For #miniaturemonday this week I decided to do a blog post covering a conversion I've wanted to do for a while - a Infinity Nomad Sniper. In game terms it's a bit of an oddity as you'd usually be better off having the Multi Sniper Rifle on a more powerful unit, but as part of a Link Team it could be quite nasty.

Anyway, here goes. Some plasticard rod, 1mm metal wire, the 'bunny girl' Moderator, an Intruder Sniper's Multi Sniper Rifle (for comparisons) and one of Antenociti's resin spaceship bases.

Comparison with the MSR carried by the Intruder & Spektr:

Rather than going for a direct copy I want to have a fairly thin and stubby barrel (the 1mm metal) with a long bulky flash suppressor (the plasticard rod) like the one on the Djanbazan Sniper. Then it needs some kind of scope on the side as that's one of the other main differences between the Nomad Combi Rifle and Nomad MSR.

First step, cleaning up the Moderator, snipping off the Combi Rifle barrel and cutting the tab down to pins on the feet ready for basing. Plus a magnet in the bottom of the resin base for transport in my metal-bottomed figure case.

The next step was to drill a 1mm hole in the rifle body, this involved holding the model in a small vice between a couple of scrap bits of foamboard to protect the relatively soft metal model, then under the drill it went.

The metal rod had been cut with snips so was slightly rough on the ends, this needed filing down before fitting snugly in the rifle hole. The 'pins' on the feet had also been filed down to a rounder shape at this point.

Drilling the plasticard rod was more tricky. Due to the thinness of the rod and the large size of the 1mm hole required, even on the slowest setting the drill was melting the plasticard. So this one was drilled by hand in the end, after using a compass point to start the hole. As with the Moderator, the rod is held between some sheets of softish material (1mm foamed PVC) to stop it squashing between the vice plates.

The holes in the resin base came next, the positions had been marked with a pin vice and then the drill was used to drill out using a 1.4mm bit.

The mostly converted Moderator with flash suppressor and a small stub under the main barrel.

Feet being checked against the base. There was another round of filing and checking to make sure that the feet fit fluch to the base, otherwise it doesn't look like the model is actually standing.

Some finer plasticard rod was added to the side of the gun to look a bit like a sniper scope, compared here with the Intruder MSR.

Here's the final assembled model ready for undercoating and a group shot with a couple of other Nomad models with MSR.

It does look awfully bulky on the skinny Moderator but that's not necesarily a bad thing. Looks like I might try the same on a spare Zero in case I ever want to use an infiltrating camo model with MSR.

Ian