Greetings my most excellent friends!
I’m currently two units and two characters into my Pirates force, it’s a start but not a lot. Now, under a GM or store staff on a weekend in the late 80’s it would be balanced by a number of other players, but a 1v1 game, it’s a bit puny.
I would say I need another unit at least, but at this point of collecting, these 12 minis were all that existed, so units are going to look… samey. I want something that stands out in the table, that other players will look at and go ‘wow!’. Looking through the rule book shows me what I want, I want these;
Eldar Pirates with Flight Packs! Hell yes! (Not a jump pack, that is a different bit of equipment in the listings not available to Eldar).
The downside, these were never made, this means we have to go through the art of CONVERSION!
WARNING: ⚠️
With that out of the way, let’s start on the unit leader. There’s a mini that comes with a melta gun and a power glove, he’s a good option, but I already have that weapon combo in the other batch.
I also have this one with a sword and hand flamer. So let’s go for a weapon swap.
This is called a Fret Saw. It has a small, thin blade, and it’s made for very small, very precise cuts. The hobby saws you see for sale now are made to go through thick, heavy chunks of plastic that a hobby knife can’t deal with. That’s fine for modern kits, but I’d lose far too much off this arm with one of those. Same with any hobby clippers, as the v-shaped ‘snip’ would need to be flattened.
This is a case of right tool for the job.
Both of these minis are based on the same basic initial sculpt, this helps, you can see the chainmail ‘sleeve’ on both, and the fuel line for the weapons. Two quick saw cuts, and we look at reattaching the new gun.
And that grey powder? Lead shavings. Wear A Mask.
One pin drill, the smallest bit I have, and a slow, steady effort to keep everything straight, then another hole in the arm, test fit with a paper clip, and we are getting there!
Oh look. MORE lead shavings.
I did wonder about the wings. How do I make them? I could do the shapes in plasticard, the image I’m going from has very little detail so it would look picture right, but feels too basic. I could try sculpting them? I’m not that good at sculpting though, and now isn’t the time to practice.
While looking online for a different mini for another game, I found my answer. Heresy Miniatures, a small mini company, makes insect wings, and they seem to fit the bill. So I ordered, and compared the size… absolutely spot on!
But how to attach them?
The old Eldar have two small ‘vent’ type bumps on the back, about the same size as the wing nubs. So what if I snipped those off, used the smallest bit drill bit to make a guide hole, then a large bit to create an indent for the nub?
Back in the older times, if at first you didn’t succeed, you could go get another mini and try again. I don’t have that luxury, as these guys are getting harder to get a hold of.
Let’s make this count.
The arm fits, the nubs seem to fit the holes, let’s glue it all in and hope for the best.
And there we are! A completely unique mini for my force, ready to deliver fire and punching to the enemy.
Now to give him some friends. I have three complete Pirates, along with an Eldar with no arm, and an arm with no Eldar… let’s fix that.
Bit of bending to give the wings a few different looks, and we go for the same painting method of base colours…
Washes to shade…
Clean up the base colours…
Highlights…
And bases!
These came out so much better than I thought, especially the weapon swaps. That 17 models to play with. It’s a shame there were no vehicles released for the Eldar at this time. (Insert foreshadowing music here).
Thanks again to Heresy Miniatures, I’m not sponsored, I’m just happy they had the bits I needed, along with a really nice range of minis, sci fi and fantasy based. Check them out, it’s a one man operation so be patient.
https://www.heresyminiatures.com/shop/
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