Orktober 2019

Last year I began a build for Orktober of a metal warboss and completed it with what I thought was some time to spare before the end of the month to do another figure. I started it thinking I would be able to finish well within the timeframe but I was overcome with a certain Star Wars Legion project that took my focus away entirely. I have no regret for setting it on the shelf for the year. I have come back to it and decided to finish it up for a competition that would wrap up at the end of September. With the majority of the build already done I’ll be showing off the painting with minimal additional building.

Once more this is a metal Ork Warboss. I’ve scratchbuilt the bosspole from wire and plasticard. The skulls are resin from Secret Weapon where the chains are from a pack put out by Reaper miniatures. The affixed glyphs are from a random lot of eBay ork bitz.

Modification to the head was done by attaching a mohawk from a Slaanesh demonette and attaching more plastic. The iron jaw was made with plastic tubing cut to size and shape before pinning to the points of the jaw for best fit on the model.

The torso included added bits of plastic square rod cut for metal bits on the shoulder pad. A segment of chain from another model was added to the other shoulder as ornament. Fur trim was sculpted as in the aesthetic of 1980s post-apoc villains the likes of the large fat fiend from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Also added to the torso was a plate salvaged from warbikes bitz. The skull loincloth was Apoxiesculpt under a (Chaos?) plastic bit from Warhammer Fantasy. The sides and back had added greenstuff for a belt and a satchel of stikkbomz (to be added later) to give the git more kit to play with.

The feet had the original hobnails filed down and more plastic tubing cut to act like steel toecaps. As any ork that expects to be doin’ some krumpin knows there needs to be more killie kapability in the footwear so on went some sharp bits and “bolts” to give visual texture.

The arms and legs got more addition with no small amount of plastic. The forearms had Nob belly armor bitz pinned as they were just the right size and shape to frame the hands.

With regard to the weapons a whole other world opened up. The original chain ax was pleasant for the first time doing the figure but on a second run I felt it needed to be changed. On went a proppa killie kutta, pulled from the same random Ork Nob lot mentioned earlier, that would be appropriate for a Flash Git to show off with. The tassle affixed to the head was transplanted from the shoota as it just felt better visually on the ax.
The shoota turned into a Snazzgun by the fact I had sculpted a copy of the original magazine using thermoplastic with the intent of using it on the original ork warboss before losing it. So there were three magazines but no way to aim effectively(not that orks are known for their accuracy). On went crosshairs salvaged from the warbike kit that got pinned in order to make sure it didn’t move during the curing of the glue. On went a rifle type scope with a pin, part of a stikkbom to be painted as a red dot laser cemented to the side with an ever popular “bang!” flag sculpted next to it on its own rod that emphasizes the fact that there’s going to be a mess of dakka flying in the face of the enemy.

Under all of this is a resin display base bedecked with plastic odds and ends and small gauge wire ‘cable’ set up to create visual layers for the terrain. Industrial decay and an atmosphere of orky scrap looting was the general sense of what I was trying to build. On top of that I threw on gritty soil texture from Golden’s aggregate additives. A few spent shell casings from Secret Weapon got tossed on for good measure to show that there had indeed been some dakka sent forth to make twitchy piles of remains out of whatever the ork had faced off against.

There is quite a bit of work in the build by itself but the paint is looking to be intricate with its own issues. I look forward to the challenge and results I can take into competition.

Ok the base has come along pretty well. I’ve decided on playing with colors and a little patterning on the cable to make it appear as though it had been for a power supply. The next step would be to weather things and retouch the parts of the gloss that had been messed up during the painting/wash process. Once this gets sealed I’ll be so pleased to be done with it. I’ve been getting at the basecoat for the ork slowly while playing with the airbrush on adding checkerboard pattern to the metal plating. The downside to playing with one aspect of a project is that it segues into other figure projects that feature a technique you were messing around with. *sigh* Such is the play of mini painting we indulge in.

So, in painting and setting aside parts I dropped a buckle that had skulls hanging from it that was very cool in detail for the warboss. Not seeing where it dropped on the floor I went about looking for it. Not long after under my foot there was a not so pleasant crunch and the slight sensation of *pop*. Yep, I found the part alright and gauged the damaged as not able to repair since the small joins were well beyong saving (about as bad as getting the antennae off the sprue for the Skeeters in the Some’r Teeth crew box for Malifaux). I think it might’ve been an old Chaos plastic bit that I remember had been frightening to take off a random sprue. Overall I’ll step back for a little while and look into my other projects to regain some composure.

So its come time to get over the project hitting a low. I’m turning this into a success instead. I’ve held onto an ork captain for too long not to paint as I thought to make it my avatar figure. I’m always building great bases for display now I figure that painting might be useful in order to justify the room that this stuff is taking up. It also helps to fill out the promise of my mini pledge for the year. So far the project also has included little snippets put forth to show off progress outside of the project so I can get feedback with the WIP.

I’ve already posted to the threads but I’ll paste here for posterity and reference what I’m doing.

Detail view of the base for my figure. So far so good. I’ve just tested out the Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color on the area between boards on the base after glosscoat sealing it and I report to you that it is alot thinner than the GW shade washes. Nuln Oil has a higher surface tension and pools in recesses more than this stuff leaving the ever irritating tide mark of shades area. The panel liner wicks quickly into recesses and flows readily, if you put on enough, from one channel to the next. It is petroleum based as you can smell the product readily after putting it on. If you want to remove the excess use mineral spirits (white spirits for you Euro type persons; A/NZ no idea what you call it). I plan on using it after sealing the figure once I’m done detailing as the details are intricate. I believe that this will become a staple of my materials as it not only works well for fine detailing but there’s a metric butt ton in the bottle that will last for some time.

Fooling around with some of the stuff on my desk had yielded good news. I have a replacement part for the crushed one. The bad news is that the previous idea of entering the warboss for competition is null since it ended (I’ll be checking on the results with the store after posting). I’m  glad to have the work done so far on this so I won’t abandon it. I’ll merely put it on the back burner for my Halloween competition, Giftmas minis and year of painting pledge.  Beyond that I wanted to show what the work so far looks like together.

I have completed my painting of the namesake mini. I am very happy that it is all done. I might actually take a break now for a day or two.