Progress on 15mm Etoiles Mortant

Just to give you an idea of what looks I have in mind for my upcoming Etoiles Mortant - a quick update on where I am with the conversion work.
In case you didn't come across WarZone or Mutant Chronicles - the Etoiles Mortant ('Dying Stars') is an all-female unit in the army of Bauhaus corporation. They are primarily close-assault  unit, wielding swords and pistols, with support options limited to weapons such as light flamethrower or some grenades.
Here's how the original 28mm Etoiles Mortant look:

 

I use Black Widow Mercs as a base for my conversions - as you can see below, they resemble the original look at some points (jumpsuit, pistol, hairstyle, shoulder pads...):

Black Widow Mercs as they come in a pack (there are 3 poses in jumpsuits and 3 more, wearing longcoats)

I decided there are three features of the original look that I would like to add: combat boots (the idea of jumpsuit merged with the boots didn't really appeal to me), belt and webbing (to break up the looks of the jumpsuit a bit) and - of course - the swords.

At first I thought I will just use katana-wielding hands from Rebel Mini ninja pack - but when the order arrived it became clear that it's really not an option. Those hands were much too big - I needed BIG and a bit cartoony swords (see the original look...) but small, delicate hands. What's more - I knew that handswaps (and sculpting swords, for that matter) was something I really hated about doing conversions in 15mm.
So what did I do?

Cut off one of the pistols.

Using needle, made a hole in each hand that was about to get a sword and pushed a thin wire through it

Glued thin strips of plasticard on both sides of the wire. A putty was then used for hilts and to fill the gap between two layers of plasticard.

And to give you a sneak-peek on what's next about these ladies - here's a picture of original Valerie Duval, Etoiles Mortant hero model:

 

And here...

Does that model from Rebel Minis superhero pack look familiar? Hmm...