Converting Savage Orcs
Savage Orcs are a great gaming unit for an orc and goblin army. The downfall is that they must
be fielded in sufficient numbers to have in-game potential. This wouldn't be that bad were it not for the fact
that the models only come in metal!
This means they will cost you a small fortune to field in a large number.
Since not everyone can spend that kind of money on Warhammer I thought about converting them from the normal
regiment box. The box carries almost everything we will need. Althoug it needs some modelling.
To my amazement it took really little skill to convert them using green stuff. If you get the muscles sort of
in the right place it'll look great no matter how long you've been sculpting!
After a quick reference the following was required to convert normal orcs to savage orcs:
A) The upper half of the body was to be naked, or with an animal skin wrapped around it
B) The weapons apear to new
C) The heads don't appear Savage enough
D) They have shoes and trousers
To create an effective Savag Orc, the first two adjustments must be made. The weapons can be painted to look old and rusty. This is very effective because it looks like they've been stolen from other Orcs. In addition they can be carved with a knife and painted to look like stone rather than metal. This is also very approperiate for Savage Orcs.
The body is something that requires some sculpting. First of all you have to strip the clothes of the plastic orc body. This can simply be done with a sharp knife. Be sure to remove enough and to leave a smooth finish on the back and sides of the mini, because it isn't necessary to sculpt over them. Once youve stripped the model, you've got to resculpt the body to look naked. This can be done in e few simple steps.
The first step is the sculpting of the abdominal muscles. For my Svage Orcs I wanted real muscle definition, so I sculpted a six pack. Ehmm.. well on the first orc I did it was a four pack actually. But somehow this doens't look wrong, though you can easilly make a six pack using the same methods.
First create the muscles itself. Roll out six balls of putty and squish them onto the model. Use a sculpting tool to further define the shape and the smoothen up the texture.
After you've done this take a bit more putty and create some build up around the muscles. he is just so the muscles don't seem to stick out, so nothing fancy about it actually. Be sure to smoothen it out using a sculpting tool and water.
Allow this to set and the continue adding the chest muscles. Chest muscles are made using two roughly eaqual pieces of putty, which are modeled onto the mini. Be sure to round the sides a bit, because you don't want you mini to look square. Nipples can be added, but I find them to much of a burden for now and since the original Savage Orcs don't have any I didn't bother with them.
The last part of the body is the build up on the shoulders. Th need to be a bit higher that middle of the Orcs back to give the hint of muscles. Just a little build up should do the trick. No fancy moddeling here either.
After this you'll have your very own unique Savage Orc which will look something like the pic below. It is now ready to be painted. For your first conversion I suggest you stop here. If after a few you want some more variety or a more savage look you can continue with the extra's listed below.
Another savage orc I created from the regiment box:
Extra
Applying animal skins
the animal skin is actually very easy to do. The first thing you do is sculpt on the skin with green stuff. It should be about 1mm thick. Then allow it to dry a bit. After about fifteen to thirty minutes the green stuff should have hardened to a point that you can still reform it, but have to use some (not THAT much) force. Then take a toothpick, coctail stick or something else which has a pointy end (Put down the halbard please!). Stick the tool into the putty and drag it downward. If you do this a few times you'll see that 'hair' starts forming on the clothing. You should form the fur from the botom upwards, giving an overlapping bunch of hairs. (see pic below).
Savage heads
If you compare Savag Orcs to normal ones it immediatelly becomes obvious that Savage Orcs are a bit more dim
than the normal ones. This is because of the structure of their face. They have got some Neanderthaller feature on it.
These are: Low fore-heas, Long faces and heavy eye brows.
So if you want to add that Savage look you'll have to copy these features onto your mini.
I suggest you start by lowering the jaw of the Orc and bringing the lip and teeth down with it. It's possible a
good Idead to cut of the old lip & teeth before you start.
Next do some build up on the eyebrows. This doesn't need need to be much, beacause the surface is ery small. If you've got the build up there then you shoudl slightly raise the mid part of the skull. This gives the suggestion of a low forehead, without having to cut half of it off. If you feel up to the task, you can resculpt the ears so they look bigger, but it isn't required.
An alternative to resculpting the head is ordering the metal Savage Orc heads from games-workshop.
Bare feet
Warning: this feature requires expert sculpting. Don't attempt this if you have't had enough experience in sculpting.
The Savage Orcs you created so far have shoes on. This doesn't seem very savage to me, so I've constructed some bare feet for him. It's best you take a new model for this because it'll be a shame to cut up a model that is practically finished. Cut the feet of the new model and pinning him onto a base. Remember to save enough room between his legs and the base for the feet to be constructed.
The first thing you should do is create the basic form of the feet, but for now without the toes on it. Allow this to set.
Next create the toes and the nails attached to it, but do not attempt to construct the raised part where the nail and toe are attached to each other. So you'll have a basic foot with five very long nails coming out of it. Allow this to set.
The last thing you do is construct the part where nail and toe meet. Just take a bit of putty, and roll it until it is 0,5 mm thick. then cut of a very small piece an place it on one toe. Sculpt it onto the join by softly pressing the sides of the piece of putty onto the toe. