It has started... again!

It seems to me that there are times when I can do stuff and there are times where I can't. This week seems to be one where I have been able to put some stuff together for a project.

Over the last few months, I have been watching Ebay and buying up plastic Squat miniatures from GW. They are long out of production and usually covered in a variety of paint schemes but once they are broken down into components and paint stripped, they look quite presentable. I have obviously been quite good at this Ebay thing because I have managed to amass 120+ of the plastic Squats... so now I think I've got enough and need to start putting them together.

Well... that is what I started to do and I quickly came up against a stumbling block. I really didn't like the way the plastic arms look on them. The posing was rigid, unnatural and generally made them look wrong. The heavy bolter that sits on a specially raised shoulder pad looked ridiculous as well so there was need to think about how I was going to deal with these issues.

I came to the conclusion that sculpting the arms onto the miniatures was the way to go... I also thought that I would use tracked vehicles for the heavy weapons... a bit like these (WIP):

Click the Pic!

You've seen them before but for a different project, however, I may still take a different route and use the Taurus Gun Tractors from Anvil Industries instead. In the meantime, I have a lot of troopers to convert and here is a WIP of the first ten:

Click the Pic!

You will notice a number of things about the photo:

1. All of the plastic heads have been altered a little for individuality.
2. The non helmeted Squats have been given berets.
3. All of the troopers have neckerchiefs to hide the gap and enable squad identification.
4. One of the troopers is holding a shortened lasgun (they will all get these).
5. I have added the wire to each of them for sculpting the arms onto.

It is obviously early days yet... but it is a start and hopefully, once I get into a rhythm with the sculpting, I should be able to get the arms done quicker as I go along.

In other news, I have been Tango'd!

If you aren't aware, there is a forum member on The Miniatures Pages who scouts out all sorts of stuff and fills the forum with it. Well, it seems that my Imperial Guard to Squat guide was picked up on his radar and he posted it on the forum HERE. I really don't know what to say about it :).

See you from the queue for the salt and vinegar crisps!