Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi folks,
Long time no see, thanks to University.

Well...
I wanted to field the Chief Librarian Mephiston for quite some time now.
But....
Compare his statline to this miniature:


I guess you can imagine what I try to point out here. His actual mini is not impressive... at all.
On my research for conversion ideas I did not find many things which appealed to me either. There are some decent ones using Astorath.
But I didn't want to go this road looking forward to the day where I maybe want to field Astorath aswell.
So I laid Mephiston to rest.

But then... some days ago I stumbled upon a picture of this reaper miniature:
And imidiately I realized the conversion potential concerning the Mephiston I had in mind.


There was still one problem. I needed a decent head with long floating hair. I didn't find anything usable. So I started out and tried some sculpting for the first time.
And this is what I came up with:





It was pretty straight forward. Rolling little sausages of Green Stuff and sticking them to the head. Nothing sophisticated, but quite fiddly. Took me around one hour to do it.

Tell me... What do you think about it?
Working on this I got better from minute to minute which resulted in the fact that the hair on the right is thicker than the hair on the left. It's not as striking in the flesh as it is in the picture, but maybe I redo some of the streaks on the right.

Talking about the final product it will be in the lines of the following picture.
It's only a crappy overlay in Microsoft Paint but you get the idea.

I will upload pictures of the final conversion once the package with the Reaper mini arrives.

Some of the hair(mainly on our right) is very large and unless you want him to have gnarly dreads you might want to try and fix that.

Shadow Nugz wrote:Some of the hair(mainly on our right) is very large and unless you want him to have gnarly dreads you might want to try and fix that.

This.

The shape and flow on the model is really impressive, but it looks a bit like Medusa's cousin, if you know what I mean. I think if you smooth some of the hair together as it approaches the scalp, it should fix the issue.

As I mentioned before I'll redo some of the hair streaks if there is a consensus for it. It's 2:0 right now. So he will get a little more love.


Thank you for stating your opinion.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
A quick update. Looks much nicer now.

Hell yeah

Really cool. I also agree with the other guys. The hair needs more... hair-like-ness. It's really cool, but doesn't look 100% like hair. I do however love the whole concept. Never liked Mephiston's model although fluff wise he's always been one of my favorites. I plan on converting one myself eventually. Maybe I'll even steal some ideas from you.

Awesome Model!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Awesome Model!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Awesome Model!!

what could work for the hair would be to roll out the long thin sausages as per usual, and lay them onto the crown of the head. Then, taking a very fine edged sculpting tool, press in along the top/off centre of his head (vis-a-vis a parting) and a small dimple near the back.

check these out, it mostly explains what Im getting at.
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/hh349/japehlio/Blood%20Angels/IMG_0775.jpg
http://s544.photobucket.com/albums/hh349/japehlio/Blood%20Angels/?action=view¤t=IMG_0766.jpg

I think it's looking awesome so far. Can't wait to see the finished results, especially with the feedback you've received.

He looks even more fabulously Fabio than the Jes Goodwin 2nd edition sculpt of him in Dracula armour.

This is not a good thing.
Sure, I like Jes Goodwin's stuff, but there are exceptions, and Mephiston is one of them.

Who is Fabio? ^^
And which Mephiston do you mean? Is the 2nd Ed. one the one above?

Try using the new liquid green stuff done each seam of hair.

This is a neat idea. Will try that for sure.

Yeah, it definitely still needs some work. It's not that they flow doesn't look right, because that looks great. But it doesn't look like flowing hair, it looks like flowing sausages of green stuff. It definitely needs to be filled in more, with individual strands picked out to add some definition.

Other than that, I'd say i'ts looking good. Pose is good and all. I have a feeling the upper body is going to be huge compared to the vampire legs.

Best head to use is Sigvald's.



Sorry bout the crap pics, I've since sold the army so I can't get better ones.

Enzephalon wrote:Who is Fabio? ^^

I definitely see ALOT of potential in this conversion, the idea you're going for reminds me of Lestat from the Vampire Chronicles books. I do agree about smoothing the hair a bit more at the roots. Also, look at real hair, it always has a natural part. And as to the question of who Fabio is... he's a male model best known for his gorgeous flowing locks & Ricardo Montalban-esque chest lol. To younger generations, he did alot of "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" commericals.