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After successfully building my first two ogryn to prove that it could be done, it was on to the next phase: finishing off the squad. I've chosen to take my ogryn in a squad of 6. Fewer and they get risked being picked apart before they have a chance to be effective, more and they stand a real risk of getting seriously tarpitted. The fact that 6 comes to a convenient 250 points seems to betray GW's intention for them to be taken at this squad size.

As such, I needed to make 4 more. My first scratchubild existed just to see if I could do it, and my second was to confirm basic principles and get a feel for the swing of things. With the first batch of ogryn done, I now feel like I've got my feet planted firmly on the ground, which means it's time to push myself. I could have focused on detail, but I can't have 4 of my ogryn looking different form the other two. As such, my first growth experience is to gain some skills in mass-production. Not only will increases in speed and efficiency help in general, but I also have to build up my burnout tolerance if I'm ever going to do larger projects (make whole units, like rough riders, instead of simply single models, like the priest). Plus, I learned from my time spent learning how to do assembly line painting, and I need this kind of whole-project level pacing to be something I can really get down.

As such, I decide to take on the ambitious task of doing all 4 ogryn at once!

As usual, the process began with the frames. I still had my measurements from my previos two ogryn, so getting the materials cut the right length was easy. It took awhile to get down what I wanted for the poses, though. In the end, of course, the final product was going to come out differently than planned, but planning properly does help ensure that the final product will look nice, even if it doesn't look exactly what I was planning for.



Once done, as usual, the first job was to do the shoes. This time, though, in an attempt to speed up the process, I also did one of the arms. This would cut down the number of basic steps I need from 4 down to 3. Unfortunately, I started the arms too fast, and had serious problems keeping the aluminum tubing in place. This meant that the arms wouldn't be able to be completely done in a single step. Likewise the boots, in an attempt to add speed, were done pretty roughshod.

The idea is that I can always keep going back and tinkering with it over and over until it's perfect, which would happen before I'd get to the detail step. I think I sort of overdid this principle though, and finding myself endlessly correcting things wound up contributing more to burnout than the time saving from not having to do it perfectly in the first place.





Once the boots were "done", they were cut down at the top, and the pants went on quickly, along with the other arm. Doing one arm at a time allowed me to do 3 steps (boots, pants, and arms), in just two steps. Definitely a plus.

More tinkering with boots, and accidentally starting on the next phase, and the end result was a pretty solid amount of work done for just a single saturday's effort:



Once this was done, it was time to finish up the basic part of the models. The fourth step saw the front, back, and bottom of the shirt (along with even more tinkering with arms and boots) as well as making some GS balls to be the base for the heads, while the fifth saw the front of the coat, the head glued on, and the nose, along with finally finishing the boots and clothing.





Having gotten all the way through the base stage and into the details with only two days of work on four whole models felt pretty good. I could have done it better, but I could scarcely see how I could have done it any faster. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good about this so far.

... but now I was entering the detail stage. The amount of time I could spend went down to basically zero over the week, and I needed to wait until the next weekend, which was busy. The next three stages only basically got me through the face, with the weapons basically glued on. Once I got through the hands, it went to the FINE detail phase. Doing 4 different little bits of detail on 4 different models at the same time was demoralizing. Having to spend a couple of hours just to put a few little things on, and then knowing that I'd have to spend several more hours for an equally small amount of stuff was tough to power through. Eventually, before the very end, I had to start working on one ogryn at a time until it gets done, rather than the broad-front of doing the same thing on all 4 and then continuing. In the end, though, they were done.

I apologize in advance for the one picture with only three angles and one of them I primed and THEN realised that I hadn't taken a picture of it.







And then, in a surprisingly drawn-out process, they got painted:









In the end, I'm pretty happy with the results. I think these models have more character than the previous two I did. It's actually that kind of artistic vision that I think has been slowly improving over my scratchbuilds, and as I gain more practice, I can execute tougher stuff. In any case, they are definitely ogryn, and they are definitely awesome.

At first, I had assumed that part two of this project had been a failure, as far as my production goals were concerned. Instead of going faster for less burnout, it took me longer, and I got MORE burnout, in part from constantly having to pick at things long after they should have been done. Was I going faster, or just cutting corners? I also didn't feel like I got a very solid idea for pacing, which I really wanted.

