A Conversion By a Friend

Last night I had a friend over to play a game of Malifaux.  We got everything set up, and were getting ready to get things started when he tells me that he wants to show me his latest creation.  Turns out he didn't want to spend the money on Avatar Nicodem for Resurrectionists.  Instead he came up with this idea of zombies clawing their way towards their dark master.  It started with a little conversion he did with the regular version of Nicodem.



The above is a slightly different version of the alt sculpt of Nicodem.  Rather than the standard zombie arm/hand he went and used some sort of other monster arm.  It's still a Wyrd miniature, but it doesn't matter.  WOW is that amazing!

You might think that a huge arm is a bit over the top, but this was just the start.  Why summon one zombie when you can easily summon a horde?



I saw him put that piece on the table and I was in awe.  Avatar Nicodem, the living dead at his command.  Just beautiful!  In the past I've mentioned how much I enjoy custom paint jobs, but this model is absolutely wonderful.  You can have a lot of fun with miniatures, and making putting things into your own style/vision gives them a life wholly their own.  It just goes to show that whatever level you paint at  you can still make a piece that's eye-popping and attention getting.


Compare the above mastery to my own A-Nicodem:



My model is just the sculpt as sold.  The only thing I could say to have done to it is made a semi-custom base using grey stuff and a mold.  I fully believe that people would, "Oooooh," and, "Ahhhhhh," over my paint job, but my friend's piece will catch eyes from across the room.  Anytime I enter or attend any kind of painting competition I've found that the pieces that get the most attention are ones that are professional quality paint jobs, or very custom pieces like my friend's.

Let's take a slightly closer look at the bottom piece.



If you look closely you can see two lightly colored circles on the base.  I asked about these and was told that they were magnets, and are an additional measure to help regular Nicodem stay connected to his Avatar base.  It may be a bit cosmetic though as regular Nicodem has a lot of weight that was added to the bottom.  The way that Nicodem was positioned on the base makes it heavy on the sides, and very prone to tipping over.



The base is compromised of basing material and various arms from different models used by Wyrd miniatures.  Wyrd seems to have garnered enough customer support that its customer base is buying their models to use as spare parts in conversions.

The pictures I have presented today hardly do this model justice.  The current plan has my friend in our group heading for Adepticon, so if you plan on attending look for us in the Malifaux area and you can see this great piece in person!