Thanks to Exquisite Evil for inspiring us with the BFSP conversions and  Xander for the great how-to videos.  Seeing as I had a copy of BFSP just sitting unused since January I'm now on my way...

Before tackling Chaos Dwarfs I'd never used GS before, so any tips are much appreciated.  I also do a lot of my own casting of copywritten miniatures for my own in-home use, so you'll all recognize some of the bits.

I decided my first real test with GS would be with an iconic mini - the Dwarf from HeroQuest!  Here's a side-by-side comparison.



Once the GS sets I'm planning to clip around the base and transfer him to one that'll match the other minis.  I don't use 20mm bases for anything in my collection... all these minis are for use in Warhammer Quest and I prefer having uniform base sizes so I go in 25 mm increments only... since base size is meaningless in WHQ I figure I can get away with it


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This post was last modified: 07-01-2017 11:33 PM by Nicodemus.

Very nice, i love the shape of the HQ dwarf's mustache

The bb conversion is cool, but if you make all of them like that you will have trouble with putting them in ranks together. Just keep this one as the champion or only make the front row like that.

That head is a bit too big though, it looks like it's going to brake off. But instead of making the head smaller you can make the gun bigger by adding some extra bits to it:

great stuff!!!!!love the blunder buss

While I'm at it I might as well post my first impressions and thoughts on a CD warmachine.

I scribbled some notes on a napkin one day at lunch. I've no idea how that got into my brain... Sorry the pic isn't better... but like I say, it's from a napkin so it's not going to get much better.



If it's hard to see there's a central body with two huge wheels projecting from the sides, but at a slight angle.

Knowing that the Dawi Zharr population is relatively low and have an innate resistance to magic they of course rely must rely more heavily on machines and engineering than other races.  The idea is that this is a machine for cutting tunnels quickly though mountains and under the earth, faster than slaves can do the job.  As it's covered in pointy cutting spikes the machine can be easily adapted for battle, cutting through armoured troops as easily as it does stone.





So far the basic shapes have been cut out (from the spool covers for blank DVD discs).  I've got some gear bits from the Hellcannon as well as a couple of old CD players (compact disc, not Chaos Dwarf) that look like they're the right scale.  The mini is only shown for scale, but I've got a better idea for the driver that'll get converted at some later date.  So far the name I came up with is Dungeon Grinder... and the plan is to make two of them, a totally mechanical one and a deamonic one

Any thoughts on this one are more than welcome as it's going to need a lot of detail work.  It'll be a little more compact as the axles will ultimately be shorter, so that the base of the wheels will touch the base of the central body.

~N

Looking excellent, me lad! The Heroquest Dwarf conversion looks outstanding, at least to be used as a one off model (I hate monopose units, so wouldn't like to see loads of them, but that's personal taste), but is truly excellent.

Asd yourself and others have said, the head of the blunderbuss' barrel looks too large, really. Sweeping horns (similar to those on the new Chaos Knights' horn) would certainly help it to match up and look a part of the gun itself. Use him as a unit champion, a whole unit this size is going to be a real pain trying to rank up or even stand in combat with other units. Also, not sure if you're aware or not, but there's no blunderbuss option (daemonic or otherwise) for characters, unless you've created your own rules, so if that's the route you go, let's see the rules!


I like the Dungeon Grinder idea very much. It reminds me of the banking clan multiple rocket firing "tank" from Star Wars (Episode 2 predominantly). Very cool, but maybe have a large drill or several short drills on the front of the main body as well. I'm excited to see this finished and also to see some rules developed for them!

Overall great work and I'd like to see more!

Check  Whizzbang's blog az well as mind for how it looks for the blunderbusses with daemonic tips to them.

off to a great start thats for sure. Carni Head should look largely superb once complete, maybe some warrior heads or beefed out genestealer heads for the rest of the unit.. those you could bulk up to a nicer size if they dont seem to fit with your size ideas.

Your Dungeon Carver is a nice creative adaptation of Dawi ingenuity. Kudos on making the heroquest dwarf seem like an entirely new mini with good chaos dwarf flavor. Looking forward to more of your conversions.

I like your perfectly legally acquired and beige-painted blunderbuss. *Sigh* I wish I had some of those old big hats

Classic dude.

I may have some old, 1st ed traitor heavy weapons to could cast heads from if you want them. They'd be more the right size.

This post was last modified: 07-23-2009 04:35 AM by slev.

Great first works you have done there really like the blunderbuss muzzle it looks epic, a great mobel for a unit champion, your gs beard looks really great also. keep the good work coming

I'm just curious, but is that blunderbuss (the base model) done in resin?

Yes, the resin is from Alumilite.  


A few bits of very fine detail (esp. from metal miniatures) sometimes gets missed with this material because it's viscous and as a result air bubbles get trapped in the mould, but by and large most fine detail is captured.  I've gone back over a few spots with GS and it seems to be working.

Slev!  I'm starting to think you've got everything!  Those would be ideal for rounding out the rest of the group of blunderbusses.  

~N

Ooh... do you know a name for a European version of that stuff? What do you do to make moulds?

hmm, that resin seems like a nice way to replicate big hats....  very nicely done on that hero quest model.

If you want the daemonic ends to the blunderbuss I've seen a couple of people use the chaos tank sprue.

I'm interested to see how that warmachine thing develops, will it have spiky wheels?

A friendly reminder that you might want to check this out.

This post was last modified: 07-23-2009 04:31 PM by Grimstonefire.

The chaos tank sprue is a good idea... I'll have to start checking eBay.

As for the wheels on the warmachine - Yes, I'm planning on big spikes on the surface (I've got some fat chunky spikes from an Orc sprue that I can make recasts of), but I also wanted smaller ones along the edges of the wheel rim pointing out at an angle.

At what ever point I get around to making the mechanical one I'm either going to make a duplicate from other DVD spool covers or just make moulds of each part so that I can crank out a couple of them to mod up with deamonic spikes, faces, etc.

I have no idea what you might find in Europe to use as a replacement, in general you'd want a resin that has a low viscosity so that it flows easily, and has a quick set time.  After mixing the two parts I generally have 30-60 seconds to put it into the moulds.

In general when you're working with a 2-part mix like this, smaller volumes take a little longer to set than larger volumes.  The reason for this is that the resin sets faster at hotter temperatures.  The reaction when you mix the two parts is exothermic (makes heat) and if you work with 25-30 mL volume it'll be warm to the touch.  Working with 5-10 mL volumes you can easily get a full 60-90 seconds of working time.

The moulds that I make are silicone rubber moulds (from the same company, Alumilite).  It's called quick set. I used to have a guide posted on another forum but my server where I was hosting everything died over the Xmas holidays and I haven't recovered the data yet.  I'll make another guide at some point, although that company's website has some video guides that give you the idea, but little insight on technique and tricks to make things turn out well for highly detailed miniatures.

Hope that's helpful.
~N

looks great !!! cool idea !! but your Hamster escaped

Alumilite used to be sold via the Hobbys catalogue in the UK

The Hirst arts web site has guides to this kind of thing check there:
http://www.hirstarts.com/

And it took you how many years to figure this out?