The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

Meanin’ plenty ‘o harm

I started base-coating the banner, but I'm going to be out for the evening, and the light in my apartment was decent, so I figured I'd take some better photographs than the last batch. These get the true color through much better than the last bunch. Ignore the banner for now, and the unpainted gas can and chains.

 

The bike itself looks sort've clean, despite repeated washes to try and grunge things up a bit. It hasn't gotten the same amount of chipping and weathering as the front wheel guard and grille do because I imagine that front section would take the most hits, what with all the 'umies he must be running over.

Just a good ‘ol boss

The bike's got a bit more paint on it. My photos are sort've crappy, as they were taken around one in the morning, but you get the idea.

 

The painting style on this thing is a bit different than some of my other works, but I think it's alright. The bike's obviously not done - I have some more weathering and detailing to add, and the obvious matter of the banner and unpainted parts.

A couple people pointed out the 'confederate flag' resemblance on the gun casing, which I didn't really notice until then. I think it's alright - certainly more work to go back and change at this point, and I don't want the paint to get too thick on this thing.

A splash of red

Okay. I've not had much time, but I started painting the bike a bit. I've got to say, I'm not too pleased with what I've managed so far... my mentality with this thing was that it was basically going to be constructed from spare parts from his ol' Fighta Bomma, so I was going to have it somewhat banged up, and the paint chipped off the front grill. It's alright, but I've had a really hard time with getting the paint smooth on the reds and metals, despite how much I water the paints down. It works, I guess.

 

Tried freehanding checkers on the top, and I'm not too thrilled with them, either, but I'm not going to worry 'bout it for now. I'll work on it a bit more tomorrow.

Orknold Shwarzenorker

I've become so utterly handicapped by these washes!

The boss himself is like... 90% done. I think.

 

The mechanical parts and metallics like the gun and hand need a bit more work just to make it less 'giant mass of boltgun metal'. I put tin bitz in places on both, but after some badab black wash it starts to become difficult to tell where, exactly. Still, I am pretty pleased with the biker's overall appearance, and I think the eye is enough to make me happy.

I sort've feel like doing the grot next, and then the bike itself.

Time for some paint

First, and least interestingly, I did a bit of painting to the base. I need to work on the gold parts with a bit of a wash, but truthfully, who cares? The base is secondary to the actual mini.

More to the point, I also had a bit of time to start with the paint work on the boss. My results so far feel a bit 'grimey' due to the fact that I'm washing a lot of the jacket with Devlan Mud, but I sort've like the look on this mini anyway; this is an ork who lost half his body while wearing that jacket, and he now spends his days riding on a smog-belching, greased-up killcycle. I think I can get away with making him a bit grimy.

 

I had the terror-inducing panic attack of dropping the rider about an hour ago, when I set the pin vice holding the paperclip down and the whole thing topped off my desk. His bionic foot and gun arm both broke off, but I've managed to get them both pinned and glued back on without too much trouble. I think the gun arm is actually being held a little bit more forward than it was prior, but it doesn't get in the way of the handlebars, so I'm not worried about it. Of course, I am a bit annoyed that my inadvertent butterfingers got to the model after I'd started painting.

In any case, it doesn't seem to have gone too badly. I tried painting the skin by the 'seam' a sickly purple color with varying degrees of success - as always, I think it looks a bit better to the eye than the camera, but that's just because the eye is much more forgiving. I'll be trying to smooth out some of the blending around that seam a bit better, but the overall idea is there.

I also need to find some sort of tutorial for how to do the glowy-eye stuff on the bionic side. I don't want it to be too excessive - just a bit on the surrounding cheekbone and brow - but enough to eonvey that 'yes this guy is lit up'. A brighter red, probably closer to white will be needed on the eye to sell the effect, but that'll come later.

Head out on the highway

A bit more work, and I think I'm done here.

I got rid of the sleeping roll behind the banner and seat, as it looked far too insubstantial for an ork this size. It was practically a napkin compared to him, and it certainly wouldn't serve as any sort of bike cover. Instead, I piled up all sorts of suitable stuff that a biker might want: a wrench, some stikkbombz, some ammunition, and a gas can with some orky markings. It's all just about the right size for the grot to stand on comfortably while he hangs from the pole behind the seat. A few chains lashed everything together and sealed the deal.

 

I added a few dags to the back bumper above the wheel because I couldn't think of much else to put there. Also hopefully more apparent is the addition of a base. I am actually a bit frustrated with it - something's up with my white PVA glue, because it hardened in a weird way that basically killed any drubrushing texture the rocks I glued down might have had. I usually water the PVA down a bit to prevent this, but it didn't seem to work this time. Instead I grabbed some CA glue and a disposable brush and brushed it all over the top, and applied another layer of my usual dirt ballast. There's a strut from a Warhound Titan's leg on the base there that you may have noticed - I don't know why I have one of these (I do, but I thought it went with the warhound when I sold it) but I figured I may as well include it, given that his background fluff depicts him as a titan-killer.

