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Hey. I have been playing 40k for a long time and I love seeing other people's conversions. I often have what I think are great ideas for my own but they usually don't translate well into the physical realm. Most recently I did some simple conversion of a Librarian and a Techmarine for my Grey Knights and I think they both came out pretty well but it was really just a kitbash more than anything. I am pretty formulaic in my approach to the modeling side of the hobby and I don't consider myself very good at converting/sculpting/painting. I am very much into thematic elements and I love having my models look like they belong together. The biggest problem is I have a fetish for late era metal models that GW produced for the level detail and the heft. I have a ton of pewter Aspect Warriors, several full squads of Wraithguard, a SoB army, and Slaaneshi Daemons (Juan Diaz of course).

My most recent indiscretion is a small-ish Vostroyan IG army that I have been working on expanding to a playable size. I got the grand idea the other day that I would like to do a unit of Rough Riders on Cold One mounts from the Dark Elf WFB kit. I'm afraid I may end up chickening out because I don't even have the slightest idea how to get the project off the ground. Does anyone have any suggestions they could give me for converting the riders? I'd like to keep them looking like the Vostroyan metals as much as possible so that they fit in with the rest of the army visually. Is there a particular Vostroyan model you would recommend using to get the upper portion of the rider? As much as I would hate to hack up pewter it would not be the first or the last time. How about a suitable pair of riding legs to sit it on the Cold One? I don't think the Dark Elf legs themselves look anywhere near close enough to guard legs for my tastes. I found someone who did some Cadian looking conversions that were similar but there was a lot of greenstuffing and use of plasticard which frankly both terrify me =P. I think the largest problem is I am never fully satisfied with my own work which leads to a lot of disappointments.

I am far from the most artistically talented person in the world so any advice, suggestions or tips you can provide will go a LONG way. Also keep in mind I have never really sculpted anything in my hobby career so the simpler and more straightforward the solution probably the better. Also as a contingency plan if I end up not feeling comfortable mangling some miniatures myself are there any studios that specialize in conversion that you can recommend?

Probably the easiest way to go would be to just use the attilian rough riders (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1130550) and change the hat with green stuff. They already have long coats, fur, and mustaches, so you are 90% of the way there.

There is a IG forum with a lot of pictures. I would also do a search on yahoo for vostr guy and as well on photobucket. Heck just do a few searches until you find work in progress of units that were changed over to vostr guys. That way you can work up that idea and just find some legs to bend and set on top of the cold ones.

I've seen Cold ones used as Rough Rider mounts a few times and they always look pretty good with a guardsmen sitting in the saddle.

I can help you with the legs. Victoria Miniatures does a fantastic rough rider conversion set.
http://victoriaminiatures.highwire.com/product/rough-rider

I have also seen a decent tutorial on converting regular guardsmen into Vostroyans. I'll see if i can't hunt it down again.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ok this isn't the tutorial i was thinking of, it may however give you a starting point to work from.

heavybolter wrote:
So I gave this a shot and here's what i came up with. Using the Pig iron head as a start off point was a good start. I started with the hat and worked my way down, using a ball stylus for the fur effect. Going off your original drawing I left the Cadian chest as is but added some details to the shoulder pad then fur lined the wrist cuffs. I think you can also do a simple wrist gauntlet for that too which would be a flat piece of green stuff that would extend over the wrist a bit. The Longcoat was pretty easy, just added the fur detail to the original coat flaps then added the long coat under it, leaving the split open and pressing in a few button holes. This is as basic as I could make it. Over all it took about 20 minutes. With practice I could probably pump out 20 of these or more in one day to this standard, and maybe add some extra details after the base GS mods have set to customize each one. I think he could use some belt pouches and gear. I honestly don't think its as daunting a task as some people are making it out to be. Hell if you have the time and energy, go for it.

I can try another one using an original cadian head but i really think head swaps are the way to go with this idea. I bet those puppetswar heads would go a long way.

Cheers and I hope this helps in some way.

There used to be a range of Kislev bear cavalry for warhammer with a rather epic russian aesthetic. You might be able to dig some up on ebay, alternatively just go with the Attilans.

I used the fantasy wood elves glade guard as the basis for my rough riders, partly because my greenstuff skills are pretty much non existent and it's just a case of sticking the two halves together and partly because I wanted them to be playable in a GW store! The lower bodies don't look too bad with IG torsos, I'm sure they would sit on a cold one if needed, they certainly sit on the older lizardmen cold ones ok. Linky: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/196864-.html?m=2

There are several companies that do aftermarket heads in the vostroyan style, just google it and I'm sure you'll find something you like.