The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

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.