I've been building out my miniature collection for about two months now. In that time I've added at least a thousand minis to my collection. The bulk of them are plastic sets of minis (elves, dwarves, orcs, humans, soldiers, undead...) or a huge set of MageKnight minis I bought for a ridiculously low price on eBay. But even that left some pretty significant gaps that I felt I needed to fill (particularly dragons).
Since I am a notoriously impatient person, I decided the best way to fill these gaps was to buy what I can, but since that can become a frustrating cash sinkhole, I also decided to repurpose what I could and to create whatever I had to when I couldn't find anything that fit what I needed.
So I started with dragons. I made a couple out of sculpey clay, and then I started taking mounts from my Mage Knight minis, removing the rider, and converting the mount to a dragon. Then I started looking for dragons from any source and repurposed them to become RPG miniatures. In this way my dragon collection went from about six dragons to about 30. I found, converted or outright created trolls, minotaurs, whatever I was in the mood to make. I bought a pack of a dozen plastic horses for less than $3 at a local toy supply store and made horns and wings out of epoxy putty or cut them off of equally cheap plastic birds. Presto, dirt cheap unicorns and pegasi. Lions at a quarter apiece became griffons and chimerae. Perusing the Bestiary I stumbled across a "nightmare" and an hour later, with the help of a little Apoxie sculpt and some paint and bingo, I now have a nightmare.
I needed a Babau demon, so I made one. I needed some leopards, mountain lions, tigers and jaguars so again, a few bucks later with some paint, and I've got a veritable pride of big cats. The same for bears, apes, lizards, dinosaurs... you name it.
So then I just started fooling around. Sitting at my desk someone on FB mentioned the Wizard of Oz, so I started thinking about flying monkeys. Monkeys? Why not flying gorillas? So a bit of epoxy putty while watching a movie, and presto, flying gorilla. A pack of cheap butterflies provide butterfly wings by the dozen, and the butterfly bodies and legs make near-perfect ankhegs. What to do with the wings? Heck.... what kind of wings would a flying unicorn have? Butterfly wings of course! So a bit of glue, a bit of paint, and now I have a butterfly winged flying unicorn.
Looking around my cluttered desk right now I see a zombie T-Rex, a lizard with butterfly wings, three-headed hydra (two actually), a giant snake, a creepy tentacled fungus thing, a couple of centaurs, a half spider/half human, a peg-legged ogre, a dinosaur with tentacles instead of arms... it's basically Frankenstein's laboratory here.
So I'm wondering, how "unique" are other people's mini collections? Do other people think about putting a scorpion tail on a giant eagle? How many other gamers hack up miniature animals, dinosaurs and bugs and just stick the pieces together until something strikes their fancy?
Ogres with tiger heads and lizard arms... humanoids with spider heads and crab claws... cat/human versions of centaurs...
What is the most unique miniature you have? How many miniatures do you have that you would bet are totally unique in the world. How many of you create these minis and then add them to your bestiary? What CR would a flying gorilla be?
Or am I just a certified nutcase?
Yar!
Or am I just a certified nutcase?
^_^
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*walks away whistling inconspicuously*
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Seriously though, one of my friends is always chopping up his minis and re-attaching the various parts to create the minis he wants.
While another of my friends is a "purist", and thinks this other guy is crazy. He paid good money for this mini, why would he destroy what he paid good money for?
I used to be like this (only remodeling minis that had some major flaw or that had a component that was simply to hideous to use), but I've been slowly shifting over to the dark side. Particularly with monstrous mounts (taking the rider and turning him into a standing mini and leaving the mount un-saddled). I've also been meaning to get into Epoxy sculpting... but I'm only just delving into that... I don't have anything new sculpted just yet.
~P
You are a certified nutcase, brassbaboon, and I am in awe and deep admiration for you. :)
I wish I had the time, materials, and skill to sculpt and convert to both the quality and quantity you describe. But then it would probably cut into other activities I also enjoy doing.
