Greg Liska’s Last ACW Conversion

11 Responses to Greg Liska’s Last ACW Conversion

1. Mark says:

   September 27, 2015 at 6:24 PM

   Not bad ! How about making some of the heads in the first 2 photos look more straight ahead instead of at the ground, good guard duty figures !

   Reply
2. Greg Liska says:

   September 27, 2015 at 8:31 PM

   I just added the hats. The Timmee ACW guys are sort of looking downward. Sort of exhausted in appearance. The idea was inspired by a Civil War special I saw and it had just such an image. The 4 Confederates were huddled like that. All had packs instead of bedrolls and all had slouch hats. I tried to find the special on line to take a screen shot, but I can’t remember much about it except when I saw it I thought, “Timmee ACW guys with slouch hats!”

   Reply
3. Greg Liska says:

   September 27, 2015 at 8:45 PM

   I’d like to plug Bill Nevins’ 60mm Rev War guys. First off; are they Ideal or Andygard? He says Andygard, I’d always heard the were Ideal. Anyhow, they are not as bad as I had envisioned. About 1/4 of them arrived damaged and most of those are fixes to be done with using a length of metal to replace a rifle barrel. Easy stuff. To keep the other stuff from breaking, I dipped the swords or rifle barrels in clear glue (I used Shoe Goo, but I suppose any clear glue will work) allowing a slight built up of it at the bases where it would most likely break. The glue is a thin coat, dries clear and took a few seconds per figure to do.
   I am going to convert the Shako wearing poses, which will be easy except for the stabber guy. The head is against his one arm and rifle. I managed it with one figure, using a BMC Rev War figure head, and the results are a resounding ‘meh…’ He’s usable, but I want the others to be better. I need heads bigger than a Mx 54mm, but smaller than a BMC head. Anybody got ideas to share?
   Most importantly; Thank you, Bill! You did me a great favor.

   Reply
4. Wayne W says:

   September 27, 2015 at 11:35 PM

   Nice work. Thanks for sharing the pix; definitely gives food for thought and ideas for my own (I’ll speak for myself here) conversions.

   Reply
5. Bill Nevins says:

   September 28, 2015 at 3:53 AM

   Greg They are Ideal figures . The ACW are AndyGard.
   As for the Shako pose with his arms over his head, try cutting the arms off along with the head.
   Cut where the shoulders and arms meet.
   You now have a clean body that you can attach arms from the other broken figures too.
   Same with the head.

   Anyway, glad you are enjoying them. Have fun.

   Reply
6. Greg Liska says:

   September 28, 2015 at 6:01 PM

   Cutting the whole arm off will make it easier to clean off the shako ‘residue’. I like the pose, I don’t want to change it. I just need some heads that’ll fit. I’ll figure something out. Some may have no headgear at all. This will allow me to utilize some of my conversion fodder gone fallow. This ought to keep me busy for a while.

   Reply
7. Andy Keliar says:

   September 28, 2015 at 6:27 PM

   I have used white metal heads from a company called Shenandoah Miniatures. The company is in Australia, but I’m pretty sure I got the heads from Michigan Toy Soldiers if they still carry them. It’s a little hard to attach the metal heads to plastic figures, but they are GREAT for ACW & Cowboy conversions. I would drill into the plastic neck of the figure & shove a straight pin into the head, then push the pin into the plastic & seal it with glue or heat the plastic & let it re-harden around the pin. A little tedious, but really good results. They paint up perfectly & details are fantastic. Here’s a link. Heads are in “M Series”.

   http://www.shenandoahmin.com/cgi-local/catalogue.cgi?last=navigate&series=mseries&x=20&y=29

   Reply
8. Greg Liska says:

   September 29, 2015 at 8:36 PM

   They look good, but I didn’t see any for American Revolution figures. I’m sure I’ll come up with something. I got time to think about it. Still taking ideas, though.

   Reply
9. Bill Nevins says:

   September 30, 2015 at 4:46 AM

   Greg, I would use old broken Marx WOW AWI heads. Or use the Marxman repos, if you have them. You could use BMC heads ( I would rather not) but that’s your choice.

   Andy,

   As for metal heads, Ken at All the Kings Men cast AWI Metal heads, which would fit.

   http://www.allthekingsmentoysoldiers.com/ATKMAWI.html

   Ken is a super guy and does all kinds of great conversion work. If your looking for AWI heads to convert plastic then this is where to go. Tell Ken I sent you.

   Reply
   • Andy Keliar says:

     September 30, 2015 at 9:16 AM

     GREAT resource, Bill. Thanks for posting.

     Reply
10. Greg Liska says:

    September 30, 2015 at 9:48 PM

    I’ve met Ken many times. I didn’t even think of using metal pieces. I must admit, I’m a bit reluctant. I’m sort of a trash recycler. It’s part of the challenge. Having said that, you have to have the right pieces and I don’t have any such suitable junk parts laying around. I’m mulling possibilities around.
    I’m also looking for 2 mounted 70mm Tm Mee Injuns – Shooting rifle and carrying the big feathery lance. I need them in rust or brown or red. Let me know if you can help.

    Reply

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