Porky models - Ork (4) - Head 1

Finally getting back to this guy. If you have no idea who it is, you can find the mission here, thoughts on Orks and conversion here, and every part using the 'modelling' tag.

The head has been ready for some time, but the original picture I took was so poor I'd been waiting to photograph it again with the finished model. I'm posting the head here alone to keep to a separate post for each element, in case anyone does one day want to find it again for reference. The rest of the pictures of the finished model I'll post as soon as I finish the write-up on how I got the various effects, hopefully this weekend.

With the head I had a chance to play up two of my favourite Ork elements - 'teef' and fungus. Teef function as currency, and Ork mouths and faces are very much defined by them. I love the ways the sculptors have played with them over the years and this is an homage. As for the fungus, it's always been in the background as food and drink, and since the late '90s and Gorkamorka the Orks have grown from it. Ork spores drift, Orks and their ecosystem grow in cool places and worlds are infested. I like the idea of fungus sprouting on an Ork as moles might on us, and a bare head is a good space.

The first of the two pics then.

Not much to say that isn't obvious. I chose the head that's possibly my favourite. I love the mixed-size, snaggletooth effect, and I like the bare heads more than the helmeted because the helmets are too suggestive of our designs, plus bare looks more barbaric.

The tooth was made in the same way as the one on the stikkbomb arm. The mushrooms were made so long ago I can't quite recall exactly how, but almost certainly by rolling a ball of greenstuff, then slowly and delicately pressing in on one side and rolling the edges around to form a cap. The key here is to avoid leaving fingerprints on the surfaces. The stalks are just short lengths of rolled greenstuff.

I probably made the mushrooms whole before fixing them, which must have been problematic when it came to blending the stalks into the scalp without disturbing or deforming the caps. An alternative method, and I imagine a better one, would be making the stalks slightly longer than needed and adding the caps after the blending. Care would then need to be taken only to avoid bending the stalks when pressing down.

Here's a view from above to better show where the new elements sit.

If there are any questions, I'll do my best to answer. For more on using greenstuff see the posts on the body and the stikkbomb, or better yet the tutorial at From the Warp.