More Complicated Dervish Flag Conversions

Converted figure (left) and original figure (right)

Considering how soft the plastic is in the AIP figures, I figured that it would be easier to clip, cut and carve other Dervish figure poses that were better suited for use as standard bearers.

Flag bearer for one of my Beja/Hadandowa war bands.

Many of the poses have the warrior holding his shield out to his side, why I don't know, so I decided to cut off the shields and drill a hole in the hand to create a standard bearer.

Flag bearer for one of my Ansar war bands.

The conversion process is quite easy, actually. I begin by cutting off the shields and being careful to not cut the hand off in any degree. The shields have a thick boss at the center and this takes a bit more work to cut and carve the unwanted plastic material from the fist. Once the shield has been cut off, I begin the process of gradually carving or shaving the arm and fist to make them look more natural. I could have done a better job on the two figures shown in this post, but they were good enough for me.

The flags are images from War Flags, a site for free downloads of flags. I copied them and pasted them to Word, printed the document out and then trimmed to flags to the desired size. The next step is to smear white glue (Elmer's Glue or the equivalent) over both halves of the back side and then fold the paper around the flag pole. There is still some time left to true up the flag halves so as to minimize the amount of white showing around the edges.

Next, I use one of my paint brush handles to furl the flag. I place the brush handle on a section of the flag and I wrap the flag around the handle to create the furl. Always have your flag furl running diagonally away from the flag staff to get a more natural look.