Making Space Adventurers From Historical Models

Personally, I think Conan the Barbarian got it wrong. Crushing your enemies and all that is pretty good, but making little space people out of increasingly unlikely old miniatures is way better. I've been back at the Stargrave people, enjoying sticking new heads and arms onto historical miniatures.

Here are a couple of space adventurers. The woman on the left has a Bolt Action Russian body, with Stargrave head and arms. I reckon she's some kind of well-off rebel. The lady on the right is a standard Stargrave plastic model. She's a dodgy corporate bureaucrat, together with jolly company hat.

And now for something weirder.

The rest of these guys were made from old plastic English Civil War infantry. I think they might be Perry models; they're pretty ancient and weren't doing anything useful in my cupboard. So... they became space people. I removed the heads, and left off the arms. 

Here they are painted.

The man on the left is based on a musketeer. I gave him a Stargrave head and arms from a Wargames Atlantic Grognard space soldier. They both looked quite old-fashioned and military, which suits the marching pose of the body. I painted him to look neat. I think he's either the crew of a spaceship or perhaps the leader of a militia.

The chap on the right was based on a pikeman. He's got a Wargames Atlantic face and helmet, and Stargrave arms. He looks as if he's stopping a citizen. "Please stand still while I scan you for witchcraft".

And here are the other two.

These guys were also based on pikemen. I noticed that all the base models were facing the same way (which makes sense in a pike regiment), so I gave this chap a left-handed gun to "turn" the model to the left. I also cut his lower left leg and turned it slightly, for a more forward-facing pose. Lots of bits were added to his waist to break up his Civil War shape. His head has goggles and bandages, rather like the invisible man. He was painted to look like a grotty bandit, with a fairly drab colour scheme that reminds me slightly of the Afrika Korps. To make him more sci-fi and visually interesting, I painted his lenses red.

The final weirdo has a head and arms from the Stargrave female crew sprue. When I sprayed the model black, the outline and pose reminded me of a ninja. So, she got a black paint job. The eye-slit in her helmet stresses this. I really like her shape: she's got an aggressive feel, as if about to kick down a door.

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Everything I've Learned About Converting Historical Models Into Space People

By and large, I reckon that most historical miniatures could be converted into space people. For one thing, science fiction covers a lot of bases, from the near-future of cyberpunk to the wild designs of Moebius, and artists like John Blanche often riff off real historical costumes anyhow. You might have difficulty where a model is wearing a very recognisable garment, or where the body isn't properly covered. It's going to be difficult to explain why someone is running around in space dressed in flip flops and a kimono. Perhaps they're some kind of deadly monk who swears off other kit. Or a psychic who can conjure their own protection. Or just a non-combatant. You just need to make them look like that. 

Heads

First up, I'd suggest keeping some female heads. For one thing, you might decide that someone in armour is a woman, so you need a head for that. Also, a lot of historical/real world models are slighter and a bit smaller than SFF models, so it would make sense to use female heads for them. I've found that female heads work really well with Bolt Action bodies. When covered in armour and gear, it's likely that a fair number of women would look a lot like slightly smaller men.

Also, head swaps can really improve a mediocre model. I don't think that the Bolt Action Soviets are particularly great miniatures, but the Stargrave heads are newer and better-detailed. The head is often the first place you look when looking at a miniature, so it helps a not-brilliant body greatly if the head is good.

Shapes and Silhouettes

Converting a model isn't a matter of where the model/piece came from, but what it looks like. A gun barrel could become an exhaust pipe, a club or even a walking stick. It's a matter of turning the piece around and thinking "What can I use this for?".

When using bodies from other ranges, it helps to look at the overall silhouette of the model and play to it or disguise it as necessary. The main things about the English Civil War infantry are: (i) the long jackets, with visible collars; (ii) the trousers, which are very baggy up to just below the knee, where they meet the big socks (I'm pretty sure these are not the technical terms); and (iii) the belts and bags slung across the body.

With these models, I wanted to hide some of the stuff slung across their chests, especially the "apostles", the little wooden cartridges that musketeers use. (They look a bit like small bottles, and perhaps you could paint them as such). The easy way to do this is to cover them up with arms that hold rifles or shotguns and, if needed, with backpacks. You could cut them off, but then you'd still need to put something over the top. 

