All my scratch-building projects so far have been about learning new techniques or relearning old ones. That and the therapeutic aspect. It's often also about feeling I'm good at something, and achieving something. And being a tight-fisted miser. Modelling has the potential to be a hugely expensive hobby, but there comes a point where, if you're good enough, you can just buy the raw materials. Am I that good? I like to think I'm getting there. So, a brief break to build up a backlog of posts, I went back to my roots, and try another Ork walker. But better.
With this, I was mindful of a mistake I tend to make, overbuilding. My creations tend to be about 20% larger than stock, and while that's fine in context, going smaller is the path to more intricate works. I'd say this largely worked, although it kinda came out with the proportions of an angry potato. Hence the name “Spud”. The key component was a multi-limbed fidget toy, you know the one, whose joints were harvested and then built up with my usual materials. Wooden beads were of immense use in getting simple but consistent shapes, helping with arms & rokkits. I do recommend this approach as an alternative to a solely plastic build, although I would suggest you remember to pin things. The main body meanwhile was a deodorant top wrapped in EVA foam and scrap plastic, while water pistol innards returned, mainly for the generator. Wall filler paste for gap filling and basing. Hole punch rivets were also applied.
The main thing I did different though was to copy a few ideas from one earthmanbrick, a fellow scratchbuilder with an informative YouTube channel. This gave rise to the buzzsaw arm, which I was rather happy with and the use of Das clay for armour plates and glyphs. I've been messing around with one and two-part moulds for a while, and built up a little box of crudely cast bits which I applied liberally here. Das Clay is an air-drying material which is quite cheap, but fairly narrow in application once dried. It's not as durable or crisp as milliput, which was also used in this project, but if you need to mass produce armour plates, and precision is not a concern, it's worth a go. Use milliput for two part moulds and fine detail instead. I've been toying with the idea of a scenery piece or Stompa based around Das Clay... maybe later.
Painting continued in my usual style, stippling, drybrushing, homemade texture paint, and discovering which bits hasn't quite stuck. Working the metal revealed just how zoggin many rivets I'd created, and I decided keep the exhausts the same gunmetal as the body. I also went for a brighter blue, and slightly more in the way of orange rust. The rokkits were something of a problem, colour-wise, but no harm done.
I’m quite happy with it turned out. I’m proud of how it turned out. Shame I had such a hard time photographing it.
Work in Progress Pics
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