I do a lot of conversions, but seldom much unusual--swap an axe for a sword, that sort of thing. I have very few critters, unfortunately (have to find some cheap little models at some point to play with).
Probably the most unique mini I have I am working on right now for a character I play in a Pathfinder game: a dwarf with the Caught Off Guard feat--I have swapped her hammer for a barstool that I made out of toothpicks and greenstuff. Hope to post up pictures when I'm done.
Of course, I guess folks would consider my Revolutionary Girl Utena themed Warhammer 40K army unique in its own way too. But it doesn't quite match butterfly winged unicorns. :)
...So a bit of epoxy putty while watching a movie, and presto, flying gorilla. A pack of cheap butterflies provide butterfly wings by the dozen, and the butterfly bodies and legs make near-perfect ankhegs. What to do with the wings? Heck.... what kind of wings would a flying unicorn have? Butterfly wings of course! So a bit of glue, a bit of paint, and now I have a butterfly winged flying unicorn.
Looking around my cluttered desk right now I see a zombie T-Rex, a lizard with butterfly wings, three-headed hydra (two actually), a giant snake, a creepy tentacled fungus thing, a couple of centaurs, a half spider/half human, a peg-legged ogre, a dinosaur with tentacles instead of arms... it's basically Frankenstein's laboratory here.
So I'm wondering, how "unique" are other people's mini collections? Do other people think about putting a scorpion tail on a giant eagle? How many other gamers hack up miniature animals, dinosaurs and bugs and just stick the pieces together until something strikes their fancy?
Ogres with tiger heads and lizard arms... humanoids with spider heads and crab claws... cat/human versions of centaurs...
<snip>
Or am I just a certified nutcase?
Sorry, but I just have to ask. Did you ever see the first "Toy Story" movie? And if so, what did you think of Sid?
Sorry, but I just have to ask. Did you ever see the first "Toy Story" movie? And if so, what did you think of Sid?
Heh... Sid was pretty vicious... I don't blow up my minis or send them on rockets to the stratosphere. ... not anymore anyway... not since... the incident..
I have to admit that my "office" is currently overrun with miniatures in various states of repair, destruction, painting or basing. There is no doubt that there's a fair bit of Frankenstein flavor going on in here. I just a few minutes ago cut the head off a triceratops and glued the legs of an octopus on it to create a very creepy reptilian tentacle-headed thing that I now just have to find a body for. I'm thinking it will be an awesome mini-boss for one of my campaigns.
I started this thread because I have been genuinely amazed at how easy it is to make decent usable miniatures for a wide range of "monsters" for use in campaigns. A dire bat mini from Wizards might cost $5 at a game store, but I can make one that looks almost identical from a plastic Halloween bat for just a few pennies. A huge number of mythological "beasts" are simply combinations of animal and human parts. Making minotaurs, sphinxes, griffons, chimera, hydra, medusae, pegasi, unicorns, satyrs, hippogriffs, and a slew of others is quite literally a simple matter of cut and paste. Every now and then a bit of epoxy putty is needed to smooth out a transition or add a horn or something, but in general a collection of cheap plastic animals can be turned into a collection of magical beasts with very little effort.
Dragons are probably the most involved beasts to make. But there's a lot of satisfaction in creating one that you know is going to elicit "oohs" and "ahs" when you plop it down on the table...
You are a certified nutcase, brassbaboon, and I am in awe and deep admiration for you. :)
I wish I had the time, materials, and skill to sculpt and convert to both the quality and quantity you describe. But then it would probably cut into other activities I also enjoy doing.
I do a lot of conversions, but seldom much unusual--swap an axe for a sword, that sort of thing. I have very few critters, unfortunately (have to find some cheap little models at some point to play with).
Probably the most unique mini I have I am working on right now for a character I play in a Pathfinder game: a dwarf with the Caught Off Guard feat--I have swapped her hammer for a barstool that I made out of toothpicks and greenstuff. Hope to post up pictures when I'm done.
