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I freely admit that I'm er... frugal... with my hobby. Many have said that if you can't afford to buy the models, you shouldn't be playing. Personally, I think that's crazy talk. First, when I started playing 40K, GW encouraged you to use whatever materials you could to model whatever they didn't have models for - the now legendary deodorant landspeeder is the most obvious example. Second, not everyone can afford to buy everything they want. Lastly, GW has inflated the value of their goods repeatedly recently and it looks like there's not going to be an end to that practice.

Shortly after I became a member of Dakka Dakka, I posted a conversion pic of a Flayed One I had put together, inspired in part by his own Flayed One Lord. When I made the Flayed One, I took a good look at the pieces left over and figured that with a little work, I could put together an Immortal as well. After I posted some pics, Aduro encouraged me to write an article on how I did it. I promised him I would, but as these things go, the article got passed over for other projects. Now that I have a good camera and some experience in making these guys, I'll show you how to get six Flayed Ones and six Immortals out of 12 Warriors.

The minimum squad size for Immortals is 5 models, for Flayed Ones it's 4 models. If you're buying straight retail that's going to run about $90. The retail cost of 6 models of each variety is $117, pre-tax, shipping, etc. but the cost of a box of warriors is $35. That's 70% savings, assuming you have the tools to do the job on hand. I did, but I've built up my toolbox this last year. This tutorial will cover the Flayed One Conversion, check out the Immortal Conversion in my next tutorial. Here's what you do:

Tools



Some pretty basic stuff for the average modeller: plasticard, Green Stuff, Hobby Knife (preferrably with a fresh blade), Plastic Cement, and a ruler. The ruler's not really necessary for this bit unless you like your claws a particular length. I use "For Sale" signs from the local retail store for plasticard - the big signs are thick and the smaller signs are thinner. You'll use thick card for the Flayed Ones and thin stuff when making the Immortals.


The Model



These are the bits necessary to make two complete Necron Warriors, taken from the sprue and cleaned of flash. One Warrior will become a Flayed One and the other an Immortal. The chest pieces were glued together at this point, for both models, and the pieces for the second model were set aside for now.

Glue the Legs to the Base and the Chest to the Legs



Get creative with the angle you glue the chest on - Flayed Ones look best when they're a bit wonky or crazy looking. This guy's bent as far backwards as I could make him.

Glue the Head to the Body



I tried to make him look straight up. They look good with their heads cocked to one side, almost upside down, or completely removed. Do what you like here, but keep a theme in mind.

Glue the Gun Together



Glue the coverplate on to the gun. You can skip this step in favor of the next, but it's got to get done sometime. I find it makes for a more accurate cut when you're removing the hand in the next step if the plate is attached and the glue is set.

Cut the Hand Off the Gun



You'll need to remove the arm that's holding the gun from the gun itself. Make sure not to damage the gun, since you'll need it to make an Immortal. Set it to the side with the other Warrior bits used for the Immortal.

Clean Up the Hand



After cutting the arm away from the gun, you'll need to clean up the hand bit. Using your hobby knife, shave away the gun hilt and the fingers as well.

Making the Claws



Draw some claw shapes on the plasticard and use the hobby knife or some scissors to cut them out. I made a mistake here and used thin plasticard that was too flimsy for my claws. Don't make the same mistake!



Here's the claws I drew on the thicker card. I like the scythe shape, but you can go crazy here too. Try clipper claws, flensing talons, cat's claws, or go Wolverine style! snickity-snik!



Here they are all cut out. You might want to use the edge of your hobby knife to clean up the edges of the claws the way you would remove flash lines from a model. I like them to be a little chipped or dinged up - gives 'em character.

Arrange the Claws



Make sure that you have enough claws for one - I find that three is about right, but you could have more or less. Also, make sure that you can arrange them to look proportioned, unless you're wanting an ill-proportioned look. It'd be cool to have a fiddler-crab Flayed One with one big claw and one little one, kind of plays up the "unbalanced" nature of these guys.

Get Your Arms Ready



You should have both the arms ready at this point. One used to hold the gun by the handle (which you shaved off) and the other just has a nub where it attached to the gun barrel.

Greenstuff the Arms



Mix a small amount of green stuff, about the size of a pea, for the nub arm. You'll use this to both hold the claws and make a "hand" to match the other arm.



