All things Jacklex: Conversions

Showing posts with label Conversions. Show all posts

Wednesday, 20 May 2020

Japanese Command group

Having made a mounted officer for the Egyptian infantry by simply putting the Cavalry Officer on a stationary horse and filing away his pistol, I thought that some of Jack's other armies could benefit from similar command figures.

I had already made a little command group for the 1904 Russians - but with 'moving horses', I decided that the Japanese ought to have a command base as well. Since Jack made a cavalry standard bearer for the Japanese, I thought it would be nice to combine an officer and standard bearer. I asked Mark Lodge of jacklexminiatures.com for the two cavalry figures on standing horses, rather than the galloping horse the figures are normally provided with and I am pleased with the results.

These are on a temporary base, I think they will look better on a round base with a bit more space between the figures. Which is exactly what Bob did with them what an improvement.

Monday, 20 April 2020

White Coated Egyptian infantry and standard bearers

I know that Mark at jacklexminiatures.com says that he will be offering a marching version of the white coated Egyptian infantry in the future as an extension to the range but I sort of wanted some now. I used the existing Sudanese/Egyptian infantry advancing figure as it was what I had to hand and spent ages cutting, sanding and filing the belt straps on this figure, The painting was so simple once it was done.

This is the first 'half' of the unit.

The mounted officer is the Egyptian mounted officer but on a stationary horse with his pistol cut off and the arm bent with a pair of pliers.

I started by making a standard bearer conversion using the advancing pose and cutting away the rifle bending the arm and drilling and fixing a rod in place.

Whilst this is okay he looks like what he is an infantryman with a flag instead of a rifle. I wasn't happy and decided to convert the British Standard bearer instead, having had some success with a Russian conversion I found after many years. This figure has some odd packs on the back.

I cut the bulk of this away with a pair of snips and then cut, filed and sanded the remainder away. A quick head swap and I think this is a much better figure and is more in keeping with Jack's original concept of a 'Standard bearer'.

I painted the figure in a variety of different uniforms.

Now with the second unit of Egyptians complete with flag and a Sudanese standard bearer with the national flag to go with the existing force in Jack's colonial army

Thursday, 16 April 2020

Alternative Russian Standard bearer found after years of looking

Many years ago when Bob and I were trying to convince Jack to make a Russian Infantry Standard Bearer with not much success, so I started to have a go myself by converting the British Standard bearer.

I cut away the packs on the back of the British figure and added a blanket roll with 'green stuff' to match Jack's infantryman. I never finished the figure and I then lost it in my loft. I knew it was about somewhere but I looked everywhere to no avail and as the years passed by I gave up on it.

Eventually, as a result of the cancer diagnosis I decided to pack away my table in the loft and bring my paints down a floor. In the process of moving furniture around, my wife found the figure which must have fallen down the back of a cupboard.

I decided to finish the job and give him a coat of paint. I think he looks rather nice and the years haven't aged him. The brilliant flag is from the 1966 and all that blogsite.

Wednesday, 8 April 2020

Madhist artillery outriders

In the film Khatoum it shows a field piece being drawn into position by a limber team with Madhist outriders. This in the final battle scene and you can watch this bit of the film on You Tube. If you blink you will miss it but I thought it would be fun to have a limber team. The figures in the film have the Muslim Kufi prayer skull cap, rather than a turban.

However my version have turbans. To call this a 'conversion' is a bit of a misnomer. and if it is a conversion, it is probably the simplest one I have ever done.

Firstly, I chose the Dervish mounted standard bearer. You do not need the horse. This figure has an open hand. Using a pair of pliers bend the arm on one or two either up or down slightly in relation to the original figure to give a sense of movement (it depends on whether you have a four or six horse limber team - or leave it alone if you only have a 2 horse team).

Glue a length of paper clip; the rod that comes with the figure or a bit of florist wire in the hand. Leave to dry. Cut it down to make a 'whip stick'. It is much easier to put more wire than you need in and cut it down afterwards than to try to glue a small piece the right length in place. You can stop there. or wrap a length of 5 amp fuse wire around the top of the stick to make the 'whip' and super glue in place - again use more than you need and cut it down afterwards. Finished. It takes longer for the glue to dry than to convert the figure(s). Now all you have to do is paint it/them.

Four and six horse team versions.

Thursday, 2 April 2020

Jacklex Egyptian gunners conversions

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I have had a go at making a white coated artillery unit for Jack's colonial army Egyptian force. I am also making and infantry unit in white these to follow, along with standard bearers.

