This article does not fall easily into any of the categories.  It’s a little bit of modification and a little bit of scenario building.  Blend together for a little pisky magic.  This isn’t a “How to do it,” it’s a “How I did it”.  I’ll also attempt to record my thought processes, including ideas I rejected.  I hope there may be something here to inspire your own projects.
 
Paints used were Vallejo acrylics where I had the right colours or old tubes of various artists’ acrylics when I didn’t.  Undercoat was a car spray undercoat.  Photography was the best I could manage with my Pentax Optio 550 compact.
 
I write my own Advanced Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and I wanted our party of adventurers to meet some pixies, or, as they are known in Cornwall, pixys, pisgys or piskys.  The nearest match to what I envisaged was Reaper’s #2445 “Fairies”.  I waited four weeks for an English supplier who said he’d ordered them for me, then cancelled that, and ordered them direct, waiting another two ...