conversions (2 Viewers)

[Fubar]

Fishead, Thanks for posting 9TH Hussar images. I like his Dutch in particular.

Wadepat, Gary Dutko does not paint.He will do some great conversions for you but you have to paint them or send to a painting service.

FubaR

 

[gk5717]

Pat, if you want them painted you must do it yourself.
Contact Dutko and get one of his cd,s, you will be totally amazed.
I should not say this on this board, but I like his conversions as much as I like K&C.
I know George at Minuteman has painted some for his customers that Dutko has done.
Gary

 

[fishead19690]

Gary Dutko is a member of this forum and goes under GDTOYS49. I tried to get him to post some of his conversions on this thread and share some insight into how he does his conversions. You can find his conversions for sale on on e-bay. He does mostly all conte soft plastic conversions and sells them unpainted. He melts them together with a sodering iron and uses all pieces of the same color so they look good in the unpainted state. He does some great work and I had hoped that he would share some thoughts on this hobby with us and with a little luck he still will.

 

[9thHussar]

Thanks to fishead for posting the pics, they are all sold now from surplus/unwanted figures. Basically I have too many after 30 years of painting and converting. I am 38 yrs old so hope to be painting for another 30 years. Most are simple repaints and headswaps to give variety. I also go for the colourful or unusual regiments like the 71st Highland Regt 1815 with the blue shako with highland dicing red/white/green pattern at the base. The Hussar is an officer of the French 9th Hussars which is where my login name derives.

 

[9thHussar]

The figure with the flag was originally an Accurate (now Imex) ACW soldier given a shako from the spares box. In fact from my Helmet spares - Helmet is a niche market business with a great source of plastic spares from a Dutch Infantry shako 1815 to a shiny plated French Carabiniers cuirass or an oilskin covered czapka of the British 17th Lancers Balaklava 1854 Crimean War. If anyone out there wants Helmets contact details then please ask. I am currently working on 20 x Belgian
6th Hussars 1815 Waterloo in sky blue uniform, I will post picture of them when done.

 

[gdtoys49]

Hi Guys, this is Gary Dutko from Gettysburg, PA. I recently joined your group but have not been on the site lately. I am the guy who does the conversions of conte "canadian" soft plastic figures. Since my name was mentioned a few times recently I thought I should introduce myself but I don't want to be too longwinded. If you would like some basic information on me and my passion for conversions of "unpainted" soft plastic figures please visit my new website: www.battlefieldminiatures.com This site is set up as a "viewing site" to show some of my conversion work. But there are hosting limitations on the number of pictures I can post. Therefore, I do offer a free "unprofessional" CD for those that would like to see my work.

Briefly, this is a hobby for me. Each soft plastic conversion is done by hand and is labor intensive. Standard conte figures are cut, pinned and then soldered with a standard hot soldering iron to "fuse" the soft plastic parts back together. The key to my success with these conversions is the soft plastic used by Conte in his earlier playsets and boxed figures. I call it the "canadian" soft plastic and when heated spreads like butter or cake icing. This gives me the smooth seamless results that I have been trying to obtain for years. I have used the other plastics by marx, accurate, imex, call to arms etc but they get gooey and clump up when heated. For over 10 years I dabbled in conversions for only myself. It was not until Conte released his canadian plastic figures that I finally was able to reach the conversion standards I set for myself. Unfortunately, some of his latest figures like the Alamo mexicans are done in a different plastic, either pvc or vinyl which burns and does not work with my hot soldering iron technique and does not bond with the canadian plastic either. When time permits I will look into alternative methods of doing conversions with that type of plastic.

Ok guys, I am getting long winded here again. Here's a quick how-to. I use a #11 exacto blade to make my cuts, then drill a small hole in each part. I use a brass rod to join the to parts, first to align the parts and second to add strength to the joint. I then use a standard soldering iron (can be purchased at Radio Shack for less than $10) and carefully fuse the seams together. This technique will take time to learn. Also, you will need an amble supply of bandaids for all the cuts to your fingers with the exacto knife (I should have bought stock in that company). And finally, you will need lots of figures to practice on but one word of caution here. This is very important--the different in the plastic make a huge difference in your success. Trust me on this. This is why 99% of my conversions are done with conte "canadian" soft plastic. I can not emphasize that enough. Yes, you can use my technique on other plastic and probably get ok to good results. But with the conte canadian plastic the results are superb!!! At least in my opinion. Finally, sadly I heard that conte has moved is molding operation from Canada to China where I believe they use the pvc or vinyl plastic. If this is true then I may be looking for an entirely new technique in making conversions.

Since this site is new to me, I will try to post a few pictures if I can learn how to do it. Bear with me during this learning process. Also, I will taking a trip to Fort Ticonderoga from 7/31 to 8/6 and will not have access to my computer and any emails you guys send. Again, please feel free to visit my website at www.battlefieldminiatures.com or email me via the website. Wish me luck in downloading some pictures on this site.
Best Regards,
Gary Dutko
Gettysburg, PA

 

[gdtoys49]

Still learning about these picture uploads. Here are some more for you to enjoy.

Gary Dutko

 

[9thHussar]

2nd Lifeguards Waterloo 1815 After Being Wounded By A French Shot - Note Broken Sword And Loss Of Reigns. Did This About 1991.

 

[9thHussar]

The Officer Is Painted As A Hanoverian Officer With Yellow Sash

 

[kilted vampire]

What happened we were doing so good?

 

[fishead19690]

Here are a few conte mexicans conversions I,m working on. I just threw them together quick for a few photos I need to get the arms on better I did to many all at once I just kept cutting arms off and quick fixing them to get ideas. The arms are just tacked on for a few pictures. When I get around to finishing them I,ll post more pictures.

 

[fishead19690]

There mostly parts from other mexicans but I also used conte cival war parts. Its very important to try and use parts of the same size or the figures will look off. Sometimes even figures from the same set are a little different in size. Notice the head on the figure firing without a hat, the head is a little small but might pass i,m not sure yet it was cut from the two dead soldiers which I pulled apart and switched heads and also cut the shako hat off of and will glue at the base of the figure firing without a hat.

 

[fishead19690]

Here are a few more! The two dead soldiers that I cut apart with the new head,and a figure being shot with new arms from a conte cival war figure. The one with the riffle up in the air has a new arm from a timpo napoleonic pointing the way for the troops to follow. Most of the conversions are from the origanal firing postion figures as i didn,t get to many sets of these figures or I,d have a lot more ideas with some of the other figures. When I get around to buying some more I,ll cut up a few other poses but I had A lot of the firing poses as they come with all the differernt sets. And I wanted to keep one of all the origanal poses.

 

[fishead19690]

Here is a post of all the figures together! Note I added the shako to the ground below the fgure with no hat. You can also see the dead figures cut apart and the left over body parts that will go to the parts bin for future use.

 

[fishead19690]

another veiw!

 

[fishead19690]

One last shot!

 

[fishead19690]

Here are some shots of the factory poses that I painted. I never got around to try and finish them with some highlights on them and add a little dirt to the pants ect. but here they are without the finishing touches.

 

[fishead19690]

A few more!

 

[fishead19690]

 

[fishead19690]

This is a shot of all the factory poses.