jamsessionein
New member
Hey fellas!
Let me start this off with an apology - I realized just the other day that while I was keeping a W.I.P. of this project on my main blog site, I\'ve been forgetting to post it here!
There have been a lot of steps to this project so far - I will attempt to recap on some of them, but if you want a full front-to-back on the build so far, you can check here. There\'s also more pictures.
So. It\'s pretty much fact to anyone who has read the new ork codex that Zagstruk is damn near mandatory for ork armies now. His new rules are incredible. Power klaw feet that strike at initiative? Deep striking? Truly awesome. I obviously need some stormboyz, and a Zagstruk to lead them. I figured I might as well get started on a Vulcha squad before the new codex got released.
There\'s art of him in the dex, but I don\'t think I can link it here without crossing some lines, so I won\'t. Suffice to say, the artwork is awesome, and the basis for the model I\'m making.
I started by making the most obvious item in the art - Zagstruk\'s choppa:
Handle is from one of the fantasy ogres. I hacked off the blade and started replacing it with my own. It looks like there\'s a rokkit booster on the side of Zagstruk\'s sword, but that would be so fiddly and tiny I decided a simple cylinder would do for now. I also chopped a part off one of the ork shootas that had a gauge for the side opposite the boosta. Persumably it\'s a fuel gauge or altimiter. Assuming it works at all, which is a fairly big assumption given orks. I have to add those spiky bits to the back of the handle still.
During the course of working on this, I found myself in a conundrum as to what I would make his jetpack look like. Since he\'s Zagstruk and all, he\'s the biggest and most important stormboy, and as such should have a suitably enormous contraption on his back to hurtle him through the air. Still, it was one of the parts that the art clearly avoided, so I got to wondering for a while. Someone else over at The-Waaagh was working on a Zagstruk model a while back, and they were also wondering what sort of jetpack to give him. They posted this little line of dialogue:
Hah, fired off a garga-... hey, wait a minute.
A.. a grot bomb? You know, I actually have a spare one of them. I got it busted-up... the grot pilot was damaged beyond recognition and some of the back fins were missing.
Hmmm.
It was pretty obvious what had to be done.
This patched-up grot bomb will be the exorbitantly large rokkit pack that Zagstrukk gets to sling across his back!
I actually did a bit of digging following this, and despite my best efforts I\'m going to have to do some sculpting on this one. I hacked the torso off the last spare nob body I had and started dremelling it all down to bare metal. Basically I just wanted to get something the approximate size and shape of an ork nob torso to sculpt over.
Not much to look at, until...
I sculpted a shirt onto the parts of him that I thought might be visible - the rest will be concealed by a flight harness and jacket. He also got a special slugga befitting of his rank as the toughest stormboy around.
Of course, one of the most important features on him was his commissar-esque hat, which I then endeavored to duplicate:
While the hat is certainly important, nothing is more vital to this character than \'Da Vulchas Klawz\', his power-klaw feet. The art suggested something taloned and mean looking, and I did a bit of digging through my bitz boxes. I came up with the perfect bit - Nazdreg\'s power klaw from 2nd edition. With a bit of cutting and shaping, it soon became a taloned power klaw foot!
\'Course, if you\'re going to have a fancy mechanical foot, you need equally fancy mechanical legs, so I assembled this little number for him:
It\'s in need of a bit of armor, particularly around the shin area. And more rivets. Always more rivets. Still, I\'m really happy with how the overall design of the leg has turned out. Thehe upper leg will be bulked up by the presence of tattered pants. I\'ll be sculpting it directly into the hip, I think. Also note that this is just a mock-up of where the leg will be!
I unfortunately only had one Nazdreg claw in my possession, which makes crafting a pair of killy feet a bit difficult. However, I\'ve been endeavoring to fix this oversight by organizing a trade where I can get my hands on more Nazdreg power klaws to turn into feet. They should actually be enroute to me in the mail right about now.
To kill the time while I wait, I decided I\'d start on the other leg and get the basic posture down.
left a bit of extra tubing down past the ankle so I had material to work with when I do get the bits.
Again, these are just mockups, but you get the idea of the pose I\'m going for. I\'ll probably shift his hips around as needed while I work on it.
I\'ve been deciding what I wanted to do for Zagstruk and how I imagined his base might work, but at this point, an actual model mock-up is the best approach, so here is a photo I thought might be a little fun:
You can never have enough guardsmen getting mauled.
Basically the pose he\'s in now, and the angle he\'s coming down at, means I can pose him vertically using a clear plastic tube like a flying base normally has (but longer). Then if I want to take some fun photos it\'s just a matter of setting him up next to a model he\'s in combat with, so it looks like he\'s plummeting into the melee.
I\'m going to delay a bit if I can, since I\'m waiting for the bitz to arrive. In the interim, I think I might work on his jetpack some; he could use stubby wings on it and some extra cabling and worky bitz, and I think I\'m going to use that plasticard plate I put on the back as a good spot to put a \'corrupted aquila\' of sorts, with an ork glyph between angular wings to symbolize the vulcha boyz. These guys are sort\'ve blood axes anyway, what with Zag almost being a commissar, so I think it\'d make decent enough sense.
What do you guys think so far? It\'s obviously still a work in progress, but most of my stuff is.