You can also break up the silhouette by adding new elements, particularly shoulder pads and stuff on their belts. I don't think any real army has ever had big shoulder pads without corresponding armour, but it's a classic science-fiction look. Likewise, adding a load of extra bits and bobs (particularly grenades!) to a model's waist firstly shows that they've got modern tech and breaks up the shape of the original historical model.

Painting the Conversions

Painting these guys is pretty simple: just don't paint them the colours that they would be in real life. For these models, I deliberately avoided red and orange clothes, which were big in the English Civil War (so was blue, but less famously).

When painting, you can use colours to draw the eye to the bits you want to stand out. I didn't want people to look at the lower legs and feet of these models, so I've left them very dark and only vaguely highlighted. You can also disguise the origin of the model by painting historical bits in non-historical colours (so, a metal breastplate might be bright red). 

A good trick is to link parts of the model by painting them the same bright colour. On the blue soldier, I've painted both his sash (historical) and his shoulders and cuffs (sci-fi) the same light grey. This helps give the impression that they ought to be together. Likewise the sci-fi helmet and Civil War body armour on the shiny soldier.

And that's pretty much all I know. Thanks for reading this far. Here's the company lady and her android bodyguards. I'm not sure what I'll paint next. We shall see...

Another Hive Tyrant and a Load More Tyranids

 I found an old tyranid hive tyrant in a cardboard box, which I probably bought about 25 years ago. I stripped it down and rebuilt it.

This is the second incarnation of the hive tyrant, and appeared in the second tyranid codex. Rumour has it that Games Workshop got into trouble with the owners of the Alien (20th Century Fox, I assume) because it looked too much like the queen from Aliens. I'm not sure if this is true, but I do recall an article on GW's website saying that it looked a bit too much like a certain film franchise. The third version of this miniature largely ditched the second's style, and has remained so ever since. And if you think that's confusing, just wait.

Anyhow, it was a right pig to assemble. I ended up pinning pretty much every limb. I gave it two deathspitters and a barbed strangler: I doubt that this shooty loadout would be much good in battle, but it does look cool. The original model came on a tiny base, the sort that is now used for Space Marine terminators. I gave it a much larger base, to suit the model and hopefully provide some small amount of stability.

It got the usual Hive Fleet Behemoth colour scheme - lots of oldhammer red. It was quite tricky to paint, with a lot of hidden parts that were hard to access. Here it is.

Hideous, really. I particularly like the ammo-scrotum for the barbed stranger. Lovely.

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Here are some other tyranid models that I've been working on. These are von Ryan's leapers, a sort of smaller version of the tyranid lictor. Their job is to creep up and attack enemies in close combat. 

They're recent plastic models. To be honest, they are both good sculpts and massively overcomplicated. I didn't especially enjoy painting them. I used a base coat of while, with dark blue contrast paint over it - looking back, I don't think this did anything that a simple wash wouldn't have done. They'll do.

And here are some more new miniatures. These are "neurogaunts", a new form of tyranid. I've no idea what these things do, but I felt that they'd make quite good hormagaunts. Okay, let me explain this.

Back in the days of the first tyranid codex, the only hormagaunts you could get were big spindly metal things that toppled over if you looked at them too hard. They didn't look much like other tyranids, especially not the little red termagants, to which they were meant to be closely related, and were much larger than genestealers, which are the tyranids' close combat experts. Now, these new neurogaunts are the same size as the little oldhammer termagants, and I think they work well as hormagaunts. And if you've read this far without getting a headache, I salute you.

Anyhow, here are some. They're really nice models, with a good range of poses. They were extremely quick to paint, since they've got no eyes and only a couple of colours.

And here is a big swarm of these guys. They don't come out well en masse, but you can see that a horde of these things does look quite impressive. A case of quantity being a quality of its own.

Anyhow, that's enough space bugs for now. Next time we'll have some more Stargrave conversions.

Some Kind Of Alien Ostrich Monster

The older I get, the less the whole "grimdark" thing appeals to me. Not for any deep reason, but just because I find it rather dull: too much sepia, mud and inexplicable piles of skulls for my tastes. Of course, people can do what they like, but I find myself increasingly increasingly drawn to make brightly-coloured models of "some kind of robot" or "a space adventurer". Also, outside Warhammer, you don't have to deal with the endless people shouting "heresy!" at each other.

