...no, this isn't the Empire's wrath. I bought a few sets of alien heads on Shapeways. I have a box of Rebel Troopers and a box of Fleet Troopers that are going to become alien units instead of human units.

The Fleet Troopers should be easy enough. None of their heads are attached, so I just need to snip off the pin on the top of the torso, drill a hole down, and glue the heads in.

The Rebel Troopers are a different story. All but one of them have their heads attached to their necks. What would be the best way to remove those heads without ruining the rest of the model? I'm not good at sculpting, so if I needed to rebuild a shoulder or something with green stuff, it may not look great.

...and for anyone interested in the alien heads, they came from here:
https://www.shapeways.com/shops/mel_miniatures

I use some boiling water and a scalpel. Dip the head of the mini in the water, which softens up the resin, then the scalpel can make an incredibly smooth cut.

15 minutes ago, TheGoldfinch said:

I use some boiling water and a scalpel. Dip the head of the mini in the water, which softens up the resin, then the scalpel can make an incredibly smooth cut.

Would a fresh/new X-acto knife blade work with this process too?

3 minutes ago, oreet said:

Would a fresh/new X-acto knife blade work with this process too?

Should do, I use a similar one from army painter.

10 hours ago, oreet said:

The Rebel Troopers are a different story. All but one of them have their heads attached to their necks. What would be the best way to remove those heads without ruining the rest of the model? I'm not good at sculpting, so if I needed to rebuild a shoulder or something with green stuff, it may not look great.

I've had good luck with a razor saw, but sprue cutters (or even wire nippers) will work too. Start your cut with plenty of room - above the jaw - to remove the majority of the mass, then use a needle file or similar abrasive to gradually whittle down the rest until you get the results you like.

I bought the same set of heads, and the conversion I had in mind didn't work out because I'd trimmed off too much. There wasn't enough neck left for the proportions to look right, and I ended up having to use a different head from my bits box.

Laser Axe is the way to go.

Seriously, though, the advice above is good.

For such cutting you can simply change the blade of your knife for this

Or this

So I've modified the Fleet Troopers. Some of them I may need to go in with a tiny bit of Green Stuff to reinforce/fill in the necks.

From left to right:

Front Row:
Devaronian Unit Leader | Quarren Trooper | Togruta Trooper

Back Row:
Twi'lek Trooper | Gotal Trooper | Bothan Scatter Gun Trooper | Bith MPL-57 Barrage Trooper

So these guys were pretty easy to do. I just used an exacto blade to lop off their neck posts, and trim down the necks a bit, used a small drill to drill a hole slightly wider than the pin on the new heads, and superglue them in. The Gotal, I should have cut more of his neck off and the Twi'lek and Quarren could both use a little bit of green stuff to build up the back of their necks.

I actually prefer the fleet troopers over the core set ones. They look and work better for conversions. I will say that all of the core rebel troopers I own have some sort of conversion. There isn't a single one that has been built as shown on the box

@oreet , your minis look fantastics. I am a bit jealous of the homeland diversity you will get for your fleet troopers. I should get some more for my own army. I recommend you to make your own twileks as the result will be better using greenstuff compare to what you can get buying 3d printing heads.

On the following examples I used "bretonian knight" head from game workshop because I find them to be less chicky compare to the ffg ones. But any heads can do the job and as you may have spare fleet trooper heads now just give a try (fleet troopers heads have a great sculpt compare to rebel troopers counterparts). Just cut off top of the heads to have enough space to add greenstuff