This guy is the last in the series of Raven Guard models I've been working on lately. The reason I'm sharing with this with you is because I think it hits on something I see more often than not in conversions people show me.
You can click on either of the images below for larger versions. This is what the model looks like before he was primed... and the fix made.
This model was converted, assembled and primed when I stopped and went back to fix a small part on him. I didn't notice how bad his left handed thunderhammer was while I was building it, but once I had it primed, the flaw stuck out like sore thumb.
It wasn't much really and I could have passed it off as part of the "conversion" process. It would have saved me some work and nobody would have been the wiser for it.
But I would have known and it would have bothered me.
You see, this guy is wielding dual thunderhammers.
They don't make a left handed thunderhammer.
You have to convert a left handed one if you want one.
So that's what I did, but it came out "visually" wrong.
Don't get me wrong, the technical aspects are correct. The joint is pinned, greenstuff has been used to fill in gaps, textures have been added so that your eye skips over the seams and so on. But the left thunderhammer handle was about 3mm too short.
I ended up carefully cutting away the attachment at the end of the handle and replacing it with a new piece that had the additional length to make it look "right." Makes a HUGE difference now.
What's the point you ask?
The point is this, if you're going to take the time to do a conversion to one of your models (or someone else's for that matter), do it right. Don't skip out on something in order to make it easier or to just get it done. Make sure you go the distance and do your best work on the entire thing, not just most of it. And you don't have to be a professional sculptor or painter either... I'm not talking about skill level here, I'm talking about doing the best you can.
Conversions succeed or fail with the little details. If you don't take your time and make sure those little things are correct, you'll fail every time and your models will always end up looking "wrong."