Anyhow, I was in Southampton last weekend, and I visited a Forbidden Planet shop for the first time since the pandemic. If you're wondering, FP is a chain that sells comics, sci-fi and related merchandise, some bits of it classier than others. On the discount shelf, I found several big art books going for almost nothing.

I bought Battle Milk 2 and 3, which seem to consist of design work by a group of film artists, ranging from the realistic to the cartoony and kitsch, and a lavish book called Alien Race, which appears to have been the basis for a film pitch about a "horse" race on another planet and features loads of cool beasts and their weird riders. In any event, it seems that nothing came of it, since all the books were from 2010 or so. I got them for £5: they should have cost £80. 

As an author, it strikes me as slightly sad that books with so much content should be going so cheaply. Anyhow, I found Alien Race quite inspiring, and put together a weird creature of my own.

I had a pair of legs from some kind of mech toy, and a head and neck that I'd used years ago in a failed conversion of the Jabberwock from the Alice books. The neck was from a dark elf hydra, and the head came from a much-chopped squig model. I must have hacked through a lot of metal to make these.

The trouble about toys is that they're often made out of wobbly plastic that isn't very nice to work with (and have dreadful mould lines). The best way to stick this thing together was to use a lot of glue and pinning, and to attach the legs in a sort of full-on sprinting pose, which suited the rather goofy head.

I gave it a bright paint job, influenced by racing cars. I'd had the base lying around for ages - I think it's from a Warmachine model, but I'm not sure how much it's been converted by its previous owner. 

That's me done for now!

From WW2 Armour Car to Moon Buggy

 I was in the local games shop last week, trying to find something fun to paint for less than £25. This is not easy. Of course, models are more costly than they used to be: that's inevitable. But the fact that they are usually either sold as squads or expensive special characters means that it's harder to go into a shop, see something that looks cool and get it to paint.

Anyhow, I ended up buying a Bolt Action WW2 armoured car. It's a British Humber Mk II/IV, which is one of the coolest looking military vehicles ever.

However, I looked at the sprue for about ten minutes before I decided to turn it into a moon buggy. Part of the reason for this is that Bolt Action models are a small 28mm scale and are "skinny" compared to the chunky proportions of GW and North Star miniatures.

I left the turret bits off - I could use that for something else. I assembled the basic model and added details from the bits box: some fuel tanks on one side, and some steps on the other. The roof got a big hatch from a Tau tank. I added some more detailing with strips of plasticard, just to change the look a little.

The paint job was very "civilian". I went for a light grey, heavily weathered with chips and dirt. I added some unnecessary hazard stripes to suggest an industrial function, and some bits of colour to make it more interesting to look at. Bonus points for getting the "Moon Unit" reference. 

I enjoyed painting and weathering this thing. The only aspect I don't really like is the windscreen. I attempted a green glow, but I don't think it really works that well.

And here are a couple of pictures of the buggy in action. As you can see, it's pretty small. If I actually played any games, it would make a nice little bit of terrain. As it is, I just enjoyed making it. Not sure what I'll do with those turrets, though.

A Few Lizardmen

 Here's another quick post. Many years ago, I had a lizardmen army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle (I still do have it, packed away in various boxes and drawers). I bought a ton of miniatures, but I never really finished them all. So, for no good reason, I took out a bunch of old models, put them on nice bases made of slate, and painted them jolly colours. Here they are.

This guy is an old plastic skink scout:

This is a lizardman warrior. He's not got a shield but he's unconverted. Because they had to rank up and were pretty large for their original square bases, the lizardmen are very "closed" models who hold their shields tight across their bodies, obscuring a lot of detail. which is basically why he hasn't got one.

This lizardman has a head and body from the old plastic Temple Guard. He looks as if he should be in a carnival in Rio, which I suppose is sort of accurate.

And here's another old plastic skink (the other, in fact, because there were only two poses). I painted him to resemble a poison arrow frog.

As ever, I feel that the concept of the lizardmen is slightly cooler than the miniatures. Personally, had it been me designing them, I would have made them less iguana and more old-school velociraptor. But it wasn't me.

It occurs to me that I've almost got the correct colours to have the Harmonious Convocation of Telitubbi!