Right... after years of working with plastic and metal miniatures, time to convert my first non-metal/plastic... I have put together a couple of resin pieces by Ramshackle and Scibor miniatures... but not converted any.
(apologies for photography quality... hopefully going to get some guidance from a freind at some point soonish?)
So now for my first reaper bones miniature, the cave troll.
As a more affordable and decent looking alternative to GW and any of the others I have seen on Ebay, it is cost-wise, ideal to give my night goblins a unit of them, but I wanted more than one pose in the unit.
As I haven't meddled with any of these more flexible polymer models before, I decided to buy one first, as a test to see what the detail is like (as good as the metals it turns out with only a minimal bit of a moldline on the side) and to see how easy it would be to convert...
First off. Removing the right arm...
The initial cut behind the ear freaked me out and made me make some random squeeky noise or other... (I am prone to such things) it cuts cleanly and like a knife through plasticine. so much easier than metal and plastic.
The same applies to drilling to make holes for the armature to rebuild the part of the arm that will need resculpting.
The moldline does scrape off, but like with resin it appears a gentle approach works best. Cut and position arm on the bit of paper clip I am going to use to pin it to get an idea of position before gluing... think I may change pose of other arm too...
After getting the pin in place and gluing it, it seems to take the same sort of time it would to glue a metal miniature together. I decide I shall arm it with a large ball on chain and adjust left hand to hold a handle at a later date, due to tiredness setting in.
The next day, I've found some chain about the right thickness for the project, cut up a spare club from the ogre kingdoms accessories for a handle and removed some material from the trolls left hand to make it easier to make it grip the weapon.
gluing the plastic handle into the grip of the left hand was briefly problematic as the rubbery polymer kept trying to bend back into its original open handed position, but after holding it in place the bond seems pretty set.
gluing the chain in place in the right hand... it seems reapers bones material isn't so fond of metals... the paperclip/pin used in the arm is a bit wobbly, but not loose... and trying to glue the chain in its hand has taken a bit more than a couple of seconds...
after finally managing to mix the two parts together of the greenstuff (for some reason very tough, though I guess that could be the cold weather?) I start rebuilding the arm. It's not too long before the metal pin I am sculpting over loosens a bit more in its joint... hopefully when the greenstuff cures it'll be a good enough bond to not matter. I aren't the best or most practiced user of the stuff, but what I manage on the arm should do as muscle detail well enough once it's painted.
then on with the much easier task of making a misshapen globe-ish shape to later carve up abit to give a stone texture to...
conversion relatively complete I think I am definitely going to get a few more of these models to convert/repose.
After meddling around with this cave troll, my conclusion is that the bones range of reaper miniatures represents excellent value for the sort of detail you are getting. Though if converting or doing weapon swaps its advisable to cut much softly and slower than you might with a metal or more solid plastic miniature.
Signing out to do something less productive. Yours, Jessica.
(apologies for photography quality... hopefully going to get some guidance from a freind at some point soonish?)
So now for my first reaper bones miniature, the cave troll.
As a more affordable and decent looking alternative to GW and any of the others I have seen on Ebay, it is cost-wise, ideal to give my night goblins a unit of them, but I wanted more than one pose in the unit.
As I haven't meddled with any of these more flexible polymer models before, I decided to buy one first, as a test to see what the detail is like (as good as the metals it turns out with only a minimal bit of a moldline on the side) and to see how easy it would be to convert...
First off. Removing the right arm...
The initial cut behind the ear freaked me out and made me make some random squeeky noise or other... (I am prone to such things) it cuts cleanly and like a knife through plasticine. so much easier than metal and plastic.
The same applies to drilling to make holes for the armature to rebuild the part of the arm that will need resculpting.
The moldline does scrape off, but like with resin it appears a gentle approach works best. Cut and position arm on the bit of paper clip I am going to use to pin it to get an idea of position before gluing... think I may change pose of other arm too...
After getting the pin in place and gluing it, it seems to take the same sort of time it would to glue a metal miniature together. I decide I shall arm it with a large ball on chain and adjust left hand to hold a handle at a later date, due to tiredness setting in.
The next day, I've found some chain about the right thickness for the project, cut up a spare club from the ogre kingdoms accessories for a handle and removed some material from the trolls left hand to make it easier to make it grip the weapon.
gluing the plastic handle into the grip of the left hand was briefly problematic as the rubbery polymer kept trying to bend back into its original open handed position, but after holding it in place the bond seems pretty set.
gluing the chain in place in the right hand... it seems reapers bones material isn't so fond of metals... the paperclip/pin used in the arm is a bit wobbly, but not loose... and trying to glue the chain in its hand has taken a bit more than a couple of seconds...
after finally managing to mix the two parts together of the greenstuff (for some reason very tough, though I guess that could be the cold weather?) I start rebuilding the arm. It's not too long before the metal pin I am sculpting over loosens a bit more in its joint... hopefully when the greenstuff cures it'll be a good enough bond to not matter. I aren't the best or most practiced user of the stuff, but what I manage on the arm should do as muscle detail well enough once it's painted.
then on with the much easier task of making a misshapen globe-ish shape to later carve up abit to give a stone texture to...
conversion relatively complete I think I am definitely going to get a few more of these models to convert/repose.
After meddling around with this cave troll, my conclusion is that the bones range of reaper miniatures represents excellent value for the sort of detail you are getting. Though if converting or doing weapon swaps its advisable to cut much softly and slower than you might with a metal or more solid plastic miniature.
Signing out to do something less productive. Yours, Jessica.
Looking pretty cool...
ReplyDeleteI'm loving the ball and chain.
RE: Glue - what brand of glue are you using..?
And did you blow a raspberry on it to speed up the drying time..?
no raspberrys... I find the noise a bit weird and out of place in the silenceof my living room. also some cheap poundshop variety... served well on plastic and metals... I may invest in some better quality stuff for the next three trolls when they arrive though.
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