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I wanted to get a work log going so that I could get the opinion of my fellow Dakka Modelors and get better at this hobby we all love so much.

This is my first worklog and my first major conversion of what I suspect will be many. So let me first just say thanks to all you crazy people out there who take the time to write up the tutorials. Without you I wouldnt be able to produce anything I'd want to show anyone.

Ok I'm building a nids army to learn how to play the game but what was frustrating me is that nids are not very customizable. At least not for a guy like me yet (No green stuff skills). So I wanted to start a long term project army where every model would be customized. As you can guess from the title I went with orks. Loads of options given the fluff and the scavenging nature of the orks. So in a flurry of excitement I started in on my first Boy. After buying a kit and reading up on the codex I figured I'd do a model of one of the orks taking a highly prized trouphy. A spacemarines head. And like any noob I made a few mistakes.

So here is the first images and what I've done so far.

i think you should put NSFW in your thread title...
or move this to 4chan

My first mistake was to glue the orks feet to the base inorder to see if I could fit a spacemarines hips under the ork. Oops. The good news is they mostly fit. The SM Chest is a bit too big but angled the way it is I was able to get bothe pieces to look as though they fit although it did elongate the torso a bit. Obviously at this point the SM backpack is a no go.

I've cut both of the SM legs and pinned them into a position that brings them closer together so that I could get the hips in a little farther below the orks legs. Every milimeter counts and I think it gave it a more realistic look than the wide stance the legs had before. If you look at the rear image you can see why greenstuff makes me nervouse. It's a little messy where I used it to rejoin the legs.

I used greenstuff to fill in the gap in the orks waist that occured due to the postureing of the torso. Which is also glued together at this point.

The spacemarines helmet fit in the Orks gun support hand like it was made for it so after finding out a position it was an easy choice to simply glue that in place and run with it. Although the wrist needs to be twisted so that the shoulder connects right.

The original Choppa was too large (There's not a lot of space in there) So I had to put the blade from a spare choppa (smaller blade) on the hand and hilt of the old Choppa. This was pinned and glued in place and luckily fit well enough that I didnt need to use greenstuff (phew). Again the wrist was cut so that I could work with the position of the arm. Green stuff has been added to the shoulder of the Choppa arm so that it will exit the body at a near right angle.

There wasn't enough room for the orks head between the SM head so the pose had to be altered such that the orks head sits on top of his neck as opposed to being on the end of his neck making it look as though he is looking up. Too achieve this I filed down the rounded bulb at the bottom of the neck to try and make a smooth transition from bottom of the neck to the line of the chin.

I then chose a near straight Plasma pistol SM arm and cut off the pistol. I then cut the arm at the elbow to reposition it so that it would hand down to the outside and glued it back together. Currently I'm least happy with this piece. Something simply doesnt look natural about the position so I will likely be reworking this piece.

Here are some images of the model put together with tack.

NSFW?

You know the position of the models didnt even occur to me that way but now that you mention it I guess they do look a little friendly. Doh.

NSFW = Not Safe For Work

Nice idea. Will be fallowing this.

This looks good.

Ok this weekend I started off by taking a good look at the Space Marines arms. I cut the right arm from a missle launcher and connected that to the shoulder from a bolt pistol arm bit. And the darn thing fit nearly perfectly. Thank goodness for dumb luck.

That having been done I pulled a standard bolter holding arm for the left arm and cut it off at the elbow. I then cut the fingers at the joint and glued them back on at a more obtuse angle so it looks like the hand is open and relaxed. Cut off thumb and cleaned up the cut. Then attached a new left arm shoulder piece.

Ok time to start working with the scary green stuff which is less scary than I thought thanks to the latest winner of the tutorial contest. First I pinned the arms in place and then reconstructed the left shoulder with green stuff. Next I filled the gap in the right shoulder with green stuff. I pinned both of the space marine arms and filled in the gaps with greenstuff. Then I took the left arm and moulded a new thumb and palm print. Not perfect but given my total lack of experience I'm rather proud of it. Finally I filled in the section by the space marines neck with some more green stuff as the head can't sit snugly in the socket and have the knife blade under the chin. So Here's the images for where I'm at. I'll need to repaint the whole thing too. No suprise.