Of course, I guess folks would consider my Revolutionary Girl Utena themed Warhammer 40K army unique in its own way too. But it doesn't quite match butterfly winged unicorns. :)
One of my GM friends who shares minis with me frequently makes comments about how he doesn't have the time or the skill to do what I do. I tell him that's unquestionably not the case. If you needed skill to do what I do, I'd never do it. My lack of artistic abilities is something of a running joke with my friends and family.
However, what I am pretty good at is craft. Crafting is just practice and experience. My minis will never win any awards for composition, quality or design, but then I don't make them to be admired, I make them to be used.
We have a toy and educational supply shop in town called "US Toy." It seems mostly to be a place teachers or group leaders (like Cub Scouts or Girl Scouts) frequent. They sell boatloads of kids items, including entire aisles full of plastic, rubber or pvc miniatures. For $20 you can get an entire box full of animals, dinosaurs or fishies. I think the box has 200 or so miniatures each. They break open a couple boxes and sell the individual miniatures for a quarter apiece. They also have bags with a dozen frogs, spiders, flies, bugs, lizards and other things for a few bucks per bag. Their birds are a bit more expensive. For $20 you could walk out of there with a bag overflowing with critters, most of which you could simply glue directly to a suitable base and play as soon as the glue dries. (They also have a bag of 200 poker chips for a bit more than $2 which I've been using for large bases.)
The one thing they don't have is bats. Which really sort of bugs me. They say bats are a seasonal item that they only carry during Halloween, so this year when they get some in, I'm going to stock up on them. Bat wings are nearly perfect dragon wing substitutes. And while I'm more than willing to make my own wings from epoxy putty, if I can get a perfectly usable pair of wings for a quarter, that's probably cheaper than making a pair out of epoxy and is definitely faster and easier.
For low level campaigns I frequently use animals as encounters. Since the animals come in multiple sizes it is pretty easy to have one set for "normal" animals, and a larger set for "dire" animals.
Building a good-sized collection of animal minis for encounters can be done for just a few dollars, less than the cost of a meal at Applebees for sure.
Moving to the next stage and channeling your inner Frankenstein is not much more expensive and the results are much more useful for higher level encounters. And it doesn't take nearly as much time as you might think.
However, what I am pretty good at is craft. Crafting is just practice and experience. My minis will never win any awards for composition, quality or design, but then I don't make them to be admired, I make them to be used.
Talent is always involved in crafting as it is in art; don't sell yourself short :) . And I should know, as I DO have some artistic skill/talent (pretty good at drawing, good color sense, though nowhere near pro level). However, if I try to glue anything to anything else, it will be my fingers to other fingers. Half of my miniature conversion process is getting the greenstuff unstuck to me and stuck to the model (and I use the water and the dish soap and the vaseline etc.; I'm just also clumsy). Practice of course also makes everyone better at everything, indeed, but I am sure if you've been doing this for so long you had some raw talent to start with. :)
That said I'd certainly like to do that if/when I have time. I am sure as you say it doesn't take a lot of time but it does TAKE time and I've got a lot of hobbies. :)
We have a toy and educational supply shop in town called "US Toy." It seems mostly to be a place teachers or group leaders (like Cub Scouts or Girl Scouts) frequent.
Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be one near me (although there is one near some friends that maybe we can check out when I visit). I have seen online sites that sell tubes of animals and the like but I've always wanted to actually SEE them before buying to check the relative size. I like the idea of using bigger ones for dire animals (you could always add a few extra tusks or bony protrusions with a bit of putty). I'd definitely like more critters in my collection and you're right--better to buy some toys than pay for the more expensive pewter models in this case.
But even that left some pretty significant gaps that I felt I needed to fill (particularly dragons).
