Is it just me or are most of the new sculpts awfully difficult to use for conversions? I just got a Zhayedan Box today - and I am very annoyed by the way the sculpts are done. There is no way short of sawing off or filing away the arms of the male sculpts in order to do a simple weapon swap. The Zhayedan from the Red Veil Starter on the other hand is an example that it is still possible to do sculpts that are easy to do conversions with. Same goes with the new Druze Box or Khawarijs Box (again an easy to convert sculpt in the RV starter but the miniatures in the box are just meh to convert). If I compare the sculpts mentioned above to the Ghazi, Muyib and Govad Boxes (who are all easy to do simple conversions like head and weapon swaps with), I really wish CB did the new sculpts like those. Don't get me wrong, I really like the miniatures with their huge amount of details, their different poses and such - but these fixed arms and heads really piss me off!! And this is no Haqq problem alone as Ariadnan and Nomad boxes (Line Kazaks, Hollowmen, Heckler Blister for example) face the same issue.
Yup, the old Body-Arms-Head paradigm appears to be dying out slowly but surely, which makes conversions inherently more difficult. If you can pull it off, however, it is much more rewarding to make something work nowadays. My metal saw has definitely seen a lot more work recently. I've also found that some of the models with the new assembly style tend to not fit together very well (worst offender so far being the Taagma Sniper). I also don't buy the argument that this new style does somehow enable new and exciting poses, as these are entirely divorced from assembly. Maybe it has something to do with how they transition their 3D models into molds or something, but I can confirm that this change has been pretty detrimental to my experience.
I would like to help, but I am still struggling with the fact you actually bought Zhayedan box. They are literally worst unit in the game :-D On male sculpts you can saw them at the wrist or elbow and pin that part. On females you can try this, but it is really hard as their parts are stupidly thin. I have converted at least 50 minis so far, and I don't bother with females if I have to cut thin parts.
If in N4 Automedikit gets rolled into Regeneration with the same rules from Code One, that would be a nice boost to Zhayedan. Their sculpts are really nice, so I can see why one would get the box. I bought the female BSG sculpt to proxy as my Al Hawwa FO, because it looked so nice.
I have new Druze and Khawarij boxes from what you've listed and to be honest, I liked them a lot. Khawas are really great - small number of parts, yet great detail and poses. I think that the main reason for CB to change the system was the thing with less number of parts - so easier to glue together. CB is trying to make their minis as easy to assemble as it can be, which is seen not only lately, and that's one of the steps for that. And if you want to convert them... You can - it never was easy to convert metal minis, but it's definitely possible. And joyfull ;) PozdRawiam / Greetings
I really love the Druze (old and new sculpts) and the Khawarijs are also great. All the new sculpts are easy to assemble - but it is nearly impossible to do a simple weapon swap because of the way the miniatures are made. For example try to get another Druze wielding a CombiRifle or try to convert the Druze Hacker with non-Hacker Druze helmet... And speaking of the Druze Box: where is the reduction of parts you mentioned? Old Druze were 4 parts (body, helmet, 2 arms), new Druze are also 4 parts (upper body, lower body, weapon hand, tiny strip of metall as antenna) - and I must say that i prefer to glue a hundred of old Druze to the gluing of those idiotic small antennas to the helmets of the new sculpts. BTW you are able to fit the Ghulam HMG arm on the Securitate HMG gunner without any cutting - thats a perfect fit.
About less number of parts I was thinking of Khawarij. They are the next step in casting Infinity minis for me ;) PozdRawiam / Greetings
new sculpt are horrible for conversion that why I'm using mostly old stuff and yeah conversions in infinity are a thing, I've made some x)
I completely agree with this sentiment. I was CB would not go down this route as it makes on us hobbyists. Not to mention causes the miniatures to be stagnate mono-pose instead of being able to have some variations. Unless you get good or are already good at converting models you are most likely stuck with single poses for certain loadouts. Basically at the mercy of CB's designed molds for the models they produce.