Are you sure this is not a model for that story on 4chan because if it is... good start!

Which story is that? is there a link? Then again, with 4chan i'm not sure i want to know...

Thanks for the response. I guess I'm out of touch I have no idea what 4chan is but I live a pretty family friendly sort of lifestyle so I'm guessing I don't want to know. Honestly the provocativness of the pose didn't occur to me till I posted the model here and got my first comments. I thought about trying to change it but the natural position for cutting off someones head would be to straddle them. Nothing else looks right. Sooooo I guess I just live with it at this point. However, no it has nothing to do with 4chan.

In order to avoid the homoerotic undertone on the next one, I' suggest perhaps having the Ork's foot on the marine's chest, or turning the space marine 180 degrees. The pelvis to pelvis contact raises many questions.

Yea I gotta agree with everyone else... That pose looks rather... Wrong. If I were you I would kill that. With fire. Lots of fire. And then bury it and never look upon it again. Then I would start a new one with the both of them standing and the Ork jamming the knife through the Marine's chestplate. I've read one paragraph of said 4chan story in question before closing it in terror.

Gitzbitah - hmmmm. Put the orks foot on his cheast you say. I don't know if my greenstuff skills are up to the challenge but I'm willing to give it a try. After all that's the only way I know to get better. Good idea. Guess It's time to break this model and do some more rework. Thanks for the suggestion.

Metallifan - yeah that's the vibe I was getting both about the model and about 4chan. I don't think I'm going to burn it but I'm not beyond trying to bust it and rework it.

Sigh...all this mentioning of pelvis to pelvis and 4chan has ruined this model for me. I'm sure if you can rework it so the ork has his foot on the marines chest like Gitzbitah suggested things might turn around. Great idea though...

Well I don't know why everyone has their mind in the gutter but anyway, I think that the boy looks great. It is a very unique and characterfull model. Maybe with other models in the future change the pose but thats up to you. Can't wait to see more!

I must admit the first thing I thought was why? But after seeing it almost finished it looks good from the front but the side and back veiws hmmm... a little strange. I would finish him and keep it because its your first conversion , but next time avoid the stratle or straiten the orks legs I would go for a after the kill look avoid the body entirely it makes the bases look clutterd. Also check out the new SH(even though its way over priced ) they have some nice poses it would give you some good ideas for future models. And finally your green stuff looks decent just do it before painting and don't be afraid to try out more difficult stuff you have plenty of ork boys and you can only get better.

Nice one. You could try basing him on a Terminator base to avoid it looking too cluttered.

The first pic - very NSFW (but I LOLed too).

Once you include the heads and the knife, all of the 'dodgy' pose issues go away - it clearly shows this is a violent act, not a romantic one. I like it!

Thanks for the encouraging words guys. I had said I was going to break this one and try to reposition it then I got to my workbench and started thinking about it. A lot of it is pinned in place and well frankly I don't think I can rework it so it stays. However; Once pointed out the comments are very valid especially from the side and back of the model. It does look like its depicting... ummmm... something I never inteded. Perhaps violently but non the less. So I started another one last night following gitzbahs suggestion. I'll get some pictures up of the new one sometime after the weekend. In the mean time thanks to all you guys who have taken the time to give some feedback. Always appreciated.


@S1gns - Yeah it more or less did for me too. Still I gotta admit they're right so time to start a new one with a less... ummm... suggestive pose.

@Stretch - Thanks for the encouraging words. Upon deliberation I dont think i can change the pose of that particular model so time to move on to the next.

@51xv8 - yeah I think that's why I didn't pick up on it myself until after posting the pics on here. I kept concentrating on the way the model looked from the front. You're right on the money though. I'll probably finish the model and set it aside. The only thing I had left to do at this point was attach the head and repaint. So yeah It'll probably find it's way to my shelf as my first conversion piece. I don't think I'll be taking it to any games; however. I'm not sure I'd want to have to explaine it. Thanks for the kind words about the greenstuff. It is by far the most intimidating part for me at this point but I keep plugging away at it. Practice, experimentation, time and patience.