Let me start this off with an apology - I realized just the other day that while I was keeping a W.I.P. of this project on my main blog site, I\'ve been forgetting to post it here!
There have been a lot of steps to this project so far - I will attempt to recap on some of them, but if you want a full front-to-back on the build so far, you can check here. There\'s also more pictures.
So. It\'s pretty much fact to anyone who has read the new ork codex that Zagstruk is damn near mandatory for ork armies now. His new rules are incredible. Power klaw feet that strike at initiative? Deep striking? Truly awesome. I obviously need some stormboyz, and a Zagstruk to lead them. I figured I might as well get started on a Vulcha squad before the new codex got released.
There\'s art of him in the dex, but I don\'t think I can link it here without crossing some lines, so I won\'t. Suffice to say, the artwork is awesome, and the basis for the model I\'m making.
I started by making the most obvious item in the art - Zagstruk\'s choppa:
Handle is from one of the fantasy ogres. I hacked off the blade and started replacing it with my own. It looks like there\'s a rokkit booster on the side of Zagstruk\'s sword, but that would be so fiddly and tiny I decided a simple cylinder would do for now. I also chopped a part off one of the ork shootas that had a gauge for the side opposite the boosta. Persumably it\'s a fuel gauge or altimiter. Assuming it works at all, which is a fairly big assumption given orks. I have to add those spiky bits to the back of the handle still.
During the course of working on this, I found myself in a conundrum as to what I would make his jetpack look like. Since he\'s Zagstruk and all, he\'s the biggest and most important stormboy, and as such should have a suitably enormous contraption on his back to hurtle him through the air. Still, it was one of the parts that the art clearly avoided, so I got to wondering for a while. Someone else over at The-Waaagh was working on a Zagstruk model a while back, and they were also wondering what sort of jetpack to give him. They posted this little line of dialogue:
Hah, fired off a garga-... hey, wait a minute.
A.. a grot bomb? You know, I actually have a spare one of them. I got it busted-up... the grot pilot was damaged beyond recognition and some of the back fins were missing.
Hmmm.
It was pretty obvious what had to be done.
This patched-up grot bomb will be the exorbitantly large rokkit pack that Zagstrukk gets to sling across his back!
I actually did a bit of digging following this, and despite my best efforts I\'m going to have to do some sculpting on this one. I hacked the torso off the last spare nob body I had and started dremelling it all down to bare metal. Basically I just wanted to get something the approximate size and shape of an ork nob torso to sculpt over.
Not much to look at, until...
I sculpted a shirt onto the parts of him that I thought might be visible - the rest will be concealed by a flight harness and jacket. He also got a special slugga befitting of his rank as the toughest stormboy around.
Of course, one of the most important features on him was his commissar-esque hat, which I then endeavored to duplicate:
While the hat is certainly important, nothing is more vital to this character than \'Da Vulchas Klawz\', his power-klaw feet. The art suggested something taloned and mean looking, and I did a bit of digging through my bitz boxes. I came up with the perfect bit - Nazdreg\'s power klaw from 2nd edition. With a bit of cutting and shaping, it soon became a taloned power klaw foot!
\'Course, if you\'re going to have a fancy mechanical foot, you need equally fancy mechanical legs, so I assembled this little number for him:
It\'s in need of a bit of armor, particularly around the shin area. And more rivets. Always more rivets. Still, I\'m really happy with how the overall design of the leg has turned out. Thehe upper leg will be bulked up by the presence of tattered pants. I\'ll be sculpting it directly into the hip, I think. Also note that this is just a mock-up of where the leg will be!
I unfortunately only had one Nazdreg claw in my possession, which makes crafting a pair of killy feet a bit difficult. However, I\'ve been endeavoring to fix this oversight by organizing a trade where I can get my hands on more Nazdreg power klaws to turn into feet. They should actually be enroute to me in the mail right about now.
To kill the time while I wait, I decided I\'d start on the other leg and get the basic posture down.
left a bit of extra tubing down past the ankle so I had material to work with when I do get the bits.
Again, these are just mockups, but you get the idea of the pose I\'m going for. I\'ll probably shift his hips around as needed while I work on it.
I\'ve been deciding what I wanted to do for Zagstruk and how I imagined his base might work, but at this point, an actual model mock-up is the best approach, so here is a photo I thought might be a little fun:
You can never have enough guardsmen getting mauled.
Basically the pose he\'s in now, and the angle he\'s coming down at, means I can pose him vertically using a clear plastic tube like a flying base normally has (but longer). Then if I want to take some fun photos it\'s just a matter of setting him up next to a model he\'s in combat with, so it looks like he\'s plummeting into the melee.
I\'m going to delay a bit if I can, since I\'m waiting for the bitz to arrive. In the interim, I think I might work on his jetpack some; he could use stubby wings on it and some extra cabling and worky bitz, and I think I\'m going to use that plasticard plate I put on the back as a good spot to put a \'corrupted aquila\' of sorts, with an ork glyph between angular wings to symbolize the vulcha boyz. These guys are sort\'ve blood axes anyway, what with Zag almost being a commissar, so I think it\'d make decent enough sense.
What do you guys think so far? It\'s obviously still a work in progress, but most of my stuff is.
