Converting an Orc Big Boss on Boar

Since a little before 7th edition Warhammer came out, I had already decided that what my army needed was another Big Boss and this one should be mounted. I was planning on using the Pig Stikka with him and putting him in a unit of Boar Boyz. With 7th edition the boar became an even better option as it was also untargetable while in a normal unit of foot troops.
This only increased my enthusiasm on this guy (which was kinda good because the project had come to a complete stop).

The components I used:

Form the Orc regiment set: - Boss mounted legs
- Orc torso
- Boss left shield arm
- A normal Spear arm
other:
- A Normal Boar
- Some spare Skaven weapons (although other kinds will do)
- Green stuff

The blade of the spear was chopped of and a hole was drilled for the new head. The blade for the spear was made up of no less than four skaven swords. The handles were cut off and the back of the blade was sanded down to create a straight surface. Next the blades were attached in a crosspattern.
There were two pairs of blades, one a little longer than the other. This allowed for a smoother transition between the edge of the longer blades and the smaller ones. Once the glue was dry a hole was drilled and it was pinned on the end of the spear.

Green Stuff

Firs thing I did was cover the spear in green stuff, about one millimeter thick. On the back-end of the spear I made the layer about two millimeter.
I smoothen it out a bit and then, using the 'knife' part of the games-workshop sculpting tool, I carved lines into it (note that the green stuff had some time to dry by now).

Once this was set I extended the blade of the smaller skaven swords so that it would curve onto the blade itself (see pic for better understanding). The blades of the longer swords were extended some more to give the idea that it was attached to the spear in this way.
The rivets were added when this all was cured. I simply put some blobs of green stuff on there, flattened them and removed small pieces of green stuff until the size was right. Not a very fast way of doing this, but it works.

The arm with the spear was buffed up a bit so it will go with the more muscular left arm.

Adding a Cape

After this the body of the Boss was handled. I stuck him together and added a pin to fit him onto the boar. The only thing I really converted on the body was the cape. This was done by means of making a wire armature, over which GS was dropped.

Later people pointed out this could have been done a little easier if I just rolled out some GS, let it cure about halfway through and then cut out the desired shape (lousy timing on their part as this would have saved me quite some time!).

Either way you now have the basic shape of the cape.

I added fur to this using the method described in the Green stuff article (yeah, I know I've used the same model to explain that one!)

After this I assembled the Boar and used some green stuff to hide the joint between the boars head and it's neck. A roll of Green stuff was placed on there and using the knife part of the GW sculpting tool I added some cuts in the direction of the boars hair.

After this I moved to a my new place, so I stuck this model in a box and forgot about it for some time. Although this is not an escential part of this conversion it does explain why the model looks dusty and handled in the next few pics.

The boar

Back on track: What was to be added next was the boar. I did some straightforward pose for the boar. I simply snapped it's legs of and glued them back on (no pinning required).
Next I added some armour to the boar's head. This was simply a small rolled out piece of putty which I pushed into somewhat the shape of the head-armour you get on Empire horses. After this I added some green stuff straps to 'hold it in place'.

For the base I cut some pieces of cardboard to look like slate. There are several ways of doing this, but since the cardboard comes on the back of most notepads (the pen-and-paper ones) this method costs me nothing at all, which is the price I like best!

After I set this up I noticed two things:
1) The Boss was now facing upwards
2) His spear was also facing upwards.
That's when you get when you plan stuff as you go along. The solution was quite simple. I bend the arm outward a little. I hadn't glued it on yet, but I'm forced to now, just so I can to cover the huge gap with green stuff. This really isn't much of a problem, it just makes painting a little more difficult.

Also I snapped the head of and positioned it so that I looked somewhat downwards.

As a tip from someone I tried to model an open mouth for the boar. This didn't turn out exactly like I wanted it (frankly, you can't see it because of the pose of the model). But I liked repositioned tusks, so they're staying like this.

All that's left now is to add some detail to the crest, in this case a skull. It was loosely based on the Skull from the old goblin regiment sprue. It was a matter of putting the green stuff on there and pushing it to look somewhat like the original. As always when using green stuff it makes a world of difference if you have any references nearby. It may be sketches or original models, but it definitely helps.

After this the rivets had to be made. I got some smart tip for doing this. Simply take some PVA glue and a cocktail stick and put small blobs of glue on there to be the rivets. Once this is dry take some PVA glue and cover the whole area with it. This prevents the rivets from falling of after painting.

Other tips were: Roll a very thin tube of GS, let this cure. Cut slices from it and glue them on. This is a little more work but gets you perfectly round rivets. As this is something I didn't need I decided to simply go with the PVA solution.

After this I added some detail to the base. Some rocks, sand and a lizard I had lying around. Don't worry, I'll paint him green to make him less noticeable and more fitting with the Orc and goblin army

I'm currently painting the model. In fact the base and boar are already done. Once it's completed I'll put some pics up.