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by Stefano
(or “how to get 5th edition temple guard champion into a 7th edition Oldblood General")
Introduction:
In
the late 90’s and early 2000, I have been playing with 5th edition
lizardmen armies, collecting about all the different available models. With the
introduction of the 6th edition and the accompanying lizardmen
spawning rules, I was in desperate need of a saurus model to represent my
general. As requirements, the model needed a great weapon to slash considerable
dents into almost everything in its path, and some scales and armour that fits
the proper spawnings. Finally, the model must stand out, even if it is placed
in a rank-and-file saurus unit.
Being a little short in cash, but having loads of spare parts and two 5th
edition temple guard champions, I did not need to look much further to find my
next conversion project. And since lots of things about the lizardmen army are
taken from the pre-Columbian civilisations, the idea of totem warriors came to
mind …
Conversion stage:
Looking
at the metal model of which a picture is shown, I realised it was not going to
be easy. I wanted a great weapon held in both hands, but the left hand was in a
vertical position to attach the shield to. The right hand was totally useless
because of the carried hand weapon and the hand not being in one line with the
left hand. Furthermore, I didn’t have a satisfying off-shelf great weapon at my
disposal, so I had to create one. And last but not least, the champion’s
original were not exquisite enough to make him stand out in the crowd, even
after painting.
But then again, having some vague ideas, a bitz box somewhere with all left-overs
or traded bits, together with a putty substance called “green stuff”, answers
will come ! Therefore, never throw away the last and unused bits from a sprue.
You never know when it can come in handy !
First,
I discovered in the bitz box a metal right arm with spear from a 5th
edition saurus. With the proper slow-bending-practice (after all, I am a
metallurgist), I achieved an angle of about 45° out of the vertical plane
without breaking the piece. To give the model a realistic pose, I had to do
something about that left hand. In the end, I sawed off the hand, filed away
the dagger-in-sheath just below the hand, shortened the bottom of the spear, and
fitted the hand to the spear in such a way that the hand again matched the left
arm. When I was certain of the pose, I pinned and glued all the different
pieces together, and with a little green stuff all inevitable voids and holes
were filled so it would look seamless after painting.
Having finished the bottom part of the great weapon, I came to think of what to
do about the top of the weapon. I didn’t have a box of ogres at that time, so I
had no large weapon blades at my disposal. I spend hours looking at all my
plastic sprues and metal pieces, until my eye caught one of the things my friend
Iano once gave me : a wooden bead like they are used in children’s toy neclaces.
Together with a tomb king banner, some spikes made from skeleton spear tips and
the usual amount of green stuff, it would make a hell of a weapon (even suitable
to appoint the model as battle standard bearer on foot !). So, first I removed
the spear tip, and after some clipping, filing and drilling, the great weapon
was a fact. As a final touch, I attached some accessories from the saurus cold
one rider sprue, and mounted the spear tip at the bottom of the shaft, so the
weapon could be lethal from that side too, or be stuck in the ground if used as
a battle standard.
The
second step of the conversion contained the totem warrior look. The model
itself already has a nice fabric belt with small shells attached to it, so I
didn’t need to do anything about it. In fact, I could use the belt as an
attachment point for a banner pole. I still had some 5th edition
skink standard bearer totems, but could not decide which to take. In order to
make a decision, I held both totems just above the head of the model, only to
find out it looked more impressive with 2 totems instead of one !
I first tried to create banner poles from cupper strips, but they weren’t
bendable enough to do the trick I had in mind. So after a careful look at my
tomb king left-overs, I selected the banner poles from the tomb king infantry
sprue. So, after some fitting, clipping and filing, and with a little help from
the good old superglue, I ended up with the desired totem poles protruding from
the model’s back. However, in real life banner poles would never stay in such a
configuration on the back of a person, so I created from green stuff some
leather belts, wrapped around the poles and attached to the belts from the
saurus’ armour. Again, I used the saurus cold one sprue accessories to create
an ornamental look.
Some pictures of the as-converted model can be seen here.
Used parts:
- 5th edition temple guard champion
- 5th edition saurus right arm with spear
- Tomb king totem banner and banner poles
- A wooden marble
- 5th edition skink standard bearer totems
- Accessories from the saurus cold one sprue
- Lots of paper clip pieces for the pinning action
- Green stuff
Here some pictures of this model in base colours:
