Advice for conversions?

[Infovore]

Hello all,
I'm thinking about starting a, to me, major conversion of a 28mm fantasy miniature into something post apocalyptic. I've done simple weapon swaps before but for this I'm going to want to remodel some of the clothing as well and that's a leap...

I think I have all the tools I'll need (knives, saws, pin vice, files, greenstuff etc) and I have an idea of what I want to do. But before I start I thought I'd ask to see if there was any advice for me apart from "take it slow and be ready to make mistakes"?

Thanks in advance

[SotF]

If you're planning on kitbashing parts from different models, one thing to pay attention to is sizes. Even from the same manufacturer there are shifts in size for body parts that could make things look off.

For post apocalyptic, a good part source is Wargames Factory's apocalypse survivors kits (namely the male and female human ones rather than the zombie ones) as they have a lot of useful bits that work well with most minis if you want to add guns or modern touches.

[Svennn]

When using putty decide how much you think you need and then half it, it is a lot easier to add than take away.  If you are going to do large areas or thicknesses build it up in layers, having the patience to leave it alone whilst it sets and then come back later is not so easy but is definitely the way.

[Connectamabob]

What Svennn said. Not just in terms of mixing, but application as well. It's common for inexperienced sculptors to put a blob of putty on, then try to shape it to effectively reskin the figure, resulting in "clothing" that looks huge and marshmallowy. What you want to do is roll out a super-thin snake of putty only around 1.5 mm thick, then cut tiny bits off that to build areas/details selectively. If you need say, to cover a bare arm in a sleeve, don't just wrap the arm in a blob of putty and try to push it to shape. Use slivers of putty to build the draping under the arm, than the cuff, then any individual folds/creases on the top. Remember that even with thick, loose clothing there are a lot of points on the figure where the scale thickness between the cloth surface and the anatomy underneath is paper-thin or less, so the level of thickness you get by feathering individual folds and details out 'till the underlying metal shows or almost shows between is actually correct.

Also: buy a box of round toothpicks. If you find you need/want a particular tool shape, but don't have it, you can just whittle a toothpick to shape in moments, and it'll work just as well as a fancy expensive tool (it just won't last forever like a "proper" tool). In fact unsealed wood actually has one nifty advantage: it soaks up liquid, so it can be loaded with a lubricating/smoothing solvent like a felt-tip pen.

You can similarly make custom "clay shaper"-like rubber tools (again: works well, just doesn't last like the real thing) by carving bits of fine-grain pencil eraser, like the ubiquitous Staedler "Mars Plastic" eraser. Pink school erasers are grainy and crumbly, so don't bother with those.

[Infovore]

Thanks all!

since it's the first time I've tried this I plan on being really slow and cautious. It sounds like that is the right thing to do, now I just need a whole lot of luck and maybe I'll have a reasonable piece