The Oppo: Bonehead's Lost, Damned and in all likelihood Disappointed

[Bonehead]

Still not managed to get any more green stuff work done, but you know how it is. You mean to crack on with that, but a model catches your eye and you think of a conversion to have a go at and suddenly you've forgotten all thoughts of sculpting.

I got a second one of the peg-legged scavvy model holding an autogun. I originally avoided it because it looked like it'd be too hard to convert, but then i figured I should treat it like a challenge, so the second one turned up last week. 

After mulling it over, inspiration struck. Get rid of the distinguishing features, change the gun; that should do it. Then I noticed the little rope sling over the autogun and got myself a little carried away. Head off first, then ditch the peg leg- a boot off a hacked up orlock juve should do some good there. Then , how do we get rid of the gun?

Drills, of course:

Follow that up with some work with a knife and clippers but be careful of the rope sling. That gets you here:

Man, running drill bits in an electric screwdriver is pretty handy; the thing doesn't have the torque and speed to really mess the model up, and you remove even soft metal pretty controllably. With a bit (an absolute f**kton) of care you can just wedge an entirely different autogun in there. While you're at it, give his head to the last guy we made, fetch him out  a nice plastic cultist head from Frostgrave, and stick a zombie head on the kalashnikov scavvier:

Oh yeah, these three are coming along just great. The joins went so well on old Conehead McNoPegleg that he won't even need any greenstuff. Shame I can't say the same for the other two, but they'll get done it time.

Not sure if it comes across, but I am just happy as hell about how well the gun change went. The little sling thing was a right old devil to get right, but it really ties the model together. The gun's from Anvil Industries; they call it the 'industrial rifle'. Pretty clearly GW autogun inspired, and it looks just right to me. Side views:

Yep, very happy with this one.

In other news, I somehow managed to bag 5 more Possessed cultists way, way below the going rate on eBay. Just chucked in an offer an it was accepted right away. They're already here:

I think I got both the leader models in this little set, too; the guy with the bow is converted. They're in the queue behind the Cawdors for the methylated spirit spa day experience.

They're definitely going to be the elite guard of my own major Augustine Crusade bad guy; one of Xiah Hesh's chief lieutenants, who I've so far only got so far as giving the title 'Lugal', which fits the naming convention of ancient assyrian/bablyonian/sumerian/akkadian. Mari, Kur, Ebla, they're all of a piece.

Cheers!

 

[Gnasher]

Nailed it!

[Bonehead]

Thanks for saying so, old bean. Much appreciated. I will admit a bit of pride on that one.

I was busy travelling to go and see a band yesterday, but this afternoon I managed to get some green stuff work done, finally. 

Things came out pretty well, I reckon. Hopefully there will be agreement:

This one has ended up being one of the all-time most successful conversions I've done, honestly. Managed to get the ragged sleeve, fat belly and collar pretty damn convincing, though I do say so myself. Not up to pro standards, but decent for someone with no actual sculpting tools. A blunt craft knife and the point of a round file can get you a long way.

Next up, returning to an old half-finished job and getting it sorted at last (possibly a month later? Can't remember.) I feel he also came out well. The work this time was the left sleeve, bag strap and a little remedial work around the head and collar:

Next, we have the banner bloke. He just needed some work to give him some detail around the collar area, which had ended up detail-free following the headswap:

Should be enough all on its own. Happy enough with that one.

Next, another random mutant goon. Got his arm swaps and headswap blended in, as well as a proper city base. Not spectacular, but it needed doing, and now it's done:

Following that expendable mook, we have another; this time finishing off the bloated tall fat guy that I never got round to doing properly. A very small amount of gap-filling around the neck was necessary, but the main thing was re-establishing the edges of his jacket and making it suitably ragged, and then blending in his left sleeve (and adding in a bonus tentacle):

Reckon he came out really well. He's way taller than all the others, but this is very much ameliorated by his one short leg. Basically he's a proper mutant now too.

Finally, just before running out of time, the converted elf got a nurgle belly moulded on and the tops of the high boots disguised as ordinary trousers. He's still not finished. One leg needs a cuff modelling on so it looks like his boot is a normal shoe under trousers, and the other needs blending work to go from trouser leg to bandaged shin. His neck and collar need doing too. But this is how far along he is now:

I am glad I finally managed to get a Krieg lasgun in there; I think that's the eighth sculpt of lasgun that I've managed to include among the oppo now. Properly ragged and inconsistent, like a horde of amateur idiots should be.

Finally, this is my remaining pool of models to make into Nurgly boys:

I already know what the pose of the leftmost one will be. I've got a set of left-handed arms from the Anvil cyberpunk/industrial raider set I bought ages ago but which didn't really fit in with the general oldhammer look of the oppo, so the body will be made into a ragged greatcoat-wearing, left handed autogunner. There'll be a lot of greenstuffing to be done wiht this one, so I'll probably file down the existing mail coat a bit to stop him ending up too bulky.

Still don't know what head I'll be using for him. 

Apart from that, the elf lying down in the foreground probably just isn't right for the job and will go in the random models bin for a holiday in the dark. The wyrd will probably just get based up as is and added in as he fits pretty well already. The two scavvies will probably donate arms and heads to the two other elves and end up with lasguns/autoguns and Victoria minis arms.

The real question here is, should I get a few more models, or leave the set as it is? I think I'll pick up one more confrontation scavvy to do a head swap on, but should I look out for  a few more decent bodies? Counting the two scavvy boss models I have which'll just be used as-is for cult leaders, there's 22 models largely ready for paint, and five yet to be built. Thirty seems like a decent target, given that my pockets aren't bottomless.

Thoughts appreciated

 

 

[Tallarn Commander]

You could shoot for 3 more. That way you could have combinations of 10 troopers.

 

The conversions are spot on. I especially like the fat bloke, his appearance is quite creepy. 

[Brother Anderson]

Those conversations are great, the green stuff in particular is really well executed.

[Bonehead]

On 10/4/2025 at 5:47 PM, Tallarn Commander said:

You could shoot for 3 more. That way you could have combinations of 10 troopers.

 

The conversions are spot on. I especially like the fat bloke, his appearance is quite creepy. 

Makes sense, except that I somehow mis-counted and I would only need two to get up to thirty models. What's Nurgle's sacred number? Seven? Twenty eight is a multiple of seven. I could just finish the ones I've got and leave it there, on a technicality.

THanks for the kind words anyway. I agree the fat bloke really has unpleasant energy. He's ideal, in other words.

On 10/4/2025 at 11:37 PM, Brother Anderson said:

Those conversations are great, the green stuff in particular is really well executed.

Thanks for saying so! Hopefully the next few should live up to the standard.

Speaking of which, they're well under way, including this left-hander made form an old marauder dark elf:

Focus is less than ideal, but you get the idea. As you can see I've filed down a lot of the chainmail detail and made the hem of his coat more ragged; with some careful green stuff work it should come out looking like he's wearing several coats that have seen better days. Detail on the rear managed to come out in better focus:

Not terribly easy to see butthere are holes and tears all over now which should hopefully read properly with a little green stuff sculpting.

I also got several others to a decent halfway stage, as well as basing up the wyrd and one scavvy I realised I didn't have an original of:

I did give him a different pistol though, the sheer number of big crude revolvers among this lot was beginning to look dangerously close to a uniform. 

In this view, it's clear to see that the next two have come along nicely. There's been a subtle leg swap on one scavvy body, just to keep the variation up, and the elf's body has grown new arms, stolen from various scavvies:

Think I might give the former elf two pistols, just for the hell of it.

Anyway, things are coming along nicely