Doing it on the cheap.

[Panza]

I commented recently on a thread that when putting together GW gaming armies I saved what little money I have by remaking GW characters and metal only models out of plastic parts. To continue on this theme I thought I\'d start a thread to discuss just how to go about this, and to hopefully get some ideas back.

To start the ball rolling how about...

Plastic chaos raptors.

Take plastic assault marine body and backpack, and any old legs that look right. Cut off the feet! Drill a hole in his chest and mount on a flying base in a horizontal position. Take a plastic WH chaos warrior helmet (neck ball at the back) and attach (you can clip the horns off and replace with guitar wire which feeds into the backpack if you like). Plastic genestealer clawed hands are used to replace the standard feet. Add any arms and weapons that you like.

Voila. One chaos raptor.

Anybody out there got any other ideas? Let\'s tick off those store managers and not buy expensive metal! lol

 

[freakinacage]

oooh i like this thread!! i thought about this one and haven\'t really done a lot of this. damn myself! the only thing of note is a daemon host from zombie and mutation bitz. but thats hardly saving a load as it\'s only one model. so a bit of a crap example sorry. if i think of anything, i\'ll post. NEXT!!

 

[Panza]

That\'s a cool idea, especially for those going for a Demon Hunters plastic army, and, more importantly, there\'s no metal! Yay!

 

[PStafAllen]

The most dedicated one I\'ve seen (athough perhaps not that cheap) was a guy who\'d made his nurgle daemon prince by constructing a giant figure out of loads of plastic zombies clinging to each other. It was sweet. If anyone know him (I think he\'s a Londoner) or has see it, get him to upload it!

P.

 

[Peredyne]

My buddy Punkrabbitt came up with a cheaper way to do Assault marines: 1 bag of Jump Packs and 1 box of Blood Claws.
Price Comparison:
2 boxes of Assault marines: 50.00
1 box of Blood Claws+1 bag of Jump packs: 40.00

Save 10.00? Sounds like a good deal to me.

 

[Panza]

It\'s a nice idea, a great way to buck the system...and I hope you\'re talking about dollars! lol

Another useful tip for the Cult of Plastic followers...

Always buy Chaos vehicles!!!

Most guys know this, but for those who don\'t, they cost the same as the normal vehicles and you get extra bits! If you\'ve got a friend who is going to buy a Rhino, Predator or Landraider, slip them a quid (or a dollar) and tell them to buy the chaos one and give you the extra parts. The chaos vehicle extras sprue is incredibly useful for a lot of things. At the moment I\'m cutting up the chaos railings to stick on plastic terminators, thereby making chaos ones. Cutting the nozzles off the plastic terminator flamer and replacing them with the open mouth chaos nozzles also gives me a reaper autocannon!

On the subject of plastic terminators, these guys are great for making character models in terminator armour. Just take off the head before you attach the torso front piece and stick on a head from somewhere else. And if you want your character to have bare arms, use Ork (or Orc) ones as they look great on terminator bodies and give a really powerful feel to the mini.

 

[freakinacage]

yeah, i noticed that. i\'m not a treadhead so i only own one tank (a leman russ) but i would definately go for chaos for the bitz. mind you - it would probably turn out to be chaos so ill use all the bitz anyway!!

with regards to placcy sm\'s, i think they\'re great for inquisitors in power armour as they are so flexible. they may not have the detail of a metal character but the are easier to customise and CHEAPER!

 

[No Such Agency]

Take plastic assault marine body and backpack, and any old legs that look right. Cut off the feet! Drill a hole in his chest and mount on a flying base in a horizontal position. Take a plastic WH chaos warrior helmet (neck ball at the back) and attach (you can clip the horns off and replace with guitar wire which feeds into the backpack if you like). Plastic genestealer clawed hands are used to replace the standard feet. Add any arms and weapons that you like.

