“Who makes that miniature? I want one!” Most of us who game have heard that countless times and we reply “oh so & so miniatures out of England” or “such and such minis in New Jersey”. Some of us answer this way “I did” because we either did the figure from scratch or modified an existing figure.
Compared to 30 years ago when I started gaming the selection of figures, terrain, and miniature accessories has grown to a point where even some of the most obscure armies and periods are easily found and, in several scales, things we before only imagined are now found with just a few mouse clicks! For most people this is great, wonderful, but there are still quite a few of us who like the scratch building and customizing side of the hobby and that many times creates the problem that now commercially produced item do not fit the bill. When this is the case, for me out comes the saws, drills, sculpy, kneadite, green stuff, x-acto knives, and all the different materials and tools the scratch builder uses to bring his imagination to the table.
I thought for this post I would just toss up a few of my recent conversions.

These are 28mm “Old Glory” figures from one of their American Civil War packs. My buddy Steve has been painting a US force for use in battles from around 1880 to 1910 (Spanish American War to the Boxer Rebellion) and wanted some artillery limbers for them. He found some ACW limbers that would work but the figures all wore the Kepi style hat that would be wrong for the period. I took up the challenge to modify them with new headgear.

They came out better that I expected and only took about 15 minutes each to do.

On the right figure with “Kepi” style hat still in place. On the left, Kepi cut off and sculpted replacement.

The “Western” style wide brimmed hat was very popular with the troops in the sunny hot climates.

I think the hat conversion gives them the feel and look of a late US artillery crew.