Barbarians in Space
I am a manic converter. I like to take plastic models and see what conversions I can do with them, like in my recent Gnolls in Space and Converting Algoryn blog posts. The latter has left me with a few spare 'Mag Gun' weapon arms, so I thought to myself, "What conversions could I do with these spare parts?" My thoughts turned to using some of the Frostgrave Barbarians as a basis for conversion.
Assembled Feral Mhagris
Beyond the Gates of Antares (BTGOA) has a faction known as the 'Feral Mhagris', part of the Freeborn faction. These warriors are recruited as mercenaries from feral planets. While I quite liked the official metal models, I also fancied trying my hand to see what unique miniatures I could come up with.
Cutting up the barbarian arms at the elbow.
The Frostgrave models come with a large selection of arms, perfect for converting. The crossbow arms were the easiest to convert, as they looked like they were holding a rifle and thus were halfway there (replace crossbow with Mag Gun, job done!). The other weapon arms did require some conversion. As the arms tend to stick out and away from the body, I had to remove the weapon and glue the new gun in place. Once dried, I then cut the plastic arms at just above the elbow and re-glued them, so that the arms were tighter to the body.
Mag Gun weapons glued to arms.
I made extensive use of Blu-Tack to work out and test the poses, which allowed me to make the minor adjustments I needed as I went along. That way I could see which positions worked and which didn't.
Checking the poses with blu tack.
The Barbarian double handed weapon sets were most useful, as the models' left hands were open ready to hold the end of a gun. Most of the time I would strip the Algoryn gun of its hands. Sometimes, I'd keep an existing Algoryn weapon hand and just glue the 'stub' of a barbarian wrist to it. I also threw in some parts from other plastic sets (anything with a barbarian looking head) plus the hands from various spare Bolt Action plastic sets.
Ferals in different poses.
To finish them off, I think I'll have to add some more 'tech' to the models (ammo pouches, salvaged devices etc). Of course, I could be using weapons from other science fiction universes, I just happen to like Antares!
More ferals. The customisation options are near limitless.
Warlord Games has now released weapon sprues for Antares, opening up even more conversion possibilities. I hadn't intended to be collecting another force for BTGOA, but ah well! They'll be fun to try out. Ferals, attack!!!!
