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Oi!

It's pretty much fact to anyone who has read the new ork codex that Zagstruk is damn near mandatory for ork armies now. His new rules are incredible. Power klaw feet that strike at initiative? Deep striking and assaulting on the same turn? Truly awesome.

I obviously need some stormboyz, and a Zagstruk to lead them. Might as well get started on a Vultcha squad, eh?

I'd link the art of Zagstruk from the new 'dex, but I'm fairly sure that's against the rules. Needless to say, it's pretty awesome. As I am prone to do, I started with modelling the most visible thing in the picture - the choppa. It's still a work in progress.





Handle is from one of the fantasy ogres. I hacked off the blade and started replacing it with my own. It looks like there's a rokkit booster on the side of Zagstruk's sword, but that would be so fiddly and tiny I decided a simple cylinder would do for now. I also chopped a part off one of the ork shootas that had a gauge for the side opposite the boosta. Persumably it's a fuel gauge or altimiter. Assuming it works at all, which is a fairly big assumption given orks. I have to add those spiky bits to the back of the handle still.

During the course of working on this, I found myself in a conundrum as to what I would make his jetpack look like. Since he's Zagstruk and all, he's the biggest and most important stormboy, and as such should have a suitably enormous contraption on his back to hurtle him through the air. Still, it was one of the parts that the art clearly avoided, so I got to wondering for a while.

Someone else over at The-Waaagh was working on a Zagstruk model a while back, and they were also wondering what sort of jetpack to give him. They posted this little line of dialogue:

I figured as the greatest and most revered of the stormboyz his jump pack would be the closest to a ballistic missile or something fired off of a Gargant.

Hah, fired off a garga-... hey, wait a minute.





A.. a grot bomb?

You know, I actually have a spare one of them. I got it busted-up... the grot pilot was damaged beyond recognition and some of the back fins were missing.

Hmmm.

It's pretty obvious what has to be done.







This is going to take a while, I think.

Diggin the choppa man ^_^. You should outfit the whole group with that mean looking piece. Or subtle variations of it at least ^_^.

And the grot bomb jump pack is an awesome idea. I really need to check out this new codex sometime soon. If only to get a look at all the pretty pictures.

I actually did a bit of digging, and I think that despite my best efforts I'm going to have to do some sculpting on this one. I have a stormboy nob body for if this totally fails, but hopefully I won't have to resort to messing that thing up. I hacked the torso off the last spare nob body I had and started dremelling it all down to bare metal. Basically I just wanted to get something the approximate size and shape of an ork nob torso to sculpt over.



That's the forgeworld fighta bomma pilot on the left, the rokkit in the middle for scale, and the completely wrecked nob torso on the right. I stuck the torso on an armature. I plan on sculpting a jacket and straps on that torso similar (hopefully) to the fighta-bomma body, using it as a reference. I'd honestly be hacking apart the fighta bomma body right now were it not for the fact that he has a spent parachute part on his back that would create so many problems that it's not worth the trouble.

The plan right now it to sculpt some under details like stitches on a shirt across the front of the chest. I don't have to be too precise about how I do this right now mostly because when it's all said and done there will be straps covering the front of the chest, as well as the jacket, so you won't see much of the actual ork body underneath. The jacket's obviously going to be the hardest part, but with the FW one nearby I should have a handy reference.

Step 1 on the torso is done. Sculpted a little bit of the 'undershirt' - the thing that will be covered by a jacket and chest cross straps. Don't have to be too precise with it, really.



I need to figure out how to sculpt the jacket hanging open like on the forgeworld pilot now. :(

Wrong.. thread?

Looks good, though.

I make sushi as my part-time job :S
but anyways, I love how you jump into projects and the first things that come out are awesome. Especially Zagstruck's choppa. If only you could capture his truly insane gaze!

Curse you and your endless supply of bitz.

go rivets

While Zag's body is drying, I thought I might do something with the ruined back end of the grot bomb I've been hacking up. I made a cute little piece for when the supa-rokkit fired off my gargant totally misses, which is shockingly common despite the fact that it hits on a 2+. I don't really have anywhere else to post this, so...







One of the back fins was missing when I got the model, so I just plasti-carded up a replacement real quick. I'm looking for an alternative to the cotton right now. Steel wool doesn't look too bad.

