Life of a Wargamer: Part 3 Kit Bashing.
Last week we were discussing the costing and expense of the hobby.
During our discussion we decided we would try and experiment to see if we could make one those quite expensive box sets stretch, and get a little more value out of them, and save ourselves some money elsewhere.
We were looking at a lot of Box sets in our Life of a Wargamer: Poverty post and we identified a few places where you could pick up some models for a good price. But in those instances where you have to cave and buy a box set of models, we suggest trying your hardest to make every model in the box set count, by doing some nifty conversions, and being smart (and careful!) you can make a few of those models a very suitable proxy for another. We decided to demonstrate our point by taking the Blightkings box set and trying our best to make as many models from that box set as we could!
Five Blightkings will set you back a pretty staggering £33.50. But we did a little research and by looking for and downloading those free warscrolls that we love so much and having a really good look at the models and all of their components, we figured we could make some pretty decent substitute models for some Nurgle Heroes.
We figured we could make a Lord of Plagues, A Rotbringer Sorcerer and an Exalted Hero with Battle Standard (with the mark of Nurgle) as well as the 5 Blightkings!
Buying all of those models individually would set you back roughly £63 (that's £33.50 for the Blightking's box set, £9 for the Lord of Plagues, £8.20 for the Rotwood Sorcerer, and we're roughly estimating £12 for an exalted hero model) So by kit bashing your Blightkings you're saving yourself £30! And if like us, your Blightkings are coming from the Shadows over Hammerhal box set, you're saving yourself even more.
This technique isn't easy however.
It took a lot of working out. We wanted the models to have the exact wargear on the model that the character possesses on the Warscroll to ensure that when it came to the tabletop it would reduce the confusion to both players as well as making sure the model looked and felt the part it was trying to play. Not only this, but we wanted to ensure that if we wished the field the Blightkings unit then all five models would also fit into that unit as well as having the banner bearer and musician that is very beneficial to field.
It was not an easy task, and the whole operation took four hours! But we managed it, and without sounding our own Sonorus Tocsin (which is a massive bell apparently) we think we did a pretty good job!
So without further ado, let's look at our conversions!
First up we have our Exalted Hero with Battle Standard with the mark of Nurgle. We're calling this one a 'conversion' very loosely! This model came with all the necessary equipment in the right places, all we did was a tiny cut in the arm to make the sword stick outwards to make for a more Heroic pose. We built this model first and realised this model should have been equipped with an axe and not a sword! This is a small detail...that we felt wouldn't cause too many problems...but we were sure to be a lot more careful when converting the other models!
Next we went for the Rotbringer's Sorcerer.
Here was our take on the Rotbringer's Sorcerer. Again, not much to shout about conversion wise, the differences are very subtle. The Rotbringer's Sorcerer is armed only with a Rotwood staff, and we thought this Nurgle weapon that had been supplied had a great staff quality to it and was very passable. The kit can only be assembled in certain ways, with certain arms attaching to certain torsos. The upper arm on this model was supposed to go on a different torso, but we felt this arm held the staff more vertically making it look more like a staff, the original arm holds the weapon more horizontally. The switch was fairly simple, and only required a couple of cuts to make the arm sit right. The join to the body was admittedly quite clumsy, but the large shoulder pad hides the gap nicely. Because the Sorcerer isn't armed with anything else, we used the mutated arm, which looked like it had a magical and hideous quality! The Sorcerer did originally have a demon poking out of his gut, but we firstly, didn't like the cartoonish quality of the demon, and also wanted the model to look more distinctive and not resemble the orginal Blightking model too closely. We found an Ogre gutplate that we felt had quite a shamanic quality to it, and using our cutters, we snipped the belly down flat and the gut plate fit snugly on top! We're sure this conversion is going to really look the part once it is all painted up!
Next up was our most difficult conversion, the Lord of Plagues!
This conversion took a lot of working out and tinkering!
The Lord of Plagues is equipped with a Great Blade. The Blightking box set supplies a very impressive Great Axe that really looks the part! So that decision was easy. Secondly we snipped the bell out of the model's belly to just reveal the huge gaping hole in his gut which made the model look truly horrific!
What came next was the hard part...
We wanted the model to have only the weapons on it's Warscroll and so, we wanted the right hand to be unarmed, and not only that, add to the character of the model, to make him really distinct. After all, if you are going to use the model as a Lord of Plagues, it wants to look impressive as a centre piece to an army, and have it's own character. There was no unarmed right hand in the kit, so we had to snip the weapon from a hand and then find something to put in it's place.
