converting I did on models was fairly minimal; a weapon swap here and there. Maybe a head swap if it wasn't too difficult. I rarely did anything complex, so there was little in the way of planning involved.

More recently I've been doing a lot more advanced conversions, in some cases involving parts from 5 or 6 different models. With that level of work and commitment to chopping up nice old lead, I've starting implementing a bit of a structured approach to converting my models, illustrated by the image below, which is a walkthrough of the process involved for one of my Gutter Runners for my Skaven Blood Bowl team: