A dude named Zsoulless has been posting at The Waaagh for a while now and started posting some completely, ridiculously awesome Ork art that hes been doing in his free time.
Kaptin Badrukk, the meanest Flash Git in da 'ooniverse.' (Click to see bigger)
The artist's personal Big Mek art for his army. (Click to see bigger)
I sent him a PM asking if he did commissions, and he asked what I had in mind. I pitched my ideas at him. In my backstory, I laid out a number of orky characters that are in my army: Wurrzag da Weird, the feral-esque Warphead, Booma da Big Mek, the chief architect of all things explosive and stompy, and Warboss Gargrim "'Uge'" Mungus, a massive ork warlord who has an unusual fondness for grots.
He said he had been looking for a couple neat ideas to draw out, and after a bit of discussion where I explained a couple facets of the characters that I hadn't yet written out, he started drawing. He did a general rough sketch of Gargrim, but that's not what I want to show you guys. See, he's started drawing out Big Mek Booma, and oh man is it awesome.
(Click to see bigger)
I just think it's amazing to see a character I imagined up rendered like this.
That's Booma with his signature weapon, da Boomhamma, a bionic arm, and a Kustom Force Field generator. It's still a work in progress, but holy crap guys, tell me this isn't the coolest thing. When he's done, he's given me permission to ink the thing and color it in. While I have no artistic talents as far as illustration goes, I can certainly wield photoshop well enough to manage that.
I get inspired by good artwork, and this is one hell of a kick in the ass to actually build a proper Big Mek model to represent Booma. That little project has rocketed it's way up to the top of my to-do list! I'm going to try and model as closely to his art as I can within reasonably boundaries.
That bionic arm is going to be one heck of a fun job. I'm mirroring the image for the purposes of modelling because the big mek arm I have holding the handle is on the right side, so Booma's model is going to have the bionic arm on his left side. I'll just flip the image when he's done drawing.
I expect this to take me a while, as I do intend on sculpting a decent amount on this model so I can do the art justice.
I was looking forward to this model the first time I read about him. altough, in the sketch, he seems much more calm and peacefull than I imagined him to be.
but Ein, one thing is bothering me here...are you really telling me that you're building BIG MEK, with a GIANT HAMMER (and I remind everyone again, this is EIN we're talkin here) and said HAMMER is just a lot of plastic bits? shouldn't it...I dunno, spin, or have lights or make sounds, something like that. I mean COME ON! how about smoking? can you make it smoking?
but Ein, one thing is bothering me here...are you really telling me that you're building BIG MEK, with a GIANT HAMMER (and I remind everyone again, this is EIN we're talkin here) and said HAMMER is just a lot of plastic bits? shouldn't it...I dunno, spin, or have lights or make sounds, something like that. I mean COME ON! how about smoking? can you make it smoking?
I'll probably be pulling the caps off - I told the artist I wasn't sure and he's sketching ideas out now.
If it's any consolation, I suppose I could light his bionic fist?
instead of wheel caps, I'm picturing more of a texture, like a meat tenderizer, lots of little triangular pyramid shapes, or perhaps round studs? I dunno, but I'm sure whatever you come up with will be dead hard.
What about mirroring the mechanicus symbol?
Instead of having a human skull with half bionics, have an ork skull with half bionics. I think that'd look cool on one of the flat parts of your hammer.
This was a sketch I got today, and I think I like it. I popped the leman russ wheel hubs off and I had to putty the surface back over again so that it'll be smooth, but what I'm going to end up doing is adding a riveted outer ring with glyphs on the faces inside the ring - one will be of Gork, the other side will have Mork.
Have to wait till the putty dries tomorrow to pull that off, unfortunately, but I've been killing time with a couple other projects while I wait.
Man oh man. Working on the head of this hammer has been some of the fiddliest scratchbuilding I've ever had to do, particularly that glyph, but I think I really like this more than the other designs. This is the 'gork' side - the 'mork' glyph will go on the opposite end when I get a proper chance to do it.
Also, I sculpted booma a larger tooth to match the art.
Look`n nice! Only thing I'd chance is the outer ring in the glyph I think sticks out too far compared to the glyph. I'd make them more of the same depth/thickness so the ring obscures the glyph less.
I vowed to finish the other side and the glyph before I had to head back to school, so here is the 'mork' side of the hammer.
I understand that aesthetically it might look a bit better if the glyph were farther out from the face of the hammer, but I need to also reiterate how infinitely small they are to begin with - the only reason I was able to really cut something that size is because I used thin card. Sanding the outer ring hubs down isn't really something I care to do right now, either, because they've been riveted already. The ring is the thickness it is because when I tried making rings that were any thinner, they would fall apart when I used a pin vice to drill the rivet holes. I made about 6-7 rings before I managed to get a pair that didn't fall apart under the stress!
He'll have a Kustom Force Field, yes. A bit of Booma's character that I haven't exactly written out in the fiction to the extent I like is that he is overly protective of his creations. He is a fairly mellow and intelligent ork until somebody breaks something he spent time making, at which point he flies into a genocidal rage.
