Thursday, March 10, 2011

Power Armor Conversion!

I'll be converting one of my cheapo figs into a power armor troop. I'm currently drawing up some ideas and the concept will be posted. Along with a more comprehensive how to. CHECK IN!!!!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

All Finished





The Project is finished and I'm happy with the results! Total time on one mini took me about 6hrs but you can't even tell its a cheapo dollar store army man. I'm also limited on paints and only have about 6 colors.

The paint used was cheap (Craft Smart) brand acrylic from Michael's coming in at 2bucks a bottle (Way cheaper than GW brand but not as good in quality) The base was also a 1 1/4" wood square had at Michael's.

I barely put a dent in my Pro Create poly clay! One pack can go a long way....

Miliput and Green Stuff- aka Kneadatite should work for a project like this as well.

Dirt-Cheap Links!!!!!

Ultra Cheap minis is a cool site, Match stick armies, plastic army men, and loads of links to great sites for affordable miniatures and how to's.
  • http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ultracheapminis/


Dirt-cheap wargaming can be found here, Make an entire army for almost nothing!
The guys here are a great help and do awesome work with craft store items. Check it out

  • http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/wargaming_on_a_budget/




FUBAR rules and other simple free Wargame Rules can be had here!

  • http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/forgeofwar/

Monday, March 7, 2011





I guess I'll post to progress from tonight..... these are the same figure pose. I'll have to get more sculpting tools "I'm only working with two"

First Post: Dime Store Army Men

This isn't a new idea by any means, I've seen people converting cheapo minis numerous times throughout the net but I haven't seen anyone actually do a full on kit bash a-la-WarHammer.
For 1USD each(3x 25 Pc Plastic Army Men) + 12 USD (ProCreate) I'll be able to convert these lame bulbous figures into bad ass railgun toting grunts. So for a total of 15 bucks I'll have 75 sci-fi troops ready to blast each other into oblivion.

The Pro's to bashing Dime store figures!


  • Once you make your "master" you could make molds and crank them out because, "MOST" of these figures are not copyrighted! That's right! Most of these figures are copies, of copies, of copies! " I did some research" (MAKE SURE THEY ARE NOT COPYRIGHTED BEFORE YOU MAKE A MOLD)
  • If you mess one up no big deal, they're cheap!
  • They are easy to find and they're usually doubles or triples so you can cut em up and use the bits you need.
The Con's to bashing Dime store figures!

  • Finding 20-30mm figures... The ones I've purchased stand around 50mm tall (Pretty damn big) the problem being most terrain available are for the ~20mm range. But this is the Dirt Cheap Mini's blog so cardboard and paper terrain can be made to fit them!
  • Being copies, of copies, of copies the figures have a lot of imperfections, such as missing limbs, deformed bodies and a lot of flash(Most of you should know what flash is) Some re-sculpting may need to be done to build the missing body parts.
  • The plastic sucks to cut and work, it's very hard and brittle.

I'll post the pictures of my proof of concept some time tomorrow. The first one is a speed run so detail is lacking. I also need to smash out a Sci Fi gun for the project.


STAY TUNED