Don't Get Envious - Get Green: Converting To Fit The Theme

The quickest way to get a playable army up and running is to get the main boxes, paint them up – et voilà! You’re good to go!

For many players, this is the best option. But in my book, the most important thing is - all together now - the theme. So how do we die-hard theme-ists go about putting that theme into practice?

Choose your minis wisely

Part of it will come down to army selection; I will talk about my approach to army lists (also known as the “how to guarantee you’ll lose” method) in another post. For now, I’d like to focus on the minis themselves.

Warhammer Fantasy Battles was first released in 1983 and spanned 8 editions, along with numerous expansions and campaigns - before the winds of Chaos mutilated it into Age of Sigmar [cue flashbacks to Vietnam]. Loads of these are floating around on eBay - many still unassembled and unpainted.

Oldhammer enough for you?

This means that in the Warhammer ranges alone there is a plethora of minis to choose from for each unit type. Still not satisfied? Then check out the Mordheim range or the endless alternative suppliers, many of which are run by ex-Games Workshop (GW) staff, such as Perry Miniatures (Alan and Michael Perry*, who did most of the Middlehammer Bretonnian and Empire ranges) and Warlord Games (White Dwarf's Paul "Fat Bloke" Sawyer). After all, the beauty of GW no longer supporting Warhammer as an official game is that you no longer need to worry about using only "official" minis.

Sometimes it can take a fair amount of work to find just the right models and checking scales match up, but this hunting is half the fun!

Models from 4 different armies fitted this theme so nicely!

My Chaos war-tribe, painted over a decade ago, included (clockwise from top left) the Albion Truthsayer from the Dark Shadows campaign, the Amazon Priestess, Chaos Marauders, and the plastic giant. Very little green stuff was needed to tie them all together, as they already have a strong common theme.

How about defending the city-port of Marienburg? Loads of minis to fit the theme!

Why not put together a force representing the free city-port of Marienburg? Marco Colombo could be the veteran captain. Long Drong Slayer's Pirates and the swash-buckling Empire Militia would bring bag-loads loads of piratey character. You could then pad out the army by employing the really good value for money Perry Miniatures' European Mercenaries as the city's professional paid guard. You could even use either the Empire Great Cannon or a Warlord Games Saker Cannon to represent ships' guns which have been unloaded to defend the town. Either the Empire army book or the Mercenaries Army List would allow you to play the force without any tweaks needed.

Converting Friedrich's Foxes

I'm a huge fan of the 'puff and slash' clothes, so have opted to almost exclusively use models from the various Empire ranges with that style. This means a bit of mixing and matching: 5th edition Halberdiers & Great Cannon, 6th edition Spearmen and Knights, 7th edition General & Pistoliers. I will also be sprinkling in some of the old command and hero models, to give extra character. Having just changed my army list again, I now also need some crossbowmen. This will mean attempting to re-purpose some of the awful 7th edition Crossbowmen. 

So I’ve chosen my minis, but there’s something missing; a little touch of individuality, perhaps. Friedrich’s Foxes live in the woods and their symbol is a fox - naturally. The answer was obvious: out came the Green Stuff, to add fur trimmings and fox tails galore!

Art thou base, common, and popular?

There may of course be some units which you will want to paint a bit differently. If you are using allies, for example, they want wear the same colours. This is where bases come in.

Once the painting is done, it's tempting to stick a bit of flock on the base and call it a day. Taking time to give the bases some identity goes a long way towards unifying the army. I'm covering my bases with grouting and sand, for texture, followed by 3 layers of brown paint. The occasional twig, 2 types of flock and some fallen leaves put the army in its forest setting. It also helps to take the eye away from the frankly medium-level (or "tabletop level", to use the terribly back-handed expression) paint job.

Next time, I'll be talking about my head-scratching trials with army lists and narrative.

*Be sure to check out the awesome Elector Counts interview of the Perry brothers, including the gripping story of how Michael lost his right forearm when re-enacting the Battle of Crécy.