That said, in the game, I believe he'll be the Big Mek that follows my Dred Mob around - the KFF will give them a chance at hull down, and he can bang out any dents they get in the course of a couple turns. It fits his character, and makes for a neat model.
In my bigger games, though, he'll probably be riding a squiggoth. Nothing beats a 5+ cover on a gargantuan creature!
As to extra work on the hammer: Please no! D:
I like it the way it is, I don't want to start carving it up just to put a random light in it or something. Motorizing it is way more of a headache than I am willing to go through, too - finding a motor small enough to fit in there would be hell.
As-is, I am thinking I can stuff a SMT LED (the impossibly tiny kind) into his bionic arm, and maybe make the KFF light up. I have some fiber optic cable, and I've seen some interesting results with it in the past, so I may play around with it. 'Course, I'm going to wait till the KFF is drawn out a bit more before starting on it.
Oh! Nearly forgot: Z updated the sketch a little bit.
it's just that were so used to the fact that your conversions ar always so mind-blowing awesome that this seems a little bit, unimpressive in comparision, considering how excited you are about this project.
it's still a great conversion though, keep it coming.
Enough people complained to me enough times about the fact that the glyphs were a bit too recessed into the hammer that I popped them off and used a hole puncher to fill the middle of the ring in and push the glyphs out a little bit. There's some tiny gaps around the outside edges, but I'm working on melting those shut with a syringe and some Plastruct plastic weld.
The Mork side isn't nearly scowly enough... I kid! Much better, I love it.
Seeing this and the looted Dread someone's working on makes me wish I had the time/money to start an orc army, not because I necessarily want to play one, just because I love to convert stuff, and the orcs seem to have the greatest potential for it.
a light-up KFF would be very cool and a change from 'ordinary' lighting jobs. Maybe it should glow from within, perhaps be made of clear plastic nearly covered with other plastic and paint so just the 'field' bits are glowing mysteriously. Bonus points if you can make it glow in a sequence of alternating colours... seriously, there are a lot of crappy little toys around with that sort of circuit in them...
That hammer is pure money, Ein, great work. I like the rest of the model too, is that really just a stock big mek?? Guess I haven't really seen the model beneath all the gear they lug around ...
If you need something to Einify, I vote for the glowing KFF. Possibly with rotating worky bitz. And/or actual force field generation
I second Salvage. I fully expect this model to be able to absorb a .22 round to the chest with no issues. Well, 1/3 of the time, at least.
I am thinking the sketches remind me a lot of the artwork from the old Dragon Lance campaign books. Sort of makes me sad I consigned mine to the flames over the weekend...
I find it very interesting that you used the big mek body from the KMB modell, instead of building the hammer on basis of the wrench the KFF Mek carries.
I'm using the Big Mek with Bosspole body because it has the arms separate - the KFF Big Mek miniature has the 'wrench' arm molded into both the torso and the foot, which is a pain to separate and model around. Also, because of the way the Big Mek with the KFF is leaning on his wrench with his hand atop the tool, it would have made changing the head difficult, if not impossible.
Photo and model aren't mine, obviously, but you see what I'm saying?
MachineSlave wrote:how did you get such even teeth on those cogs? Were they molded from a previous cog?
I am not sure I understand this question. The 'gears' on his hammer are some parts I scrounged up - I didn't make them so much as simply sand them down so they would have a flat surface to mount glyphs upon.
So, I had grand designs of coming home on Thursday and jumping right into modelling Booma but of course the teensy, weensy fact that it is Valentines day threw a wrench into that. Add onto that the fact that I have been enlisted to fix my father's ailing computer and I didn't find myself with much free time today.
Despite this, I have something I thought I might post. See, I found a rather nifty bit a while back. It comes from a miniature model line called Demonblade, which produced some rather unusual models until Games Workshop shut it down for copyright infringement. The Demonblade models had an 'orky' line that had a fair bit of crossover with GW's old second edition ork designs.
I managed to pick up a couple Demonblade minis off ebay with the intent of maybe mixing their parts discreetly in with the rest of my boyz, and this bit caught my attention right away. It's a completely bionic left arm!
I have been saving this for some time now with the mentality that perhaps it would look good on a Nob or what have you, but it seems to fit Booma fairly nicely.
Now! With that said, I want to make one thing clear: I do still intend on trying to scratchbuild Booma a proper styrene arm to match the phenomenal art that Zsoulless has been creating. The only reason I am showing photos of this other arm is because it will serve as a plan B of sorts. If I find that I simply can't scratchbuild such a small, fiddly little detail, this bit will serve as a backup way to actually finish Booma's model and get it on the table.
Having said that, I think I'm going to head off to bed so that I can wake up bright and early tomorrow morning and contemplate how I'm possibly going to build such tiny fingers.
So I spent some time this morning struggling with manufacturing a bionic arm and man, this is not easy. It's all to do with the scale of the thing - if I could be like Games Workshop and make all of the original models at 3x the size, I would be set, but unfortunately I have to suffer through these attempts.
The little bit you're about to see is actually my third attempt, as arm number one was far too long and was hitting the ground even without a hand attached to it, and arm number two got glued to my desk in a moment of carelessness.
Anyway, here's the gist of it. I put a terminator hand on the stump for the time being both to get an idea of how long the finished arm should be, and because for the life of me I don't think I can build fingers that small. I tried - pins, paperclips, styrene, everything is too fiddly and flimsy!
The coily spring things in his wrist are some little fiddly roller part I found inside an old laser printer that I took apart a while back. I like the way they look, but they're such a pain in the ass to work with and I have a feeling that after priming they'll look like rubbish because the 'ribbing' is so small.
Personally? That other metal arm is looking better and better as I try this. Still, I figure it doesn't hurt to post the work up.
The other metal arm looks really solid, and I think would work great socketed in and widgeted up. I commend you on wanting to scratchbuild your own despite, and I think the termi arm doesn't look so bad, just waaaay long as you note. The hand itself is a bit odd looking, between how you've cut it and its palm-open pose ...
Boss_Salvage wrote:The other metal arm looks really solid, and I think would work great socketed in and widgeted up. I commend you on wanting to scratchbuild your own despite, and I think the termi arm doesn't look so bad, just waaaay long as you note. The hand itself is a bit odd looking, between how you've cut it and its palm-open pose ...
- Salvage
Yeah, it's just a case of how closely I want to follow the art right now, really. The miniature is obviously an abstraction of the character to begin with, but the more I look at that metal arm the more I like it; it's actually a bit too tiny to look appropriate on a Nob, but it fits like a glove with the Big Mek model's proportions.
I really like the arm you are building yourself. I think the problems you are having with length and proportion are because the orc model proportions are different than what your artist is drawing. If you compare his drawing with the figs, the feet on the figs end up about where the knees in his drawing are at, or at least not far off. It also looks like he has the head set lower, or shoulders higher.
I say keep trying a few things with that arm of yours, and you'll get it looking good!
Grah. Okay, I'm pretty sick of trying to do this already - I was pinning a very teeny, tiny hand together in the hopes that it might be durable enough to work but small enough to look decent. This is honestly as small as I think I can manage, but I am not happy with it.
It doesn't look terrible, but that's because the foreshortening of the camera angle is making the arm not look too long. Take a look at the exact same position from the side:
Holy gorilla-limbs! :(
Honestly? As of right now, I am nearly sold on using the metal arm I have. There are two reasons...
1) Much as I'd like to be able to model on this minute of a scale, it's just too much.
2) This is probably the only model that the bionic arm actually fits on. The metal arm is too small for a nob, and the arm I have made for Booma seems to be a perfect fit on that new Direct-only Waaagh-Banner Nob as far as scale goes:
So. I have some thinking to do about it, I guess. I considered maybe just cutting the 'hand' part off the metal bit and using it on the plastic arm I have been making, but I only have one of these bitz and I really don't want to ruin it.
I'll second that, I like the idea of a full made it my self arm but the top shoulder part you did not craft your self so the terminator hand sould not upset you so....
In the spirit of compromise, I hacked the hand off my metal arm bit and placed it on the wrist of the arm I have been scratchbuilding in the hopes that maybe it would solve my hand dilemma. I realize the forearm is a bit longer than I might otherwise want it to be, but it's not possible to shorten it very easily right now, and I made it the size I did so that I could cram detail onto the curved areas when I got to that step.
Edit: I take that back, as well. I shortened the forearm up a bit and it's shaping up a bit better now. I'm going to use that metal hand bit I hacked off the other arm... but first I think I might cast myself a copy.
Oooohhh... That's a drastic step. Definitely looks better than the custom made hand, though I still think the termi hand had good potential. Might want to blunt the finger tips, the pointyness of them I think doesn't mesh with the red of the arm?
I like it. But the terminator hand was also fine, unless you're trying to avoid the loota look.
And I don't think it's oversized - as Savnock says, the gorilla look is fluffy. And it makes orky sense to build a new arm that reaches further than the old organic arm
Alrighty! Here's some more progress for you guys to (hopefully) enjoy. I know I've been working slow recently, but between school and all of the Valentines day shenanigans going on I haven't had much free time.
First, the bionic arm is coming along. I haven't put the exhausts on it just yet, but they're in the works. I started on what will optimistically be the 'gauge' on the arm, as well as a couple of nuts and bolts and the vent. I even put the little power-plug outlet in, though it is so infinitesimally small that I will have to paint it with a microscope.
I'm starting to really like the look of things now.
As far as the KFF goes, I've done some digging through my bitz bins and come up with some parts that may produce a workable Kustom Force Field...
Of particular interest is the metal bit with exhaust stacks coming off it. That part is from a Warzones miniature (non GW game, I know, but I'll get over it even if tournament-mongers don't. ). I believe the original model was some sort of battle suit, but whatever. It fits fairly nicely on Booma's back, so it's got my gears turning right now. Here's a shot with it just pinned on:
Z and I have been bouncing ideas back and fourth as to what we could make of it, because he wants his art to reflect the miniature and vice versa. Some more thought still has to go into it for the time being, particularly because I would love to be able to fit a tiny red LED somewhere in whatever ends up being made.
As a little bonus, I've noticed that Booma is actually nicely poseable now. For example:
He could be holding something (like a whirring gubbin or marine helmet) up infront of him and eyeing it up for parts. Alternately...
He could be cranking a valve wheel on a busted Dreadnought.
Obviously, I don't intend on him doing these things on the final, playable miniature, but I just found it entertaining that he could be posed to be a bit more interactive with things. If I had the patience, time, and parts, it'd be fun to make a couple versions of him just doing things to pose in pictures with my other conversions, but I obviously have none of the above. I can't really leave the arm free-swinging on the final model, either, as paint would chip, bits would get broken, and I couldn't sculpt to fill in the seam between his upper arm and torso. Still, it's fun to photograph.
Not much happened with Booma himself in the past few days, as I've been quite busy with other things. Still, I have done a little bit - I've tried to add the 'exhaust' pipes like what is in the illustration. I took a bit of artistic lisence as far as their angling, but it was the easiest way to implement them. I'm not actually sure I love the way they look, but it may grow on me.
The arm needs some more of those big screw heads like what's on the front - I had three on there this morning, but they popped off with a bit of rough handling, so I'm going to glue them back on with some tweezers. The backpack is also still temporary, but I think I'm going to build off it.
As far as the rest of the model, I have done some deliberating, and this is what I've come up with.
I find it very hard with this new Ork Codex to put together an army list that doesn't feature a Big Mek. Booma was originally intended to be just a KFF Big Mek, but since I like the model a great deal, I would be sad if I had to substitute another model in his place to play a Shokk Attack Gun option. So, to work out a way around this, I'm going to go ahead and make a separate, large Shokk Attack gun on it's own base to be placed near Booma when I choose to run that wargear option.
I have a couple ideas in my head for this model that I thought I would lay out. According to my ork army backstory, my warboss has an unnatural fondness for grots and gretchin, and they are put in positions of authority accordingly (driving a dreadnought or stompa, for example). Needless to say, my Boss would not be happy with a gun that uses his little buddies as ammunition, so he would have forced Booma to come up with an alternate solution. Booma, being the enterprising sort, decided to fire squigs out of his Shokk Attack Gun instead!
My plans for the gun include:
- Motorized, spinning Shokk Attack Gun head
- A light behind the spinning section of the Shokk Attack Gun so it appears to strobe.
- 'Grot Helpers' that jam the squigs into the Shokk Attack Gun's funnel. These will have bionic replacement limbs, as shoving angry squigs into a hole is not without consequences.
- Caged Squigs on the base
I'll probably mount the whole thing atop a 40mm, maybe 60mm base for the sake of convenience. I already took a stab at motorizing the spinny bit on the Shokk Attack Gun with promising results:
Oddly enough, those 2 AA's seem to be all that makes the motor spin. I've tried a 3v watch battery, and it just sits there immobile. I'm not honestly sure why, but I'll keep working on minimizing the power source.
okay, first, I don't know how you did it, but altough the has the KKF Mek head, he looks much more....awake, the n the original model. he looks kinda bad-a$$, ahich surprised me a bit.
I don't really like the backpack ye, but I'm sure you'll change that soon.
and I really did you SAG idea. seems like a logical choice to make it spin.
The reason why it won't spin with the smaller battery is simple.
It's not the VOLTS that provide the umph to spin a motor, it's the AMPS. Now, the great thing about electricity, is that by varying the resistance of the circuit, you can vary the amps. Stick a resistor or 2 in the circuit, that should slow the motor down some. It'll take some experimentation though. If you feel like taking a larger engineering bite, just gear the motor down. Put a pinion on the output shaft of the motor and a larger gear on the shok spinners.
KiMonarrez wrote:The reason why it won't spin with the smaller battery is simple.
It's not the VOLTS that provide the umph to spin a motor, it's the AMPS. Now, the great thing about electricity, is that by varying the resistance of the circuit, you can vary the amps. Stick a resistor or 2 in the circuit, that should slow the motor down some. It'll take some experimentation though. If you feel like taking a larger engineering bite, just gear the motor down. Put a pinion on the output shaft of the motor and a larger gear on the shok spinners.
Cool concept though.
Okay, let me pursue this a bit further. What you're saying about amps makes sense, but how can I make it so that smaller watch batteries will be sufficient to get this thing spinning? I don't see myself able to disguise two AA batteries on a 40mm base.
Well, to up the amperage, without changing the voltage, wire the watch batteries in parallel, not series.
You can also up the amperage by not changing the resistance of the circuit, and upping the voltage, so wire the watch batteries in series. It would probably be easiest to do this, and then insert a resistor or 2 to change the amps.
KiMonarrez wrote:Well, to up the amperage, without changing the voltage, wire the watch batteries in parallel, not series.
Ugh. What a pain!
You can also up the amperage by not changing the resistance of the circuit, and upping the voltage, so wire the watch batteries in series. It would probably be easiest to do this, and then insert a resistor or 2 to change the amps.
You mean using two of the 3v watch batteries with a resistor might do it? I have some resistors, but I have no idea what sort of resistance they actually are because I am electronics-slowed.
You mean using two of the 3v watch batteries with a resistor might do it? I have some resistors, but I have no idea what sort of resistance they actually are because I am electronics-slowed.
That should work. Don't feel bad about not knowing the resistance. I have a bit of an electrical background, and I don't memorize the color codes either. Just experiment, and you should find something that works Ok.
here are a few resistor charts. Unfortunately, my experience with Electronics is limited to what I learned in VICA a long long time ago. However, these charts should help you determine what you have. I have even included a pdf file and the last link even has a few more links and quite a bit of information.. good luck..
I've not had much time to think about Booma this morning, since I've been helping my father format his computer, but I did make up my mind about a thing or two.
The object that's going to be on Booma's back is not going to be a Kustom Force Field Generator. Insead, it will be a 'power pack' - basically an engine that helps generate power for his hammer, bionic arm, and whatever wargear he possesses. I'm going to try to make two 60mm bases that his 25mm base will slot onto. One will have the Shokk Attack Gun, and the other will have the Kustom Force Field.
Both of these will have spinning parts and light up.
As far as the Kustom Force Field Generator goes, I have come up with what I think will be a great part to work from:
This is the motor and rear wheel assembly from one of those micro Zip-Zaps RC cars. Basically, there's a miniscule motor in there, and it turns gears so that both of the 'wheels' on the sides spin. What this will allow me to do is make a big, freestanding Force Field Generator that will have two spinning gubbinz on either side.
I am considering what might look good on them and at first glance, two tau shield drones might make an interesting spinny bit, though I'll do some more thorough planning before I commit to anything like that.
drones would be visually dull because they're round and so don't change shape when spinning - unless you add a load of bits around the rims (or go for a hypnotic spiral paint job? - that would be very cool when spinning, but perhaps not fluffy for a KFF, maybe more suitable for a weirdboy warphead). You'd originally considered the BfM power pylon thingies - I think they'd look good.
Not sure about that motor - I know it's about as teeny tiny as you'll find in a toyshop, but it's still pretty big compared to a 25mm base. And how slowly will it spin?
unless he used the metal bit from the shield drone. Its got a bunch of spikey bits sticking off the ends of it, very asymetrical.
The only downside with the zip zaps motor is the fact that its going to spin VERY fast. Unless you find a way of slowinig it down no one will be able to tell what the spinning parts look like.
So I've recently had the chance to come back to this mini, and I wanted to finish him off and get to painting. I scratched my head for a little while as to what to do with his backpack before I decided it needed to look more complicated, so I grabbed a pair of three-coil bits off a warmachines mini and slapped them on there to help bulk it out a little bit. I've also been working on getting him a nice base to pose on - it's got a gear and a cable sticking out a bit, which I think is plenty. I'm keeping him on a 25mm base so that I can eventually make a SAG on a separate 60mm one and have him mountable onto it.
There's a bit of a gap in the area between the top of the shoulders and the backpack, and I've been thinking about what to do with that area. Since I normally stick Booma in with a pile of lootas, who have terrible leadership, a bosspole would be an appropriate upgrade to help keep them from scattering off the field. A character like Booma needs a nicer bosspole than the stock one the Big Meks come with, but I am having trouble conceptualizing any designs for the glyphs it's going to have, so I've stalled out a little bit while I work on it. I am thinking a deathskull-ish glyph with a wrench in the teeth might not be bad... that, or a crossed hammer and wrench behind an ork glyph skull. Either way, once he gets the bosspole on and gets cleaned up a little bit more (I need to sculpt some seams closed) he'll be getting a lick of paint.
Brainstorming out ideas for what I could make the bosspole into.
The 'Adeptus Orkanikus' symbol in the bottom left is a fun one, but wouldn't really fit the theme of my army. Drew it out anyway just to get an idea, though.
I like the mechanicus version and the one with the wrench between the teeth. That wrench/hammer on the upper right looks really weird. The one in the upper left is okay.but maybe it should only be a one-ended wrench.
I messed around a little bit with making the bottom right glyph from my earlier picture. It turned out a bit big, but I suppose that's okay. It doesn't have horns because that would be a bit goff-y, but I may change my mind on that later.
Any good, guys? I'm not sure how a giant pole sticking out of his back would look compared to the rest of the model, honestly, and I'm considering maybe leaving it off him (The hammer's enough of a bosspole, don't you think? ) Still, I'm ambivalent right now, so I'd like some input.
Like the glyph, looks quite nice. Does look like it might be too large for him. He doesn't really look like a guy who'd have a boss pole anyways now that you hold it over him. He looks to calm for it. You could give him taller electric coils on his back and call them his boss pole. Maybe stack of pairs of them to have two taller poles. Would also help to space them out more, as his backpack looks kind of crowded at the moment with all the coils and pipes and such.
Horned skull is a Death Skull thing FYI, not Goff.
I just like Booma's overall silhouette too much to go ruining it with a banner sticking out of 'em - plus, it never hurts to have a grot with a Waaagh! Banner around anyway for when I run Nobz squads. With that in mind, I quickly banged together a grot helper who has been mildly cyborked - a robotic arm, at least, from a Warmachines mini. I'm going to go ahead and sculpt a bionic eye on him later - that, or goggles.
At this point it's just a matter of finishing touches on Booma and getting the grot done. Booma's backpack needs a couple more worky bits like dials and gauges, and the grot needs to be properly based. I will unfortunately have to get to finishing him in a few days' time, as I am going abroad for the next five. I'm looking forward to getting back and painting them both up, which is entirely uncharacteristic of me, but I suppose I should take advantage while it lasts.
Ive just read through the entire thread, very nice work, I am close to inspired to work on some Orks.. and I dont even play orks!! The grot was a very cool idea, Id vote goggles (he may need goggles with all the blood and gore being strewn about everytime Booma hits his target), speaking of Booma - sweet mini, again, it makes me want to start modeling Orks! Cheers!
After what has been an exciting few days, I'm back and paintin'. I worked a bit on cleaning my Big Mek up before priming this morning, primarily greenstuffing closed any gaps or seams on the model and giving the banner waver a bionic eye.
As far as priming goes, I've been experimenting a little bit recently with white instead of black. The reason for this is that I've just started to get the hang of washes, now that the new Citadel ones are out, and I've discovered that layering on thin washes of darker colors over white primer does a really nice job with ork skin. Additionally, I've decided to skip trying any NMM shenanigans with this model - as much as I would love to have him up to presentation standards like that, Booma's primarily a model for me to play with, and my previous attempts at NMM have been below average. However, metallics look a bit poor over white primer, meaning I needed a black undercoat for the detail parts.
I set out this morning with a can of black and white primer and had at the model. I've left the parts mostly separate on the model, so I can pull them off, prime them, and paint them with ease. What I basically did this morning was spray items like the backpack and grot's robotic arm down with black primer, while doing the rest up in white. After priming white, I grabbed a brush, thinned out some black paint, and started blacking in the darker parts of the model so I would have a suitable undercoat...
Since priming, I've devoted most of my efforts to his head and face just to try and get the skintones approximately right. This is basically just thinned down Vallejo Dark Green, applied in three coats, followed by a little wash of the Citadel Thraka Green. I'm pretty happy with the way his skin looks.
The one big lens is giving me a bit of trouble because I am trying to get a smooth gradient from dark blue to light and it's a bit... evasive. It's not as exaggerated as I pictured when I was throwing the colors onto it - I need it to be a bit more contrasty. I'll probably try it again. Other than that, I like how he looks, so I'm going to get a start on painting the rest of him tomorrow.
Been painting a little bit more - got his power claw arm done, and started on the backpack a bit. The backpack in particular is a fiddly bit to paint just because of how hard it is to get at all the nooks and crannies. If I had half a brain, I would have left those coils as separate pieces. :( In any event, I just want to mention how lovely these new Citadel washes are. Most of the metals on these things are done just with boltgun metal, a wash of gryphonne sepia, and a black wash.
I'm still working on cleaning both of them up, but I think the claw in particular has a nice tone going on - oily and rusty, but not too much, so it looks... maintained, let's say. Those little coils on the inside of the forearm made from springs were masked off when I was priming, since I figured no thinning of paint would properly maintain the detail there. Instead, it managed to avoid getting primed, and I've simply hit them up with the sepia and black washes to make them mostly match.
The backpack coils are something I'm still not happy with. I really wanted them to look more glowy, but it's very hard to manage any kind of painting on them just because of how little space there is between them for a brush. It looks okay, though I may try a thin white highlight on the coils to make them look a bit brighter later on - depends how brave I feel.
Going to get a start on Booma's body now, and the hammer.
So I buckled down and got most, if not all of Booma done.
I got snap-happy with the camera because I am happy with how he came out, so there's a bunch of photos below.
At this point, I'd love any feedback on things I should look at or touch up before I varnish him. The banner grot needs some painting love next. I'm still not happy with how the coils look, but I'm not going to work more on those because they are infuriating to paint.
I'm stoked about this recent painting trend you've struck, Ein. Booma's looking super, the only thing I'd touch up (and you've already mentioned it giving you fits) is that large lens. If you want crosshairs, maybe some painter's tape masking could help get crisp, square edges.
