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Hey guys and gals,

With the price of just about everything escalating for just about everybody, I thought we might pick each other's brains like a bunch of promiscuous zombies to see if we could save money on kits and make this hobby a little more affordable.

Does anyone have any tips on simple kit bashes that work out cheaper than the intended uses for the kits. I'm thinking primarily of :GW: kits here and not representative models; tips like:

If you buy the :IG: heavy Weapons team you can make nine heavy weapons but only have enough guys to make three teams. You can buy extra bases and just use ordinary gurdsmen as the teams (or remodel them).

but tips for any game system would be welcome.

Thank ye muchly in advance for anything you can give.

If anyone's got any good ideas on how to make Ork bikes I'm all ears. I find it very annoying that there's only three in a kit!

Um, i dunno about Ork Bikers, but i make Ork Kommandos out of standard Ork Boys. It works out a lot cheaper (Kommandos - £23, Boyz - £18) and you get more for less (Kommandos - 5, Boyz - 10). All it takes is a bit of imagination, some simple kit bashing if you have some orky bits lying around, or even other races (Imperial works quite well). Mine for example all have backpacks made of bits of space marine with some ammo pouches and grenades stuck on and all have 'Ponchos' to make them look more camoflaged (tissue paper and pva glue over successive layers). Hope this helps a bit, i'll have to have a think about the bikers. Love the idea though as prices have gotten too ridiculous for words. Oh, one more thing, i tend to use 'Milliput' over 'Green Stuff '. It's cheaper and you get more for your money. I'll see what else i can come up with and i'll post some pics of my Kustom/Kit-bashed budget stuff.

Being the busy, run off his feet at work guy that I am; I had a look through the forum and found these:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/297414.page#1616899

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/231874.page#1932314

The second one looks to be a nice bitz bash with some wheels off old toys.

I once saw a person who took the nob bikers and made them all unicycles. So with the addition of a few nobs that were laying around he ended up with 6 from 3.
I have often considered bying two boxes of these http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440235a&prodId=prod900153a and a box of boys and using them as either count as bikers or (admittedly more reasonably) koptas. But then ur spending about as much as you would on bikers.
There really isn't a cheap way to do bikers for any army. GW likes to charge money based on pt cost not production costs (personal opinion but hell for all I really know it cost them $40 to make 3 marine bikers and $30 to make a rino. But thats not the issue.) But the ork bikers are really nice models imo.

Ah quite inventive

Yes i do quite like the second one, I've got plenty of lego lying around aswell lol!

These were quite interesting

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8TtqeUeSOSQ/TdUrwWq7KNI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/Xpc4J9sGxA8/s1600/ork+bikes.jpg

I just typed in "Custom built ork bikers" into google.

Nice twist on Quad bikes

Sounds like I should do some individual bike kits once I'm more established.

At the moment my mob is looking to hire a new member but that means a whole new kit. Hmph.

A good tip would be use old second edition space marine legs, chop 'em in half and you can use the spare torsos from sets like the battleforce (if you are making assault marines) to make five more marines. Does require a tiny bit of gapfilling. They are the right height and dont look nearly so bad as you might think.

I am also a big fan of second edition missile launchers. All you need to do is cut off the dumb trumpet muzzle. They are good for 'piece of mind' if you are a perfectionist. They have the magazine on top so you dont need that fancy back pack or worry about modelling ammo.

Every 40k enthusiast of a certain age has at least 10 of these useless/worthless 2nd ed. models.

A simple good looking combi melta can be made with a suitable barrel (a proper melta one would be preferable, i've used old leman russ multi melta ones, which are actually near the same size when seperated) and the powerplant from a chainsword. Heres a cruddy picture to illustrate:


A supremely cheapskate idea i am working on is making 40k (chunky) wheels from sprue. All the newest kits from GW (DE range is my only firsthand evidence though AFAIK all the infantry sets have them) have a circle in the middle of the sprue. If you glue two of these together you have a cylinder a very similar thickness and diameter to a classic 40k Bike wheel. I just need to think of a way to make a tread.

With a few pieces of 'pluck foam' (from miniature carrying cases)a shallow tupperware tub and some baking paper you can make a decent wet pallette. Also pluck foam is great for weathering without using expensive weathering powder.

