Conversion tools

I figured I,d start my conversion posts with some of the tools and things I use to do my conversions. I,m sure there are many other tools and ways to go about converting but I,m going to show what I use and what works for me.
I hope others will chime in and talk about what they use and how they go about doing things but lets start simple by showing a few things that I use and you,ll need to get started.
You won,t need all this stuff to get started but I,ll show it any way and try and explain how I use this stuff and what its for as we go along.
I,ll have to post a lot of small segments because I,m not sure how many pictures I can use per post??? and pictures will be needed to help explain how I go about doing a lot of this stuff.
Here is the first picture of my work tools!

This is an overall tool shot, now I,ll try and break down what I use them for.
First break down picture will be cutting tools. Most of my figure cutting is done with simple razor blades. I also like these Testors hobby knifes because the blade is set in place and won,t come loose.
They have sets where you can change the blades out but these come loose under the pressure needed to cut into thicker sections. The saw is for metal conversions and real thick cutting like converting horse bodies real thick stuff.
The wire cutters is used for cutting wire. Its nice to also have a scissors around also that belongs to you and not the wife because they get mad when you ruin theirs doing heavy cutting.

Next pic is 2 part putties and supper glue,there are many to choose from but this is what works well for me. You might like something different. Try a few and see what works best for you.

Next pic is of some tools I use to work with the putty. Files are for filing and sanding after the putty has dried. This again is an area where there are many options and opinions on what to use. Again these are just a few of my tools and I only showed a few that I use the most.

A drill is great to have but not a must, you can still convert without one. A small dremel type tool will work nice also. You,ll need to get some fine drill bits for pinning wire into your figures.
I also included my hobby knife in the drilling section because I use this a lot to hollow out sections and add putty which can also kinda act as a pin if you hollow out both sections to be joined and fill both sides with putty and join them together.

This next picture is of different sized wire and styrene strips and rod that I use in my conversions. Its good to have many different sized wires to use in every thing from pinning to flag poles, cannon ramrods, and real fine wire that can be twisted in a drill to make rope, barbed wire ect..
The styrene strips can be used to make straps for figures backpacks horse straps and lots of other uses.
The washers I use to base my figures on, this adds weight to the base and really helps the figures stand up and is a must on top heavy figures that fall over like flag bearers.

Well that,s it for my first post. Maybe the next will be on how I go about basing my figures or head swops??? Something easy to get started.