Convert or die! Chaos Bertha, Modernised Red Goblin, Kill Team Charlie and the Hyperbole Base

First up today is a couple of conversions...

Left. Vintage Chaos warrior.  Right.  Big Bertha.

I always loved the figure to the left, but by the time I was in the hobby he was a faint memory in a citadel journal.  I was rubbing my hands together with glee when I finally found one on ebay.  I was horrified when it arrived badly broken.  Fortunately another appeared in a job lot chaos army I rescued.  Then Big Bertha made the pain all go away with a relaxing night at the sculpting block.

I love converting figures.  I always start with the best intentions.  Fix a weapon, add a little hood... but I always end up going a teensy bit over the top.  I have some converted figures that it would have been just as quick to scratch build.

Kev Adamsified red goblin

This classic fiend factory red goblin (see previous posts) was too near my brand new sculpting block I have made when I needed something to test sculpting on it.  I decided to fix it up a bit.
  I started by grinding off the shield boss to make space for a decorative shield.  To give him a more stooped look I sliced off the head (easy with this old soft alloy) and pinned it further down the chest.  Its amazing how this little change stops the models head looking too long.  A hood was added to exaggerate the hunch.
  I then filed back the fingers and toes slightly and added freshly mixed green stuff putty.  After leaving it to set for a while I poked in the fingers with a dremmel blunted and rounded off xacto knife- my 'Tom Meier tool'.  The blade was filled with milliput so later it can be filed to a flat, sharp blade.  Finally I added the missing eyes and lip, some belt string and a strap for his shield.  The whole job took about ten minutes of actual work, and turned a few cents of figure into a perfectly good dungeon critter!

Converted citadel Fiend Factor Red Orc

Pre-Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40k 1st ed)  C100 Space marines
And the Dave King Hyperbole base.

I was going to call my next trick the Dave king awesome base of utter brilliant awesomeness, but shortened it to the hyperbole base instead.  My new motto for this year is if it is broke, quit winging and fix it, and one thing I whine on about is how lipped bases are great, but impossible to pick up during a game.  This leads to sticky fingers on models, and that just ain't cricket.  But oohh, they look pretty, and the extra size makes for more stable models with more protection against scratching.  Whine, whine, whine.

So I fixed the damned things by making my own.  Taking a regular base, I extended the depth down using plasticard and bevelled this to create a rounded lip just big enough for fingers to find purchase on and fingernails to roll under as you lift.  I then sanded and polished the whole thing shiney smooth and hollowed out the base to create a deeper, wider bowl.

  The deep dish allows for integral bases to sit inside, flush with the lip, deeper scenic features and cappers.  Since I only had a few lipped bases, I decided to cast the cappers separately.  That also means I can make a couple of cappers that have slots already cut, so all I have to do is just fill in the gap.  Rather than cut out custom discs and sculpting the cap onto this, I widened the dish so it would accept Australian 10c coins.  Whenever I feel like making a new cap, I just work on a 10c coin and know its going to fit.  Nice.

The final change was to glue a 10c coin to the bottom of the master to act as a pouring spout.  This means the lip of the base is perfect without having to grind flat.  A quick adventure with Pinkysil and Easycast (Barnes casting supplies) and my first test base was ready a half hour later..

My pre-rogue trader c100 space marine team, (Kill Team Charlie) are my first victims.  I am basing them up for corridor sci-fi skirmish gaming.  I have a few more in the post, and some in the dettol at the moment, and have bravely decided to convert some of my doubles.  I am toying with the idea of making a second team to go up against them using more of my old Rogue Trader, Judge Dredd and Paranoia minis.  However I think these guys may need some retro alien scum to blast away instead.

Well thats me for today.  Later lead heads!