I am just getting into the conversion side of the hobby. I enjoy making little tweaks on the models. This is my first piece that I'd truly consider a conversion. A few extra bits, nothing drastic.
The first thing you'll notice is the wings on the jetbike are handmade. I got a bunch of bikes from a trade deal, and one of them was lacking on the wings. I decided to take some plasticard and create new ones anyway. The rest of the bikes were really messed up and didn't have enough riders, nor enough arms. Someone tried some really weird conversions and failed. They're all fixed now but it was a nightmare. Anyway, I used plasticard and green stuff to recreate the missing wings. Looking back, I think I could have picked a better shape, but at this point meh.
Here, I just swapped out his normal arm for a Shining Spear arm. I figured that as an Autarch he was once a Shining Spear and would opt for the same control scheme as he used before. I had to do a lot of filing to get the shoulder to fit in his socket.I also had to raise where the control actually sits. If I kept it where it's supposed to go, it's too short, or rather on a different angle. So I had to move it towards his body and set it higher.
This was the easiest part. I took his fusion gun, sawed off his hand, filed that smooth, sanded off the bump on the other side, then set a pin in it. I then drilled a hole on the jetbike canopy, and set the gun in with epoxy.I considered magnetizing it so I could swap it with a reaper launcher, but that is not happening. I would have needed a mounting and way more work than I was willing to do. Possibly, I could have mounted the gun underneath and that would have made magnetizing easier.
I also switched out the tip of his spear. This was the trickiest part. I happened to have some High Elf spear people laying around, so I chopped off one of their spear tips and drilled a hole in the top and bottom, then inserting a pin and gluing it together. The hardest part was getting the drill to bite on the small points.Finally, I added the tail stabilizer/thing that Shining Spears have since the box of Shining Spears I bought came with 4 models instead of 3 plus a bunch of extra controls and tail fin things.
Not terribly complicated, but it makes a slightly lackluster stock model unique and more befitting a command position.
