Hello all and a big welcome back to this cool little series, looking at all the conversions and imaginations the artists of this community provide. Today we've got the grand privilege of having Arron of @ajb_minis taking control, and letting us into his brain for a little bit. I came across Arron's work early in my time within the community, and fell in love with his unique painting style. He was featured in one of the first few weekly showcases too!
However, we're not talking specifically about painting today; Arron will be going through some of his various converted projects to talk about the stories behind them, and share his insight, experience and knowledge with us all.
When it comes to painting miniatures, I often try and set myself a challenge to do things differently from the norm. Usually it’s in terms of my painting style or colours. A great example might be the Necron army I started after my 10 year hiatus from the hobby - Shiny silver and gold Necrons felt overdone, so opted for the most opposite scheme I could think of, a bone coloured scheme with rusty blue panels.
Sometimes though, playing with colours just doesn’t feel unique enough, and I occasionally dabble in a bit of converting and kitbashing to make my models truly feel my own. Indulge me, if you will, in a walk through some of my favourite conversions from recent years.
Necron Cultists
I’ve always had a soft spot for Necrons. They were one of the first Armies I ever played as a teenager, and as a result were my first 40k army when I returned to the hobby. My initial Necron conversions were very much inspired by some homebrew lore ideas I came up with.
One of those ideas was Necron Cultists. With the 40k universe being so broad, there must be a group of humans who saw the rise of immortal, living metal humanoids and decided to follow them like gods. In my mind, it seemed plausible that a Necron Overlord could look upon such a group of people with amusement, humouring their worship and allowing them to fight alongside their own armies.
When it came to conversions, it didn’t take much to make this idea come to life. The Blackstone Fortress cultists already made an ideal base for the sort of group I imagined, and I had plenty of spare Necron weaponry ready to kit them up with.
Necron Flayed Ones
While this was a relatively simple conversion, it got my mind thinking about other ways to make my army unique. Eventually I decided I was going to give some Flayed Ones a go.
Don’t get me wrong, Flayed Ones already have some truly chilling sculpts, but I never really vibed with the idea that they would suddenly just hunch over and grow claws. In the lore, the Flayer Virus is always referred to as a form of madness, and there’s a quote from Szarech, the Silent King about the Flayer Virus that reads: “Though our individual afflictions may take different forms, sooner or later we will all be lost to madness."
This quote perfectly describes my vision for my conversion - each model succumbing to a bloodthirsty madness in a uniquely twisted way.
Each of these models was a fun exploration of individual characterisation, each draped in either humanoid or T’au flesh (because why not). If you look closely at each model you can hopefully see some of the thinking that went into each one. Some are desperately trying to satiate an impossible hunger, some are collecting trinkets or weapons from slaughtered foes, some have succumbed to eerie augmentations, and some look straight out of a horror film.
I think what I’m most pleased about with these Flayed Ones is how the flesh came out. I bought a pot of Liquid Green Stuff, and didn’t really think it was very useful for it’s intended purpose of gap filling. What I did realise though, is that if you use it without any water, you can stretch and pull it across a model, and it gives you a really organic texture, which at a small scale can look like shredded skin. Some clever placement of it coiled around limbs and raping off, paired with some Blood for the Blood God paint and it really looks quite gnarly.
Hexmork Destroyer
I’m not sure why this one made the list, it’s just a regular Necron and definitely not an Ork in Disguise…
Okay, so unlike the other conversions here, this one was purely just for the fun of it. I’ve always been a little envious of the fun that Ork players get to have with their models. It feels like there’s no wrong answer when it comes to converting them, and this idea was inspired by the many wacky conversions of Ork Kommandos disguised as barrels or tank parts. Perhaps a particularly sneaky ork believes he can fool a whole army of Necrons into thinking he’s one of them? The only thing that’s for sure is that nobody would see it coming.
Aeldari Exodites
If you haven’t heard of Aeldari Exodites, they’re Aeldari who decided to separate themselves from the corruption of the rest of their race, instead opting to live more primitive lives and riding dinosaurs. Yes you read that right, there are canonically dinsoaur-riding eldar, which for some reason Games Workshop don’t want to produce models for.
I’m by no means the first person to convert my own, but I like to think I’ve taken a relatively unique approach to my own conversions, using a combination of Aeldari parts, old Wood Elf parts, greenstuff and a handful of odd bits to create a group of Storm Guardians who have embraced their overgrown homeworld, incorporating the mangled roots and branches as part of their cloaked outfits.
