Not really a conversion I guess, just more icon replacement and a Raven Guard paint scheme. This guy is actually going from Master of the Forge to Raven Guard Veteran Sergeant.
I figured I would use this post to show how I go about taking the icons off the model before he gets painted up in his new colors. The painting is only half of the picture. In fact, most of the work is on the front end with getting him ready for paint.
To get icons and such off, I use a couple different things. Most of all, I use the X-Acto blade. That does about 99.9 percent of the work. The files are there to clean up the surface of larger areas and the dremmel is for really thick icons with lots of mass and such.
There are two things (or methods) I do to get the icons cleaned off.
The first method is scraping.
This is how I clean mold lines off everything. With metal models, I'll use the files to get mold lines off bigger models, but that can be real tough with some of the smaller models.
Holding the blade perpendicular to the surface, I pull it along the mold line and keep repeating until I've partly smoothed it out and partly scraped it away. With plastic models, it's more scraping it away. With metal, it's more smoothing the seam together.
The other method is slowly shaving the icon off. This works on seams that are really offset too. This is a slow process since it's usually very hard to get into the model to get at the icon itself. Some patience and a few blades are all it takes though.
In this method, the blade is held parallel with the surface of the model and you slowly work at cutting away small portions of the icon that stick up from the surface. This can be tough since you need to work from all angles to make sure you get all of the icon off and don't alter the underlying surface features. I usually follow this method up with some scraping to get the finished surface smooth enough that you can't tell anything was done.
I buy my blades in bulk so I never feel like I need to "save" the one I'm working with since it's all I have. The instant the tip breaks away or the blade shows any signs of wear, it's gone.
Maybe I should treat my dice like this, I might get better results.
And once he's cleaned up and mounted to his base, I'll go in and add the new icons to the model. Sometimes I'll add them before assembly depending on how hard they would be to sculpt once the model is built.
Here's a look at the finished model.
Make sure to check out these posts as they might help:
How to clean mold lines off your models
How to freehand the Raven Guard chapter symbol
