Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Sascha Dubois: Figure 176 of 265- Conversion Work in Progress

     Yes, I know I skipped a number. :) That is because I'm doing some conversion work on this figure, so I know I won't be able to paint it until a week or so from now. Figure 175 will be another figure that I will have painted by this coming Monday.
     When I looked at this figure, I really liked the look of her coat, which reminded me very much of an 18th century officer's coat.  This made me think of the Elquin High Elf Adventurer figure I had painted a little while ago, which I painted as wearing a 19th century uniform and overcoat.  I intend at some point to get another Elquin and paint him again, this time with a snow base, as a Chronomancer for my Frostgrave games, and it seemed that Sascha in her coat from the 1700s might be perfect to be the Chronomancer's apprentice.  The idea of them traveling in time, and picking up articles of clothing from different eras, really appeals to me.
     While I liked the blend of the old fashioned coat and the futuristic bit and bobs on her outfit, I thought the laser pistol at her side might be too much. This, combined with the fact I wanted to include something that might tie her to a medieval-like fantasy world a little more, gave me the idea to replace the pistol with a sword.  So, I set about doing the conversion.
    The first thing I needed was a suitable sword donor. So I sifted through my 'out' box and found Mi-Sher with her double swords. All I would need is to trim the hand off one of the hilts.  So, I prepped the figures in the usual way; soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish- soap added, then giving them a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying.

      I then cut off one of the swords, and trimmed away the hand.  I then cut the sword into three sections, as I wanted it to fit in the crease between her outer thigh and her coat where her pistol had been, and I wanted the tip to stick out under the back bottom of the coat. I also trimmed part of the hilt's cross-guard away, so it would fit up against her hand. I then cut away Sascha's pistol at this point; and trimmed off the blocky parts sculpted on the front of her boots, as I felt they made her footwear look too modern. Lastly, I trimmed the communicator in her hand to attempt to make it look more like a pocket watch.
     I then used some superglue and glued the parts into place.
        I was left with a gap between her hand and the hilt...
      And a gap between the sword and the coat.
      So, I got out some Milliput I had and filled the gap between the sword and the coat.  I then attempted to resculpt the hand so it looked more like it was resting on cross-guard part of the hilt.
      I'm not a great sculptor, and the close confines of where the hand was located made it difficult to work on, but hopefully it is good enough that paint will hide a multitude of sins.  And, after all, it is intended as a gaming piece, not a display figure.

     So, now I will let it sit for a little bit so everything is good and dry, and we will pick up in couple weeks with the painting article.  I'm not sure what color I will paint her coat; British scarlet? Russian green? Austrian White?  I'll have to do some thinking.

7 comments:

  1. Ambitious surgery. Looking forward to the finished conversion and paint.

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    1. Thanks! Very nervous work, as you just never what what it will look like once you slap paint on it. :P

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    2. It's off to a good start... I look forward to seeing it with paint!

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    3. Thanks!
      I've still got to finish Monday's figure before I can start putting paint on this one! :-P

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  2. That should be, "...you just never know what it..."

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