Have you looked for any of the MageKnight Dragons. They had a couple of really good ones including the Venomous Shadow Dragon and Polar Ice Dragon that made great blues, the Radient Light Dragon for a white and a Great Fire Dragon for a decent red. Like all MageKnight stuff, they can be had cheap.
So I'm wondering, how "unique" are other people's mini collections? Do other people think about putting a scorpion tail on a giant eagle? How many other gamers hack up miniature animals, dinosaurs and bugs and just stick the pieces together until something strikes their fancy?
Oh, yes. I kitbash all the time. I just finished making 20 elven zombies for a scenario I'm working on for a FLGS. I used a box of GW zombies and a bunch of older GW plastic High Elves that I had laying around in my garage. After I run the game, they'll make a nice addition to my Vampire Counts army.
I'm also starting to work on Female and child Giants for Hill, Frost, Stone and Fire Giants. Reaper has a couple of female Frost and Fire giants, but nothing (or nothing I like) for Stone or Hill. So, I'm using a couple of plastic action figures for the Hill Giant Females - just add some green stuff warts, enlarge some body parts to match the male Hill giants I have, make ratty looking hair and give them a laddle, cleaver or cooking pot with 1/2 of a hobbit sticking out.
The Hill Giant kids will be old plastic cave people. I just have to figure out what Hill giant kids will play with. I could always go with toy clubs/rocks, but I may make a corndoll or other softer plaything for the females.
The Stone giant females and kids (I want at least 3) are a much harder problem. They're taller than the Hill giants, so standard action figures aren't working. And the stone-like skin will be tough as well. I'm open to suggestions and any help would be appreciated.
What is the most unique miniature you have?
I think that would be the Chitine and Choldrith I made out of HeroClix parts. The monsters are basically spider humanoids that live in the Forgotten Realms. Chitine are mostly human with four arms and fangs. The Choldrith ars spider-bodied with a human head and two arms/hands. Here's the entire group and here is a close-up of one of the Chitine and lastly, a close up of one of the Choldrath.
How many miniatures do you have that you would bet are totally unique in the world. How many of you create these minis and then add them to your bestiary?
I would guess that I have about 50 completely hand-made or entirerly self-sculpted minis in my collection. As for those that are just kit-bashed out of existing parts (like the fore mentioned elven zombies), I would have to say that I have between 300-400 in my various WFB armies and another 50-75 in my role-palying minis.
Or am I just a certified nutcase?
Not by my standards. I have close to 7500 painted miniatures, and at least that many more in my garage awaiting thier chance at the painting table. You're no more crazier than I am. :-)
DeathQuaker - I tend to fiddle around with my minis at night as a form of relaxation. I don't watch TV and I can't afford to spend my evenings golfing. Even if we spend an evening at the movies and eating out, when I get home I can usually still spend 30 minutes or so and work on something.
Also I can work from home on occasion and have lots of conference calls. I used to do origami or draw maps while on those calls, because if I'm not doing something with my hands, I fall asleep in long boring conference calls. Today, just before typing this, I spent about 30 minutes on the call and took one of my horses, cut the wings off of a crappy owl miniature and epoxied them to the horse, and now I have another Pegasus. And it's not like I didn't participate on the call, that engages a totally separate portion of the brain so I can do both simultaneously. I might only make three or four minis a night, but believe me, they add up. My shelf of recently completed minis now has more than 40 new minis on it. And many of them are quite nice, at least as far as I'm concerned. The pegasus came out pretty nice, even if the wings are quite different from my other pegasus minis, one of which has seagull wings and one has eagle wings. I think that makes them more visually interesting.
Halidan, I don't know whether to be impressed or alarmed by the size and scope of your collection. :)
As far as the Mage Knight dragons, yes I've seen them. But I just went through a massive miniature expansion where I spent about $250 to add about a thousand minis (a bargain, but still $250) so my options for spending more money on minis right now are pretty limited. I've also looked at the McFarlane dragons and several others. I purchased two very large (comparatively) dragons from Michaels, one "mountain" and one "forest", both of which are very nice and are my biggest dragons. But they cost $20 for the both of them, which is pretty cheap compared to D&D mini standards, but still I can't build up a collection of dragons averaging $10 apiece, not quickly anyway. I do keep my eyes open though.
