04/03/2016

Civilians dozen by dozen

My progress on this matter (as on all the others...) is terribly slow. Anyway, I've managed to make some developments. Let me summarise. Long time ago, in a galax.. No. Ehm.
Long time ago I thought of a funny scenario for RT. A fugitive trying to escape within the underhive while Arbitrators were on the chase. The fugitive would be a nice character, as well as each member of the Arbites patrol. I may add a bounty hunter perhaps... and I would need some non-combatants to add some confusion to the chase scene. That was pretty much all!

You know the rest.

Today I have two 120x60 boards, enough buildings to call this a town by own merits and weird, ditinctive civilians to populate a small hive.

Of course... that is not enough!! :D
I'm finally committing to fulfil my original plan. Having a quiet mob of civilians, just for the sake of populating my urban area and add obstacles for the chase. Though I have some really fine models (and yet more Colony 87 to come, I'm simply in love with that range), I still needed some unexpensive way of getting to crowd my board.

I'm doing this by two different resources. The first batch I've begun with is this one. I got a number of cheap Wizards of the Coast Star Wars minis:

Less than 1€ each.
So I had to warhammer them. I've used all kind of dirty tricks, mostly GW bits. Let's go!

I turned this...

...into this:

Easiest conversion of all

It's fun how just a head swap can change a mini. I think this one is gonna be a merchantman or something in that fashion.

Next one:

That's not a cantina oboe
More complex conversion
It has an Empire head (with a greenstuff turban for more flavour), right arm from the Empire cannon crew and some other bits from the Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii box.

The next one was quite simple too:


I liked the vibe of this one. Looked like a pilot or something. I added a German Officer head from Bolt Action and replaced the gun with some Bretonnian stuff (the keyring of his ship!)

Next one had an interesting pose:

I totally reinterpreted the mini. I put him nothing on his hands. Not everybody goes on the street carrying stuff, I just wanted someone to represent that.


I can't remember the source of the head. Some TYW-like thing.

Next:


This one would make a nice protester, the pose was asking for it...

Nothing speaks of revolution better than a good, old fashioned torch
Head comes from Clearco Miniatures, nice stuff indeed.

Time for a lady:

A pity how underrepresented women are in the hobby. But that's a dicussion for another day...

They all are GW Skitarii bits. Best. Box. Ever.

This one was nice:

I loved the pose, but I really wasn't looking for another bravado fighter, but for civilians. I cut the poor guy and got two minis out of him.
The legs were way too dynamic, nevertheless, so in the end I came with this sort of Bailiff officer (or whatever)...


...and this worker with the rest of the Skitarii bits:

And a huge GW Empire head
More! Another simple conversion:

Just a head swap, that's all:

The head is from Maxmini. I should have worked on his hands (they are three fingered), but I hope no one will notice (damn, I just called your attention on it!)

With another of these heads I turned this...

...into this other protester:

Still haven't decided what will be on the sign
A third Maxmini head allowed me to turn this weird alien...

... into some kind of Administratum clerk or something like that. We'll see when I get to paint him:


Finally, the last one. I firstly thought this could make another protester, maybe bearing a baseball bat against authority, or maybe a sign...

But I changed my mind. I had these arms from the same Empire cannon crew. He's holding a cannon ball, but I guess I'll change that to some fruit or stuff when painting and so he'll become a fruit vendor or a merchantman or something in that line:

Alien watermelon!
This is all for now! Just the naked conversions, I'm afraid. I'll try to spill some paint on them as soon as possible, but for now I'm fairly content with what I have. I'm finally into my original project! Wee!

31 comments:

  1. These are absolutely wonderful Suber!

    I have considered SW preprints for use as civilians, but the slightly different proportions put me off. I also felt that they looked a bit to "clean", not really enough like something from the 41st millennium or Mega City One.

    I never thought of heads was for some reason.

    This is a brilliant idea. I can't wait to see how you paint them.

    I can state with certainty that I am stealing this idea.

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    1. Thank you very much! I know what you mean about the minis. Proportions were my main concern, specially as I purchased these on line and hadn't really had any of these in my hands, so I was flying blind here.
      However, the retro sci-fi clothes were a starting point which totally drove myself towards the decision, I thought I could make these work; if not totally RT-ish, at least sci-fi enough. Glad you like them and really looking forward to seeing you Mega City dwellers then!!

