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I've been working on a farsight enclave comprised of all forgeworld XV81s and XV89s. Yesterday I picked up the new finecast farsight - I build the mini and put it next to my 12 FW suits...... mistake.......

The finecast farsight blows GW and FW crisis suits out of the water. Farsight's dimensions are much more accurate to how XV8s look in the art - the legs and arms are much more slender with less bulky jet back. I don't see GW releasing a new plastic kit anytime soon (anything already in plastic seems like it is here to stay).

I was wondering if anyone has tried converting the finecast farsight model into a standard XV8? From what I can tell the miniature is perfect for such a conversion:

- The model is separated at the waist meaning you can easily change the direction the torso is facing with minimal effort.
- The arms fit onto a ball socket so they can be posed almost as is at the shoulder level.
- The elbow joint has minimal detail meaning it can be cut and adjusted easily.
- The shield is separate from the arm meaning no cutting is necessary - zero risk to damaging the left arm. The right arm is a bit trickier since the hand is gribbing the sword, but this can be cut away and parts of the fingers can be attached to the stump of the arm (looking as though the hands are retracted into the arm).
- The legs would be the tricky part, but the knee and ankle are similar to the arm - minimal detail so you can do a clean cut/repose with minor greenstuff.
- My only concern would be cutting the legs at the thigh/hip area, but really it is just a ball socket so it can be cut, shaved down and then rounded out again with greenstuff.
- Lastly, weapons are easy... the left arm already has the plasma rifle attached if you went that route, standard XV8 weapons attached or even forgeworld suit arms can be substituted on the previously mentioned shoulder ball socket.

If anyone who has tried this could share their experience it would be great, I'm fairly confident that this is actually a very straight forward conversion - the way the model is broken up/molded is a dream. I'm just hesitant mainly because of the cost - to re-do my 12 suits it would cost roughly $800.... (it is difficult to get a discount only with direct order items like farsight, so I'd be stuck with GW prices). I think I'm going to order another farsight as a test - if it works out then the project is a go and there may be 12 FW suits for sale

I did some modifications on him so he could be used as a non-farsight commander - or any xv8 I guess.

Here is what I did:

Left arm:
I removed the plasma rifle and magnetized it.
I put in an magnet on the wrist and on the shield.

This way, I could put any of my normal crisis weapons on him, using the shield or not.

Right arm;
I put a magnet in the left arm mounting point (the sphere) - a 1/8" magnet fit in there just fine.
I put a magnet into the farsight right arm, in the corresponding palce.
I took a spare right XV8 arm, and mounted a magnet in a similar place.

You could do all the other work you suggest - the parts are very accessible, and the one of the few positives of the finecast, is it is easily modified.

I was thinking of going the other way. Trying to make the normal XV8s look like Farsight/commander suit. I think this should just be a case of adding a proper waist, but I haven't gotten around to proper planning yet.