Porky models - Ork (10) - Body 2

The next part of the series. This time it's the body of the current 28mm Ork, still without the arms. The torso is part boiler and one leg is a peg, which follows the bionik theme of the other elements - the piston on the shoota arm, the toof-like plates bolted directly into the choppa arm and the antenna on the head. Pics first, then the write-up area by area.

This conversion has been buried at the edge of my desk for a while so I don't remember the specifics of many bits. I do remember it was started before the new savage Orc kit was released, but that I wanted a wilder look after painting, with some exposed skin.

To get a bare back I carved off a lot of the detail on the top half, specifically one of the straps and the round glyph plate, and carefully sculpted some rough muscles with the modelling knife; all of this can be quite dangerous, so if you're not sure, have a read of this. The glyph plate was removed carefully and glued lower down as the boiler door.

For a bare belly I just assumed the smooth space below the armour was skin and added a belly button - this assumes the umbilical cord in the more modern spore-driven vision of Ork propagation. The button was drilled out to a shallow depth using a fine drill bit, then rounded with the modelling knife as if cleaning a mould line; I work the drill bit between my fingers these days, but you might well find a pin vice more helpful.

The boiler block itself was built up in many stages, a mix of plastic elements for speed then sections of greenstuff. The flat expanse of plastic on the Ork's left was a leftover axe blade and the expanse on the right was a curved offcut from another component in the kit. The greenstuffed areas were built up over several short sessions. The boiler door hinges are just small squared-off pieces of greenstuff, but added after the main structure was dry of course. I use a modelling knife blade for pretty much all fine working, but for more options, and probably safer ones, Ron has an impressive set of tools here.

I have a feeling the greenstuff belt running across the boiler structure was a bit of a pain. Realising it would be difficult to get as thin a piece of greenstuff as I wanted - and work with it - I carved a channel across the armour for it to sit in. The belt itself was made in essentially the same way as that for the first shoota, with a fine line pressed into the material along each edge to suggest stitching; this would have been the point of difficult return. There are also three holes pressed in centrally just below the shoulder buckle.

The rivets on the boiler are just tiny balls of greenstuff pressed onto the surface. For the rounded effect I elongated the ball slightly and pressed along the elongation. When a rivet didn't turn out circular enough, I waited until it was drier and evened up the shape by butting round the edges and scraping away any excess. The missing rivets were partly whittled out and partly drilled, the edges rounded a little less than for the belly button.

The smokestack was built separately and added only late given it's relatively delicate. I'm pretty sure the plastic element was part of the back banner not used in building the shoota arm. The rest is greenstuff, and is essentially an easy version of the mushrooms on the first head, with the cap just a piece of greenstuff rolled between two fingers to form a cone. The greenstuff stalk is fairly well fixed on the plastic element because it leaves the plastic at an angle and so makes contact over quite a large surface area.

The peg leg clearly involved removing the original leg. Do this carefully, ideally with a fine saw. The lower leg may seem useless, but very little actually is. You could use it:

• with the opposite leg and a spare torso from another kit to build a bonus Ork;

• as part of a modelled carnage marker, an alternative to an Ork blood marker;

• in a diorama, when the rest of the Ork would be obscured for some reason.

The peg leg itself was built around a core, two twig-like lengths of greenstuff meeting as if a dowsing rod, bedded in drill holes in the leg stump. You could also use something like a leftover plastic weapon haft, but whatever it is, bear in mind that if the leg will taper, the core shouldn't be wider than the planned outer surface at any point; ideally it will also be thin enough to allow you to get the depth of final detail you want. Greenstuff was then built up over the core, down to the level of the other foot sole, the level of the base or ground. The detail was added as the greenstuff dried and became less sticky, here a wood effect, just grain lines and knots pressed in to get a natural-looking effect.

The trouser leg was just a thin sheet of greenstuff fixed in place, wrapped round and allowed to dry, before being blended into the upper leg with more greenstuff. The strap higher up was extended in more or less the same way as that on the stikkbomb arm.

The grinning Evil Sun-style glyph on the lower left leg was a disc of greenstuff added to the plate and evened up as per the rivets. The original plan was to sculpt rays using greenstuff, but these wouldn't stay on, so in the end I just carved them from the plate.

All I need to do now is some greenstuffing and shaving at the arm-body connections. In the meantime, if you don't already, why not have a go at something similar? It may be tricky at first, but practice makes perfect. If you have any questions, I'll do my best.
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