"Kit Bashing with Plastics" Topic

With all the ancient plastic kits out now, has anyone had a go at mixing them to create other troop types? I really like Victrix sets which look great for this (the Greek stuff definitely mixes well, I've got plenty of conversions in my hoplite armies) but I wonder if it works outside of that range, and even across different manufacturers.

I'd love to make some plastic thureophoroi, but not worked out good parts to use yet!

I noticed that this was your first post and I wanted to welcome you aboard. As for your question, I have seen a lot of people on this site not only mix parts from ancient Greek miniatures from various manufactures, but a number of people have mixed parts from ancient Greek plastic miniatures with those from Perry's Madhist Ansars and plastic Numidians from some other manufacturer to come up with some very interesting combinations (Greek Peltasts, Arabs for Seluecid armies, etc.).

Yes I have 80 Perry Answar converted into Seleucid Arabs by a friend. They are very effective.

@BigRedBat: pics please….

I'll have some in a day or so. Some can be seen here on his blog, though:

link

He used Aventine shields and some Victrix heads (on the second wave, not shown).

Not quite what you had in mind, but the first conversions I saw in the flesh were a block of pikemen made from the Airfix Robin Hood set.

The Wargames Factory Numidians are a great base mini to use for conversions. I buy packs of shields off of sellers on ebay,as well as heads/weapons bits from Horde O'Bits online. Easy way to make up Penal/Levy Legions, Psiloi, etc.

I made the Airfix Robin Hood figures into peltasts.

I have hacked apart Perry's Mahdists and Gripping Beast's Dark Ages Warriors (as well as a Warlord Games Roman) to make Dark Ages Irish and pre-islamic bedouins.
Irish:
link

I have a plan to make thureophoroi from the Victrix Carthaginian Citizen Infantry for a Pontic army: link

Could be a while before I get to it though….

I made the Airfix Robin Hood figures into peltasts.

Ha, I made the airfix gallic chariot horses and the airfix Robin hood figures into Gallic cavalry, a lot of chopping and pinning was involved. They met a horrible untimely end at the hands of my 2 year niece, she absolutely destroyed them.

Thureophoroi – check the Agema Facebook site, scroll back a fair way. link

Agema Velites as the basis for thureophoroi – add say Victrix or other Greek heads and either metal thureos or spare ones from say the Victrix Carthaginian citizens set.

I mix and matched some Wargames Factory Saxons and Amazons to create Gloranthan Lunars for Frostgrave:
link

I feel the Gripping Beast Dark Age warriors is one of the most versatile sets available.

Combine them with heads from the Saxon Thegns or separate metal West Wind for Late Roman/ Arthurian levy and warriors.
Can be used as almost anything from AD300- 1100.

I'm kit-bashing WF's Numidians, Caesarian Romans, Celts and Germans for Spartacus' army. The newer Victrix sets are a new, added source of conversion material.

Thanks for the welcome Kevin C!

There's some really interesting ideas here, but why do the Robin Hood miniatures seem to get so much use? Are they in really generic clothing or something?

I'm loving the ideas for thureophoroi, thank very much for all of that! Just need to get some extra later Greek helmets that would fit for Hellenistic-era troops.

The Robin Hood miniatures were one of only three Airfix Ancient sets available at one time- Romans*, Robin Hood and Sherriff of Nottingham. Consequently they were converted to just about anything one can imagine!

*IIRC the Ancient Britons came out a little later

It is possible many mercenary thureophoroi were from Anatolia (Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, etc.). I have used a few of the Gripping Beast dark ages figures plus thureos to represent these.

Does anyone know how many Hellenistic style helmets you get in the larger of the two Victrix Carthaginian sets?

Yes, I am actually in the moment of kit bashing Wargames Factory Saxon Fyrd into Late Roman Nautae/sailors. I wanted a Ripenses for Hail Caesar that could be used for Saxon Shore/Rhine/Danube riverine scenarios but no one makes Late Roman armed sailors. So…

I've cut off some of the heads to sculpt (at least attempt to sculpt) scutula type floppy hats. Other heads in the kit already have phyrgian caps and others I left bare-headed.

The large round shields I gave to "elite crested infantry" from Footsore that are my milites classiarii and used the Footsore round shields, as they're smaller, for the sailors.

The plastic spears look great as javelins but I'm adding javelin cases from Essex for over the shoulder cases on the javelinmen.

Some arms are attached at the hands to hold a two-handed weapon. I swiped some double-headed axes from my WF Orcs sprues to proxy as the double-headed nautical axe bipennis.

One guy even has a two-handed mallet I had in my bitz box

It seems Roman Nautae also used the falx quite a bit but I couldn't find any and I didn't want to buy an entire box of plastic Dacians just to find out that they are molded to the arms. So I found some romphaia (also from Essex) and it is close enough for government work.

The archers have Gripping Beast composite bows.

For the bases, I got a very thin, laser-cut deck from a model ship company. I'll cut that into 20x20 squares and place them over Rendara plastic bases with metal paper adhered underneath. Cut the plastic bases from the models and drill a .05mm hole in the base and foot of the model and attach with wire.

That is the kit-bashing project I'm slogging through at the moment. All in all I am kinda excited with how they're turing out. Most of the figures are already together except for a couple of arms and heads that fell off – looks like it will have to be pin & vice with wire. That is the one thing I don't like about plastics, they're too fragile.