I also usually stand TO models on top of their TO marker which helps remind everyone that they still get the benefits of the TO during shooting. If a flame weapon burns it off or something I take the marker out from under them. Looks good, I also prefer the long hair in the end. What I am looting for is a 'sword sheathed, rifle ready' sort of conversion. Maybe Fusi arms or Bolt arms can look alright on her, but then finding a multi-rifle is hard :P
The starter set female fusilier arms are the right scale, but are clearly not HI armoured, so look really thin. Bolt arms are similarly the right scale, but not enough armour, so too thin (same with Bagh Mari). Maybe you could get away with sculpting a big pauldron on the shoulder and hiding the thin arm underneath. Problem No. 2 however is weapon shrinkage, PanO seem to have suffered more than most with the girls' guns being smaller on their troops. Except Joan who looks to have a full size (or very nearly) MR. You could use a MSR, just cut down the barrel and sculpt a canister (regular MSR is basically the same size as Joan's MR).
That is basically what I thought as well, but I will have all the bits on hand before I start converting, so I can try them on her before commitment is made. My real debate now is how much do I care about the tactical alien corpse. The leg up on random object is a cool and powerful looking pose, where the limited edition Joan looks like she got caught by surprise and is drawing her blade to defend herself. I think I am going to have to just accept the alien corpse or try to convert it into something. The bit reaching up and attached to her leg is the main issue since i could just file his body/head into a tactical rock, Maybe I can file it down into a flat flowing surface and paint it parchment color with some text to make it into a flag or 40k esque religious texts.
For info, the leg being groped on the std ed. Joan is a separate piece from the body, so you could replace it if you wanted. You'd have to have a spare ltd ed. Joan that you were happy to cut up. Start by slicing the std ed. leg/arm with a saw, so you have the top of her thigh and the square peg. Then clip the ltd ed. leg off the model. Make incisions to the ltd ed. leg so that you could bend it to the same pose as the std ed. Trim the ltd ed. leg down so that it fits with the thigh you have from the std ed. Make liberal use of green stuff to cover the mess you've made. Et voila!
