[white knight]

After seeing an old dwarf stretcher bearer model on ebay, the idea came to see if I couldn't come up with something similar using 6th edition plastic dwarves and greenstuff (and a few plastic bits). I tried to go for the look of the marauder empire dwarves , which I love (and which, among other things, meant big noses. :icon_biggrin: ).

Anyway, after playing around with them for a week and a half, they are about done (needs a little tidying up here and there but nothing major. I can see some issues (lack of necks among those, but that seems to be how those 6th edition plastics were made) but overall I'm pretty happy with them.

What do you think?

[icewolff]

wow looking great, nice idea, good greenstuff, yes the nose are big and what about the mustache, they look more like older models then 6th edit, but i like them allot.

to bad stretcher bearer always run to the back of the battle line, and not Brinning wounded dwarfs with them to battle, only for some grobi trashing.

[white knight]

icewolff, on 26 January 2010 - 06:43 PM, said:

yes the nose are big and what about the mustache, they look more like older models then 6th edit, but i like them allot.

Yes, I wanted them to look like the older (4th edition?) marauder models. I just used 6th editions plastics as the base, which have tiny noses.

[Perv]

I like the idea of a stretcher bearer model but I really dont like the old Citadel model. Yours is a lot better mate Would be nice if you could cast that one up Not keen on the hands though, they look a bit big. That casualty is superb though and I'd definately buy him.

[white knight]

Perv, on 26 January 2010 - 06:51 PM, said:

I like the idea of a stretcher bearer model but I really dont like the old Citadel model. Yours is a lot better mate Would be nice if you could cast that one up Not keen on the hands though, they look a bit big. That casualty is superb though and I'd definately buy him.

The hands are the 6th edition plastic ones. I used the plastic dwarves as armatures after carving off the clothing and armour. I don't like doing hands (they never look quite right).

Also means I can't cast them up of course.

[rednorseman]

I love your conversion! cheers, very well done

[white knight]

Here's another one that's practically done except for some tidying.
Yes, he has hands, they are separate for ease of painting. And the reason they are not in the picture... I don't want to give away yet what he's meant to be.

This post has been edited by white knight: 26 January 2010 - 07:00 PM

[Perv]

sharpening a scalpel or a knife by any chance? It fits the pose

Why are you getting John to make your figs when you do a fine job? Johns problem used to be hands funnilly enough. They may look fine when painted so will reserve further judgement on them

[white knight]

Perv, on 26 January 2010 - 08:11 PM, said:

sharpening a scalpel or a knife by any chance? It fits the pose

As would playing a violin, but it's neither.

Perv, on 26 January 2010 - 08:11 PM, said:

Why are you getting John to make your figs when you do a fine job? Johns problem used to be hands funnilly enough. They may look fine when painted so will reserve further judgement on them

I don't think I could do them justice. Converting is one thing, but designing a figure from scratch takes more skill.

[Bucket Kjell]

This is what I call brilliant!

I want to make models like this. With the bits box full of extra plastic except bodies, it looks like fun to make models with green stuff and use the bits for the small and difficult parts.

But how to do it?

It would be great if one of you masters of the green stuff could make a tutorial for us beginners on how to make a model like this.

There are techniques in play here that is totally unknown for us green between the ears istead of on the fingers


Cheers for a masterpiece and a brilliant "extreme conversion".




And yes, I am envious.

[Borin Sourfist]

That's some great GS there. Ale for you

I wouldn't worry about the size of the hands. Those 6th ed ones aren't so far from the scale of
older citadel minis. Last week I grafted the hand holding the banner onto a 3rd ed cannon
crewman (the one with the telescope, giving the thumbs up). It looks fine, the 6th ed plastic
hand was almost identical in size to the original left hand. Now I have a banner bearer from
the same era as the rest of my Imperial Dwarf regiment.