Just kind of blob it on, pressing it about halfway on the forearm of the bit. Make sure there's enough greenstuff on the end to press the claws into.

Attach the Claws



Press the claws into the greenstuff, making sure they're well anchored. I've found a drop of superglue (CA glue) applied where the claw meets the greenstuff really helps to keep things in place. Use your hobby knife or a paint shaper to smooth the greenstuff into a hand shape on the nub arm.



Here's both claw arms done. I attached them in a splayed manner, but as usual you can sttach them however you want.

Attach the Arms



Then attach the arms. I really wanted both arms to be raised in mad exultation, but wasn't prepared to cut the handle arm to rearrange it. It can be done though! So the only thing left is the skin...

Making Skin



This part is very easy and kind of fun. I don't really know how Flayed Ones wrap themselves so completely in skin - by all rights it should be about impossible for them. Just watch Edward Scissorhands and you know how hard it is to hold *anything* with swords attached to your fingers. I prefer the "we kind of throw it on each other and hope it sticks" theory, but if you want your metal men to wear Hannibal Lector suits, go crazy. Start with a large pea-size ball of greenstuff.



Flatten it out. I used my thumb - note the fingerprints. Don't worry about fingerprints for this particular greenstuff exercise, it provides the skin with texture and looks natural.



Once you've flattened it out, dampen your fingers in water and pull it apart like cotton candy. You want to have a nice ragged edge and you should have a few pieces big enough to cover part of the back, chest, and/or thigh as well as some smaller pieces for here and there. Use your fingers and the hobby knife to apply the "skin" to the model wherever you like. Make sure that if you're making more than one of these guys that the skin is a bit different for each to give them more individuality.

All Done!





Now you just need to make a bunch more and you'll be ready for Flayed Ones to lose their nerf for the next codex!

Nice work Gav; fight the power

Try letting your GS set for a while after making the sheets of skin, but before putting them on. That way you'll be able to make them hang batter and not press into the cracks too much.

Nice work-good tutorial indeed!

Seems like we are up for another with Immortals as well?

Looking forward to it (Finger & Toes crossed)

I'll be putting up the Immortals today, hopefully.

Thanks for the tip on the greenstuff, Cap. I like the "droopy" look that the skin gets. I've never seen drippy wet skin freshly flayed from a human being layed across a wannabe-Terminator but I figured it wouldn't stick easily until the blood dried and probably get stuck in cracks easier than a thong.

Here's some of the Flayed Ones I've converted and painted up using this method. They look kinda dark to me - I used the Dakka image adjuster Enjoy!

Hmm... I'm not feeling the "Edward goddamhugescissorhands" look.

::shrug:: Meh, that's something ;entirely under your control. I like my boys' dam-huge slice and dicers, but you can have rinky dinky paring knives if you like.

"That's not a knife. This here's a knife..." -shink-

They look great- I see what you mean about them "throwing it at each other and hoping it sticks"

Looks Excellent

Thanks Akira, did you check out the Immortals tutorial? I got it done the night of the 30th, but had to break it up into two parts since it was just so huge.

really good dtuff man

Not Half Bad

Those are great, dude.

not a necron player, but great tutorial!!

Thank you everyone! This is the first installment of a (currently) two-part series. Make sure to check out the Immortal conversion using the leftover gun pieces!

Due to my son's prodding there may be a Warrior-to-Pariah conversion in the works, but I'm anticipating that to be more difficult given the differences between the two models...

Hmm, they easily look as good as the retail ones. Maybe I'd shrink the claws a little...

I attended a convention this last weekend and someone entered a squad of home-made Flayed Ones, heavier on the skin and much smaller claws than mine, into the painting competition. They didn't place, but still looked good.

It made me think whether or not they got the idea from this tutorial. Even if they didn't it's nice to see a demand for this conversion and know that someone needs it!

Awesome tutorial here are the Necron Flayed Ones we built using it!

Those are awesome! Now let's see the immortals!

Ask and you shall recieve!
We simplified it some to save time I think they still look awesome.
8)

Yeah, still not bad... if you added the guitar wire (which you can do at any point), it will help to reinforce that these are immortals and not warriors, but it looks good enough to me!

ooh Nice!

I'm quite sure that the last post classifies as threadomancy..

Ayah threadromancy.