I bought the "Mythological Realms" toob which had eight creatures, most of which were absolutely perfect for gaming, except for an oversized mermaid. The "dragon" included was a sea dragon with no wings. So I cut the wings off a bat and epoxied them on, and now I have another dragon. Looks nice too. So for the $5.99 I spent on the toob I got eight very nice and useful minis. That's about the most I want to spend per mini these days. I also bought the insect toob which provided me with giant flies, spiders, preying mantis, and bats (don't ask why bats were in the toob, there's a Calvin and Hobbes joke in there somewhere). Most of them have been cut up for parts now.
Another thing I've been working on today is a dinosaur that I've removed the head and arms and have replaced the arms with eight tentacles and am actively looking for a head for it. I'm thinking maybe an alligator head...
Generally I've got half a dozen active minis that I'm working on at any one time. They add up.
But 7,500? Man.... I wouldn't even know how to begin to store all that.
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I haven't had a lot of time for customizing lately, but I try to make time when I've got a game coming up and no mini to fill the right role. Below are a couple pics from my current campaign featuring monsters I built from other minis.
Athach (DDM Fomorian with dremeled Marvel Legends MODOK arm attached at chest, teddy bear arm used for fur cloak and beard, hair made from plastic shavings from MODOK arm)
Zelekhut (Mage Knight robot horse body and robot dragonfly wings attached to Heroclix Colossus torso with cheap gold chain attached at wrist)
Do you ever stat up the monsters you've Frankensteined or are they based on pre-existing beasts?
Velcro, my efforts pale in comparison to yours. Still, they are fun.
Whether I stat out a monster depends on what I'm trying to do. A large number of my "custom" minis are intended to be an existing monster I just don't have a mini for, such as the dragons, pegasi, chimera, minotaur, animals, dinosaurs, etc.
In most of the remaining cases I may create a totally new "monster" but I can find a monster in the bestiary that does something very similar to what my custom monster does, but with some differences in flavor. For example, I may create something with tentacles instead of arms but other than the fluff, it's actual play might be exactly the same as a lion. I do that sort of "reskinning" a lot. On occasion I'll swap out some feature with another creature of similar CR. For example, my tentacled creature may act in combat exactly like a lion, but instead of pounce it has a grab attack. For my flying gorilla it will be more or less the same as a gorilla, but with flight. Since I don't give out experience points and instead level PCs up according to completion of story points, so long as the fight is balanced I don't have to worry about CR adjustments.
But on occasion I do completely stat out a monster from scratch. This is especially true of my more bizarre creations. My butterfly winged lizard beast will require that sort of effort. So will my fungazoid and the tentacle-headed mini-boss I am working on. All of those will require special effort, and the mini-boss will also require some class levels to boot.
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Personally, I think my customs are serviceable. They do the job and I like the way they turn out, but they could probably be better done by someone with a little more skill and some sculpting clay.
I usually make minis based on stuff I don't have or monsters for which no minis exist as well but, every now and then, I'll do one based on a monster I created.
This is a Punxizu, a devil I came up with who records the history of Hell on the folds of its flabby flesh. He's pretty simple; just a repainted Heroclix Blob figure with horns I pulled off a Warhammer mini. I drew all the little tattoos on with a fine Sharpie.
I don't have a pic of it yet, but I've also got a flying Lillend I built out of more Mage Knight and Heroclix pieces.
Halidan, I don't know whether to be impressed or alarmed by the size and scope of your collection. :)
Personaly, I'm a little scared by the whole thing. I won't repeat what my wife usually says about it.
