The Conversion Corner: Easterling Dragon Cult Acolytes

On this instalment of the Conversion Corner, I'll be following on from my article 2 weeks ago and will be taking a look at the Easterling Dragon Cult Acolytes. This is a very recent release, which has received a few mixed reviews. And while it's not for me to comment on those specific issues, I do feel that the models didn't totally hit the mark in terms of the Easterling aesthetic, and also feel a bit out of place with the SBG range as a whole. However, this is just my opinion - yours may vary completely - and these models are converted to suit my personal tastes and aren't meant to invalidate the originals in any way! 

I wanted to bring across a few of the design elements from the rest of the force to these new models - in particular, I wanted to change the heads and the arms to make the models feel a little less 'heroic' and a little more 'historical' - and I'm fairly happy that I achieved that.

First up, the finished results!

This conversion really wasn't all that tricky - just a little time consuming. I've had a little bit of converting experience while putting the rest of this force together, but I am far from an expert, so if I can do it, I'm sure it would be no problem for your average hobbyist. 

Here are the tools I used - just a few diamond files, some clay / oil paint shaping tools (readily available from art shops and online retailers), and a home-made shaping tool. If it looks like it's just a sword that's glued and green stuffed on to the end of an old paint brush handle... Well, there's probably a reason for that. 

In addition to these, I just needed some green stuff, and I also used a little bit of Milliput for gap filling, but this wasn't all that necessary, and you could use your gap filling method of choice. 

I of course also needed some new heads - I used Easterling Warriors, with the aim of making these models look a lot more similar to my rank and file troops. If you've bought a box of warriors and only needed to use the pikes, then not to worry - you'll have 16 spare heads left over! (Not that I'm bitter about it or anything...)

You could also use Kataphrakt heads for this. I wasn't as keen on them, and found them a bit bulky and dominant on the model, but your mileage may vary!

Firstly, I shaved off the top of the head using a flat file, right down to the scarf that wraps all the way around the head. This is really conveniently placed, and provides a very nice, natural looking joining point for the new helmet with minimal effort. 

Note - ALWAYS use a respirator when filing resin, and try to do it in a well-ventilated area. This stuff is not good for your lungs.

Next up is the heartbreaking bit - or potentially not, depending on your opinion of the model's faces! At a roughly 90 degree angle to the previous filing, I used a flat file to begin shaving down the face to a flat surface. Try to avoid touching the shoulders and the robes, as it's quite easy to nick them and cause damage during this filing.

To keep everything straight and true, I used this triangular marking at the back of the head to make sure that my new 'face' surface was flat and wasn't leaning off to one side. 

I was left with this 'peg'.

Time to test fit the helmet. The aim is to have the top part of the helmet completely covering the flat surface we created earlier, so that it just about protrudes out at the back of the head. You can see here that there's a long way to go, which is intentional - it's much better to file a bit and then check against the helmet how much further you need to go. I did this a tiny bit at a time, making sure I never filed too far, and checking that all the angles were correct.

I also used a sharp file and hobby knife to carve out the inside corner of the Easterling Warrior helmet. There is actually a small curve to this part, and sharpening up this angle really helped it to fit more tightly on to the 'peg'.

This is almost there. I continued filing the face back a little bit more, to make sure that the top part of the helmet was centred over the head.

Once the head is fitted well, I glued it in to place, and used a tiny amount of milliput and water to cover the small seams on each side where the plastic meets the resin.

A shot of all of the heads fitted. At this point I was happy that I had a decent idea on my hands - now just to do something about those arms.

The first step was to roll out some green stuff. After mixing, I flattened the piece of green stuff with my fingers, before sandwiching it between two sheets of waxed paper. Be sure to use plenty of water here, or it will stick. I used the handle of a hobby knife to roll it out to a thickness of 1mm or less- I'm sure you can do a much neater job than I did, but it won't matter much at the next step. Don't go too thin or it will just stick to the paper. 

Note: some people have told me that unwaxed baking paper works better here. I did not personally have any luck with it, so I think it's best to try with what you have - you may get lucky. Even if the paper sticks a little bit, as mine did, you can just apply some water and try again. 

Here I'm just checking the arm against the green stuff to see roughly how much of it I'll need to cut out. I then cut a small rectangle out and wrap it around the exposed skin, stopping just before the bracers. 

Here's the trickier part, and there is no exact science here - using the clay shaping tools and plenty of water, I pushed and coerced the green stuff around until it made one continuous wrap around the upper arm. I gently pushed it up towards the bracers so that it covered the upper arm with one seamless 'cloth' wrap. If the green stuff tears, it's possible to add a small dot to cover the gap. I continued working it with my tools until the arm was completely covered. 

I pushed any excess green stuff upwards towards the top of the arm, and kept smoothing it out until it formed one continuous thin layer. 

Here you can see that some green stuff was pushed up over the shoulder - I just trimmed this away with a wet hobby knife. 

Time to add texture. Again, there is no real recipe for this - but using the clay shaping tools, I gently prodded and pushed the green stuff into fabric-looking folds. This took a bit of trial and error, and I will definitely change my process a lot for the next time, but the good news is that if you're not happy with the way it looks you can smooth over the green stuff and try again. When making these folds, I tried to picture the cloth hanging from the upper parts of the arm, and this indicated the direction the creases would lie.

After I was happy with the rough layout of the folds, I left the green stuff to firm up for about an hour, and then came back to smooth everything over, and to sharpen up a few of the more dramatic folds with my plastic 'shaping tool'.

Note - I've since been informed that vaseline is really helpful at this stage to stop the tools from snagging on the green stuff. 

A shot from the back - this was the first model I worked on, and I'm the least happy with the fabric on this one. Fortunately, I learned a lot, which was applied over the next couple of models, which I'm significantly happier with. 

The three models after sculpting the sleeves.

The irritating thing about scuplting the sleeves is that it's very difficult to do this seamlessly without gluing the arms in to place. This made painting the models a bit trickier, but it was still doable with a bit of dexterity! I left one arm detached, as it really would have made painting too difficult. This resulted in a slightly more visible seam once it was glued on to the model, but it's not a big issue. 

The bases were made with milliput and a green stuff rolling pin. I smoothed a thin layer of milliput over the base, thoroughly wet it with water, and applied the cobblestone rolling pin. I trimmed off the excess milliput around the edges while it was still wet, and tidied it up with sandpaper the next day before gluing the models in place and priming. 

After priming. Once the primer is down  you can really spot any imperfections, so I went back in with a few files and a sanding sponge to smooth out a few rough spots. 

And after painting! I struggled a little bit with the colour scheme for these models - I really wanted to showcase the red colour on the upper body, but after testing this out, it just looked WAY too red. I dialled this back and in the end I went with a scheme that's quite similar to what GW used for their demo Acolyte models. However, I went with red for the head scarves, as I feel that this balances the model out a little better. 

A couple of people were curious about the scale of these models compared to Easterling Warriors, so here is an image to show how they look alongside their brothers in arms.

Thank you for reading - and good luck on your own conversions!