@arhurt - hmmmm. hadn't thought of that. The Body does make the base seam a bit cluttered. I'll have to look into using a terminator base. Although the body makes the base look cluttered it's kind of a major part of the design and since I only plan on having maybe one or two such bases I may leave this one that way and go for the after kill pose for future models.

@darkkt - Gotta admit I had a rather embarassed laugh at myself after the first comments came in too. Oh well. Live and learn. As for the knife I honestly feel it makes the pose feel more like a rape or scerial murder/rape feel which is still not at all what I was going for. I gotta be honest with myself the guys are right it's pretty dicey from the side and back. Time to start over. Live and learn eh?

I think it looks great. The pose makes sense with the killy bit, but it did look a bit odd at first. Great stuff, now I want to make one.

I think it is fine, and that some people need to get their minds out of the gutter. After all, one is wearing pants and the other power armour, which (to my mind) negates any possible sexual conetations.

gosh! wat is WITH you people! the model looks awesome, though it MIGHT give some people some ideas.
no but seriously lumpy, the model looks awesome.
but just to avoid further unusual comments, i would go with gitzibitah's suggestion if i were you.

good luck with the greenstuff and go roll a six!

Again thanks for the encouragement guys. OK so as promised here is what I was able to get done this weekend. The first two images are my proof of concept (ie make sure I can actually get the model into the position) and the second two are the greenstuff work I was able to get done. I still need to shave the buckle and bottom part of the orks belt off as it doesnt line up in a way where greenstuff sculpting the gap would look normal. I'm also interested in any suggestions you guys would have for the right leg. Something about the greenstuff area doesnt look quite right to me.

Thanks for all the input.

I've got to admit, the new one looks 10x better.
Not that I thought it had any sexual connotation before, but I think the converted one displays the felling more.

Good work!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and the right leg looks fine, if a little long.
I guess you could just add something to the base under the leg and shorten it (?)

notice the foot is bent upwards.
why dont you bend the entire leg Downwards so that the foot is touching the ground,
and the leg looks shorter that way.

Now that's a decapitation! Bravo. Enduring this harsh criticism and persevering couldn't have been easy.

@SuperSN - Thanks man. I'm glad to hear it.

@Grogwog SkullTaka - Yep I noticed the upturned foot. Infact it's been a bit of a pain. I tried positioning it different ways but if I bend the model at the knee I'd have to put some kind of lifting block under that foot. I've been trying to avoid doing that because I felt it looked to contrived to have the marines chest in a ditch. Although I could try tilting the model and repositioning the foot on the chest at the ankle. I'll look at it when I get home tonight and see if I can get that to work. Otherwise I'll likely reposition the toes of that foot back down.

@Gitzbitah - Thanks for the great suggestion man. Tell the truth persevering criticism isn't so bad. I was an english major in college so I'm used to hearing peoples opinions on my work ;-) Although I must admit I prefer when they give a suggestion along with the criticism. Gives me some place to go with it so Kudos again to you.

I think it looks great. I really didn't mind either position because when I think of Orks and the Boyz I do not think Homo or anything Sexually. I think warmongering fighting machines that like nothing more than to show their strength in a good fight and kill something. lol

I like the new position with the foot on the marine's chest, but I have to say, Orks posture is Atrocious lol. Just the Anatomy of an Ork bending like that makes my lower Lumbar hurt XD

If you would not mind I would also like to try and suggest a pose, maybe something where the Ork has already ripped the head of the SM off and has it raised up, maybe with some blood and some tissue still attached. HAHA or one with the Ork wearing the helmet on the top of his head, Mad Boyz FTW... <--- Inside Joke Long Story XD

@ZeinEizoku - Great Suggestions. I'll have to give that a try when I'm done with this one. Might take a little bit as I'd want to pick up a box of skelies from the fantasy line for part of the conversion. And ork posture is atrocious you're right. It's a real pain for positioning the orks head too as there really isn't enough room between the ork and the SM for it to go where the sculptor intended for it too.