Um, this is supposed to be cheaper? It seems to me that you\'re really only displacing the cost - a well-stocked bitz box like you describe didn\'t come cheap, I imagine. The thing with the tanks sounds interesting though, speaking of accumulating bitz...

One other thing, I don\'t play so I don\'t know the rules, but would any of these converted figures be \"legal\" in a more formal gaming environment?

 

[Panza]

Cheaper than metal, although a well stocked bit\'s box is always handy.

I\'m not saying \'Hey, go buy a box of chaos warriors just for the heads, genestealers just for the feet...\' etc, etc (although imagine the size of your bits box afterwards......). All I\'m saying is save money by being creative and using what you\'ve got. I\'ve got a ton of plastic because I like using it, and it\'s a lot cheaper than metal.

A box of 5 new metal Raptors (minimum troop size for those who don\'t play) costs £20. A box of 5 plastic assault marines costs £12, and everyone knows someone who can supply a few bits and pieces for the cost of a beer and a packet of crisps (chips for those in the US).

The point is that you don\'t have to buy the new metal Raptors just because a certain company says that Raptors now look all scary and spiky. Even in formal games I\'ve seen standard assault marines painted black to represent the flying freaks.

The rule of \'counts as\' can be stretched quite far, so I do. lol

 

[Panza]

...and just to chuck in another tip...

Genestealers are great donor models for Chaos armies. Non clawed hands look dynamic on character models, hooved feet can be added to Space Marines for a more chaotic look and the heads look superb when mated to plastic Terminators.

Anybody got a use for the body? lol

 

[Tuubje]

Originally posted by Panza
Anybody got a use for the body? lol

Yup, just use em in combination with other stuff for making muties in the Eye of Terror campaign.

Ah, genestealers, as if they were made for recycling

 

[kittykat23uk]

Ah I used a plastic triceratops and converted him into a stegadon by making a howdah from matchsticks and other bits and a bunch of skink command on the top.

I also made a Slann on at T-rex though thats hardly game legal. And another Carnospinomegalosaurus thing led by a bunch of temple guard... again not game legal but makes a nice diorama.

Mind you I got a really cheap metal and plastic Lizardmen army from buying a load of figures on the wargames bring and buy site for about £20, then ordering bitz to make up some of the models (probably another £20 worth). GW messed up the order and it took months to come through- so to make up for that they sent me 15 cold ones and a couple of characters (the old style ones- they messed the freebies up a bit as well but I got most of it in the end). Then I supplemented that with their 50p blister sale they had - I bought about £25 worth of lizards and other figures including a snotling pump wagon. I swapped the pump wagon with someone online for a high elf dragon!


Regards

Katlol

 

[mouse]

lizardmen temple guards...

lizardmen temple guards are expensive! And you need at least 12 to fully protect Mr Froggie. What I intend to do is to use my plastic saurus warriors with green stuff to mould some stupid looking bones on their heads and arms...otherwise, these temple guards are almost alike to saurus warriors. Otherwise, if I\'m to lazy to mould, then I use my skeletons on them.

 

[Pellimore]

Originally posted by No Such Agency

One other thing, I don\'t play so I don\'t know the rules, but would any of these converted figures be \"legal\" in a more formal gaming environment?

Very good question, and I got a perfect answer. For a Rouge Trader Tournament (RTT), pretty much as official as it gets, you can use anything as long as it follows these rules:

1.) WYSIWYG, What you see it what you get, anything that the model has needs to be represented on the model.

2.) It has to be 100% Games Workshop pieces (theres a few ways around this rule, if anyones curious)

3.) It has to be understandable to the opponent (this is a matter of context, you can\'t throw out 20 space marines and say that some are assualt marines when they all look the same)

Those are the 3 things that I was told by numerous GW officials over the years. Take for example one of the GT armys, the guy used skeletons instead of IG Guardsmen (saving lots of money). All of the lasguns were on the models, it was purely GW pieces, and you could clearly tell the difference between the pieces, so they allowed it (it also one an appearance award I think, it was in WD).

