Chronicle of the Preparation for a GT
JUNE 15, 2004 VOLUME 2 - The Hard Part "Getting Started"
Well here I am. It has been a couple of weeks since my initial article outlining my plans for the army, I have made a little
progress. Due to some limitations in supplies and other items, it was very difficult to start very much by this time. Other
personal situations have been killing my time to dedicate to this and other projects on the weekends.
What really struck me this time is how much fun it was to just start fresh. I have been into new projects before. This one is by
far the most daunting of the tasks I have faced, but yet as I sat down at a table to work on all of my conversion work, I found
myself planning and just having a ton of fun. I now see why so many people get deeply into converting miniatures. It can be a
hugely rewarding experience to completely rework something and see the end product. It also is very easy to get carried away as
well.
WHAT'S DONE?
Ok well even with my very limited time, I have been stealing time when the kids nap and late at night to begin work on this project.
I have completed cleaning and priming my Long Drong's Slayers unit. Just a fun unit all in all, it has great character and comes with a bunch of spare pistols. Everything
however is ready for paint.
WHAT'S IN THE WORKS?
Well due to the fact that I didn't have a decent pin vise till the end of last week, it was impossible to start on half of my
conversions for the first unit till I received my new one. So I have about 80% of the conversions for the first unit done. Most
of the holes are drilled, but I still have to install the pins in all of the items. Several arms and positions are creating weak
spots that I want to pin as well. I have all of my green stuff work to do. That will consist of:
-
Reworking the hair on about 6-8 slayers.
-
Filling in gaps and repairing hands that had weapons removed.
-
Creating a new horse hair helmet for a chariot driver (ssshhhhhhh. Its a secret.... I will show you some pictures hopefully at the end of the month.)
-
Creating some fake rocks and other items. Possibly some gashes or wounds on models
In addition, I might consider adding some touches like dead slayers. I have to figure those conversions out yet, but I have some ideas on how to do it.
CHALLENGES SO FAR
TIME, TIME, TIME!!!! Well its true. First without the proper tools to begin the conversions, I shorted myself on time. Plus with
the personal issues eating up my weekend time, it is really preventing me from logging the time necessary to complete the
conversions. Fortunately, I have a business trip coming next month which will mean many hours at night with nothing to do but work
on little metal miniatures. Here is a compilation of the conversion problems I have encountered:
- Which way is forward? Since I picked to make
little battle scenes, I found that I am running into a problem
telling which way is front. Ok not me exactly, but I am
worried about my opponent not knowing. Since the general
plan is to have the guys fighting, they may not always be facing
forward in nice rank and file. So how to solve this???
Put a marker on the movement tray. With all my
coversions, I have a bunch of spare parts. I figure I can
put an axe or some other damaged part to mark the front of the
unit. Easier for the opponent.
- Size of Conversion. Ok I probably went a little
overboard on the very first one. Don't get me wrong, I
really like the way it is shaping up, but overall, I need to
keep it a little smaller. My initial conversion only ended
up needing about 8-10 slayers in a block of 15. I have some
ideas on how to spice it up a bit, but but the conversion almost
takes over the unit. Not a bad thing in all respects.
It grabs your attention, but it does mean that it dominates that
unit overall. For future conversions, I plan on limiting the
main conversion to a 40mm base which will contain the crux of the
fight with a few small bases added in to add flavor. This
will hopefully limit the problem of the conversion taking over the
unit.
- Model problems. The biggest problem I have right
now is that generally speaking, every slayer I want to change
requires some rework. Whether it be repositioning the hands,
adding scars or removing weapons, every single one pretty much
needs to be puttied and reworked. I hope to post some
pictures of the slayers to show you an example, but I need to
really get some good tight pictures first.
BUDGET
Well since my initial expenditure, I haven't spent a whole lot. I anticipate another purchase soon, but most of my purchases are
waiting till the middle of July. What I ended up spending is as follows:
1 Pin Vise $15
1 Bag of 40mm bases $5
TOTAL $20
THE TIMELINE
Ok here are the updates to my timline.
- End of May
à Long Drong’s Slayers
assembled and ready to paint. COMPLETE
- End of May
à Assemble list of
additional parts and tools necessary to complete the first set of
conversions. COMPLETE
- June 15th
à Complete first unit
conversion. IN PROGRESS (MISSED)
- June 30th
à Complete 4 sample
models for determining color schemes.
- July 31st
à One unit completely
painted and based. Second unit conversions done.
