Black Orc Blocker #2 ( and unexpected #3)

From the building of Black Orc Blocker #1 I learnt a number of things.
I need a stronger visual image in my head on how I want the model to look. For this model I want the blocker to have his arms out to the sides forming a mean green barrier between him and his end zone. A pose that says "this is the line, this far no further" ( Orc blockers like to paraphrase Picard - true Orc fact).

With that as a starting point I looked at the plastic kits I had to see what I could do.

I started by looking for a set of out stretched arms, and got the pair on the right. They weren't an actually pair as such, the right arm was part of one combination of Orc and the left made up a different Orc. The left one was missing a hand. This was attached to a weapon.

Below you can see in the photo on the right the left fist holding the shaft. I used the saw to cut the fist out and then used clipper to get as much unnecessary plastic removed.

The body of the Blocker had a pouch at the back, which I didn't want, so once again the saw came out.

As you can see from the photo below this left a noticeable chunk of plastic missing from the models bottom. I was expecting this and wanted the opportunity to use the putty again.

Below is the front of the model. Here I learnt one of those painfully obvious lessons that make you wonder why you didn't see it before. If there is an easy option, take it. Notice how the belt part had a cloth hanging from it instead of chain-mail as in the first model. No need for putty here.

Sticking the arms on and adding the front armour I got a model I am really happy with. The front armour added a face guard, which feels very blood bowl. It is made out of teeth, which goes with the 'Big tooth' of Big Tooth Tigers. The other thing that is hard to see from the photos (as I haven't put them on bases yet) is that this model is leaning forward, as if pushing forward. It has a sense of motion. Looking at this model I feel all my Bloodbowl models should look like they are moving, as if taking an active part in the game.

THE GREEN STUFF
Every time I use modelling putty I am learning something new. With the gouge in the models bum I was much more cautious. I used tiny amounts of the putty, pressing and shaping, and then adding a tiny bit more and repeating the process. I found it much easier to work with in this way, not having to remove putty from the model just adding to it. The other key thing I learnt was to really spread the putty as thin as possible with the sculpting tools at the edges of the putty. This helped hide where the plastic and putty met. The spreading and shaping with the sculpting tools also removes finger prints from the putty.

I am really please with how the bum ended up. I need to improve on the detail work, the belt on the model doesn't neatly go all the way around the waist, but hopefully that will improve with practice. Some of the armour plates had small slots in them because the model kit gives you the option to add skulls and daggers to the model. I didn't want these so used the putty to hide those slots.

As I have said above, really pleased with how this model has turned out. The only thing missing I think is a punching spike, which I will come back to and add in later. The face guard and the sense of motion is an improvement on the first model, so much so that I decided I wanted to try and make another Blocker that incorporated those elements.

Black Orc Blocker #3

 I won't go into too much detail here as it will just be repeating what I have written above. A couple of key things with this model. The model didn't have any punching spikes on it, just it's fists. I wanted to add something a bit more pointy to the orc model as it felt naked without them. I still had some 'off cuts' that I had cut off other pieces, these fitted perfectly and finished the model of in my eyes.

Important lesson here I feel. Don't throw anything away.


While completing this model I came to another realisation with the green stuff putty. This model had the chain mail hanging off it's belt, which I didn't want. I started spreading thin layers of the putty over the mail. It was quite hard to do neatly and smoothly and that was when I realised that I was using the putty as a filler rather then for modelling purposes. What I really needed was something like a poly-filler that is used to cover cracks in walls.

I quick search on the web gave me 2 easy options.
1) Water down some PVC glue
2) Liquid green stuff

I am going to get hold of some liquid green stuff and see how that works for me.

Next  - the Blitzers.

Black Orc Blocker #1

Building the Orc Bloodbowl team, I decided to start with the Black Orc Blockers. The main reasons for this was that I didn't expect to have to do a lot of modifying. I wanted the Blockers to have a fairly static pose, A big orc blocking the way, rather then a big orc barreling down the pitch heading for the end zone.

I used the the Orruk Brutes set as a starting point. Big Orcs with battered and bodged plate armour.

