Dragonborn Fighter Conversion

This is a recent conversion project I completed. My D&D gaming group, the Dagenham Dungeon Delvers, started playing a 4E campaign last year. I chose to play a Dragonborn Warlord character and began hunting around for a suitable model. I pretty soon found that my choices were limited by the fact that there were very few Dragonborn models to choose from. The best I could find was one of the plastic, pre painted mini's from the D&D Miniatures range.

The Dragoborn Fighter is part of the War of the Dragon Queen set and like all the minis in the set comes pre painted. It also sported a wobbly plastic axe that just didn't fit the character concept I was working towards. MY character, Uthek Van'tar, wielded a mighty war hammer... not a floppy axe. Conversion was the only option if I was to field a painted mini when the game commenced. I found a suitable hammer from a sprue of weapons in my bits-box and set about cutting away the redundant weapon on the plastic mini. I then used a pin drill (for accuracy and control) to bore through the centre of the clenched fist. It was then a simple process to glue the metal weapon into the plastic hand. I then cleaned and primed the model before repainting it entirely.

OK, I admit that this probably wasn't the most ambitious conversion of all time but I am very happy with finished miniature. I have converted a number of D&D Mini's in recent years and the one lesson I have learned is to be patient and think through the conversion before you start. The plastic is often 'soft' and doesn't take kindly to radical conversion. Soft plastic can be very dificult to cut or drill so it's essential to take extra care when working on these models.