Conversion is one of the quintessential aspects of Warhammer as a hobby, as even the most rule-following model builders will still make choices different to the box art. Intrinsically, this makes sense—Warhammer models are yours, and the angle at which a marine holds his gun is going to be different model-to-model, player-to-player. Conversion is a natural extension of that, further personalizing your miniatures by adding components, whether molded or sculpted, beyond what’s included in a given box set. Almost everyone has at least one converted model in their army, but what of the ambitious project of converting an entire force? As someone who’s done around ~6 total full conversion armies in my hobbying career, since 2010, I have some tips to avoid horror stories, and ensure a project reaches completion, even be playable at the tournament level! I’m here today to talk about why your dudes should be just that, truly personal, and how to plan out the path towards a fully converted army.
The first step to this entire process comes from the concept itself—what’s the thing that separates this force from the ‘generic’ choice? That might be down to personalized iconography or swapped heads, but can go as far as you want! My personal path for a converted force often begins by identifying two ranges from Games Workshop that I enjoy, and imagining how they could ‘fit together’, borrowing pieces from one to use in the other, fully-formed army. This can be corrective or additive; maybe you just don’t like the look of part of an army, and want to feel out your own interpretation. Perhaps sticking extra bits to existing kits is what you seek! In either case, whether the exchanged pieces are from Warhammer or not, I absolutely recommend making a spreadsheet. For each unit you intend to convert, create a list of the expected pieces used, and where. If you’re using heads from one box for another, how many will you need?
This can help you plan the financial choices that surround a converted force, as 99% of the time it will end up more expensive than buying normal boxes. The good news is that, after cataloguing planned conversions, perhaps it shows you’ll be using ‘every part of the buffalo’ from a given box, meaning it makes sense to buy it in earnest rather than piecemeal from a secondary retailer. As an example, my current pet project has been Ash Waste Admech, taking largely from three ranges, being the Adeptus Mechanicus, Ash Waste Nomads, and…Sylvaneth? This is where creative repurposing is essential, as when I began the project, the Nomads had only 4 kits to their name, and that simply wasn’t enough. By expanding the scope of the project to include tons of the insectoid spites from Sylvaneth, I was able to reinforce that non-Tyranid insect theming using kits few 40k players would be familiar with. I’ve gone on to use the woodsy half of these remaining trees as part of my full conversion Gloomspite Gitz project, essentially splitting the aesthetic between two forces, being able to use it in full.
The next central question is one of counts-as, because if you plan on using your models in a tournament capacity, you need to meet some more specific criteria with conversions. The vast majority of players will never enter a tournament, and that’s all well & good, but I recommend at least an RTT-level event for nearly everyone who plays a Games Workshop game. It’s a fantastic way to test your mettle and play against armies you’ve never fought before!
Now, let’s talk about WYSIWYG, pronounced ‘wis-ee-wig’, being ‘What you see is what you get’. This is an important term, and one that gets tossed around quite a bit; most models are fully glued, without magnetized pieces or the ability to exchange components, and an even greater amount of full conversions will be so, often due to sculpted pieces or the need to make new attachment points work. The actual meaning is generally understood to be that your models are equipped with whatever weapon/armor/etc are representative of their rules in your list. For Age of Sigmar, this is largely okay, given the vast majority of the game has kits for whom their loadout is the same across profiles, differing only in the case of altered sheets for spears vs swords on a Battleline unit, for example. It’s quite a different story for 40k, however.
In 40k, loadouts matter, and matter quite a lot. The entire role and threat capacity of a squad can be hundreds of points different depending on what gun they’re wielding, and nothing feels worse than misplaying because of incorrect threat assessment. In casual, this is easier to roll back, but in a competitive capacity you can get in some seriously hot water if someone suspects you of ‘modelling for advantage’, if the TO okayed your army.
That brings up an important point—even if you’ve done your best to ensure your miniatures are clear, check with a Tournament Organizer just in case. Some good rules of thumb are as follows: 1. When planning your army out, note which weapons will represent which other weapons, and stick to it! 2. Within a given list, never have two different loadouts be close in appearance. To follow point 1, it’s important counts-as is kept the same across different units. If you’re playing a less popular faction, you can usually get away with not magnetizing more than most, given an opponent won’t know one gun from another at a glance, but if you play something like Marines, people know what a Heavy Bolter looks like. 3. Always default to the worst possible outcome, for a tournament question. If your model might or might not be visible, default to the option that’s better for your opponent; this avoids accusations of modelling for advantage, and in the grand scheme will likely even out across enough games.
Via EternalHunt
The rules seem pretty obvious once they’re laid out, but in short, Plan ahead, Be clear, and Be Courteous. If you have a paper trail it means that, should you end up needing more of a given unit, you know exactly how they were built the first time. Speaking as someone who went from 10 to 50 converted Electro-Priests…this part was crucial. In buying ‘bitz’, or components sold per piece rather than on sprue, it’s also going to be far cheaper to purchase them in bulk or as a single order, so this planning helps save on cost as well. Asking your friends who play armies you might want to nick bitz from is also a great idea! Your community will always have a greater spread of armies than just you, and most people would rather their spare pieces be used in a finished model than lay in waste in a baggy. When your models are ready for the table, be prepared to fully explain what counts as what to a greater extent than you may normally, doubly so if your chosen units are unpopular or otherwise rare to see on the tabletop. The best feeling is folks assuming you have the actual kit, that it ‘doesn’t look like a conversion’, with a seamless integration. To be invisible, or perhaps better than the original, is the goal of the best conversions out there. A fully converted on the tabletop therefore is a thing of beauty, and will often deserve a display board to go with it! I hope to have mine ready by the end of October, for Armies on Parade.
That being said, I hope you’ve learned a thing or two about planning ahead for your first converted army! The scale of a project like this can be quite a bit different than converting a single hero, and it’s an involved process. Do you have a converted army you’d like to share? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments below!
