Making the most of spare parts

Since I first got into making models as a kid I've always followed the advice (from books and magazine articles) that you should hold onto any unused kit parts. You never know (goes the theory) when they might come in useful for later conversions. I have boxes full of bombs, missiles, undercarriage components and other parts from Airfix and Matchbox kits that I completed (or in some cases didn't complete) in the 1970s and 80s!

With the advent of 28mm plastic soldiers from the likes of Victrix, Warlord Games, Perry Miniatures, and Gripping Beast I now have a multitude of limbs, bodies, and heads awaiting a future use.

Manufacturers want to make their sets as flexible as possible so you aren't limited to building a single type of unit from a given set of sprues. As a result they often provide multiple options for particular parts.

The Warlord Games War of the Spanish Succession Cavalry box is an example here providing heads with tricorns and cuirassier helmets and alternative torsos (torsi?) with armour or in a variety of unarmored uniforms. Coupled with bits from other sets, the extra bodies have contributed to my American Civil War armies as reported here and here.

The ACW figures are generally produced by sticking together existing parts in new ways. The amount of surgery needed to change an arm holding a sword into one holding a revolver is not beyond any modeller's capabilities, particularly as hard plastic figures can be cut with a craft knife and glued securely with liquid polystyrene cement.

The next stage in using spare parts is to try some more advanced surgery.

Having bought some Perry Miniatures French Napoleonic Hussars 1792-1815 to act as the basis of French contre-guerilla cavalry in Mexico, I had enough parts left over to cobble together a wounded French hussar officer for my A Spy in the Suburbs Sharp Practice game.

This involved taking modelling tools to a pair of overall-clad hussar's legs. After carving off the stirrups and associated straps (not done in the picture below) a number of cuts were needed on each side. First the green cut took the leg off at the groin. 

Next I made a cut at the level of the knee (turquoise line) and bent it outwards to remove the slightly bow-legged effect. A bit of plastic filler and maybe a small piece of plastic card to wedge open the cut were used to repair the join.

Next I removed a wedge of plastic (between the two red lines) and glue the leg back on; effectively gluing the two red lines together. When that was set, I rebuilt the outer thigh with Green Stuff. Because the "red wedge" was half the width of the thigh, the effect was to preserve the overall length of the leg.

With the other leg done in a similar way I had a reasonable standing figure.

In this case I didn't have a hussar torso but I was able to make a figure in shirtsleeves using a body from the Warlord WSS Cavalry set and a pair of ACW arms. A hand with a pistol from the Warlord set, a scabbard, sabretache an busby-ed head from the Perry Miniatures French Napoleonic Hussars 1792-1815 box completed the picture.

The Perry Napoleonic Allied Cavalry box is particularly guilty in terms of providing an excess of body parts. Because it includes parts to make both Russian and Prussian dragoons in short jackets (Kollet) or longer coats (Litewka) the box contains enough parts to make twice as many riders as there are horses!

I've used similar techniques on this set to produce some dismounted Russian dragoons...

The running figure was made by cutting one of the legs at the knee, again removing a wedge of plastic, and rebuilding the front of the knee with Green Stuff. The arm with the musket is an ACW infantryman's with the bayonet carved away.

Finally, I've built a Prussian Deployment Point base using the same set and similar techniques.

The figures are gathered around a chess board (plastic card with tiny pieces of fine plastic rod) glue onto a 3D printed tree stump. A 3D printed anvil provides the seated guy with somewhere to perch.

The two bare heads are stolen from Wargames Atlantic's Citizens of Rome set. Shakos were carved from unused heads and glued to the base beside the two bare-head guys.