The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

Well… damn

It appears that GW is not only producing a Zagstruk model, but a kickass Zagstruk model, rendering this work useless.

My only comfort is that I was kind've close sort've. But damnit.

The Saga of Uncooperative Pants

I have been fighting myself as hard as I can on this. My urge to shift to a different project is strong, but I really want to get something done, too, so I'm trying to force myself to drive on through this a bit more. I've tweaked and modified a lot of little things, so I thought I'd share.

Changes: I've dremelled the grot bomb just a tiny bit to sit closer to the body. I'm happy with where it is right now, I think. I also finished the glyph and added wings onto the bomb for a little extra steerage. An afterburner exhaust was capped onto the end of the rokkit, as well. Ork glyphs were added to his legs as shin armor. I've tried sculpting pants a number of times, but I just can't seem to get anything I'm happy with, as I keep pulling the sculpting off. I've just put a new layer of brownstuff on around the hip area that you can see in the photos - once that dries, I'll try sculpting the pants over that and see how it goes again. I don't know if I want the pants to be tattered around the upper leg or simply short-cut - Zagstruk seems like the kind of Blood Axe who would take care of his clothes, though.

 

I need to add the harness to hold the rokkit onto his back, but I can't think of anything I'd be happy with. Emulating the Stormboy Nob detail is one thing, but I don't want to put the harness sitting that high - it would cover the 'teeth' on the grot bomb up. I need something slightly lower-slung. I'm considering ditching the metal support brace appearance for something that relies a lot more on straps to harness the grot bomb to him, though I haven't entirely thought it through yet. I'm waiting for a good idea or two to hit me.

Diagram decision

A bit of a follow-up to what I've just posted; I did a really rough doodle overtop of one of the side/profile pictures to get an idea of what I might do. Unfortunately, I don't have my tablet, so forgive the general roughness of it.

Basically, I have a decision to make. I think the bomb might be sticking out a bit too far from the torso. To remedy this, I can dremel away at the underside of the bomb some to hopefully make it contour to his back better and sit closer to his torso. It's a precarious thing to be dremelling - I only have one, and if I botch it, it's gone, 'less one of you lads has a spare and is feeling generous. I could try to dremel a cylindrical recess into his back and seat the bomb in there, but the underside of it is irregular and probably wouldn't sit too well. I diagrammed this out a bit:

The dark grey/black rectangle is just meant to be a placeholder for where the stubby wings sit. Light brown is where I might be running some straps. The one on the right is what I imagine it would look like if I recessed the rokkit into his body a bit closer. I know it's hard to tell, honestly. Do you guys think it's worth the extra trouble?

Would make a Blood Axe proud

I have a lot of pictures, considering not much has been done to the model, but I took the pictures primarily so I could later sketch over them and figure out how the harness might sit across his body. I feel like posting these up anyway, though.

 

I sculpted the top half of his jacket, but it's really poor work. I tried putting all sorts of creases and folds into it, but they didn't come out as I had anticipated. Fortunately, I imagine most of that won't show, as it will be covered by shoulder armor and the harness for the rokkit. He needs a furry collar and torn sleeves, still.

Speaking of the rokkit, I simply pinned the rocket onto his back for now so I could keep it in a consistent place for pictures. Beats balancing it on there, anyway. I'm concerned it might be too big and sticking out too far, but I'm hesitant to dremel down either zagstruk or it to get it to sit closer towards his body. What do you guys think? Does it stick out too far?

Thanks go to grey_death for posting this handy little sketch at dakkadakka.com. I started to put an icon on the back of the huge rokkit for Zagstruk and Da Vulcha Boyz - some cross between an ork skull and aquila - based on a concept he had for one of the shin guards.

I'll be doing the other half of it once this part dries, since I don't want to accidentally screw it up. I think it fits nicely, though.

I'm actually not entirely sure what to do with the legs right now. If I don't think of anything particularly clever I guess I'll simply try sculpting torn trousers that go down to mid-thigh so I don't cover too much of the legs up. Shin armor is still very necessary, as the legs look too spindly right now, but hardly anything is actually complete on this model yet.

Flapping in the breeze

It took some doing, but I got what might be the other half of the lower coat section made.

I must have put it on and pulled it off close to ten times before I gave up on it for the morning, but after lunch I figured I'd give it another attempt and the first try was what you see now. I'm not entirely sure I like the way it looks, as I think I botched some of the places I attempted to put creases in, but I'm hoping these mistakes will be covered up by what follows - for example, the rokkit harness and the fur collar 'round the neck area. We'll see.

Anyway, pictures!

 

Next part is the upper jacket area, I think, just to thinly cover the metal over and then the sleeves and collar. I should probably be doing the pants first, as sculpting underneath the coat is going to be a pain, but... oh well.

Half a jacket

Another tiny update today.

I'm not going to lie, this project really lost speed when I found I had to seriously get to sculpting. There's nothing I dislike more, simply because I can almost never get things looking right. Still, my buddy Brian managed to get me off my ass and convinced me to give the jacket a(nother) try. I'd made one previous to this, but it really looked... terrible, so I pulled it off, and tried again. That one came off too! Really not all that motivating when you can't get it right.

Anyway, I gave it one more try, ditching my usual greenstuff for brownstuff in the hopes that it might cure into something more adequate. I think it's.. alright. I only did half of the lower jacket so far, but I suppose I have an obligation to put pictures up periodically to prove that I am still alive.