But minor quibble aside, he's looking great. Excellent modeling, and a great paint job. The cybork arm especially, the paint really pulled the different pieces together nicely. Care to elaborate any more on your success with the washes for the ork skin?
Personally I'd drill out the holes in his backpack exhausts a little more, to make them look like thin metal.
And the boot colour looks awfully similar to the base colour - I know you want grubby boots, but they merge into the base a bit too much (although I guess that depends partly on how you're basing the rest of the army). Personally I'd highlight the 'rocks' on the base a slightly different colour to contrast with the boots more.
Looks great, although the skin tone seems a little 'bright' compared to the darker washed metals and body. I love this model though - it all hangs together so well!
Great work Ein. Nice to see that you actually do paint sometimes It all fit's together just nicely. The metal is simple, yet effective.
The coils could look a little better if they were justa little brighter, but you said already you won't do more work on them. Just though I should mention it...
Overall, a great looking model. My only quibble is the crosshair on the lens. It's a bit bland and not very crisp, but this is minor. Thanks for posting the finished product as it's been enjoyable to check out the progress.
Some more pictures here. Grot's been painted, and Booma's been touched up a bit (see: lens color and the 'crosshairs'). The only thing I am still working on a bit is making those hammer glyphs a bit more defined.
What do you guys think? The grot needs a catchy name. I liked 'Fixit', but that's the same as the grot that rides along with the Ork character Wazzdakka.
Grot Name: Banna Git
I like the crosshair change.
Honestly, I think the lens would be better without it or with a small circle in the center of the lens and lines dissecting it at N<S><E and W but not meeting in the middle. KWIM?
Still like it, though.
Tboots & base are still a bit too close in color, IMO.
Also, the gears on the bases blend in with the other debris too much.
I'd paint them in a bronze or "brown based" metallic, then dirty them up A LITTLE with the colors of the rubble on the base.
Even if you didn't do that and left it As-Is, I give you top marks.
While Booma himself is (mostly) good and done, there still remains the small little issue from earlier in the thread - I want him to have a Shokk Attack Gun.
My initial attempt at making the SAG spin was okay, but that motor was extremely picky about operating, and spun the SAG bit at insane speeds. I've done some rummaging around in my home and come up with a lego motor that is the complete opposite end of the spectrum, doing maybe 20 RPM with the SAG bit.
It's also a touch noisy, but I don't suppose a SAG would be all that discreet.
Anyway, the question I'm really shooting for is, is that too slow? I've been completely incapable of finding a motor <12v that will suit my needs - something small, with enough torque to spin the bit, but not at 14,000 RPM. I don't need to actually open a tear into the warp, for god's sake.
Just getting caught up with the Orkiness in the forum, Nice Mek, really like him. as for the SAG, sure its sluggish but as you said it dont have to rip a tear in the warp.
- So, i thinks it plenty fast enough
Also, since i think of it, the grot should be.........umm.......... boot-legga, for the orks' distaste of anything non-orky
i was just joking, but what about tattoo in a orky kind of way(im no good at the whole ork ways of speaking). nice model though, i realy like it probably one of the better orks iv seen painted. is the rest of your army look this good?
20rpm looks fine, you can actually see it rotate, unlike with highspeed. Admittedly something like 60rpm or even 120rpm would be better, but reliability is more important, you don't want to have a busted motor by the end of each game
I absolutely LOVE the way the mech arm was painted up. That's just the new washes over boltgun? Full coverage or just painted into the cracks? I assume one color in some parts, the other in others?
Aduro wrote:I absolutely LOVE the way the mech arm was painted up. That's just the new washes over boltgun? Full coverage or just painted into the cracks? I assume one color in some parts, the other in others?
Just washes over boltgun. I believe the technique I used is the highly sophisticated 'slop that stuff on' approach. Hint: I just slopped that stuff on.
It's a rumble motor from a broken Gamecube controller with a resistor there to slow it down a touch. It's whirling at around 120 RPM, if I had to guess - I am pretty happy with this speed, visually, since it's not going to try and take off and fly across the table. The motor's admittedly a bit large, but I can manage it. I'll get to work detailing it when I get time, though tomorrow morning is dedicated to trying to get some stupid Night Goblin Fanatics for my Warphead project.
yours looks good but i think the moter might be to big for the gun, you might want to try this but use some sort of dial or a resistor to control the speed.
fnc821 wrote:yours looks good but i think the moter might be to big for the gun, you might want to try this but use some sort of dial or a resistor to control the speed.
I scrapped that motor because when you reduced the speed (i.e., with a resistor or potentiometer) it simply refused to spin. It wasn't strong enough to torque the SAG bit around without the full voltage, so I had to find another motor. I'm not going to be using gears because the more mechanical parts I include, the higher the chance it will break or fail, particularly when primed or painted.
