Porky models - Ork (8) - Shoota 2

A new Ork shoota for the second heavily-modified Ork, a minor celebration of the new orc and goblin releases for Warhammer. I'm excited - those plastic savage orcs will be invaluable in making feral Orks and yoofs, and as help with Ork musculature and feet.

Here's the finished arm.

Somehow I managed to delete the photo with the specific bits used, so here again are the pieces used in this shoota and the first choppa, with the shoota pieces marked.

It's clear how they went together, and the aim was to get a less conventional, more alien effect, with the blade in an unexpected position and the shoota body low-hanging. I should add that the left arm was cut almost horizontally at the elbow and rotated out away from the body a few degrees. I did this to have it follow and strengthen the line of movement I want this Ork to have. I then smoothed down the sharp plastic edges and filled the spaces with greenstuff, building up the muscles as necessary, though not necessarily accurately anatomically. I also filled the spaces between the knife blade and shoota top with greenstuff.

The piston, the first working semi-bionik bit - after the armour plates from the choppa arm - was helped along by the fact that the pole from the back banner has a protrusion that forms a perfect support running into the shoulder. The joint with the shoota was built in three steps, with each subsequent step coming after the previous had dried. First the 'circular' side panels were added, then the curving top panel, closing the joint, then the two raised bolt heads. Rough surfaces were smoothed after each drying.

The cable was strung between them, made in the same way as for the first shoota. These cables do tend to turn out flat still, and look more like flat tape, curved in cross-section. I've decided I'm going with this whenever it speeds things up, as part of the attempt to make the aesthetic more alien than usual with Orks. The cable was one of the last elements to be completed, just because it is relatively more fragile than others.

The round at the wrist was made in four main stages. The ring at the wrist itself was made in much the same way as the loop on the stikkbomb arm. For the round itself I first rolled a length of greenstuff of the required thickness and gave it a smoothly rounded end, then I stuck it to the edge of a shelf by its scruffy end to dry. When dry I cut off the smoothed end to the length of the round, being careful not to let it shoot off (pun). Then I pushed a small ball of greenstuff onto the square end and smoothed it flat, for the disc the name of which I don't know. Then it was attached in the same way as the toof on the stikkbomb arm. This element broke off when I photographed the arm, evidence it's rather impractical. I may be able to link it later to something on the Ork's torso, belt or left leg for extra strength, and the more support, the better with a delicate piece like this.

The part that I expected to be most tricky was the 'feed' for the lower part of the shoota. It was actually surprisingly easy, as almost everything has been when I knew what I was trying to achieve. I first created rectangular strip of wet greenstuff with straight and more or less parallel edges. The key, as ever in these situations, was that it be wet, to keep it flexible, to prevent fingerprints being left so easily and to stop it sticking to anything it shouldn't. I then bent this into the required form and fixed it at each end, with the edges of the ends of the strip in contact with the edges of a raised panel for extra strength. The base of the structure was fixed as best as possible to the side of the shoota, but I cared here more that the overall shape and texture was as good as possible, because I knew that I could correct the lower connection at leisure later. Patience is important in something like this; patience to work in stages and wait through the drying, rather than try to do everything at once and risk a worse result. When this was dry I levelled the slanting surface off on the outside with more greenstuff, and this can be seen in the first photo as a darker area, from the darker greenstuff mix I happened to make up for that stage. The feed contains three rounds made in the same way as for the round hanging from the wrist, and these were carefully arranged to look unarranged, then lightly flooded with a very liquid glue to run into the spaces around and fix them in place.

The barrels have been drilled, but only to 1-2mm, which is good for a sense of depth, but still practical when it comes to painting. Paul's Bods especially will be pleased to know I've now drilled the barrels on the first shoota too.

I also extended and rounded the base of the grip as it seemed rather flat.

Any questions, I'm happy to answer as usual.