My This is Not a Test Raider warband was expanded on paper after the last TCOW meet. I added a Broiler, and another Mongrel dog – so had to find suitable figures for them.
I had a few more Obelisk Miniatures Hyenas to paint so the Mongrel was covered. However I had nothing appropriate for a Broiler, who comes equipped with a free flamethrower. I did recently get a bunch of metal Bolt Action figures, one of which was a Late War German Panzergrenadier carrying a WWII flamethrower, with a set of tanks that looked like they’d be reasonably easy to press mold.
Scrabbling through my old Games Workshop figures I also found a likely looking Vampire Counts Ghoul. This guy was an out of production, lead pewter figure from the late 90’s. They were lovely sculpts and the lead pewter made them ideal for conversion as you can repose their limbs with a reasonable amount of freedom if you’re careful. Low lead pewter is a lot more brittle and prone to cracking if you try to it.
The other advantage of lead pewter is that it’s fairly easy to cut through. Off came the Ghoul’s original head, and away went the bone he held in his left hand. He got a new head, again from my collection of old metals – a Pig Iron Productions gas mask head.
The press moulded gas tanks from the Panzergrenadier went onto the Ghoul’s back, and had a few bits of extra sculpting added. A new ‘flamethrower’ was sculpted with gardening wire and aluminium rod. The petrol pump handle the figure ended up with was my second attempt and came out a lot better than my first attempt which involved a butchered Catachan plastic Flamer. The plastic wheel is a spare from the front of a Bolt Action Hanomag kit.
All in all, one of my better conversion efforts I think. It’ll be interesting to see how he does on the gaming table.