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I do a lot of conversions and kit-bashes, as well as some conventional modeling. I thought it would be fun to share some of my work so this thread is just whatever I'm working on or happen to have dug out of the vault.

The overall theme of my work is that it is inexpensive and dual-use. I love using alternate models and/or kit-bashing. The photos below are the best illustration of this. Why collect two separate armies when you can just add some figures/change turrets and get two for the price of one?

At this point I am on my second (and almost certainly last) Imperial Guard army.

The first the "limited edition" Praetorian XXIV Regiment from the Zulu War. Unlike GW, I didn't have my troops in white helmets and red jackets but instead painted them in khaki, suitable for tropical WW I service. I bought some Boer War lancers to serve as rough riders as well.

Because I am a cheapskate (hence the name of this thread), in time I realized that there was considerable profit to be made by shifting away from GW figures, so that's what I did. I dumped all the troops in a trade/purchase of WW II German and Russian troops, the fruit of which you've already seen.

I still used the old GW tank models, however, but here again I thought there had to be ways to find low-cost alternatives. Some years later, I hit upon the solution: 1/35 Tamiya tank kits.

If you compare the footprint of GW models, it is almost identical with early-war WWII tanks. The primary difficulty was how to model them appropriately, since the Leman Russ has all sorts of sponsons and hull-mounted weapons as well as a turret. I was aware that the Russians in particular had some weird tanks that would make a good fit, but few (if any) kits were available and did not meet my crucial "cheap" requirement.

One did, however - the M3 Stuart light tank. The high, boxy hull could take corner-mounted weapons that covered the same arc as the sponsons and the glacis would easily house a lascannon barrel. There remained the issue of the profile, so I decided to go with spacer armor to mix things up a bit.

Even better, there was a howitzer version of the M3 would would make a nice Demolisher equivalent. These kits also cost 1/3 of what GW kits were at the time (it's probably 1/4 today) and they feature much better detail. For example, they have rubber treads and the running gear actually works.