The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

Mobbing up, armoring up

Messed around with the nob a bit more. I think I'm sufficiently satisfied with the model enough to call it done, for now. Same goes for the mob, short of a few touch-ups and tweaks here and there, honestly.

Here's the nob:

 

It's hard to make him bigger than the other boyz because black orcs are so huge to begin with. I figured a bosspole was the best way of doing it, so he got a nice head trophy rack. The stikkbombz just seemed to fit, too. He got little upper thigh plates to match all the other black orc bodies - cutting those little glyphs was tricky!

I didn't tinker much with his shoulders because I had a hard time fitting any additional armor over them that looked decent, thanks to the pose the arms are in. I think it looks alright, all the same. I also sort've liked leaving the tusks on this guy just so he has a bit more authority.

Here he is in the mob, so you can get an idea of what I mean about being almost the same size as a black orc.

 

There'll be a couple small tweaks prior to painting. Probably adding a few dags (the triangular plates) to some of the boyz shoulderpads to make them a bit more visually interesting.

Da ‘Ardest of Da Bunch

Been banging together some ideas on the Nob, thought I'd put some pictures up.

 

I need to bulk the shoulders up a bit. I added some height to the bottom of the soles of his boots to make him taller, as he was pretty much on-par with the rest of the black orcs for size. It helped, but not enough, so I need to figure out a way to armor his shoulders up so he seems even taller.

He'll probably get a bosspole, too.

I'm considering snipping the horns off the jaw of the helmet and trailing wires out of it around to a backpack tank for oxygen or something similar. The 'big horns' approach helps him read a bit better as a nob, though, so I'm not sure what to go with.

What do you guys think?

One nob short of a full ‘ard mob

The mob is now 19/20 strong, with that 20th being the Nob who has yet to be made. I've been aiming for a 20-strong squad for when and if I feel like putting them in a battlewagon, though I will probably use trukks more often. Having glanced at the new ork dex, I understand the wargear restrictions for extra heavy weapons, so I only made two 'ard boyz with Big Shootas. The big shootas were a tough choice - usually I use burnas in all my squads but it seems the boyz no longer have that option.

Here's the mob, all together, and some shots of small groups I just picked out of the mob at random to try and get you a better look at things:

 

I took some individual photos of ones I liked, as well.

 

I had the most difficulty with the special weapons boyz, as I wasn't sure how to pose them and what to make their big shootas look like. Here's some shots of 'em:

 

I can't honestly remember what the gun bit on the left one is made of. I think it's a warzones miniature.

There's a bunch I still plan on doing to these boyz. I see some mold lines that need attention. I also want to add a bit more to them in terms of conversions. I think those rounded shoulder pads would look a lot better if some had spikes. Some could probably do with barbed wire, at least on the plainer-looking ones.

The Nob is probably going to be made from one of the metal nob bodies I have laying around. It should be entertaining, as I'll be doing the reverse of what I have to these boyz - trying to make it look more fantasy, rather than 40k, so it doesn't stick out so badly from the mob. CoolOrkDark.gif I considered using one of those 'Black Orc Big Boss' boxed sets, but it's expensive and it doesn't look too versatile in terms of what you get, anyway. It's just got a fancy axe and shield and bigger tusks.

Eight is such a khorny number

This will be something of a lackluster update. While I've now got a total of eight Black-Orcs-turned-'Ard-Boyz, my good camera is off at school while I am at home, meaning I won't be able to take decent pictures of them this weekend. I still gave it a decent try, though!

 

Some of them are better than others - it's hard to come up with good ideas for their helmets and such to try and update them to the atmosphere of 40k. One thing I noticed on one of the models that I think I will try on a couple others is the addition of barbed wire wrapped around the armor - I have a feeling if I do it right, it will work to kill the fantasy aura. It's hard to find creative places and ways to put guns on these guys, too.

Unfortunately, I used some of the sprue for other things, so I think these eight are all I can squeeze out of the box I bought. I'll have to make a trip out to buy another batch of them if I'm going to make any more progress. There's a bunch of places that need work - arms and shoulders that need greenstuffing, for example - but I'm putting that off to do in one batch for all of them so that I don't waste too much greenstuff. It also helps me get the squad up and in playable shape faster.

We’z too tuff ta die!

It's been a while since I've had any free time to work on the myriad things I have in bins around here. In the little free time I've found, I've been attracted to playing around with the Black Orcs I have. I've been pulling bits and pieces off of these sprues for a bunch of other ideas so far, but I've seen a number of people over at The-Waaagh make them into decent 'Ard boyz in the past, so I figured I'd give it a go.

The hardest part of working on these guys is how radically different they are from your standard 40k ork. While orks are all about hard angles and pointy bits, these models stand apart as very rounded and streamlined. The chainmail doesn't help, either - it's got a very medieval look to it that's hard to account for. I've seen a bunch of different takes on these models before, but the ones that look the best fit for the 40k universe have been so heavily converted and scratch built that there was hardly a need to even start from a black orc.I figured I'd go for something of a medium - I'd make some changes to the heads, which are the most visually distinct feature on the models, and try to update their weapons to fit the environment. A few stikkbomz or grenades indiscriminately mixed around in there doesn't hurt, either.

So, with all that said, off I went. I think I want a big, big collection of these guys, though I don't know what the unit caps on 'ard boyz is going to be in the new dex. I don't think I can go wrong with about 15 of 'em. I'm literally just working on these guys in my passing free moments, so I wouldn't expect to have a large number of them done with any sort of haste.

A couple individual pictures might help sort out the individual models, so let's start with the one on the left. He actually needs a bit more sculpting on his right shoulder to make it blend in properly. The head is one I made a while back just to pass the time while I was waiting for something - I cut a normal ork head in half and started building a bionic bonce. I thought it fit the body pretty well as far as scale goes, and there's really no way to make an ork's head look more in tune with the flavor of 40k than layering it in mechanics. I also put a little respirator on his torso that was wired up into the head. I'm not sure why. The slugga arm is off a normal boy, and I think it looks awfully out of place, but he was my first attempt, so I'm willing to let it stand for now.

 

Then there's this guy, who is okay, I guess. I didn't know how to make his helmet look a bit more 40k'ish. I tried cutting the tusks off the front of the helmet and replacing it with some sort of rivet. I ideally wanted to put maybe a rebreather there, but I couldn't figure out how to do it properly. I honestly put the slugga on the waist because I was still trying to figure out how to get a black orc's armored glove to properly hold one.

 

I like this next guy the most, primarily because I think I did well with the helmet on him. That particular helmet design is perfect for rebreathers - I cut two little exhausts off a marine backpack, which I have in copious amounts, and glued them on where the tusks used to be. The wire is really just an afterthought, I just thought it looked too plain. I managed to get the 'holding a slugga' thing properly on this guy by cutting up one of the banner holding arms that comes with the black orcs and pinning the gun onto the flat surface.

 

More to come as I get time.