But then I went back and looked at it. My first model took me like 8 weeks to finish. My second took me like 6. The first two ogryn took 4, but I got two of them. This project took me 7 or 8 whole weeks from start to finish - back at my original speed - but I got 4 whole ogryn out of the deal. As such, I'm basically down to 2 weeks per model, when I do them several at a time. Once I can get this 4-model model down to like 6 or 4, then I think I'll really feel like I can chug these things out industrial scale. Then it will be rough riders time!

Regardless of the process, the end result is what I was looking for - A cheap project that got me a lot of points of something that wasn't a vehicle in a reasonably short period of time.



And here's the poster.

Anyways, I hope you like them as much as I do. Let me know if you have any questions.

You sir, are fantastic at this kind of thing

looks very nice. I would have painted the bags another color, not black but... still looks good.

do you by chance have a size comparison shot? the look so civilized for ogrins...

great artistic work. have seen some of your work and i think your amazing...

cheers mate, vik

Great project, good talk-through, excellent result

Wow Really nice!

Thanks!

Scrazza wrote:looks very nice. I would have painted the bags another color, not black but... still looks good.

That's one part that my army has black leather, one part that I think it would look strange to have just those a different color from the rest and two parts the bags was the end of this, and I was so burnt out I didn't do a great job with them.... hence the black.

Viktor von Domm wrote:do you by chance have a size comparison shot? the look so civilized for ogrins...

And this is from my last game



The idea is that they look like regular guardsmen, except without the flak armor. The idea was that my prim and proper senior officer wouldn't be caught dead on the same battlefield with such "mean, brutish, and all-together unsoldierly" looking ogryn. At his insistance, the ogryn are made up uniforms, and sent through his personal coiffeur.

Ailaros wrote:Thanks!

Scrazza wrote:looks very nice. I would have painted the bags another color, not black but... still looks good.

That's one part that my army has black leather, one part that I think it would look strange to have just those a different color from the rest and two parts the bags was the end of this, and I was so burnt out I didn't do a great job with them.... hence the black.

ah yeah That would look strange. But beside the fact you had a burnout, They look awesome, just like the rest

that is in fact a very fluffy army your comanding, sir.
one could add that i am a bit astonished to see not a union jack beside your photo, sir.

i like the idea behind your ogrins, sent to the coiffeur, less they are not part of the ongoing charge, reminds me of my starting time during my military time. went with a "brutish" haircut to the force and got told of for sporting a hair splendour not suitable for such a brave army. so i went to let it cutted...

thanks for the group shot. had by now surfed your links of yours and have to stress you have an amazing talent. also your white looks marvelous.

cheers, vik

Thanks!

Viktor von Domm wrote: reminds me of my starting time during my military time. went with a "brutish" haircut to the force and got told of for sporting a hair splendour not suitable for such a brave army. so i went to let it cutted...

Yes, most militaries are quite particular about the hair stylings of new recruits. In this case, I have an officer who is concerned about hair style all the time.

I love em! Well done!

I thought those models looked familar

Simply amazing, Ailaros. Once again you live up to expections.

What's next on the scratchbuild list, if you don't mind me asking?

S_P

WOW!!!!!!!!
thats all i can say

Thanks!

Fallenbourne wrote:I thought those models looked familar

Heh, usually I don't field something until it's complete, but the shift back up to 1850 happened a bit earlier than anticipated, and the completion of the project took longer than desired. Hopefully their completion will mean they'll have more normal luck in the future

Space_Potato wrote:What's next on the scratchbuild list, if you don't mind me asking?

Well, it was going to be a pair of hydra turrets, but I've temporarily decided to drop the hydras from my list all together, so that's been put in the freezer for now.

My next projects all have to do with getting my current 1850 list up to wysiwyg before the upcoming tournament. I just got done with a flamer dude, and I've got to do 2 missile launchers, 2 power weapon sergeants, and a commissar.

After that, I've got a couple more things I'd like to do, like finally making a new al'rahem model. Once that's done, I think it might just be time to start my rough riders...

I Love these , Congrats on your great inspirational work you did there. love the old style you went for as well . Big thumbs up . I might try this out if i buy a shed load of green stuff!

very nice greenstuff but i would have made the guns (ripper?) bigger to resemble the stock models a little bit more.

Great work on the Ogryn.

