More W. Britians conversions

These past two weeks I've been making nearly as many conversions as did the Spaniards in Meso-America.

My two Confederate regiments are guys from Texas and Virginia - fifty-five from the Old Dominion and sixty-seven from the Lone Star state.  With that many soldiers, duplicates were inevitable. While this may go against the grain for serious W. Britains collectors, I've spent the past three weeks making conversions to transform the duplicates into individuals, and I'm very happy with the results.

For some reason this Rebel with the skeptical look on his face, seems to be a glut on the market...with two or three frequently available on ebay on any given day.

In my rush to build a regiment I lost track of how many of this guy that I had accumulated.  It turned out that I had seven of him...it was like a clone army.   With saw, files, epoxy, and paint, I got to work.

For some of the figures the modifications were minimal, including this guy.  I sawed off his rifle arm simply to change the position of his rifle.  I also repainted his hat and added cuff facings.

The most involved conversion included changing the positions of the arms and legs; in this instance to make the guy look like he was running faster.  I started by sawing one foot free of the base.

The next step was to saw nearly through his knee, and then bend it to the desired angle.

Next came the two-part epoxy to fill the gap.

Dealing with the bare metal that was left behind was pretty simple, with just glue, sawdust, and paint.

In addition to his leg, I also bent his arm at the elbow and changed the position of his rifle arm.

Armed with a flat-file, I gave him a flat-topped straw hat and painted his jacket butternut.

The difference is significant and the result was very satisfying.

I also gathered my other duplicates and started swapping heads:

Another advancing rebel figure provided opportunities, as I had five of them.

With their modified captain, they can now charge confidently into battle...clones no more.

This was a really fun project, with satisfying results.  I'll see you in a few weeks with another report from the toy soldier studio; until then...

Soldier on!

Mannie