writes:
Last December, a couple of friends and I agreed to meet at the Convention du Zombie Qui Pue (that is, "The Stinking Zombie Convention" AKA "L'auberge Ludique"), a new mid-April convention near Paris organised by one of us, and run WarEngine demo games.
For the occasion, I had decided to design a brand-new force of Rednecks that would appeal to the participants, and be characteristic of the Shock Force range. This would also be a first opportunity to promote one of the sponsors of the upcoming Iron Dream Tournament, as Dark Tortoise Productions have kindly accepted to support this year's show. So I gave my 750-pt army some thought, wrote down a few ideas, and carefully planned an order before placing it at the Shockforce Warehouse.
Unfortunately, a couple of weeks later, it turned out that we couldn't attend that convention! Therefore, although I originally had other plans, I decided to play this force at Iron Dream Tournament 4 – the greatest WarEngine tournament in the world! I was confirmed in this idea by the fact that Codex: Redneckland was the last one published, which would give me an obvious edge over the other contestants – if all of them didn't buy a Redneck army for the occasion, of course!
Problem was, games at the IDT are usually played at 1,500 points. I therefore revised my initial army list, deciding to toss in a few vehicles - some of which I already had (like the Porkinov Catapult and the War Tractor); for others, I would buy Ainsty pick-up trucks.
Army Overall Design
The overall idea is pretty simple: I found the "good ole boyz" figures by Dark Tortoise Productions hilarious. I find they catch the very essence of inbreeding and foetal alcoholism. Their style is very cartoony, however, so they don't mix in very well with the few other Redneck figures on the market; I therefore wanted to use them exclusively for my army, which would represent the Moffit branch of the dreaded O'Donocul clan, the most powerful clan in Redneckland. (I knew David Moffit at the Shockforce Warehouse would for sure appreciate the honour of having his name associated to those fine specimens.)
Problem was... there are only 4 poses of them (which is a shame):
- "Chainsaw Boy," who, well, wields a chainsaw
- "Banjo Boy," my favourite, armed with a double-barrelled shotgun and a fork, and has a bayonet-banjo strapped to his back
- "Mechanic Boy," has a monkey wrench and a pistol
- "Longcoat Boy," has a knife and an SMG
I had about 20 of them - now, I had to convert them for variety. That's the point of this Workbench article, in which I'll show some of my attempts at converting the boys.
I had plans for most of them... yet I wasn't sure I would be able to realise them, as I had never used greenstuff, and was a bit doubtful about my sculpting skills. I decided not to worry about it and go ahead, which is the way to go.
So, what's the plan?
The characters I wanted to do were the following: Sheriff Dave "Hound-dog" Moffit and Pop Singer Dave "King" Moffit would be the military and spiritual leaders of my boys. The Sheriff (a must-have for any respectable Redneck force) would be equipped with an assault rifle and a bottle of moonshine. The Pop Singer would have a microphone to amplify his cover of Don't be Cruel into his opponents' ears, and a bottle of moonshine as well.
I can already hear people yelling, "What, 2 characters, both equipped with bottles of moonshine! That's outrageous beardy abuse, you're a cheesy powergamer - die, scum, die!" Well, you can't decently enter the Iron Dream Tournament, the greatest wargaming challenge of the universe, and bring an army that hasn't a little thought into it. There was that Shaolin monk, last year, who didn't even go through the pre-selections because his army list was considered too weak, and I didn't want to go home without fighting. Plus, it is commonly admitted that army building is one of the most exciting parts of the Dark Tortoise Productions hobby. So the hell with the cheese-beard-powergaming accusations!
Dave "Reflexes" Moffit, Dave "Nukem" Moffit, and Dave "Toxie" Moffit would be my elite storm unit; all of them would have submachine guns.
Dave "Howdy" Moffit would lead my other storm trooper unit of 3, which would be armed with shotguns. Another conversion in the unit would be Dave "Quaker" Moffit. Those two units would ride in Chevvie pick-up trucks – my opponents would have to suffer my Yee-ha's, which would give me an additional psychological edge.
Two other assault units would go on foot. Real close-combat brutes, the Leatherfaces wear masks made of the skins of animals they defeated in hand-to-hand combat. Dave "Hog-Wassler" Moffit, who's got a pig's bottom on his face, would lead Dave "Moo" Moffit and Dave "Bullfrog" Moffit into the fray. If that wasn't enough, Dave "Davy" Moffit could unleash the wrath of his fierce combat pigs.
Long-range back up would be provided by a seven-man unit armed with assault rifles and led by Dave "Scorpion" Moffit (AKA "The Redneck Scorpion"). In this unit would also be Dave "Worm" Moffit, Dave "Nihilist" Moffit, and televangelist Dave "Humble" Moffit.
Every figure in the army would be carrying close-combat weapons – that was points well spent, and would no doubt make up for the lack of lascannons.