I couldn't think of anything to do with that open area ontop of the guns - targeters (crosshairs) didn't seem to fit that area too well, and glyphs would have ruined the 'face'. I will probably just paint something on later, or add a simple armor plate riveted down there before I prime.

Anyway, I took just a couple more photos of him because I think he's getting paint on him fairly soon, and I wouldn't mind having some final-ish shots around for pre-paint comparison.

 

Here's one with a space marine for scale comparison. This guy is big. I may have gotten a little out of hand with his scale on the bike, but I suppose from a tabletop perspective he's easily distinguishable from the other ork bikers.

Really, when you look at bike by itself (using the grot for scale comparison), I suppose it's all okay, but then with the marine added you start to question how reasonable my scale is. I guess I could also use him as a =I= scale biker, eh?

... Does =I= even have ork bikers?

Here's a last shot of Zanzag hanging out with my other orky HQ characters:

Booma's feeling a little small these days! Still, he himself towers over a normal Ork boy, so I suppose all is right with the world. Maybe I'll have to build him some elaborate warmachine to compensate!

Anyway, barring anything obvious that I missed, I think this model's getting primed and painted soon. The rider and grot all come off to make my life easier as far as paint goes. I usually use white primer on these character models, because it lets me wash things a bit better, but I'm sort've feeling black primer for all of this job. We'll see how it goes.

Lookin’ fer advensha

After a lot of consideration, I've decided I'm not going to be lighting the rider's bionic eye. It seems like a monumental amount of work for a rather minimal effect, and I run the risk of ruining a lot of sculpting work if I drill into the body and hit part of the armature. Similarly, wiring the LED up would require me to thread cables down through his body, through the seat, through a tire, and to a battery and switch in the base, all of which would tether the model together and prevent me from painting the still-removable rider and bike separately, which I think is a huge sacrifice. Also, if the LED ever burned out, I'd be pretty much screwed in terms of replacing it, because lights that you put in a mini like that are usually unretrievable. All in all, it just doesn't seem worth the trouble when I can just paint a red glow on the socket around his bionic eye, which would then be a permanent effect and not something I'd have to turn on and off.

I threw some brakes on the bike. While this may seem entirely unorky, I felt like I needed some sort of extra detail on the bike up at the front, and the hanging cables were a quick and easy way to fill that space a bit. Plus, it makes his bionic hand look a bit more integrated with the bike. In my defense, the normal ork bikers also have brakes (and brake lines), so I guess it fits. I also added 'eyes' to the face that was made by the front fender and forks which will serve as square ejection ports for spent ammunition. You can sort've picture him firing the guns off and watching the shells spray up and over him to his left and right, out of these holes. I considered using the 'ejecting shells' bit from the ork boyz sprue, but it looked a bit cluttered, so I will probably just paint the interior of the eye-frame black and leave it at that.

The grot hanging on the back was also just loosely pinned on. He's a bit tiny and I don't know if I like his presence that much; I was initially thinking of more of a 'mechanic' type grot presence, to keep the bike constantly running, but there's no room on a snotling that tiny to put any sort of tools. He may get goggles - I tried sculpting a pair earlier and botched it, so I peeled 'em off.

I riveted up a couple spots, and I think I'll be piling a couple more things up behind his seat, by the base of the banner and bedroll. Since Wazdakka has stikkbombz, and I will be using this guy as a 'counts-as' Wazdakka, I will probably chain a few upright against the banner pole, and I may make a spare 'ammunition clip' for that big ol' gun he's hefting around with his left hand back there. Part of me is concerned that it looks like there's nowhere for him to actually holster that thing on the bike, but I'm probably overthinking things, as most Games Workshop models have weapons with no visible holsters. I wonder who has the free hands to actually open doors in the 40k universe.

Anyway, is this done, aside from a base? I'm not sure. I keep looking at it and I can't quite decide.

Get to da choppa!

Arise, ye slumbering beast, for I have tasty morsels to feed thee! Yesterday, this bad biker boss rode on in. Noze was all done with his part of it, so now it's just up to me to finish the model off. Here's what I got back:

 

Undeniably, unequivocally awesome work done by Noze there. But there's still work to be done!

Item number one on the list of things to do was a fancy, streaming banner behind the bike. I decided to texture the details on the banner with styrene, because I am a pretty rubbish freehand painter. The obvious upside to plasticarding my own banner details (in a fashion similar to what the Cadia banner has, for example) is that painting and washing it will be real easy. The obvious downside is that it involves the cutting of super-small, fiddly styrene. Still, it's a worthy sacrifice.

The banner was drawn up thus:

The sides of the banner would correlate to the biker boss himself, so for example the bionic mek-head side would be on his right (which is his entirely cybork half) and the fleshy part would be on his left (which is his still-orky half). I later decided to replace the fire on the robot half of the banner with lightning bolts, instead - the angular design helped differentiate the two halves of the banner better.