Also im planning to build a Biker warboss for my squad of six nob bikers . I plan to use Gorbad ironclaw as a start and am thinking of scratch building a power claw with pointy fingers , your work is a big inspiration
I think you should go with the lego motor personally, even 120 rpm seems to fast to me, no a nice slow spin is perfectly fine and the humm it gives is the best part about that motor, Appropriate sound effects AND turning bits gets my vote! especially with how that humm sounds like a tesla coil charging, its totally appropriate.
I've been digging through my Bitz box for useful Shokk Attack Gun parts for Booma. I've found a couple that I think are good from an assortment of different figures, but the problem I'm having right now is conceptualizing how to mash them all together into a transdimensional gun.
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but I want Booma's SAG to fire squigs, not grots. I figure it'd have about the same effect - grots and snotlings go mad in the warp and come out frenzied on the other side because of the things they saw. Squigs would come out frenzied, regardless of whether or not they understood anything they saw.
Anyway, to get back to the problem at hand, I'm basically not sure how to render Booma's SAG properly. I started doing scale drawings just to get a feel for what might be possible, and this is what came out:
This is just a very rough idea. I have a couple general criteria for what I think the gun requires (see below) but the finer details are not coming through when I imagine this thing, so there's a couple big blank areas on the gun and room for a ton of rearranging.
Here's a couple thoughts on the general design of what I think I might like in the final product:
I figure a Shokk Attack Gun would have to be bigger in order to fire something the mass of a squig through the warp, so I was going to make it extra-large compared to the standard shoulder-mounted job.
I also figure that despite being extra-large, big meks are still able to move about on the board with the SAG (though it's a terrible idea, since it's a heavy weapon and can't shoot on the move). Because of that, I figured something that looked tripod-mounted or planted into the ground wouldn't make sense - rather, something on wheels that could be relocated if necessary made a lot more sense. I have very suitable wheel bits that I was saving, and this seems like a good project to use them on.
I want the squigs to be 'lured' into the machine somehow. The initial idea I had was just to have grots feeding squigs into the machine, but then I thought about it some more and realized grots would have a heck of a time trying to force a chomping, angry squig into a hole. Rather, I imagine something a bit more comical - like a grot standing atop the machine with a piece of meat on a stick dangling over the funnel into the machine, trying to get a squig to jump at it and over the opening and get sucked in. Alternatively, it could just be a grot taunting a squig from across a big funnel built into the side of the machine, trying to get it to run across the path of the opening and get hosed up into the machine. Coincidentally, if a grot or two gets sucked in and fired, I don't think they'd be missed.
One of my buddies suggested an accordion-ish bit on the SAG for comic effect (like the squig is getting compressed for firing), hence it's presence on the gun (the angular looking thing right behind the motor). I actually have a bit that would work fairly well for it.
Booma has to fit on the base with it. I have a roughly 60mm round base I'm going to try and cram this all into, and booma's got a 25mm round footprint on that, meaning the machine has to be off on one side. The spinny bits can overhang the edge of the base, but the rest of it should probably be on there.
Now, with all that said... I'm a little stuck, and I need help through the creative process here. The bits with red arrows pointing to them are all ones I have actual parts for already - the SAG spinny bit, the motor, the accordion looking thing, the two wheels and the base. I would prefer to use these if at all possible to make my life easier, though I'm open to pretty much any ideas - I just need help figuring out the form of this thing, because when I picture it in my mind's eye I can't quite pin down a proper look for it yet. Help me with my designer's block, guys?
Death By Monkeys wrote:Heh. What about instead of having a grot dangling a piece of meat on a stick, having a grot dangling another grot from a fishing pole over the funnel?
I was thinking similarly. It seems more appropriate.
So, as of right now, your SAG looks a bit like a choo-choo train.
I don't think you really want that.
Some changes I'd make...
Shorten it.
Remove a rear wheel to make it 3 wheels.
Remove "chimney" from rear & put it on the side of the SAG.
Grot is dangled over side. Squig lunges at grot (who is HOPEFULLY removed fast enough) and squig is sucked into SAG.
I'll mess around with your drawing & see if I can manage to upload it from work.
Okay... So, I fiddled around with your image and came up with the picture below.
Please, forgive the rudimuntary nature of my circle. MS Paint is all I hava available here.
I hope the idea comes across properly.
Part of the benefit of having the "chimney" on the side is that you don't have to have the squigs jumping high up into the stack on top. it's easier to get them into it when it's at their own level.
I do sort've like a wheelbarrow-ish concept with only two wheels, though, the more I think about it. It'd make the gun lean up a bit at an angle. I suppose the wheelbarrow section in the back could double as a ramp for squigs to go up.
I do sort've like a wheelbarrow-ish concept with only two wheels, though, the more I think about it. It'd make the gun lean up a bit at an angle. I suppose the wheelbarrow section in the back could double as a ramp for squigs to go up.
Are you intending on modelling a squig going into the SAG? That was the presumption I made with my suggestion (the wheel being in the rear center gives about an extra quarter to half inch to back Booma into to make more room).
Having a sort of ramp in the back will really inhibit the amount of room you have to work with for adding that "detail."
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