Now, On To The Conversion Part
When you have heavy conversion work, I feel you must first ensure:
- you have a careful plan for the conversions, and an idea of the paint scheme
- you do hats - a hat magically gives character to any miniature
- you have all the required bits and bobs, like weapons and such. This you must do long enough in advance, so that you can order them before the conversion work begins
- you have the required material: clippers, a file, a small saw, greenstuff and a sculpting tool. I also recommend Araldite to glue firmly all the stuff you'll add to the figures
- you can use existing cast-detail to back up your sculpting, so that it is more solid
The Elite
I used Banjo Boy as the basis for all three figures. I sawed and clipped off the banjo strapped to his back on all three figures ; I would sculpt a strap on their back in its place.
I cut off Toxie's shotgun to replace it with an SMG, and left the stick of his fork, on which I sculpted a mop. I then sculpted a bald head and a tutu. When his head was dry, I added some greenstuff on his left cheek to make it deformed, and sculpted a displaced eye.
I carefully cut Dave "Reflexes" Moffit's hands at the wrist, which I would then swap with Longcoat Boy's. I clipped off the hat, and left its front. I used it to do the peak of his cap. I sculpted some high boots. When the cap was dry, I added long hair behind his neck.
I replaced Nukem's fork with an SMG, and began with sculpting him boots and a bald head, as I had done with Toxie. Once it was dry, I sculpted some hair on, and sunglasses. I stuck a rucksack on his back.
The Storm Troopers
As with Nukem, I began work on Howdy by sculpting a bald head to which I'd add long hair once dry. I also gave him sunglasses and sculpted a fold in the middle of his belly, because this one would be wearing a chequered shirt, not a T-shirt.
Davy and Quaker are both based on Longcoat Boy. I sawed their head off above eye-level. Davy received a fur hat, with a nice tail at the back, and I gave him Reflexes' weapons: a shotgun, and a fork to push the combat pigs into close combat.
For the Quaker, I carefully cut a disc in thin, transparent plasticard, and stuck it with Araldite on his head. Using transparent plasticard allowed me to centre it more easily. I bent and clipped the long knife he had in his left hand into a rectangular shape, and sculpted the cross around it. The other hand received a shotgun (I had to resculpt its butt to he could carry it in a satisfying position).
The Shooty Gits
Humble was quickly done, as I simply changed the weapon for an assault rifle, and clipped off the sort-of-button in the middle of his hat to replace it with a cross. An adapted paint job would do the rest.
Nihilist was a bit more tricky. I used Mechanic as its basis. I clipped off the peak of his cap, and sculpted a helmet around it. I sculpted boots, and added greenstuff all over his upper body to turn his overall into a biker's outfit. Once dry, I sculpted a zip across his chest and belly. Final details were a long lock of hair in front of his left eye, and a small moustache.
For Worm, I first sculpted the eye-patch, then the process was the same as for Howdy and Nukem: bald head, then hair added. Problem was, I didn't want him to have that long beard. I simply clipped it off and resculpted the square chin, and the top of his T-shirt in its place. I replaced the SMG with an assault rifle.
The Redneck Scorpion had his left hand replaced with Longcoat's, and an assault rifle in place of his shotgun. I sawed the top of his head off and sculpted a beret. Then I added a couple of additional details, like the boots and the side pockets, and finally stuck a rucksack on his back with Araldite.
I really like this one.
The Leatherfaces
The Leatherfaces all have animal skins on their faces - I stuck a flat frog on the first one, a cow's muzzle on the second one, and a pig's bottom on the last one (with the nice corkscrew tail at nose-level). Et voila.
The Heroes
Now, on to the heroes. The Sheriff would assist the Redneck Scorpion in commanding the shooty guys, so I also gave him an assault rifle. First, I cut the top of his straw hat, and remodelled it with greenstuff to make it look like a Stetson. I also had to remodel the back of the hat, which fell on his neck. I sculpted a small sheriff's star on his chest, put a cigar-end in his mouth, and sculpted the fold of a shirt, as I had done with Howdy. I cut off his right hand and replaced it with the one of another figure (in the Scarlet Brethren range) carrying a bottle of moonshine.
I did the same with the King, which for once has another body than his fellows. I used the one of another miniature in the range (adequately called "the King"). The head had to be coherent with the rest, however, so I began work on Mechanic's head. I clipped off his cap, leaving only the middle part of the peak to support the hair, and covered the head with greenstuff to sculpt the almighty quiff and the rest of the hair, including the long side-whiskers. Then, I cut the head off of both minis (which was a pain), and put the new head on the King's body.
Here We Are!
It did take some time, but I have my Redneck Army From Hell ready to prime.
All in all, I found the results rather satisfying, and I learned a lot from the whole process (so I should do better next time!).
I'd like to thank David "the real one" Moffit for being such a great guy to deal with, as well as keeping Shock Force/WarEngine going, for sponsoring the IDT4, and for taking the time to read through this article before I sent it to our beloved Editor.