Forever with a view for fun and colourful settings for a good skirmish game, here are the poor mortals that will inevitably meet their fate against the powers of the Gods or the brutality of legendary mythological beasts. The Greek warriors.
Anyone of a similar generation as I will have fond memories of films like Jason and the Argonauts (Harryhausen’s magic still has it’s charm today) with heroic battles against the likes of Medusa, Cyclops, harpies, Minotaur and skeletons to name but a few.
These chaps below are quite clearly sculpted and posed for ‘armies’. I only wish that more ‘heroic’ or ‘legendary’ style miniatures existed in 15mm for my purposes. Something like these, or these. Ditching 15mm for 28mm would remedy this. But I can’t. Not yet anyway.
As per usual – no idea which system I’m going to end up using (some day). Certainly give Of Gods and Mortals a go and face off against the numerous Norse options I have. But then there’s Open Combat, Song of Blades and Heroes, Pulp Alley and several other systems that would be good for a warband orientated game. And of course, I still await delivery of High Heavens Kickstarter game which will give numerous God options!
Some of the leaders and nobles;
They look great, why do you convert what you need?
Hi Dan and thanks. Me, convert? Unlike you sculpting and conversion with green stuff doesn’t come naturally. Outside the odd arm or head swap I’ve not ventured very far in that area (though I did buy some GS and a tool set last year with good intentions – but they are neatly tucked away with the good intentioned airbrush and many other intentions…).
Where would I start is I wanted something like this in 15mm? http://theminiaturespage.com/news/pics/2013/jun/1556802436b.jpg
Other than commission a sculptor… which is another good intentioned plan I have for something else…
Hhmm, I would start by finding a figure that is in a similar pose, this is were you have to look past the actual figure, it’s easy to be turned away by a figure because it doesn’t currently look like what you want.
Once you have a figure with an acceptable pose, (sometimes you may need to use 2, legs from one and torso from another) you strip all the unwanted detail off, until you have a bear dolly, you do any other changes next, like head/arm swaps, drill hand for weapons etc.
Then you start building the detail, you need to do this in small areas, 1 at a time, and start with the “deepest” or hardest to reach detail first, once you have sculpted an area, put the figure aside to harden, it’s a slow process but necessary to avoid damaging soft putty with mishandling.
I try to keep the sculpting simple, you would need to be pretty talented to get all the detail sculpted on the figure you are asking about, so just try and sculpt the basic shape of what you want, you will notice on my conversion that the actual sculpting is not really that detailed, but I use basic shapes to create the look I want, use your strength as an excellent painter to create the details with paint that you can’t sculpt.
It’s funny, I now no longer (or very rarely anyway) look at a figure for what it is, but what I can make out of it, and have bought hundreds of figures on their potential to be converted, it gets addictive.
Now let’s look at the figure you want, what is differant between that and the figures you already have?
1) the dynamic pose – you could do what I said in my previous post, or use a suitable conversion figure, the purple and white figure in the bottom pic looks suitable, maybe trim the front foot off the base, and bend the leg at the knee to make the pose more dynamic.
2) the helmet – your target figure has a more Roman style helmet, maybe find a suitable donor, the horse head would be hard to sculpt, maybe do a plume or comb, you could use a centurion head, or maybe make a plume like on my Orc boys at the link below, using guitar string and putty.
http://gunnerswargamming.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/wip-15mm-space-ork-infantry.html
3) the shield- press a ball of putty onto a smooth surface, like glass, the sculpt it into the shape you want, leave to dry, then peel off, cut the original shield off, and glue in place.
4) the shoulder armour- hoplites don’t have shoulder armour, so adding this will give the figure a new look, small ball of putty pressed onto the shoulder and pushed around with a scalpel blade (make sure you constantly moisten it, or the putty will stick to it) if you want the skull look, use a ball point pen to push some eye sockets into the putty, and the blade of the knife to sculpt the teeth etc.
I think just these changes will give you what you are after, the fine detail sculpted on the Cuirass, paint that on.
5) Cloak- get some thin tin foil, the type you find when you open tins of milo, or hot chocolate powder, not sure what country you are in, spread putty in a thin layer across it, sculpt waves and folds into it, leave to dry, then cut it with scissors int the shape you want, then bend it slightly to give it a natural look and glue to the back of the figure, I used this for the cape on my inquisitor and the tabards on my sisters of battle
http://gunnerswargamming.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/15mm-inquisitor-gang-finished.html
http://gunnerswargamming.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/15mm-sisters-canoness-finished.html
And the last bit of advice, when you want to glue something to metal, use a super glue and putty sandwhich, so figure-superglue-putty-superglue-thing you want to glue on, this will give a good strong bond, anf the putty will hold the object on until the superglue dries, the figure and object will also look like they belong together, rather than just glued on.
Hope this helps.
You’ve got me started now, I’m considering doing this conversion myself, doh, face palm, you might be able to get a bit more of a dynamic pose by also cutting the figure in half at the waist and slightly twisting the torso, also cut the sword off, drill the hand out and replace with a javelin.
Damn, I want these figures now.
What can I say Dan? You’re on fire. Or fired up. One or the other or both which is good.
Your advice and encouragement are very welcomed. I’m off to locate my dupe* packs for insipration and see if I can make a stab at this.
* dupe pack: I may be odd in this regard but I dislike (hate too strong) duplicates. Very much a ‘skirmisher’ frame of mind thing. Dupes will be ideal for the type of process you outline. That or they may actually make it to eBay one day.
Yeah, I don’t like dupes either, but it’s amazing what a simple head swap or twisting of the head does, or cutting figs in half and swapping legs/torso can do.
Hi Jimboba
Just letting you know, you have inspired me to do my own Greek Mythology project, I am going to use ABs 18mm hoplites for the Greek warriors, and a range of fantasy figs for the foe, cheers for the inspiration.
Dan, this is sad. You are clearly easily influenced and susceptible to rash swings of interest and freely commit to things that will distract you from life’s more important things.
Wait. That’s me describing myself too.
Really look forward to seeing where you take this. Those AB miniature look really nice.
Damn, I’m going to have to order some.
Rubbish. Ordering AB Miniatures here in the UK is not good. Postage from Oz is ridiculous and the suppliers here in the UK (fighting15) are non-skirmish pack friendly to say the least.