But, my collection is a lifetime of work. I started historical wargamming in 1974, and caught the D&D bug in 1977. I worked at my Dad's Hobby Shop during High School and since graduating college in 1983, I've usually had a second, part-time job at various other hobby shops in the MidWest. Employee discounts are a dangerous thing. The worst/best job was at a shop where the very kind owner paid us weekly in cash, and let us charge items against our paychecks anytime during the week. There was more than one Saturday when I owed him money.
But 7,500? Man.... I wouldn't even know how to begin to store all that.
I use a tool chest (about 4' high on rollers for my commonly used RPG minis. The rest of the RPG minis are in boxes in my garage. I take them out when I know an adventure calls for them.
Each of the 4 WFB Armies has it's own cases. The ones I use stack on a small dolly for rolling into tournaments and store play dates. Unpainted minis are mostly still in the booster or box they're sold in, with some of them in boxes, sorted by type. They are all stored in my 2.5 car garage, which has just enough room left over to hold our minivan.
@Velcro Zipper - What a wonderful job on the Athach. I have a couple of those trolls that are just laying around doing nothing. I think you just gave me an idea of how to put them to better use. I'd also never have guessed that your Punxizu was Blob if you hadn't told us. Great conversion using a difficult mini to do anything creative with.
I never really caught the miniature bug until very recently. I used to play D&D with no minis and no battle mat. Moving to a miniature based game was a significant change for me. For the most part I viewed miniatures as just fancy markers and so had no problem using pennies, dice or whatever was handy. When I decided I would like to use actual miniatures, I felt the cost of the Wizards minis was ridiculous, so I just started making my own.
Purely coincidentally I discovered I sort of liked making stuff out of clay and epoxy.
Who knew?
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I've only done some customizing on a few figures, despite painting minis going back a bit before I got into D&D (twenty-six years, as frightening as that it). Generally I'll just swap a sword for an axe, something like that. My feeling is that I'm pushing the extent of my meager artistic abilities with the painting- trying anything grander is inviting tragedy. The one attempt I made at really altering a figure... well, it could have been better. A half-dragon orc who's a major Big Bad in my ongoing campaign needed a figure, and needless to say minis like that don't grow on trees.
Nestaruk Sadok of the Hellsworn Legion 1
Nestaruk Sadok of the Hellsworn Legion 2
Nestaruk Sadok of the Hellsworn Legion 3
Nestaruk Sadok of the Hellsworn Legion 4
Nestaruk Sadok of the Hellsworn Legion 5
I created a blog for my RPG and I just posted a bunch of messages with photos of minis I've been working on. (Link takes you to blog)
I just got a bucket from Amazon about a week ago.
I believe my daughter got the bucket of dragons at Target or Walmart. I enjoy making unique monsters, I'm glad you liked the tentaclesaur. I am working on a vine swarm now.
I just got a bucket from Amazon about a week ago.
Are you planning to paint and or mod them for gameplay? I was actually pleased with the quality of the sculpts on them, I just wish they weren't so cartoony.
I just got a bucket from Amazon about a week ago.
Have you got a link for that bucket. My googlefoo has been failing as of late.
I just got a bucket from Amazon about a week ago.Have you got a link for that bucket. My googlefoo has been failing as of late.
How To Train Your Dragon Movie Bucket of Dragons
@brassboon: I'll probably paint at least one of each, including the guys which are a little big for medium but too small for large, I'm thinking half-giants.
I rarely mod miniatures, even though your owlbear looked pretty cool I don't I could have made myself do that to an owl mini. Maybe if I could get a bunch of them pretty cheap, I might be able to make myself do it. The most I've done is took some early version mage knight orcs and cut off their arms and reposition them to take up less space (sword raised in the air instead off to the side).
Though this thread has made me think about taking some of the animal/dino toys/minis I got and aren't using, I might start messing around with them.