This may not work on all old minis though, dimensions did vary. The sheer size of the first
Marauder Slayer's heads and feet were astonishing. Especially the one with the chinbeard
and toga. Compare the size of his head to that of a 3rd ed Imperial Dwarf. The size of
6th ed plastic hands pales into insignificance.

[white knight]

Cheers!

Bucket Kjell, on 26 January 2010 - 08:50 PM, said:

I want to make models like this. With the bits box full of extra plastic except bodies, it looks like fun to make models with green stuff and use the bits for the small and difficult parts.
But how to do it?
It would be great if one of you masters of the green stuff could make a tutorial for us beginners on how to make a model like this.
There are techniques in play here that is totally unknown for us green between the ears istead of on the fingers

Well, I'm far from a master, but I've been dabbling for a few years, so I'll try to get into a little bit of detail on how I do it (probably the real masters will laugh at that). The most important part for me is work in layers and don't try to do too much at once as you'll only end up damaging one bit while working on another. Instead, let every part you did cure before moving on to another one. you can work on a few figures like that every evening or whenever you have the time. These took me about ten days to do.

The tools I use are:
- toothpicks (for some detail and for smoothing out the putty by gently rolling it over)
- needle pin for finer detail
- scalpel tool for cutting (like the sleeves)
- clay shaper (with a soft rounded tip, also for smoothing)

Keep a cup of water handy to wet your tools or the putty will stick to them!

To give an example of sculpting, the puffy sleeves are achieved by first putting a blob of putty on the arm, then smoothing it out around it (using the clay shaper or the toothpick) until the arm is covered on all sides by a sleeve of putty. This is then cut vertically using the scalpel (don't draw it across the putty, but press it into it). If you want it to look like on the last figure I posted, repeat with horizontal cuts. I then use the tip of the toothpick to push in the sides of the different putty squares (the vertical ones) and give that extra touch if you can see what I mean in the picture. If you only made vertical slashes, you can do the same with the scalpel blade. Pants are similar (though only vertical slashes).

When you've done one sleeve: stop. let it cure and work on a different model. If you try to do too much at once, you'll end up putting a finger in your freshly sculpted detail.

When you've done the pants and they have cured, start with the jacket (or the shirt first if it's an open jacket). Don't try to do front and back at one, just one side will do.

Patience is key. And switch between tools to find out what works best for what purposes.

[Thoin Ironfist]

This is a cool idea! Great work and creativity!

[Forkbeard]

I too am a fan of big nosed Dwarfs, in fact I want one as a unit filler but don’t have the skill

Very good work so far mate keep it up.

[DiStudios]

Some really characterful conversions, keep up the great work

[white knight]

Not dwarves, but equally short, some less extensive, quick and easy conversions. 10 halflings from Black Hat Miniatures (plastic hats from the 6th edition statetroops set):

This post has been edited by white knight: 27 January 2010 - 02:00 PM

[Perv]

Not sure about them mate, I'm a fan of halflings but those models dont look great to me. I'll be collecting Halflings and Snotlings when my Dwarves are done but I'll look at these again nearer the time to see if they're any good. Hopefully you'll have some painted by then

[white knight]

Perv, on 27 January 2010 - 03:11 PM, said:

Not sure about them mate, I'm a fan of halflings but those models dont look great to me. I'll be collecting Halflings and Snotlings when my Dwarves are done but I'll look at these again nearer the time to see if they're any good. Hopefully you'll have some painted by then

They're not a patch on the old GW ones, but they're in a similar style so I gave them a go.

[Perv]

I have quite a few old GW ones already, bought back when they were less than £1 each on Ebay. Havent been able to afford them since as they've gone up so much in value. Any chance of bigger pics in future as I'm struggling to see detail and I'm on 42" plasma screen...please dont make me get out of my armchair and go closer to the screen

[Karak_Varn_Raider]

The stretcher bearer looks great. Very fitting in the flavor of the older dwarf GW miniatures. The noses might be a bit too big IMO, but if anything it just adds to the humor and overall charm of the figure(s).