StJimi101 wrote:Um, i dunno about Ork Bikers, but i make Ork Kommandos out of standard Ork Boys. It works out a lot cheaper (Kommandos - £23, Boyz - £18) and you get more for less (Kommandos - 5, Boyz - 10). All it takes is a bit of imagination, some simple kit bashing if you have some orky bits lying around, or even other races (Imperial works quite well). Mine for example all have backpacks made of bits of space marine with some ammo pouches and grenades stuck on and all have 'Ponchos' to make them look more camoflaged (tissue paper and pva glue over successive layers). Hope this helps a bit, i'll have to have a think about the bikers. Love the idea though as prices have gotten too ridiculous for words. Oh, one more thing, i tend to use 'Milliput' over 'Green Stuff '. It's cheaper and you get more for your money. I'll see what else i can come up with and i'll post some pics of my Kustom/Kit-bashed budget stuff.

like this

A box of hellions and a box of DE warriors can get you 10 Incubi and 5 Warriors, leaving 5 skyboards left over.

4oursword wrote:A box of hellions and a box of DE warriors can get you 10 Incubi and 5 Warriors, leaving 5 skyboards left over.

£15.50+£18.00=£33.50 VS £23.00+£9=£31.00 + 5 sky boards to flog on e-bay. Probably works out cheaper the above way but only just.

I want to second Deffkoptas (dirt cheap on e-bay for AOBR ones) plus dollar store toy parts to make bikes, buggies and pretty much anything else.

Over to Fantasy for a moment...

I'm a Dark Elf player, but much of the current DE range is in metal and very expensive. On the other hand, there is some reasonably priced plastics to work with, and you can kitbash the various units availabe only in metal using these. And in some cases, these kitbashes will look better than the rather atrocious GW sculpts.

First among these is the Shades, and they are also the simplest conversion. Just take the corsair set, give them handbows, and smooth greenstuff over the scales of the cloak. Done.

You can turn spearmen into Black Guard easily as well. Just sculpt axeheads onto the spears to make them into halberds. Bonus points for sculpting armor plates onto the legs and making the helmets and shoulderguard more elaborate.

Executioners can be done much the same way. Trim down the length of the spears to that of a greatsword, bring the blade down to just above the hand, and that's it. Again, bonus points for leg harness, helm, and shoulder work.

Get glade riders to convert into dark riders. Use the glade rider horses and legs, but use warrior torsos, standard spears, crossbow arms, and heads. Dead simple. Bonus points for using Glade Guard hooded heads and giving them cloaks.

Witches... these take some work. You need corsair legs, hand weapon arms, and heads - preferably the ones with the hair loose (OR use the heads and hand weapon arms from the Glade Rider box, they look more feminine) - matched up with the female warrior torsos. The bottom of the torso will need to be hollowed out to accomodate the corsair legs, along with trimming the rim around the shoulder socket. A little knife-and-file work removes the bit of mail from the sleeves of the corsair arms, and you'll need some sort of fill-in for a neck. Then just paint the 'breastplate' in black leather, preferably painting the cleavage in an appropriate flesh tone. Bonus points for sculpting some booty onto the girls; the corsair leg sets have none at all.

Trukks, buggies, etc w/ wheels, go down to the dollar tree, they have these little monster trucks that the wheels work great for such things & they're a $1

Fox Box wrote:At the moment my mob is looking to hire a new member but that means a whole new kit. Hmph.

Well you know there's a great supplier of bitz called- oh. hmm. Nevermind

The Ork Lootas/Burnas box makes 4 of either, plus a Mek. With the addition of bog standard Ork Boys bodies (even AoBR Boys work, although they take a tad more chopping), however, you can make four of each, plus a Mek (or, more likely, you can save the bits to add a KMB to vehicles, or use the head and chop up the KMB to scratch/kitbash a Big Mek). It's pretty much common knowledge, at this point, but it bears repeating, if only for the sake of completeness.

As others have mentioned, AoBR Deffcoptas are great conversion fodder for either bikes or buggies.

Hate burnas but love lootas?

Chop off the burna gun itself and replace it with various weapons

This isnt mine so I actually do not know the exact process

If you magnetize any model possible, especially big vehicles and monsters, it makes it so you don't have to buy multiple of the same kit. That way you can save a few bucks and still have the flexibility you want.

For Space Marines I've been using the AOBR guys.

10 Man Tac squad is about $10-$15 USD and comes with a Flamer & ML. (10 Man Tac Squad is $37 USD)

5 Man Terminators are about $15-$20 USD.. I cut the part that holds on their arm so I can magnetize LC, TH/SS, assault cannons etc. Bitz usually go cheap. (Terminators are about $50 USD)

Now that the rules especially favor melta's, it's not such a big deal, but the old plasma pistol mated to a flamer is a great way to get plasma guns.