 

[Pellimore]

One of my biggest money saving things was to use Warhammer Fantasy models in Warhammer 40k. I\'ve done it countless times.

First I used Warhammer goblins, with all of the extra weapons from the regular Boyz box set and made gretchin mods (saved almost $100 total)

Just recently I\'m making an Imperial Guard army out of Warhammer Dwarf models. I started this army before I heard of the plastic catachans, so I saved A LOT of money at the time. Just think, I could get 16 Dwarfs for 24.99 (I also did this before the last price change), or about 8 guardsmen for the same price. I also used Dwarfs, with the large round bases, and lascannons off of a Land Raider (it was a crusader anyway) for my heavy weapons teams. That alone is $30 cheaper.

Have fun!
-Pellimore

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by Pellimore

2.) It has to be 100% Games Workshop pieces (theres a few ways around this rule, if anyones curious)

i\'m curious - do tell.. pretty please:innocent:

 

[Pellimore]

Sorry for the delay in a reply, but I originally deleted my e-mail saying that someone had posted, and just now found this forum again.

Anything scrathbuilt is fully allowed under their rules, you just can\'t use any pieces from other companies model kits exc. For example, you can buy sheets of polystyrene and use it all you want, but you can\'t take a WWII tank and use parts of it on a Leman Russ. That little bit is the official answer I\'ve gotten.

As to the question on how you can get away with using some pieces from a different manufactuer, I\'ve got the following few examples. Now, this is all just personal experience and in no way is it an \"official\" answer.

First off, if your using pieces that aren\'t GW, don\'t preach about it and 9 out of 10 times they won\'t notice.

The two times I had anyone ask about my pieces, I made the following arguements:

1.) When they asked about a Feral Ork Squigoth I had scratchbuild using kids toys, I argued that GW didn\'t have an official model. This will work 99% of the time, if in fact, they don\'t have an official model out.

2.) With example 1 in mind, you can also make the arguement that when you made the model they had no official GW model. For example, I took the hull of a Leman Russ and used the treads off of another mini to make a very chaotic piece. When they asked me about it, I said I had made the model back before chaos had a full range of official pieces.

Another good tip is to just tell them that it iis fully scratchbuilt out of raw materials and that none of it came from another manufacturer. This works as long as they don\'t recognize any pieces, which they usually won\'t, because they\'re not going to rip off your paint just to see what the model is made out of.

I hope this helps,
Have fun!
-Pellimore

 

[finn17]

Hmmm....

Originally posted by Pellimore
This works as long as they don\'t recognize any pieces, which they usually won\'t, because they\'re not going to rip off your paint just to see what the model is made out of.-Pellimore

Maybe not just yet, but give them time...give them time...:flame:

 

[Pellimore]

Originally posted by finn17

Originally posted by Pellimore
This works as long as they don\'t recognize any pieces, which they usually won\'t, because they\'re not going to rip off your paint just to see what the model is made out of.-Pellimore

Maybe not just yet, but give them time...give them time...:flame:

lollollollollollollollol

Yeah, just give em time. First they take away internet retailers, next will be a mandatory paint strip for any suspected mini...\"I think those Golden Deamon winners might have unofficial bitz on em, lets strip off the paint and find out...\"

Whats it all coming to
Have fun!
-Pellimore

 

[KatieG]

More GW bad news

I heard this as a rumor, I don\'t know for sure if its true, as I forget exactly where it came from (I know where I got it, but I forget where he got it)... that GW was making a new rule that models had to be at least 80 or 90% GW models (and also that FW stuff was going to be disallowed as well, I think the company had a dustup with GW - that I heard from my local GW store though, so who knows if its true or not - half the time they don\'t seem to know anything \'til it appears in WD). So no more usage of plastic toys or scratchbuilds I hope its not true, but I wouldn\'t be surprised, GW seems to think anything that makes people buy more of their stuff is a good thing...
--Katie G