The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

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.

Klaw v. 0.5

I put this together as something of a proof of concept of the idea that all of the boyz might have similar, taloned feet. It's really basic, but despite that the fiddly size of it is a bit time-prohibitive. It took me about half an hour just to make one foot.

Maybe I can make one really good one and cast it, but that'd be fairly complicated. I'll think about what I'm going to do with these a bit longer for now.

 

Going to have to brainstorm a bit more, maybe. The reading describes them coming down on the enemy with 'iron boots', which is another possibility I guess I could consider.

Delaying tactics

I'm sort've delaying right now. I have what I think is an absolutely brilliant idea for his klaw-feet, but I'm waiting on negotiating a trade before I say anything concrete about it. The bits I want for it are sort of exotic, but they fit perfectly. While I delay, I thought I'd work a little bit on his hat and finish it off.

I filed everything down nice and smooth, and used a tiny angled file to carve a little niche in the hat between the brim and the peak for the wire to go through. The darker green line going across is floral wire that I picked up at michaels - I wrapped it around over the brim of the hat and with a pair of pliers twisted the wire tight behind the back of the head. Then, I put a little dot of glue in the back so the wire would stay in place and snipped the excess.

After much frustration trying to sculpt a tiny little glyph on the hat, I went an alternate route and shaved a plastic one off the front of an ork boy'z belt. It's not exactly the cleanest of jobs, but it still looks better than my attempts at sculpting a glyph that tiny.

I don't want to work on the jacket until legs are in place, and I don't want to work on the legs until I know if I can get the bitz I'm trying to currently trade for. With all that in mind, I'll probably spend the next few days working on the other stormboyz that comprise the Vulcha Squad. On that note, I'd be interested in hearing if anyone had any clever ideas for how to make these boyz? I'm considering giving them all chaos-raptor-esque talon feet so they have a theme to them. Of course, theirs won't be nearly as sophisticated or fiddly as what I have planned for Zaggy.

You aren’t important without a big hat

I've not had the time I was hoping for to work on this project today. Most of it has been occupied with impossible amounts of fretting over writing my law school personal statement, which I am glad to say are now done. I think. Maybe I should edit them one more time.

Anyway, in the time I did have I figured I might get to sculpting Zagstruk a fancy commissar hat like he has in the art. It's not exactly perfect. Once it's had a chance to cure overnight, I'm going to grab a small file and sharpen off some of the edges like on the brim of the cap. It's also become painfully obvious that my placement of his bionic eye is too low compared to the rest of his face, so I'm likely to either pull that off and redo it, or simply sculpt a matching one on the other side to balance it out. Not sure yet.

 

After I file the hat a little bit, I'll add the strap going across and a teeny, tiny ork glyph if I can manage to make one that small without losing my mind. I have a few ideas for how I'm going to approach the feet, but I'm holding off just a little bit until I can find out if I can get the bitz I want, or if I have to scratchbuild the parts instead.