We originally wanted to place his hand full of severed heads to give him the look of an executioner. It took a solid hour or hunting for heads, and trying our best to find a way of A) stringing them together and B) make them look like he was holding them. We gave up eventually as the idea was a bust and we couldn't get it to work.
After that, we decided we could place a shield in his hand. It wasn't on the Warscroll but the model looked very characterful with it's shield splayed open, as if he was showing off the hideous gape in his guts. We snipped the back of the hand down so the shield lay flat, and we painstakingly snipped the tiny metal prongs from the back of some Beastmen shields and placed them either side of his hand to make it look more like he was holding the shield. We were happy with the conversion, to an extent...but then again we did say we wanted it to be exact to the Warscroll and the shield really wasn't working for us. So we had a change of plan...
We noticed that huge bell, that represents the Sonorous Tocsin, would not fit on any of the other torso's. The kit allows you to equip this torso with either the Great Axe or the Sonorous Tocsin, and so, we were going to be unable to use the Bell on any other model without snipping it anyway. And so we thought, why not give it to our Lord of Plagues? Ringing the clanging chimes of doom as he lumbers across the battlefield?
We had to totally dismantle the arm that was holding the shield, and wrench the shield from the hand. The arm holding the bell you see in the picture is actually in three parts, the upperarm, forearm and hand. Next we had to cut the hand from the Bell, you can see the knick at the bottom of the stick, and then snip the bell in half and place it either side of the model's hand. We originally wanted the Bell to be held more horizontally, but the join was very flimsy and we had no drill, so we had to cut the stick to a flat point and lie it flat against the hand making the Bell jut out at a more horizantal angle. We don't mind this so much, it gives the model a much more imposing size, makes it stand out more, and makes the stick the bell is attached to look really messed up and gnarly, like it's been cut from a plague ridden and diseased tree!
The back of the hand was badly damaged and we had snipped the detail of the fingers off to allow the shield we had previously placed on it to lie flat, not only this but the join did look clumsy at the back. So we altered one of the fur loincloths that weren't being used to look like a tattered rag of fur that the Lord was clinging to. This hid the damage to the hand and made the conversion look slightly more tidy from the back. We stuck the sword to his belt also, as all champions should bear a multitude of weapons! In the end we were very happy with our Lord of Plagues conversion. Not only this but we now had used the Sonorous Tocsin, and so if the model was used in a unit of Blightknights, there is no confusion as to who is the musician was! Double win!
Finally, we had the last Blightking, who we didn't need to faff on with too much!
The body and left arm of the model were easy, we had all the correct parts! But it was from this torso we had used the arm for the Rotbringer's Sorcerer and so there was no suitable right arm that easily attached. The upper arm from the torso we used for the Rotbringer Sorcerer fit, but again quite clumsily! Again however the shoulder pads hid the gaps in the joint! Next we just had to find a suitable weapon to attach to the forearm, and the only one we could get to fit well was this one holding these mace like bells. It turned out really quite well, the bells looking like they're being flung backwards ready to get brought down in a sweeping arc! We loved the motion and action it put into the model.
And so after a grueling four hours we finally had our collection of Blightkings/Nurgle Heroes!
We enjoyed this kit bashing experience! And are really happy with our unique looking unit of BlightKings, (if you're wondering why there is one missing, we assembled one months ago to represent Pox Riddle in our Silver Tower campaign.)
A few things to note through this process however:
1) Take really good care looking through your Warscrolls and through the different components of your models. Make sure you can actually make all the heroes you want to, as well as all the models in the units.
2) Make sure you don't sacrifice the integrity of the unit you bought to make those extra models. Prioritise the unit and make sure you can supply the models with all the equipment you want the unit to take, especially banners, musicians and champions.
3) Get some clippers. This sort of work is impossible without it, and although we didn't use a modelling drill we could have really used one! So make sure you have the appropriate tools.
4) Take your time, make sure that you try all the weapon combinations you can and make sure you're going to be happy with the way the model looks in the end. Also make sure you don't snip up too many arms/legs or heads, you don't want to run out or end up with arms and legs that won't fit on your models.
5) Always make sure you have a Plan B! Make sure you have a back up plan in case you snip a weapon or an arm beyond repair, don't run out of options!
6) Get your 'Bitz Box'. You never know when an old part will come in handy!
7) It is important to note that you cannot use both the Blightkings and the Nurgle Heroes in the same battle. So you obviously have to make a choice between the two. Take this into consideration before you start.
8) Finally, take care! You spent a lot of money on these kits, so only start cutting and carving them up if you are totally confident you can make it work.
Hope you enjoyed this look at our Kit Bashing! Let us know what you think about our slightly unconventional money saving idea!
Thanks for reading Cobbers, we'll be back on Christmas Eve!
