Author Topic: I need conversion advice  (Read 5456 times)

Offline RLEE

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I need conversion advice
« on: October 23, 2011, 12:49:04 PM »
I'd like to convert some Void varidians marines into Captiol Freedom brigade models and thought I'd  ask for advice before I start. I'm keeping the guns the same, they don't look that different imho and some of the poses would require too much effort filing off the guns plus I don't have very many extra warzone rifles. I'd like to add the distinctive shoulder pads and knee pads of the newer light and heavy Capitol figures and was thinking of press molding them on, I did try and simply add green stuff but was unable to get the hard edges I wanted. I was thinking of using plastic card for the shoulder pads it might give me the uniform look I'm going for.

So has anyone else done this? what advice would could you give me? I'd like to make about 20 of so conversions of the figures I have

Offline Doompup

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Re: I need conversion advice
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2011, 04:58:04 PM »
I tried sculpting shoulder pads using "brown stuff" (Reaper's version of green stuff); the brown stuff seems to work better for me when I need to make something angular or with sharp edges. Honestly, I tried sculpting the shoulder pads on the figure, and I tried making a lump of the brown stuff, letting it dry, then cutting it to shape. Both methods worked OK; the cutting one looked better, but the pad did  not conform to the shoulder that well and ended up getting kind of stretched and misshapen when I glued it on. On the other hand, it was much more difficult trying to sculpt/mold the pad already on the shoulder, but the fit to the body was perfect.
You can see the ones I made here:

http://forum54.oli.us/index.php/topic,6591.0.html

Left (figure's left) shoulder pad was sculpted on, Right one was made, trimmed, and then glued on.

Hope that helps.   ;D

Offline RLEE

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Re: I need conversion advice
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2011, 07:41:20 PM »
Thanks for the advice, I think I'll try some of the approaches mentioned and see which works best

Doompup, you made some really good stuff, thanks for the link

Offline Lopis

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Re: I need conversion advice
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2011, 04:49:16 AM »
For me worked best to file or saw off the "old" shoulders and sculpt new ones from scrap.
I used milliput (the white one, it hink its the "fine" one) for sculpting these parts as for mantles.

I like the material a bit more than the stickier other stuffs.
Further itīs in my opinion better workable after drying. I normally use scalpels for cutting the rough forms and then an assortment of files to smooth the surfaces.
If you get used to it a bit you have nearly nothing to work after drying if you get a bit used to smooth while moist with water and a fine brush.
Another easy way to get supersmooth surfaces is to use superglue (i use pretty cheap ones for about a Dollar per 20 ml) as a laquer.

For smoothing holes or other things or for sculpting transitions i use "magic-sculpt". Donīt know where its from but itīs a resin material and has the bonus of being pretty lightweight.
So you could use it for greater sculpts more easy.

Last but not least I like using the plastic Bauhausers or Imperials for a harvest for bits .....
They are pretty cheap and I cut off what I need, resculpt it and use it for modelling it to the new models ( for that I use mostly resin materials (magic-sculpt)).
Gives a good supply of rifles too.

I did a squad of Strike Kommandos this way. Iīm not sure atm if I already upped the pics of them, but have a look at the "conversion showoff" section. Some of my models can be found there as in the army-gallery section "Bauhaus".
Just looked it up, you can find the Strike Kommandos at my photobucket page, the small pics in the conversoin showoff section leads to it)
If you like anything you find and have a question about how I did it, feel free to ask ;-)

Hope it helps a bit
« Last Edit: October 27, 2011, 04:53:42 AM by Lopis »
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