With Guard heavy weapon teams you can of course make multiple weapons sets out of the supplied weapons, but please do it right, and make the missile launchers balanced if you put them on a standing miniature. I can't stand the standing IG missile launchers where they are rediculously front heavy because the converter obviously just put it on a standing body with no other work. Here's a better version.



3 bipods can make 2 tripods and Toy army man gun carriages can be repurposed to hold heavy weapons as well.


Robogear ground vehicles (varran and helix ) are cheap on ebay and can be converted into great ork buggies. Below are two from the "Helix" kit ( not my pics)



or used to convert imperial vehicles. As the top side of this Varran (and a couple of extra missiles) was made into an alternate Manticore deck for this basilisk.


Lastly, here's one that's a bit more obscure, but if you know anyone who played 4th edition, they probably have a Lt. Varras figure from the "Battle For Macraage" boxed set. It's a really easy conversion to an IG officer.
Here's two of my conversions


and the original mini.

Orikl wrote:[quote=



like this

Yes, precisely like that actually

Stormboy heads work quite well for Kommandos aswell.

I once made a Killa Kan out of a GW paintpot for a competition, the old hexagonal ones.
That worked pretty well, a few Glyph plates and some electrical components from some
broken PS2 controllers and hey-presto!
Shame i don't have it anymore

Just an idea to possibly work with

Maybe if you put multiple ones together you could make a Dread?......
Hmmmmmmmmmm I've a cunning plan

Not so much a conversion kit bash money saver but you can get some sweet deals on ebay from people who for whatever reason are selling off their entire army.

I've bought lots, pulled out the models I needed and then sold the rest individually and made my money back. It just takes time and patience.

Also you can pick up some cheap 1/35th scale military tanks either online or at Hobby Lobby when they are on sale. These are great orky conversion fodder or decent "counts as" tanks for the cheap imperial guard player.

Before I had the income to buy actual GW tanks I used little toy tanks that came with some army men as a proxy for Predators. They were almost the perfect size.

That red Wartrakk with the twinlinked shootas on the front cost me a total of about 10 bucks fully built and painted.
It was also my first bash consisting of the stock Helix and some plasticard.
10 bucks total is pretty damn cheap.

Play Necrons.

Plenty

of

Cheap

Conversions

There.




There's loads of ways to make the hobby more affordable, especially if you're willing to kiss the mistress that is non-GW models. If you decide to stay true to GW, it can still be done and done well as evidenced above.

I actually used that Imperial Officer at the end of Eilif's post to make my Crimson Fists version of Telion. I get loads of compliments on it and all it too was a hobby knife, a bit of greenstuff, and a pair of marine arms with a bolter:




He's gotten paint, but no new pics of my Lysander counts-as converted from an AoBR Termie Sergeant, an old credit card, greenstuff, and some extra bits. Looks a little rough this early in the project, but again, it's a miniature that I get asked "Where'd you buy that guy from?" a lot:



Talk about cheap? Here's my Crimson Fists' drop pods... They've undergone a bit of revision with the addition of resin tractor tracks, but it's otherwise a cardboard document shipping tube, a cereal box, a pair of bendy straws, and a resin door I casted up for my OOP rhinos. I don't think I spent more than $2 to make it!



Like Heavy Flamers for your Sternguard or Legion of the Damned and can't pay through the nose for them? Ask your local guard player if he has a few laying around. They don't get used much in the guard lists I run, so they sit in bits boxes. Shave the details off the bottom half of the marine's backpack and about half of the top "hump" from the side that shows and glue the tanks on. I would have liked to use a thicker cable, but it's all I had on short notice. Check Zinge for some great materials:



Even Xenos can join in on the fun, but it generally takes a little more work. I can't wait to get a box of the new Immortals to give this another go with their larger, beefier torsos and legs:




Enjoy!

Gavin , those are some truely awesome conversions. The Lt. Varras conversion is particularly impressive and makes good use of the facemask rebreather thing.

As for thicker cable, I recommend Guitar or Bass Guitar strings. Bass guitar strings is what I used for connecting the lascannon to the power pack on the carriage mounted lascannon above.

Thanks guys for all your suggestions. Keep 'em coming.

There are some truly excelent conversions on here.