[singlepic id=930 w= h= float=center]These models go back a long ways to when I was working on my Beastmen army. I only ever finished 3 complete models at the time before I had a case of regrets and really stopped playing the army. So little did I realize when I started this unit 2 years ago (or three, or whatever it really was…) that I would be re-purposing them for a Daemon army.

I want to note that this conversion, while probably the most extensive ones I have ever done are not my original ideas. You can search the net for a number of ideas like these. Heck, that’s how I came up with this idea myself! While I was working on the Beastmen, after doing the research, did I realize another very highly recognized hobbiest of Pointhammered fame had done a very similar conversion himself. It kind of put a break on this hobby project and I moved on with other things and other armies at the time.

So, for this article though, I want to break down how these models were put together a little more so that you have everything you would need to complete this conversion yourselves.

Materials:

  • Plastic Chaos Daemonettes from GW
  • Plastic 40k Tyranid Gargoyle Wings
  • Plastic Wood Elf Dryad arms
  • Basing materials/components from the Forest Basing Article
  • Paperclips (for pinning)
  • Green Stuff (gap filling/breast and hair sculpting)

FuryStart
So I start with a daemonette body and head that I like. I add the head and leg pieces and glue them together and make sure they are set. Typically plastic pieces like this, I use plastic glue for and let it set before sculpting the green stuff second breast. There is something about the 1 breast Daemonettes that just creeps me out and while I understand what Games-Workshop is trying to do here, it’s just not what I am into. The first part of sculpting something like this is to get the initial shape right and smoothed out to the plastic. Once that has set up, roll a very tiny piece of green stuff and stick it to the round part of the breast for a nipple if you want. If the other breast is exposed on the model, which some of them are, you might want to add a nipple to that one as well. For that matter, you could just as easily skip this part and leave them alone and keep it a little more unnatural looking.

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Once that first wave of green stuff has fully set up, I start with mounting the gargoyle wings to the back. It is critical to dry fit the wings in place before pinning and gluing in place. The reason you want to do this should be obvious, but the gargoyle wings often won’t fit quite right if you want the wings to look like they are flapping. If they don’t fit with the wings on the backs the way I want, I just trim off a bit of the bottom part and scrape the cut with my hobby knife until it’s rounded. I also use paperclip pins to help hold the wings into place in the back of the model. Once the glue is set up (super glue for this application), I green stuff around the joins where the wings attach to the back to smooth this out and gap fill. Once this is done, let the green stuff set up. I like to let it set up overnight.

The next step has me working on the arms. I don’t like the pincer claws on these models. I was looking for something a bit more feral and forest like and new I had a box of dryads laying around. Looking at the wood elf rules, I knew I wasn’t going to use these figs for a future wood elf project so it was time to cannibalize another kit. Taking the arms from these models, I cut the arm just under the shoulder, about where the shoulder muscle (I know, tree creature right) would be. I then scrape it and clean it up and glue it with plastic glue in place on the dryad. Fiddle with the position of the arm until your happy with it. Using the plastic glue here gives you a little time to position the arm. Once the arm has bonded enough that it will stay in place, I usually do the other army in the same way. Guess what, it’s time to walk away again and I like to let it set up overnight.

Once the glue has cured, I like to scrape with a hobby knife the transition joint between the daemoneete and dryad arms until it is roughly smooth. It isn’t a large work area and your model can be a bit fragile so be careful. Once that is done, I evaluate the gap. If it looks smooth, I may leave it alone. More likely though, a little liquid green stuff or real green stuff to gap fill and smooth out the transition.

Finally, I don’t like bald heads. I have enough of that problem of my own! On these models I go back and add hair to their heads as necessary giving them nice long hair and braids some times.

Since there is so much down time between models and what I am able to do in a session, I tend to work on other models while I am working on one of these. I also just work one at a time, making sure it will kind of rank up with the others and enjoying personalizing each model. Once could turn out more of these at once, which would speed up the process, but I wouldn’t fool around too much with dry times for green stuff or glue.

When you are done, you have a great, completed unit like these:

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