Stuff has finished drying. I've been looking at this and trying to plan out how the pose should go, and I think before I sculpt the jacket I should probably do the lower half so I can understand the flow of the model properly first. I'm going to diverge from the codex art pose a little bit - I'm probably going to pose him with both arms outstretched to the sides and the right leg extended straight down to deliver the klaw blow, with the left leg bent up.

I thought before I went to bed I'd take a shot of how it's going so far. I'm using one of the fantasy black orc heads like I've seen on another zagstrukk model. It's a damn near perfect match to the art. Have to figure out how I'm going to go about sculpting a commissar cap yet, but I've flattened the top of his head in anticipation of it.







The rokkit's obviously huge, but that's intended. Just going to be figuring this out as I go, I suppose. Legs don't seem like a bad thing to work on next so I can figure out what angle he's going to be at for the jacket, etc. The slugga's a bit modified, half because I can't leave well enough alone, and half because the listing in his codex mentions a 'personalized slugga' which he uses to execute morale-failing orks, commissar style.

Jam, just out of curiosity: are you an avatar of gork or mork, 'cause your Ork convershunz are almost godlike in their awsomeness.

great work btw...

I haven't seen the piece of artwork myself (I really need to check it out, sounds like a good piece), but I'm guessing you're going to model his feet extended out in the power claw feet attack?

If that's the case you might think to pull the pistol arm in and make it point down at his victim as he plunges down upon them.

Just a thought!

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.

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 also touched up his bionic eye, and moved it a bit up his face to where it should sit properly.

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.

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.







Putting human helmets on them to accentuate Zag's blood axe appearance is another thought. Going to have to brainstorm a bit more. The reading describes them coming down on the enemy with 'iron boots', which is another possibility I guess I could consider.

Zaggy himself has fluff/rules justification for huge mechanical taloned feet of some kind - his cybork body and Vulcha Klaws. But the rest of his Vulcha squad are 'normally' armed, although all benefit from the Swoop Attack rule, so yes it would be cool to differentiate them visually from 'normal' stormboyz, without making them look too cyborky.

The first idea that springs to mind is huge spiky boots...
Or I have this strange picture in my head of mutant orks with feet like bird claws - this makes it difficult for them to walk but is ever so useful when they join the stormboyz and start dropping on enemies from a great height.

some quick concept ideas for ya ^_^. I get bored easily...

I like the middle one the best.

grey_death wrote:some quick concept ideas for ya ^_^. I get bored easily...

I like the middle one the best.

These are excellent! I really appreciate the ideas, as I was having a case of modeller's block. I'll try and mix all of these in.

I was actually imagining boots with maybe six enormous spikes on each _sole_ - but yes, spiky toes probably is more practical.

I too like the middle concept best, quite vulcha-ish, but maybe with a big spke on the side added? The outer side that is - even an ork wouldn't want to spike his own other boot...

sudden bizarre thought - spiky knee pads too?

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 above picture is of the same claw - I only have the parts to make one at present).

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 tried sort've mocking this up with a paperclip. It obviously doesn't work all that well:





In addition to my pose problems, I have to sort the klaw feet out a bit better 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.

Like it. Maybe he doesn't have knees, just telescopic leg pistons straight from his mechanical hips??

Re the other boyz, would it be too silly for their spiky boots to actually look like iron vulture heads?

overnight I remembered the marine backpack with the eagle heads on the sides (Marneus Calgar?), and of course there are zillions of eagles throughout imperial iconography. I'm thinking that the Vulcha Boyz know imperial culture very well (it's one of their favourite targets) but aren't smart enought to know or care about the difference between a vulture and an eagle, so would cheerfully steal all the imperial eagles they can find as trophies.

think I'll use that concept for my Vulcha Boyz conversions(especially as mine will be using looted marine jumppacks too) - anyone else, feel free to do the same...

A corrupted aquila is an interesting idea. The same general shape, but with much harder lines and an ork skull glyph in the center, rather than a human.

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.

I think I'm out of praises.....

looks fantastic. as usual.

Decided to draw a bit more ideas. This is quite a lot of fun to help with ^_^



take what you think is helpful, ditch what isn't ^_^

Yes, an orky aquila would be very fluffy and easy to do.