The details were then cut:

After a bit of crude fashioning, I was able to cut out the shape of a larger banner in thicker styrene, and bend it over my kitchen stove into a wavy shape. The details were then carefully applied with tweezers and glue. Thankfully, the styrene was thin enough (.012") that I was able to get the detail pieces to conform to the shape without too much fighting. This left me with what you see below:

 

This was followed by a bit more work, namely smoothing over the point at which the banner and the pole meet. I also took the opportunity to attach the handlebar that is not being held, and cap off the exhaust pipe that sticks out of the boss's sleeve on his bionic side. Last, I filed down one of the evil sunz icons from the older edition ork bikes until it was mighty thin, and glued it on his back between his shoulder blades as a bit of extra detail, since I thought that space looked a bit empty.

 

I probably won't be able to do too much more for the next few days because I have an exam coming up, and right after that I am hosting a wargaming event which I need to prepare stuff for.

When I do come back to him, I will be working on both ends of the bike. Up front, the bike's getting some more detailing, riveting, and maybe some brake lines to help fill in the dead space behind the forks a bit better. In the back, I'm going to be piling stuff up around the canvas roll, including a grot hanging off the back for dear life.

Then I need to base him, and then I need to maybe cast the head up so I have a spare to tinker with. If I can get a good copy, I'm going to drill the bionic eye out and light him.

If I said you had a nice body…

Just a scant two months ago, I sent my warboss bike off to the disgustingly talented Nozeminer, from The-Waaagh.com's forums, for a bit of work. Particularly, I asked him to sculpt me a mean, green, half-machine ork rider to represent Zanzag Barga, my ork Bikerboss. I told him I basically did not care about the time frame in which the model was done, which meant he could work on it at his leisure. Since then, he's put together some absolutely phenomenal work, which I feel compelled to share.

 

If you read this link, which leads to Zanzag's fluff, the model makes a lot more sense, but to recap: Zanzag is an ex-fighta-bomma pilot who lost his entire right side, clean down the middle, in a suicide run. To reward him, the meks and painboyz built him a fancy new bionic replacement for all the parts he lost. Unfortunately, due to it's weight and bulk, he's not able to fly anymore, so being an Evil Sun at heart, he turns to bikes as a way to get his thrills.

The model's theme borrows half from the Terminator movies (Ahhnold!) and half from WWII bomber aesthetics. Noze did some absolutely fantastic work on this guy so far - you can clearly see the bionic half of his body, and the bionic foot is a nice touch. The real work of art is the head, though - that half-bionic grin is just insidious.

I've given him a bit of input in terms of concept and ideas, but aside from that I've pretty much let him run wild with the sculpting, and he has done an absolutely incredible job. I'm not sure how long it'll be till the whole model's done being sculpted, but every time I get an update from him it gets harder and harder to wait!

Noze has also had the foresight to leave the model in a couple separate pieces.Given how awesome this biker is shaping up to look, I've decided to go whole-hog on the mini and light him. When I get the miniature back, I'm going to attempt to make a cast of the head, and then use that cast to drill out the 'bionic' eye and slip a red LED into his noggin (I'd hate to accidentally slip up and ruin the original head!) It should give him that authentic 'Come wif' me if ya wantz ta Waaagh!' terminator look.

There's a couple other things that need to be done to this model (particularly, the bike) after I get it back from Noze. I would love to add a grot hanging off the back of the bike, and I set aside the weedy runt from the Shokk Attack Gun kit that is getting 'sucked in' to the vaccum port on the gun for this purpose. Unfortunately, in the interim of sending this bike off for work, I seem to have lost the little guy, so I'm going to have to come up with an alternative. The bike's also getting a nice, big banner to trail behind it. I have some funny ideas for what sort of things could be drawn on the banner, but I'm going to wait until a bit later to let that cat out of the bag.

Anyway, there you have it. I get giddy whenever I look at this guy, and I can't wait to get him back and finish him off. Thanks Noze!

All da wurky dials

Not much work today, but I did manage to hack down one of the dial sections from an Ork Trukk kit and make it fit between the two forks. I need to clean it up a little more, but I think it works. The steering wheel hole has been replaced with a turbo boosting button.

Also, please note that the rider's body is just a fantasy warboss that I stuck on the bike to get some sense of where the steering arm should be. The bionic power fist holding onto the handlebars is going to be a permanent feature of the final model, but it needs to have the 'handlebar' itself bulked up a bit - it used to be the handle on the Waaagh! Banner Nob mini GW produces, but it's a bit too thin to look like a proper handlebar given the rest of the bike's size.

 

I'm probably going to add rectangular holes on the angled-up sides of the toothy gun housing that will function double-duty as 'eyes' for the face on the front end of the bike and as a place for the dakkaguns to eject their spent shells. I tried adding headlights at one point to make eyes for the face, but it looked too odd with the eyes pointing forward but the top of the face pointing up.

I've been negotiating with Nozeminer over at The-Waaagh.com's forums for a bit of help with sculpting this biker boss. For those of you keeping track, Noze is the same fellow who gave me a hand with my Big Boss project. We've come to a decent arrangement, so the bike is currently winging its way across the United States. I'll be sure to post the updates here.