Hello there, I decided to start converting miniatures for my next army force. I plan to use mostly greenstuff - I have some experience with gap filling with Milliput but that's all. Already took a look at several threads here, the conversions are really nice ! Main modifications will be: - more hair - capes and hoods - weapon replacement (still have no idea where to find them, I don't know if it is hard to sculpt one) I do not plan to alterate positions or add limbs on my minis, it looks a bit too ambitious for beginning. Do you have any tips on this matter, some specific to CB miniatures range ? Youtube chains, personnal practices, places to look for furnitures..etc.
For weapon swaps i can't recommend monstrous makings enough you can find some of his work on thingiverse and all of it on patreon. He Made a lot of wepaons of all factions as 3d printable files. Also he did hands. Very, Very useful. In my experiance Metall figures are easily to repose on some parts since you can bend the metal and it stays in this Position. Otherwise. If you switch parts it's important to pin them if you can as additional parts in another Material might otherwise break easily. Don't be affraid to Cut or saw parts off. A dremel or another rotary Tool is recommended. The cable roll Tool from Green stuff World is great to create Synthmesh for the underarmor of Heavy infantry and TAGs. Green stuff can be a pain in the ass to Work with. I never get the Details to look how i envisioned them. A Miniature Holder to hang the Miniaturen on while the Green stuff cures is good for capes so that they fall in a way and direction you want them to. Most Important: have fun!
Hair and hoods should be a good start - rather easy and a nice practice. GS is great for metal minis, as it holds very good to this material. About guns - CB did some SpecOps years earlier and they were sold with additional weapons, you could find some, depending on the army you want to play. There are still some extra parts in few blisters. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1...-ab2b-be27ba845572_1200x1200.jpg?v=1571609429 https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0...-1-model-infinity-corvus-bel.jpg?v=1560801139 And, as was mentioned before, Monstrous Makings created 3D files to print some weapons and it's also a good way to go. PozdRawiam / Greetings
I think the thing that most improved my conversion skills was simply practicing with increasingly ambitious conversions. It sounds almost silly, but at the end of the day they're just toys and nothing (too) terrible will happen if a conversion doesn't work. Most of the time, you can pull things apart and try again. Looking forward to seeing your conversions.
Head-swaps, arm and weapon swaps to start with. Those are some of the easiest. After that, hoods, cloaks, hair. Also, there are certain putties that work better for some things than others. Greenstuff is good for "softer" things, fabric, cloaks, etc - there are others that work better for hard edges like armour.
Rotary tools are a bit brutal (specially if newbie), as most people get Dremel and clones, not jeweler types that can go to near 0 RPM and have a small head with the motor separate, as Foredom and clones. Dremel sells (or sold) the cable thing, but IIRC all are minimum 5000 RPM. Other putties like ProCreate (sold as "greystuff" sometimes) or Magic Sculpt. Or mix Greenstuff (originally Kneadatite) with Milliput, if that is all you can get easily. Hm... you can even try polymer clays (the ones that need baking) like Fimo. Advantage of being metal.
As chromedog said, start from little conversions. Head or arms swaps need few skills, and are a good start for sculpting gaps like armpits or necks. You can also add pouches or little details to your minis to gain proficiency with the putty and your tools. Milliput can be hard to work with at the beginning, the ammount of water to work it can disolute it, and make a mess. A nice tip is to mix Milliput classic (yellow-grey) with greenstuff to avoid that. 50%-50% is a good start, but you can change that proportion if you want something more sharp. Another tip about putty, once dry Milliput can be sanded or filled, greenstuff no.