In theory, this is relatively simple since it is just a matter of a head swap. I used the Sudanese/Egyptian advancing figure for the head on the Indian gunner body because I had a set (i think they would look better on the British gun crew designed for the field gun, but I used what I had). I decided to cut away the havelock which the figure is wearing whilst it was on the original figure, this was fairly simple.

Once I did this life became that much more difficult once I removed the head, as I drill into the head and body and attach them with wire and superglue. The area of 'neck/head' I had to drill into and hold was very small. Managed to drill my figure as the drill bit slid then it seem to take forever. Eventually, I got there but not without doubting my own sanity for trying this in the first place. Probably the secret is a soldering iron or even some green stuff to join the head and body!!

Anyway, they work or pass the distance test. I have to make an officer. I am going to use the Naval Officer from the Gatling gun team as he isn't looking though binoculars. Found it almost impossible to get a head of one of the standard Gunnery officer. Ruined two figures trying it as the arms broke away.

The Naval Officer is less animated than the infantry officer with pistol. This time I left the havelock on this gave me much bigger (but still small) area to hold and drill into once I removed the head. THIS WAS MUCH SIMPLER - why did I cut the havelocks off first I ask myself. Once in place and the glue had dried, cutting the havelock away was just as easy. Sometimes stupid doesn't cover it!

The Naval Officer conversion.

I thought the uniform a little too white so I did a little bit of lining using brown ink.

Tuesday, 24 March 2020

A couple more conversions for Mahdist Gunners

I felt that the Madhist forces should have one more gun and whilst the Indian gunners make an easy conversion, I also felt that the poses were a little too formal. When he sent me some gunners Mark also included a couple of British Gunners the standing figure with the rammer and the other carrying a shell. I did a head swap for an Indian gunner head and added a bit of green stuff a little more successfully that before and think they ring the changes. Wish my left eye was better as the painting isn't all that. But I think they work.

I only had a mountain gun to show the figures against, but I think they will look better against the field gun.

I was looking at a clip of the Gordon of Khartoum film just to get an idea of the gun crews, mostly the Egyptian forces and noticed for the very first time that in the final battle scenes for the attack on Khartoum, the film includes a field gun being drawn into position by a limber team driven by Mahdists outriders. Have seen the film many times before but never noticed it before! We have lots of gun teams in Jack's colonial army so I have ask Mark if he can send me a couple of Madhist mounted standard bearers (no shields or weapons to cut off) so I can substitute them for the British outriders on one team.

Saturday, 14 March 2020

Mahdist Gunners

Some eagle eyed viewers of the post reviewing Jack's colonial armies spotted a set of Madhist gunners and I have had a couple of questions about them and whether they ever went into production. The simple answer is 'no' they are my conversions.

I have to confess that once Bob laid out all the figures we started asking ourselves why Jack never got around to making certain figures, and why over all the years we hadn't noticed?

We had gone over the thorny ground of 'Senior Command' command figures with him lots of times, but in Jack's wargames they really didn't count, so you only come across them in the ACW range. Same with Standard bearers and the struggle even Stuart Asquith had trying to get him to make them for the colonial range. I still remember Jack shaking his head and saying they never had them and finally bowing to pressure and making them but never casting or adding them to his collection.

Anyway, back to what struck us as missing. On the Mahdist side we both felt they would benefit from some artillery. Guns were captured during the war and turned on the British and Egyptian allies. From what I have read gunners were often Egyptian artillerymen captured and forced to work the guns or indeed deserters/converts to the Mahdist cause.

Having done lots of conversions for my S range armies I figured it must be possible to do the same thing for the Jacklex figures. Looking at the figures on the table, I came to the conclusion that the simplest and quickest way to give the Mahdist some gunners (we had plenty of guns!) was to use the Indian artillery figures. They have turbans after all so I was a good way there, Mark Lodge (jacklexminiatures.com) very kindly set me a couple of sets and I set to with my scalpel and sandpaper and removed all the belts and pouches, not to difficult. I then added a little bit of 'green stuff' to hang down from the turban and already the figures looked different. I them added more 'green stuff' to extend the jackets. The paint job hides a multitude of sins as I can never seem to get it right with that stuff! Jack always used 'Plastic Padding' so I am going to try that in future. Anyway, in terms of conversions I made two crews, we didn't need lots and all eight figures didn't take very long at all. The longest bit was waiting for the 'green stuff' to harden. Yes, exactly like watching paint dry!

This has spurred me on to do a set of head swaps to give the Egyptian/Sudanese contingent a set of gunners in white with red fezzes, should look rather fetching, using the British artillery figures as the basis. I will post some pictures once they are done.