I think this is a good example of how it really helps to think consciously about the story you want to tell with your conversions. This really helped me out with deciding some of the smaller details on the models, for example that they may use a combination of spears and bows for hunting, in addition to their more martial weapons, or the model with an owl on their arm, ready to send out to scout the terrain ahead. All of the models are also draped in furs, which would also be readily available to them.
I absolutely loved this little conversion project and absolutely aim to return to it at some point, probably for some fun dino-rider conversions.
Gryselle’s Arenai
Most of my conversions are for Warhammer 40k, mainly because I find it a little easier to convert sci-fi models than fantasy models. Despite that, I find I typically prefer to paint miniatures for Age of Sigmar and it’s related games. One of those games is Warhammer Underworlds, which is where this warband is from.
When Gryselle’s Arenai released, many players were a bit disappointed with them visually and that their masked faces all looked a little dull. I think it’s good to remember that even if you don’t like something about a model, that doesn’t mean it’s worth ignoring. After my short Exodite project I was really enjoying using wood elf parts, so had the great idea to turn these murderous Daughters of Khaine into some traditional looking wood elves.
The poses on the original models were actually really energetic, so when you look at the unpainted conversion you can see how it doesn’t always require significant changes to overhaul the feel of the model. Just a couple of parts swapped and a paint scheme that ties the concept together.
Daughters of Khaine
While talking about easy, yet impactful conversions there are two more Aelves I’d like to show off. Both of these were created as unique looking heroes for an army of mine, simply because I had an idea in my head that I wanted to bring to life. A slaughter Queen converted from a Genestealer Cults Magus, and a Khinerai hero with feathered wings (who now conveniently fits in with the new Krethusa the Croneseer). Both of these are relatively simple conversions, utilising just simple swaps of heads, weapons and wings, but the final results are unique and feel really fun to use in a game.
Soulblight Zombie Dragon
When Age of Sigmar first released their new Dragon models, I knew I wanted to have one, despite not being a Stormcast player. I did however have a small collection of Soulblight heroes (which has now evolved into a full army) and I’m not really a fan of their Zombie dragon. At the same time, a buddy of mine had an unwanted Dragon with some cosmetic damage, so was able to hook me up. The damage to the model didn’t bother me, because I knew the way to make this unique would be to chop it up and add plenty of gore.
There are a number of details that help sell the undead feel, including the vampire rider and skull-filled base, but what really makes this unique is the torn flesh all over the dragon. I carefully selected areas to cut sections out of the model, and then filled in the muscles with greenstuff, and adding torn, hanging skin around the wounds. I also completely removed it’s stomach, replacing it with some hanging intestines and guts.
Sword-wielding Redemptor Dreadnought
Finally, this dreadnought is my latest venture into converting. I had a bit of a vision to make my dreadnought a little more ‘knightly’, to fit in better with the lore of the Dark Angels and their successors. I’d seen some great conversion kits online, but I wanted to go a step further than that and make my dreadnought almost into more of a mini diorama, giving it a huge dreadnought-sized power sword, resting against a rock as it surveys the battlefield ahead.
This obviously meant a fair bit of work to repose the legs and arms, but also there aren’t many dreadnought-sized swords out there, so I took it upon myself to craft one of my own, using a combination of plasticard, spare bits, greenstuff and some wires and cables to power it. The Sword itself ended up being about twice the size of a regular Space Marine.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey through my thought process when converting, and some of the fun creations I’ve come up with. Hopefully this gives you some inspiration to go out and convert something of your own. I’m always down to see what cool things people create, so feel free to reach out to me at @ajb_minis on social media and share something of your own. Until then, happy hobbying!
Well that was pretty cool eh? What a wonderful run down of Arron's converted projects, featuring lots of useful and interesting pieces for you all to go and dissect. As Arron has written his piece so very well, there isn't much need for my input today. But just because those Necron Flayed Ones are so horrifically beautiful, here's a collage of them in all their glory.
Thank you so very much to Arron for his time, effort and dedication in providing such a well written piece. I'm truly grateful for all of the artists that dedicate so much time to share their insights with us all, so I hope you can repay by the favour by ensuring that you check them all out and stay up to date with their journey through the miniature painting (and converting) world. And once again, you can find Arron over at @ajb_minis to check out his work further, and perhaps harass him with awe and applause
If you've been working on some conversions, and would like to share your perspective and wisdom with the world, or just show off your talent, then please get in touch via this site, plasticpreacher@gmail.com or @plasticpreacher on Instagram.
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful Easter weekend!
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