How To: Sith Apprentice
This is the first of my “How-to” articles detailing, set-by-step, how to convert you’re your minis to create new Characters. I thought I’d start everyone out with a reasonably simple modification using mostly Dungeons & Dragons minis, all of which are Uncommon. You’ll need the following minis:
Wererat (Dragoneye 40/60)
Drow Sergeant (Archfiend 50/60)
Dragonblade Ninja (Deathknell 17/60)
In addition, you’ll need 1/16” Florescent Red Rod from Plastruct. You should be able to find this in your local hobby store, if not the game shop. If they don’t have it (and can’t order it), it’s available at Plastruct.com.
So let’s get to it. Start by performing the following cuts. Remove the Ninja’s right hand at the wrist and cut off his sword blade. Remove the Wererat’s hand and sword handle by cutting off the blade and cutting the hand off at the wrist. Cut the Drow’s right hand off just below the glove. Then remove the blade and the quillons (cross guards). I should take this time to remind everyone that no piece should be disguarded; always keep leftovers because you never know when you’ll need them in the future.
Now shave off the remains of the Ninja’s blade that are fused to his forearm. Luckily, the Ninja is all black, so it will cover up all of our sins in this process. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just get so that it looks reasonable.
Now Glue the Wererat’s hand to the Ninja’s left wrist and the Drow’s hand to the right.
While the glue is drying, cut out two lightsabre blades from the plastic rod. Just use another lightsabre as reference for length. Now, slowly shave off the edge from one of the ends. I usually make two passes around the edge, the first pass I cut at a shallow angle and the second, I cut more angled.
Simply glue the blades onto the handles. What I like about making Old Republic-era models is that I have much more leeway in using D&D Minis’ sword handles, since they had more ornate and archaic lightsabres back then.
Now, all we have to do is paint the mini. When I name a color, I’ll give the Vallejo Paint color I used then put the Games’ Workshop equivalent in parentheses. Paint the Drow hand black. Use Cold Gray (Codex Gray) to highlight the black. Paint the Wererat’s hand a flesh color of your choice; I used Elf Skintone (Elf Flesh), then paint the face the same color for the sake of consistency. The one problem I have with the Dragon Blade Ninja model is that it’s too dark. I know, I know: he’s a friggin’ ninja, but it doesn’t make for an attractive model. So I added Scar Red (Scab Red) to the cowl, shoulder pads, and knee pads. A Sombre Grey (Shadow Grey) would also look appropriately Sithy.
Looking at the finished product, you may notice one of the problems with converting with D&D Minis. That is scale. Apparently when they sculpt minis, they don’t tend to maintain a consistent scale, so some humans have much larger bodies than others, for instance. This is evidenced in the Drow’s hand, which should be the same size as a slightly-built human’s (like our Ninja friend here). Luckily, on the tabletop, it’s not noticeable at all.
Here are the stats for this Character. I have the Faction listed as Imperial until they create the Sith. I wanted him to be a moderately experienced apprentice so…
Sith Apprentice – 25 pts.
Faction: Imperial/Sith
Hitpoints: 90
Defense: 18
Attack: +8
Damage: 20
Special Abilities: Double Attack
Force Powers:
Force 3
Force Grip (Force 1, replaces attacks: sight; 10 damage.)
