Although I haven’t quite finished sharing my February models, I thought I’d just drop a quick interrupt in here to share the first of my models for this year’s Monster March Painting Challenge being run by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. I’ve managed to participate in several of these annual challenges and they’ve always been both fun and a good motivator to get some of the monstrous stuff sitting around Casa Azaza painted and completed. We start this year’s models with the completion of a Reaper Bones model from a couple of Kickstarters ago – the Monstercrown Ogre Juggernaut – but with a couple of improvements to remove most of the goofiness!
I started this guy awhile ago, then restarted it, then it sat around forever as I tried to figure out what to do with it. In the end, I ditched the silly Ogre half-skull and searched through my plastic orc and Ork heads for something that worked, eventually choosing this head from …I think Flash Gitz Nobs or something like that. I liked the pissed off expression of this head more than the armoured heads.As far as the painting went, I ended up playing with it a fair bit, using the large metal panels as a kind of study of light and dark and dirty on the aged armour plates. It was pretty fun, actually just playing with the paint for awhile.
I also glued down a classic Orc shield over the coffin-shaped tilting shield originally on the model’s shoulder. The decorative skulls I left alone. This pic alongside Chainsaw Girl Berkeley shows us that he is indeed a hefty boy! I actually managed to complete two models for this challenge over the weekend, and there’s also a bonus entry from Marouda just about ready, so we’ll have those up in the next couple of posts…
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
I agree the head makes an excellent contrast to the armour.
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Thanks – I felt that the brightness of the Orc skin pops nicely when contrasted with the dullness of the armour.
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Great idea to swap heads out mate, he looks ace as a mean orc bruiser!! Love that armour too – it’s sometimes nice to have space on a mini to just play around with the paint! 👍👍
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Cheers, Alex – and exactly right – it was big and plain enough for me to use as a learning/practise canvas rather than just doing the usual quick and decent job. 🙂
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Brilliant! 🙂 Works really well as an ork!
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Thanks John – he’s got the bruiser build that goes well with it for sure!
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That armour came out great, and putting him next to chainsaw girl shows the size of this brute!
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You’ve achieved a real aged look to the armour, without being rusty, which is no small feet, he works really well as an Orc, and the green head really pops against the armour.
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Excellent – he really works well as an Orc warboss.
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Great looking model – love the paint job. Definitely agreed with the gang above – the head-swap works great! I need to get on MonsterMarch.
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He’s a whopper and no mistake! lovely work on the armour, simple be very effective, and the green of his face really stand out. Poor chainsaw girl has no luck does she! 😉
Cheers Roger.
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Big brute well-done and the head swap works brilliantly.
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Thank you, Mark! 🙂
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Great conversion, the head fits perfectly!
Would make a great Black Orc or Ironjawz Boss.
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Thanks mate! I think that will be his eventual fate once I get to “proper” fantasy wargaming again. 🙂
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We just checked the original miniature: it appeared with the skull an embarrassing microcephalus! We agree that the orc head improves it a lot. Also good for the very fine work on the armour: a miniature completely covered with steel plates risks being too monotonous. Can you tell us how you did it and which paints you used?
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Thank you – and yeap that head needed to be replaced for sure!
I started with black primer, then Vallejo Chainmail primer over the top, followed by a black wash (Army Painter Dark Tone). At that point I just played with it using Vallejo Model Air Metal Black in the darker portions, moving up to Army Painter Plate Mail Metal (old dropepr bottle from before they changed the formula), then I went back over and into it with Vallejo Game Colour Tinny Tin, thinned with Lahmian Medium and occasionally AP Dark and Strong Tones.
Then up and down again.. like I said, just kinda playing with the set of colours which was achievable since the model is quite large with plain armoured plates – so there’s enough space to just …play.
I also kept in mind wanting to have reasonably stark contrasts between the light and the dark parts of the armour, and used layers of vertical streaking and/or stippling for most of my “blends” and transitions.
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That looks super; the green head is a lovely spot colour against the armour. I don’t fancy Berkeley’s chances so much in this match up!
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I think she’ll need to maximise her use of speed and look for the weak chinks in the armour… good luck…!
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Very nice work on this lad, mate. He looks like he could fit in with the armored orks that GW makes now which is a compliment to your conversion!
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Cheers, Kuribo – he’ll no doubt end up alongside them in one manner or another! 😀
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Wow mate, that armour is superb!
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Thank you! 😀
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