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  2. Ya lo he hecho otras veces, pero tengo que quitarme el sombrero de nuevo: un trabajo fantástico y lleno de imaginación!
    Me encanta el cuidado que le pones a la ambientación de la mesa, entendiendo que no sólo son cuatro edificios genéricos y un puñado de tropas. En las ciudades vive gente, y tú sabes que el diablo está en los detalles ;)

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    1. ¡Muchas gracias! Efectivamente, para mí todo gira en torno a eso, a que no son dos piezas de escenografía con forma de ciudad; es una ciudad, y está viva. Y merece la pena representar gente normal y corriente (si es que eso significa algo en el despiadado universo del lejano futuro...) :D

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  3. Nice work! Good re-imagining of these minis!

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    1. Thank you! I converted them as they came, not really any planning. I may had taken the most out of some of them with some more time and preparation, but I hope they'll work for their purpose.

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    1. Thanks! I bought them just to make a test, let's see how they work when painted!

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  5. Great conversions and very RT - they'll look great painted up!

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    1. Thank you! I have further plans with a totally different set of minis (shhh, seecreet...), I think I can use some lessons learned here :)

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  6. Very clever work. Your scenario idea sounds cool too. You'll have to get on and play it and post a report. Your 'cops and robbers' scenario was a classic: we need more!

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    1. Haha, thank you! The 'cops and robbers' scenario was one of the most exhilarating gaming experiences I've ever had, I'm totally in for some more games like that one.
      My idea for this one will be a fugitive and some arbitrators. An independent bounty hunter with a warrant will add some distorision to everything. And civilians will mess the whole game, moving here and there. I'm just thinking of a movie chase scene :D
      Besides, if some of my civilians are protesters... well, I have a second scenario between them and the Arbites!

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    2. That sounds suitably chaotic! Can't wait to see it.

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  7. very nice indeed, I love these can't wait to see them painted :)

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    1. Thank you! They were quite easy to convert, and enorously fun! I should have done this before!

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  8. Very nice Suber, very nice indeed! A very quick & clever way to create civies a.k.a. cannon fodder :p

    I've never seen any of these guys in person. So I was just wondering how do they scale up with 80's lead? Very similar I suppose?

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    1. Haha, you got it right there :P

      Yup, quite similar, they are on their 25/28mm. When I pant them, I'll take some scale comparison pics :)

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  9. Your conversions always make me so happy. I especially love that first one... with the beard and the feathered cap. Just looking at him makes me smile.

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    1. Thank you! I took that conversion first because it was the most obvious to me. I saw the head and I somehow knew it would fit in there. The slightly wobbly looking only makes him funnier!

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  10. Bravo sir, that's the way to get stuff done! Very smart and efficient building, inspiring stuff.

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    1. Thank you very much! They were not complicated at all and really pay off. Heck, I'm considering of buying more! :D

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  11. Impressive work, mate, as usual! Kudos!

    You know that the guy with the sign must have something retro in it like "Marines Out!", right??

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    1. Thanks, man! Haha, I'll have to work on the protesters, they can make a nice stand, but you're totally right, they have to look oldschool :D

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  12. Suber, these are pure genius! They look really good mate, looking forward to seeing them painted up! One small concern on the female conversion.... please tell me that you won't be using pink to paint that ribbed thingy that she's holding! :-0

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    1. Oh, fuck, I hadn't thought of that, but now I can only see a giant space dildo! Damn you! :D

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  13. Great work on these, and it certainly has me thinking about the couple of kilos of SW miniatures I have....

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    1. Haha, thanks! Then it looks like you have some work ahead... You must, and you know it... Do not resist... It is your destiny...

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  14. That second last mini looks simply amazing. My favourite of an impressive lot. :)

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    1. Thank you! I put some effort on that one and I'm happy with the distinctive appearance of it. I'd like them to look more ethnic, just to fit in my idea of a messy future with an odd mixture of everything, quite RT-ish, I hope!

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  15. nice models
    And sweet conversions! :)

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    1. Thank you! Really eager to paint them!

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