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Converting Roman Centaurs
Don't call them cavalry!
By Neldoreth
Jan 26th, 2010

The following is a step-by-step guide to convert some of your plastic Wargames Factory Romans and horses (or horses from any other plastic line) into centaurs. All you need is super glue (or your favourite plastic glue) and greenstuff! Of course, you also need tools such as a hobby knife, some sculpting tools, a file, and a little experience!

Find a good horse and a suitable Roman body. Cut off the horse's head if you need to; the Wargames Factory horses have separate heads, so they are perfect for this project. In the above picture I have used horses from Lord of the Rings line of Riders of Rohan. The Rohan figs were great because all of the tacking straps were on the part of the head that I cut off. You will also need to shave off the saddle and blanket carefully and then file it smooth and round as a horse's body should be. Once that's done, cut the Roman body around the upper thigh and shape the bottom of the fig to fit the horses head area so that it looks good. Glue everything together.

Once the glue dries, it's time for the putty work. The above picture is with the completed putty work. The steps are pretty straight forward: mix the putty, put it on the fig so that it covers up everything that needs to be covered up (the join between the Roman and the Horse, and the Lord of the Rings horse had a hole in its back), then sculpt on the details. First, create a line near the bottom of the greenstuff to separate the tunic from the chain mail shirt. Then, sculpt the clothing grooves in the greenstuff for the tunic, then put the chain mail details on. For instructions on chainmail scupting, and Internet search is your best bet ;) There's a large collection of work on the topic.

Once the greenstuff has cured, it's time to glue all the pieces of the Roman onto the centaur; no need to outline how to do it, since it is no different than for the unconverted Roman. I have to say, these plastic Wargames Factory Romans are one of my favourite lines of figures at the moment! It is worth noting here that I didn't give these guys Roman Cavalry shields, but Legionary shields. The reason for this was that centaurs often don't like to be associated with their human-carrying cousins, and so refused to be categorized as cavalry. So, officially, they are 'fast Legionaries'.

This is the second of two centaurs that I converted. This one I think is the better of the two. The reason is that with the first one, I think I cut off the body a bit too high, and so that body is a bit short. This body has a more natural centaur look I think... and yes, I know, natural centaur is somewhat questionable! I am happy with them both though, and I am *almost* tempted to make some more!

Once the glue and greenstuff dries, it's time for painting! I painted these guys with a variation on a popular cavalry shield design, because I didn't want to do the exact same cavalry shield design because of the whole centaur-cavalry issue discussed above. Overall I am very happy how they turned out! Although... the bright lights involved in the picture-taking process certainly highlighted imperfect blending on the shields! Oh well :)