 

Was just aiming to get the basic shape of the jacket down on this side. It'll get a couple extra things sculpted overtop, I think, so it looks a bit more like the forgeworld fighta-bomma pilot jacket... and then a harness for the jetpack gets sculpted over all of THAT. The hands have been removed so they don't get in the way while I work for now.

The area around the shoulder isn't really all that refined or complete. I left that mostly undone so I could sculpt a tattered upper sleeve around the arm later. Same goes for the back - there's going to be a / split in the back of the jacket so that it looks like it can flap open like that, and I'll probably put a belt going around the outside of the jacket as well.

Like I said, teensy update, but I figured I might as well. We'll see if Brian can motivate me into sculpting the other half any time soon - I'm already feeling lazy again.

Terminal velocity

Well, tiny update. I got home today and felt impatient, as the nazdreg claws I'm waiting for in the mail have yet to arrive. I sort've wanted to still get something done on this project all the same, so I pulled the arm off my 'Ard Boy Nob and started sawing it down to size. Thanks to my efforts, he's got a proper pair of feet now. Photographed this in a bit of a different aspect ratio than my usual since I wanted to include the guardsman for reference; turning the camera 90 degrees worked best for shooting these.

 

I think I'm going to get working on the rokkit next until I work the nerve back up to get to sculpting this guy. It's not 100%, but I think the current position of the legs in relation to where the waist is/will be is pretty solid.

Bipedal bird of prey

Apologies for a bit of a delay since the last update - I only have time to work on models on the weekends anymore, it seems. Still, I thought I'd make the best of the hour or so I had free while my fiance watched Grey's Anatomy (ugh...), so I worked on Zagstruk's other leg. I don't have the other foot yet - still waiting on the mail to deliver it to my door - but I figured there's no harm in creating the rest of the leg. I left a bit of extra tubing down past the ankle so I had material to work with when I do get the bits.

 

Again, these are just mockups, but you get the idea of the pose I'm going for. I'll probably shift his hips around as needed while I work on it.

I've been saying I'll sketch out the pose I wanted to do for Zagstruk and how I imagined his base might work, but at this point, an actual model mock-up is the best approach, so here is a photo I thought might be a little fun:

I just think that's entertaining. You can never have enough guardsmen getting mauled.

Basically the pose he's in now, and the angle he's coming down at, means I can pose him vertically using a clear plastic tube like a flying base normally has (but longer). Then if I want to take some fun photos it's just a matter of setting him up next to a model he's in combat with, so it looks like he's plummeting into the melee.

I'm going to delay a bit if I can, since I'm waiting for the bitz to arrive. In the interim, I think I might work on his jetpack some; he could use stubby wings on it and some extra cabling and worky bitz, and I think I'm going to use that plasticard plate I put on the back as a good spot to put a 'corrupted aquila' of sorts, with an ork glyph between angular wings to symbolize the vulcha boyz. These guys are sort've blood axes anyway, what with Zag almost being a commissar, so I think it'd make decent enough sense.

Getting a leg up

A trip to the hobby store has yielded a large variety of delicious plastic tubes. (Note: Do not attempt to eat plastic tubes. If swallowed, seek medical attention). I've spent a while today working and reworking and re-reworking the leg, but I think I finally have something I'm satisfied with. My first few attempts looked great, but they were far too long when compared to the body. Even a bionic ork leg needs to maintain the relative stunty proportions of a greenskin's lower half. I remade it twice, and this last one I think I am happy with. It's still long, but suitable when compared to the body. I'm thinking I'm going to be blending the upper part of the leg into the body - grafted onto a stump, maybe, with tattered pants hanging down over part of it. The lack of a belt makes the torso look shorter than it will be overall, as well. All in all, I think I've finally got the proportions of this leg down.

Here's the mock-up:

 

The other leg should help balance things out a bit. The rokkit is also ludicrously huge, but that's perfect for him, I think. You don't get to be the biggest, baddest Stormboy without the proper hardware.

Here's a closer look at the leg:

I think he might be needing a bit of armor, particularly around the shin area. And more rivets. Always more rivets. Still, I'm really happy with how the overall design of the leg has turned out. Remember that the upper leg will be bulked up by the presence of tattered pants. I'll be sculpting it directly into the hip, I think.

What do you guys think? I'm not going to be able to do the other leg for a while, least 'till I get the other bitz I need in the mail, but that just means I'll have time to tinker and tweak with the one he has.

Fancy dancin’ shoes

The bad news: I have a lot of conceptualizing before I can figure out how these legs are going to be posed.

The good news: I think my trade is greenlit, which means I can unveil my idea for Zaggy's feet.

The feet talons are made from the 2nd edition Nazdreg model's power klaw. I did a lot of hacking and cutting before I got it the right shape, but I think it's perfect for the mechanized feet talons Zagstruk needs. The trade I mentioned was for more of these klaws so that I can get Zagstuk a proper pair of matching feet. Now my only problem is sorting out Zag's pose!

In my head, I picture Zagstruk's model descending feet-first towards some hapless target on the ground. I sort've picture the left leg crooked up, with the right leg extended straight down as the primary point of impact. He'd be leaning back a bit into the strike, I think. I can work it out in my head, but when I actually look at the model it seems like it's going to be much harder to convey. I wish I had my tablet handy so I could sketch this out. It'd make life a lot easier.

 

I have to sort the klaw feet out a bit better, too. I like having one thick, central strut for the leg, but I need to add auxiliary pistons. A trip to the hobby shop is in order tomorrow so I can get tubing for proper hydraulics, as I'm running low on my plasticard. I don't even know the particular design of the legs; I only thought out the actual klaw. I'm more than welcome to ideas.