Samurai Conversion

Legacy40k

New member
First time posting on these forums, I guess I\'ll see what they are like. I know there are plenty of good artists here anyways.

I dont play LotR and have never even tried it. However, it is one of the smaller catagories in the Golden Demon, so I figured I would enter something for it at the Canadian Games Day.

So, after looking at Khandish.. and seeing how similar to samurai they were, I figured I would do some sculpting to one and see what I end up with. This is it. I had to resculpt a right hand, and face, both of which I have never done before. the face is a mask so it was pretty forgiving, the hand however, not as much, hard to make it small enough, but I think i managed. The photos dont really shot the thumb, but it is there.

Now.. if I am to have any hope of placing, this needs to be perfect, some things will look more clear with paint, but comments would be appreciated.

My biggest issue is with the helmet flairs, I worry about how strong they are, and how else I could do them.



Samurai1.jpg

Samurai2.jpg

Samurai3.jpg
 

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Hi Legacy40K and welcome.

The Helmet flares look ok to me, what I would suggest is the tassels on the horse, I\'ve seen examples and pictures where they were all along the front of the horse\'s chest. It might help complete the image.
:)
 

green stuff

Active member
First of all, welcome to the forum Legacy40k :).

Overall, I think you\'ve got the general technic down right on manipulating GS, but some areas need to be smoothed more IMHO. For instance, on the helmet, the mask looks spot on, however above you added a ceremonial crescent shape that doesn\'t have crisp edges, so it doesn\'t look like metal. You might also want to first do the shape on a flat lubricated surface to get the general design done and then transfer it to your miniature.

Do you have a >> clay/color shaper <<? They are great tools to smooth out GS and get perfect surfaces.
 

Ritual

New member
Welcome to the forums!

Your conversion looks really good and with green stuff\'s advice you could make it even better.

Before putting too much work into this, though, I\'d make certain that converted LotR minis are accepted in the Canadian GD. I know there have been prior GDs where LotR minis had to be in original versions.
 

Legacy40k

New member
Originally posted by Ritual
Welcome to the forums!

Your conversion looks really good and with green stuff\'s advice you could make it even better.

Before putting too much work into this, though, I\'d make certain that converted LotR minis are accepted in the Canadian GD. I know there have been prior GDs where LotR minis had to be in original versions.

Nowhere does it say that LotR models may not be converted for Canada, just if they are, they can\'t use any non LotR bits

The crescent will take a bit of work, that\'s the first version, and I\'m not at all happy with the way it turned out. The blade took 4 tries.. so maybe the crescent will too. It also hasn\'t been smoothed at all. My biggest issue with it is the brittleness at that size/thickness without any back support.

-Legacy40k
 

green stuff

Active member
Message original : Legacy40k
My biggest issue with it is the brittleness at that size/thickness without any back support.
For that you should give the shape that you want to your GS on a flat surface that you\'ve lubricated before working on it. Once in shape you let it cure 20 to 30 minutes and then you delicately apply it or glue it on the final surface depending how sticky it is (if you use water for lubrification then you won\'t need to glue it, vaseline or oil might be trickier).

The blade looks good by the way ;).
 

james sequeira

New member
hi havnt entered a gd so i dont have experience in that part but im sure i have seen somewhere that the judges mark higher for colour schemes that match the film i dont know if this is a proplem since this isnt an actual warrior from lotr
 

Legacy40k

New member
Originally posted by james sequeira
hi havnt entered a gd so i dont have experience in that part but im sure i have seen somewhere that the judges mark higher for colour schemes that match the film i dont know if this is a proplem since this isnt an actual warrior from lotr

My reasoning for picking this model was:

He looked half samurai to begin with, and samurai are cool.

It has not been done to death (I\'ve seen too many Gandalfs already!)

And.. He is not in the movie, meaning I have a bit of flexability in my colour scheme. In light of the fact that probably 30% of the models they have now did not appear in the films, I would expect that they can no longer use that as a judging criteria very well.

For those of you curious, the colouring will be the same as the armour Tom Cruise wears in \"the last samurai\", Dark Red and Black, with a flag on his back of.. well, undecided colours and symbol, probably a sun varient.

-Legacy40k
 

green stuff

Active member
Message original : james sequeira
hi havnt entered a gd so i dont have experience in that part but im sure i have seen somewhere that the judges mark higher for colour schemes that match the film i dont know if this is a proplem since this isnt an actual warrior from lotr
Not wanting to create a fuss or anything, but I think that when the judges see your mini, if it looks \"cool\" or \"artistic\" then they\'ll be smart enough to remember that mini. It\'s true that LotR minis are a bit a special case because of the license, but this Eowyn mini from Yannick Degiovanni got bronze at GD FR 2006 and I don\'t remember seeing Eowyn with that color in the movie :

fr05_lotr_3.jpg


Do what you think looks or feels good. Have fun painting first; doing what you think might please judges will spoil the fun IMHO.
 

RedSevenBlue

New member
Originally posted by Legacy40k
Originally posted by james sequeira
hi havnt entered a gd so i dont have experience in that part but im sure i have seen somewhere that the judges mark higher for colour schemes that match the film i dont know if this is a proplem since this isnt an actual warrior from lotr

My reasoning for picking this model was:

He looked half samurai to begin with, and samurai are cool.

It has not been done to death (I\'ve seen too many Gandalfs already!)

And.. He is not in the movie, meaning I have a bit of flexability in my colour scheme. In light of the fact that probably 30% of the models they have now did not appear in the films, I would expect that they can no longer use that as a judging criteria very well.

For those of you curious, the colouring will be the same as the armour Tom Cruise wears in \"the last samurai\", Dark Red and Black, with a flag on his back of.. well, undecided colours and symbol, probably a sun varient.

-Legacy40k


If you can\'t use that converted warrior in The LotR section, enter it in the open.
 

james sequeira

New member
@greenstuff i did put i wasnt sure but i did see something do do with them being painted in offical schemes to the movie but again not sure to the exact thing about it
 

hyper 01

New member
OK so as a recently departed GW employee i know what some of the rules are in the painting comp in Toronto, and as Legacy40k stated there are no paint scheme restrictions. The restrictions on the painting competition is that not mini can win in the LOTR categry if it contains bitz from 40k or Warhammer Fantasy. I hope this clears up any confusion.

So more power to the conversion and indevidual colour scheme\'s!
 
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