Mixed conversions

I thought I´d done everything possible with the Caeser orcs set but no!!!
I got a tip at the  Bennos Forum about a possible conversion...an orc drummer. Then I thought, they need a medic, but one with a red cross bag would look stupid so I converted one into a Shaman.

The drum is made from an old felt tip pen top with a bit of material added and held on with a bit of copperwire. The drum sticks are pin heads.
The Shaman´s cloak..toilet paper (what else?), his bull head from the Orion Gladiators set, the bulls head staff from HaT´s Carthaginian command set and the head from er?..a strelets set...(forgotten :-D)

Now two of the Linear-b bods converted into dice players. The bottom halves are from the Roman Tavern set as is the one leaning on the table.
The other top half, the bod with his arms held out is one of the "3" hidden figs from the Roman Port set

The   little Roman island "Scalpere Aedificare" has had an underground tavern added

 

WotR´s Continental Mercenaries (RedBox)

A nice addition to the 1/72nd medieval world, especially the later part. This lot will make good recruits for my Burgundians, help fill the ranks of the Spearblock and add to the collection being prepared for a WotR´s army.

The two spearmen in the set, The spears they come with (attached) bear an uncanny resemblence to telegraph poles (the "as they come" pics at PSR) and they´ve been replaced with florists wire

Halbardiers (Billmen)

Three of the Halbardiers re-equipped with spears.

The long range weaponary section

All the (now 13) poses together in a battleline.

Roman Tavern (Linear-b)

Another set of Romans exclusive to Linear-b, this time, unlike the Roman Port set,  none of the bods need "hiding" :-D
12 bod poses in the set along with 2 tables, a bar and a pot

All 12 bods

With tables, pot and Bar added.

Seated customers

Standing customers. The pose to the right. Pecunia non olet,"money does not stink" The lower classes peed in pots which was either thrown into the sewers or sold for Tanning,  dyeing wool etc.

The bar staff

The entertainment. The strings on the Lyre are made from the thinest paintbrush bristles I could find

Interestingly....I´ve found out why Linear-b are called Linear-b....look Here

Roman Port (linear-b)

Exclusive to Linear-b, this set is only available to 18 + customers
12 poses in the set but 3 aren´t shown on thier site  and the reason why will become clear.

Anyway, the 9 bods that can be shown "front of house" as it were.

A sad fact of history, slavery. The original  ropes  I´ve removed and replaced with chains

A "madam" and customer? I assume he´s a customer by the way his tongue is sticking out in a lecherous way and holding a bag of money

Rich woman with slave and a begger.

Now to the last three bods. As with the hanged man I´ve "hidden" them elsewhere. Linear-b don´t show them unpainted on thier site so I´m not showing them without a WARNING.  There is a reason it´s for sale to over 18´s only!!!
I´ve not positioned the three as I assume they are meant to be put to avoid any unecessary "glorification" but I can´t see any other way they could be used, so, If you wish, they are HERE.

WotR´s Levy Archers

No specific Livery patterns to start with, I´ve got to get my eye in with this scale, so first off a group of levy archers. Later I plan to make up some household types in the livery of John de Vere 13th earl of oxford.  and then I´ll see what else takes my fancy.
They´re not based yet as I want to get some decent bases for them and not my usual homemade ones

Marshall Law

Marshall law (spot the pun?) and his crew of deputies, the Grave diggers.  These guys have to be tough to  carry out thier role of keeping law and order in Toi Town.

These are 1/72nd Hong Kong versions of the 1/32nd Scale Airfix Cowboys. A bit of fun, so they´ve been given a bit of a Hollywood style paintjob.
Why Airfix has never released them in 1/72nd scale I don´t know. "Downsizing" or "Upsizing" bods isn´t a difficult thing and they could release all thier old  sets in both 1/32nd and 1/72nd, like the
Medieval Knights , the American Indians, and the excellent Infantry support group to name a few.

The whole crew in front of the sheriff´s Office.



"When a man with a .45 meets a man with a rifle, the man with a pistol will be a dead man. That's an old Mexican Proverb...and it's true"

When the man with a 45 meets the man with a rifle, you said the man with a pistol is a dead man...Let's see if it's true".

Marshall law. Always dressed in black as he has a lot of funerals to attend

Woodland Indians

A lovely set of Native american indians or as Italeri calls them, "Indian warriors"
Ok, the titel is basically fine but, not really wanting to be picky, there is another country on another continent called India.
The range of poses (16) gives this set a lot of "movement" but still any collector wants more, so these will have to be supplemented  with the Nikolai set and hopefully Imex will release thier long promised Mohawk Indians at some point.  

I didn´t go wild on decorating them up with bright colours...the bod with the light blue shirt was bad enough as far as hiding in the woods is concerned, and I didn´t want a hollywood style ...more the IMHO, the more  realistic appearance of the indians in The Last of the Mohicans film. If anyone hasn´t seen it..the ambush scene has to be one of the best battle scenes ever made.