It was nice to see an unconventional armature used. I'll keep your method in mind the next time I sculpt soemthing.

Damn fine work, sir. Damn fine!

Very good show, Old Chap!

very nice work with the green stuff!

Thanks, everyone!

flimmyyip wrote:very nice greenstuff but i would have made the guns (ripper?) bigger to resemble the stock models a little bit more.

So, if you look at the ripper gun from the actual models, you will notice that it actually fires slightly larger than normal shotgun shells. The rest of the ripper gun is the mechanisms required to make it an automatic shotgun. In the case of the hand cannon, it's still putting out the same number of pellets, it's just doing them all at once rather than in quick succession.

In order for me to make the guns bigger, then they wouldn't look wieldable with just one hand (one of my chief complaints about the GW models). If they were two-handed weapons, then they wouldn't have the sword. I did consider other two-handed ripper gun options, like a spear with a shotgun built in, but none of them quite struck me.

adamsouza wrote:It was nice to see an unconventional armature used. I'll keep your method in mind the next time I sculpt soemthing.

Yeah, I didn't really spend much of any time looking at how other people scratchbuild before I started scratchbuilding. As such, I just used materials I had on hand (a ruler, plasticard, and some aluminum tubing). I know you can buy armatures, but given that I was going to the bother of scratchbuilding in the first place, it seemed a bit strange to buy pre-fab stuff. As well, those things are kind of expensive compared to what I use right now, and one of the real draws to this project was that I spent about $15 to make 6 ogryn, rather than $150+ from buying the models.

Great job on these guys! I love to see your original take on the ogres. Each one has a unique face with great personality, but still look like a very cohesive unit overall. I like that these aren't comical, but aren't primitive either.

#5 reminds me alot of Andre the Giant.

Nice work bud!

Thats so good it should be illegal.
Amazing clean simple paint job to keep the top end work up.
Nicely done.

Thanks!

So, I finally got to play them fully painted in my most recent game and they looked awesome:



Unfortunately, they're also cursed...

Mastiff wrote:Great job on these guys! I love to see your original take on the ogres. Each one has a unique face with great personality, but still look like a very cohesive unit overall. I like that these aren't comical, but aren't primitive either.

Thanks!

So, I wanted to actually incorporate a bit more humor back into my list, but I wanted it to be subtle. The idea of a bunch of moronic, thuggish brutes sitting around in bright, crisp uniforms sitting in front of an officer with a blackboard learning to say things like "Take covvah, iffa pleese!", and other gentlemanly commands was too good to pass up. That and I like the idea of ogryn playing pretend as guardsmen like little kids dress up to pretend that they're adults. Ogryn have a humorous side, if only you ask politely

The thing that I really found interesting was that my ogryn looked actually really thick and primitive while I was making them, but the simple addition of sleeves to their shirts and well-manicured hair was all that was required to turn them from their regular look into these class acts that I've got going on here. I almost want to buy a real ogryn model, give him sleeves and a fancy moustache just to see if he'd seamlessly blend in.

Soo awesome. You've really got a killer-looking army now dude. Kudos x10.

[Censored] man, that is some nice [Censored].

Seriously these are very nice, Beardy McOgre would be my secone favorite, only because of monocle... and that's all I have to say about that.

Also I love how the frames lined up look like the start of a flipbook for a guy dancing the robot.

Ailaros wrote:
So, I wanted to actually incorporate a bit more humor back into my list, but I wanted it to be subtle. The idea of a bunch of moronic, thuggish brutes sitting around in bright, crisp uniforms sitting in front of an officer with a blackboard learning to say things like "Take covvah, iffa pleese!", and other gentlemanly commands was too good to pass up. That and I like the idea of ogryn playing pretend as guardsmen like little kids dress up to pretend that they're adults. Ogryn have a humorous side, if only you ask politely

The thing that I really found interesting was that my ogryn looked actually really thick and primitive while I was making them, but the simple addition of sleeves to their shirts and well-manicured hair was all that was required to turn them from their regular look into these class acts that I've got going on here. I almost want to buy a real ogryn model, give him sleeves and a fancy moustache just to see if he'd seamlessly blend in.

It's the turn-of-the-century hairstyles that really makes the unit perfect. Love the muttonchops I'm a big fan of the subtle humour, and you nailed it perfectly.