5 models come in the box and I was only looking to make 2. I hoped this would mean I had some options in how I could put the models together.

I started by blu-tacking one of the models together to get an idea of how pieces fit together and to see how much customisation was available. The Brutes kit has a fixed set of legs and torso for the models, leaving the arm positions and head with options on how to fix them. There are also choices available on adding armour plates to the models.

From the picture above you can see what the leg and body options were. The bare foot one I don't like at all. I don't think it goes well with the idea of a Bloodbowl orc player. The peg leg I find amusing, a black orc blocker playing with a missing leg, still knocking heads sounds fun. I'm going to think about that for a bit before deciding.

I took one of the booted leg options and added the chest, head and belt. See below.

I then added chest armour. The chest armour pieces had a few spikey bits on them that I felt weren't in keeping with the sports armour  style of blood bowl, so I cut and trimmed the pieces to get a less battlefield look. I then looked at pairs of arms and cut/sawed off the weapons. See below.

While looking at the arms and positioning on the model I found that I didn't like the model having 2 closed fists. It just didn't feel or look right to me. Luckily the is a couple of open hand arms in the kit so I went with 1 open hand, 1 fist. On the fist I also used a small drill to put a small divit in the top and drill away the shaft of the weapon from the bottom. Hoping to make it look more like a closed fist then a hand holding a bit of a handle.

Below is the model with arms and chest armour attached.

I'm quite please with the pose, Fist raised back and up, ready to punch the next player standing in front of him. The next thing this Blocker needed was more armour.

Shoulder pieces added on photo below.

And photo of the back of the model. In true orc style there is a lot less armour at the back then at the front.

The model felt close to be finished now. It was now the little details that I wanted to fix.
Firstly I wanted to get rid of the chain-mail. It feels too battlefield to me.
I also wanted to make the armour plates a bit more uniform in terms of shape and area covered.

This meant it was time to try the Green stuff.

I have never used Greenstuff before to model with so I was in unknown modelling territory. I started by trying to change the chain-mail hanging on the belt into a loincloth/tabard. This I did by covering over the mail with the putty and trying give it some folds.

I should say here that the sculpting tools I got were a godsend. without them it would have been almost impossible for me to work the putty on the model.

One problem a came up against was that the little skull on the mail got lost in the putty and I ended up covering that too as it no longer looked like it was sitting on top of the loin cloth.

I then added the putty to some armour edges to make it look more balanced in my eye.

I am trying not to be too critical with myself. This is the first time I have modeled with putty. The results aren't awful, but at the same time I don't think I have captured the flow and folds of a cloth material.

Looking at the model, I still wasn't happy with it, in that it still felt unfinished. The putty loincloth had obscured the belt detail which didn't look right. I wanted the fist to have something spiky to punch with as well.

Looking at the spruces I had I found 2 pieces which fit the bill.

A small armour plate went over the belt area and a set of claws ( or in this case big sharp teeth/tusks) were added to the back of the fist. For me this finished the model off.

Overall I am happy with what I have achieved. I haven't been too ambitious on this first model but as a first attempt at kit bashing  I have learned a lot.

I have realised that you need a good idea of what you want to make. A clear specific vision in your head of what the model will look like at the end. My vision of the Blockers has been a bit woolly, I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to end up with. I may come back to the model and add some thing else to it. But for now I am fairly happy.

Minor quibbles I have is that there are no straps tying the armour down, hoding it in place. At the moment it just looks like it is held magically in place. I could add straps with putty, but don't feel confident enough yet to try that sort of fine detail. The more I look at that loin cloth the more I dislike it.

Looking at the model now I also wish it had a helmet of some description.
I tried making a helmet on another head, to see if I could model one in putty, but the results weren't great.

As you can see it is a weird mix of padded rugby/boxing head guard and world war 2 helmet.

Something to revisit I feel.

On a related note I came across bitzbox.co.uk It is a website that sells bits of various kits. This will be really useful to get hold of that odd piece (maybe even get a helmet or two)

Plenty to think about and improve on for Black Orc Blocker #2