Those model proportions look good - personally I'd make the hips mechanical as well, as then the belt line naturally hides the cybork join. But tattered trou will do the job just as well, and might be less work.

Grey_death's lower 'shin armour' design migh also make a nice boot 'talon' for the boyz?

How are you going to attach him to his base, and what will the base be? The obvious choices would be posed mid-assault as per Grey_death's sketch and attached via the victim, or perhaps via his rokkitpack flame if you fancy sculpting big flames?

I honestly sort've want to base him flying. I've seen another zagstrukk who was based on a marine being crushed in one of the claws, but it just seemed like a silly idea when you're playing against Tau or something. That sort of mismatch would always bother me because of my anal-retentive nature. I want to have him like 4-5" off the ground and looking like he's coming down hard at an angle so you can put him next to any mini and have the appearance of 'about to get krumped'.

I completely agree with you not basing him on another model. It would bother the hell out of me too. If this was a one off for a competition it would be another story.

A large burst of flame would do the job. But it wouldn't make him seem like he's falling into his opponent, more the opposite, as if he's flying up and away from them. that doesn't mean you couldn't use a flame effect out the bottom of his rokkitpack though. But it would have to trail back and up instead of down towards the base.

I think you're best bet is to use a heavy wire, or a small terrain feature. I'm sure you're going to base him on a 40mm base, so you'll have plenty of space to use a piece of ruin or a light pole, just anything tall really, to get him up to where you want him and pin him in place.

Well, however I pose him, I'll probably be using a clear plastic rod akin to the flying bases rather than wire mostly for appearances. Paperclip wire is too flimsy, and wire that's stronger like coathanger would still be too 'LOOK AT ME!'.

He'll definitely be on what I imagine to be a heavily weighted 40mm base to keep it from tipping.

Probably no flames coming out of the rokkitpack. Maybe smoke curling up and back, though. I like to think that his bionic legs let him drop from a pretty serious height, so once he gets about twenty feet above a target he just switches it off and falls like a stone.

A lot of the sense of motion is going to have to come from things like his jacket and maybe a few straps that I can have dangling behind him in the wind. Once I get back to school tonight I will have my tablet handy and I'll be able to make a couple crude conceptual sketches of both his pose and his base.

It might be a good model candidate for a diorama base, though. I mean, a 40mm that sockets onto a larger base, like how my gargant does. Could put a guardsman cowering in fear on the ground with one hand up to block the blow.

jamsessionein wrote:I honestly sort've want to base him flying. I've seen another zagstrukk who was based on a marine being crushed in one of the claws, but it just seemed like a silly idea when you're playing against Tau or something. That sort of mismatch would always bother me because of my anal-retentive nature. I want to have him like 4-5" off the ground and looking like he's coming down hard at an angle so you can put him next to any mini and have the appearance of 'about to get krumped'.

I think you're on the right track with this, but i think you're wrong about using the plastic rod from a flying base. The plastic just isn't strong enouhg. it would always be breaking on you, so you'd always be fixing the thing, over and over.

If you want him 4 - 5 inches off of the ground, AND want him posed as if he's about to come down on someone, here's what you do.

First off, you'll need a pretty heavy base. My suggestion is to use a round 40mm base, use your clippers to clup all of the little circles off of the bottom. Get the underside as flat as possible. Now, you want to load the underside with metal. ALL of the leftover metal pieces you have that are flat enough to get glued to the underside without causing the base not to lay right.
Okay. That's a start.

Now, you need to decide what you want your FINAL base to look like. Once you have that, you build up the basis of it with metal bits, pieces & scraps. The more the merrier. When complete, you should have a VERY heavy base. Good. You'll need it.

Now, you want to use BRASS ROD. Use a small one. It's fairly resilient and, with the amount og plastic and resin involved here, your model won't be TOO heavy for it.
Drill DEEPLY into Zag and DEEPLY into the base.

Zagstruck should be hanging in the open air, not over his base. This will allow you to have an apptopriately sized base, AND have him so that he can be positioned over an enemy model so as to look like he's about to crunch him.

It'll be a fair amount of work to do it right... but you've already shown that you don't mind that.

I will use my MS Paint program to throw together an idea of what I'm talking about.

It'll be done FAST, so you'll have to forgive the ugliness. It'll be JUST good enough to give you an idea of what I'm referring to.

Eric