I convert like mad. A good chunk of my Reaper ogres and trolls have Warjack limbs on them. Things not meant to have two heads might have that many or more. Things wingless become winged, things with wings get tentacles instead.
Some stuff can't be named.
I don't have any one favorite means of coming up with ideas, models-wise, or storywise. But I come up with A LOT of ideas in general. So at any given time, a certain model can give me a great idea for a game. That model will probably make it to the table in its natural form, or something like it. On the other hand, at any given time a story idea might give me a great idea for a model. That means somebody is going under the knife, whether it be a mini from my current collection, or whether it means I go out searching for a new victim.
It also means I collect some weird stuff, sometimes. I don't know what percentage I might say is "unique" in my collection. I will speed paint a normal army on occasion. But most of the time, something is happening to make what I'm working on different, even if just a little so.
I haven't done much mix and matching with my D&D, Reaper or other commercial fantasy miniatures. I've done a little bit with my Mage Knight minis.
Most of my mini modifications and "frankensteining" are done with the cheap plastic minis I buy at dollar and toy stores. For example, I might put bird wings on a cheap horse or lion miniature.
It's actually pretty surprising how many useful miniatures I've been able to make from minor mods of those cheap animal minis. Pegasi, unicorns, dragons, griffons, manticores, minotaurs, chimera.... plus lots of completely unique creatures using the same basic premise (sticking different animal parts together or mixing them with human parts...).
One of my favorite minis is a creepy giant snake with a dinosaur head and dozens of tentacles... What is it? I dunno, it's probably unique in the history of fantasy gaming... Which is particularly cool to me...
I haven't done much mix and matching with my D&D, Reaper or other commercial fantasy miniatures. I've done a little bit with my Mage Knight minis.
Most of my mini modifications and "frankensteining" are done with the cheap plastic minis I buy at dollar and toy stores. For example, I might put bird wings on a cheap horse or lion miniature.
It's actually pretty surprising how many useful miniatures I've been able to make from minor mods of those cheap animal minis. Pegasi, unicorns, dragons, griffons, manticores, minotaurs, chimera.... plus lots of completely unique creatures using the same basic premise (sticking different animal parts together or mixing them with human parts...).
One of my favorite minis is a creepy giant snake with a dinosaur head and dozens of tentacles... What is it? I dunno, it's probably unique in the history of fantasy gaming... Which is particularly cool to me...
Mother of oblivion?
Mother of oblivion?
Heh... not quite, but there are definitely some similarities. That's a pretty cool monster... I might just try to make one of those. Mine is land-based and not nearly as big. I'll post a photo on my blog when I get a chance.
Wow. My fantasy minis collection is quite standard...very little customization. I've been a bit more adventurous with customizing WH40K figures and do some nice basing on the metal minis I paint but have done very little with my plastics.
The closest I've gotten was *considering* modifying a gungan to create a gungan Sith for a Star Wars game I was running (painting him red and black and appending a red lightsaber). I did not do it because I was scared of messing it up. I should give it a go.
M
Mearrin, if you are concerned about messing something up, I recommend getting some cheap minis to experiment with. I get mine at US Toy, but you can also get some at dollar stores. If you can get some cheap dinosaurs, lizards, frogs, spiders or bugs (usually available for pennies) then you can do simple things like put an alligator head on a dinosaur body, or put pterasaur wings on a lizard or any other elements together. Once you get comfortable with cutting and pasting, working on more expensive minis won't be as daunting.
Oh, you will need some epoxy putty to fill gaps. You can get small amounts of kneadatite ("green stuff") at most local game stores for about ten bucks.
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*casts Cure Moderate Wounds on thread*
I recently finished a homemade mini I thought I'd share here.
Allow me to introduce The Huge Black Pudding.
I made this mad ooze from pipe cleaners, melted wax, acrylic paint, blue ink and one of those triangular cardboard thingies that came with my copy of Ultimate Combat.
Next up, I'm going to try the same method to build a huge Otyugh.