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.