Battlefield Miniatures

Colonel William Barrett Travis at the Alamo - just before his death.

As many of you know I consider myself a conversion artist and NOT a sculptor. Over the years I have occasionally sculpted a hat, a beard and even some "hair" however I have never attempted to sculpt a complete figure nor do I intend to. Toy soldiers collectors are fortunate to have some very talented artists/scultpors who have produced outstanding lifelike figures for Conte, TSSD and Britains just to mention a few. I truly admire the work of these artists and hope they will continue to produce these outstanding figures.

Some time ago I did experiment in sculpting "hair" on a few Call To Arms figures and I was surprised how well the finished figures came out. Most of those went directly into my personal collection. Recently I decided to "dabble" with the Conte Alamo Colonel Travis figure and try to recreate a scene in John Wayne's movie The Alamo. I just love to make conversion poses based on my favorite movies.

So I went to work with my exacto knife and a #11 blade and carefully removed Travis's hat by cutting off the brim and shaving off the top of the hat in order to resemble a bare head. Then using my hot soldering iron I "sculpted" each wave of hair by lightly touching the soldering iron to the plastic and dragging it in the direction I wanted. I also changed his left hand and repositioned the sword in his right hand. The nice thing about working with the conte canadian soft plastic is that if you make a mistake you can smooth it out and start again. I have NEVER found another soft plastic that works so well with my soldering iron technique. Many guys ask why I don't expand into other era's or with other manufacturers. The reason being is that manufacturers use different types of plastic and they are like "night and day". With other plastics I can not get the outstanding results the conte canadian soft plastic produces and I dislike putting out a conversion pose that does not meet my high standards. By the way, I had some guys tell me I set my standards "too high". Perhaps but at least they will not be disappointed.

There are two things to take into consideration when making a conversion pose. First is how the finished pose will look. Does it look like a natural pose that I myself can actually create? If so, you are on the right track. If not, time to start all over again. Second and equally important is the scenario in which the pose is used. As an example I am posting 2 sets of pictures to demostrate that. The first set shows four different views of this new Travis pose however these pictures were taken with a forrested (green) background. Although the pose is completely out of character in these pictures they were actually shot so one could better see the detail of this conversion against a darker background. Now look at the last 2 photos and see how the figure comes to life and tells a story just by putting him in the right scene with the right props. Hope you enjoy the pictures.I always enjoy hearing from people who view my website. If you have an idea or suggestion for a conversion pose that you would like to see, you can email me by clicking on the flag/cannon icon below.