The set divides roughly into two types of haircuts...the longer haired bods.(Onedaga?).....

...........and those with Shaved sides..... (Hurons?, Mohicans?, Irokesen?...Ok..... Iroquois)

The only conversion possibilty  I´ve so far found

Anyway, this lot will take up life in the woods and hills of Bodstonia.
Kick me for forgetting. These were kindly sent to me by Michael from Dalauppor blog ann they, along with the Italeri AWI bods were the Kickstart to the Bodstonia Imag-Nation. Again, many thanks Micheal :-D
    
And a long term project, the little Roman  island   "Scalpere Aedificare"
So far, only the dock and a couple of warehouses have got beyond the planning stage.
It will be populated entirely with  roman bods from Strelets / Linear-b,
The latest two sets contain adult scenes, especially the Roman Port set, which is exclusive to Linear-b and is only for sale to over 18 year olds.
It will, when it´s finished, have a scratchbuilt cargo ship in the port, a shopping street, tavern (in a cellar?) some living houses, and maybe a market, wine garden and other bits and pieces.

 

 

 Hello to Spock...from le Figurines de Spock. His Alexander and successor armies are wonderfull....

Medieval Crane (Scratchbuilt)

As far as I know there aren´t any medieval cranes of this type in 1/7nd scale. There´s a small crane (and a lovely model it is too)  from Fredericus-rex but no big ones with the "Mousewheel" on the back.
So...if you want one and you can´t find it...make it :-D

The lifting arm I made a bit smaller than designs I´ve seen on the web. Wether this would effect the balance I´m not sure, but it seemed more logical to have the arm almost directly opposite the longer arm which winds the rope up.

No more heavy lifting for this bod. The ropes (left and right) from the supports to the lifting arm are to stop the arm falling forawrds.

It works :-D The wheel at the top of the arm is made from two small washers and a piece of biro tube (the bit with the ink)

The bolts are made using the heads from pins.

The most complicated bit of construction was the "mousewheel" The outer rims are made from 3 layers of card (Cereal box) and the runners from coffee stirrers. The problem was glueing each runner to both (or even one) of the outer rims, getting it square and in place at the same time.
I tried several methods...luck being one of them until I came up with this;

A piece of insulating foam with parallel  slots cut at the right distance,  Easy eh?
I´m not 100% pleased with the outcome of this crane. The result is a bit more "live and learn" and there´s a couple of bits I would now do differently ..for example, it´s missing a brake for the "mousewheel"  but it will do until I´ve got time to build another.

Hello to Maverick Jones from Kiron Games blog

Orc Warband

I think I´ve just about exhausted any possible conversions from the Ceaser Orc Warriors set.

The whole warband together.

Archer with a flail (Minart Hussites) and axe orc with a halberd (Redbox Men-At-Arms and retinue) and head swop

As they have so few archers of thier own and don´t like to rely on shields for protection they drive prisoners amongst thier lines to put off enemy archer fire.

The torch is from the Zvezda Medieval Peasant Army set and the sword is from the Atlantic Gladiators and Christians set. 

The boss orc and his Goblin Bodyguard

New recruits for their warband have been spotted in a dark grotto..all from Dark Alliance
Wargs
Orc light warg riders
Orc Heavy warg riders
Orc warriors set 3


Hello to Robin ( redrob ) from Atelier-Robin... Whatever he paints turns to gold....his Ele dio alone is worth a look...

Blue Dragon

This is a wedding present for an old friend. The dragon is from Warhammer, the Dark elf range and is called Darkelf Dreadlord on Black Dragon.
The kit contains Dragon armour and a multi pose dark elf but all I was after was the dragon.
Not a bad kit as it goes..fitted together well, the joins are virtually undedectable without any work to cover them up.

I didn´t like the idea of the black dragon as on the boxart..so he/she ended up a blue one..with a slight gold sheen

The kit gives a choice of two heads...this one seemed the best.

The base was a bit of a problem. The one provided hasn´t got enough weight to keep the Dragon balanced..the slightest touch would tip it over, so a larger one had to be found. Choice! Round or square!?
Or combine both ideas and have hexagonal one!!  :-D

I took a chance with the water effect (I´m not very good at creating water for dios)
I mixed some plaster of Paris with woodglue and just smeared it on the base (an old picture frame) and then stuck the plastic rock base into the mixture. As it dried I used a toothpick to make the choppy water effect...
A couple of "pre-basing" pics in different light levels.

A recommendation, Alex´s models at Attention to detail blog
If no-one has seen his work I can only suggest having a look...he is IMHO a scratch build artist of the highest degree of skill and accuracy. I can´t even imagine how anyone can have the patience to construct a motorbike chain in 1-1 let alone in 1/6th scale, but Alex does :-D

Hello to Jehan from Lántre de Jehan blog...Lovely 28mm bods..especially (I´m Biased) his dark age and medievals.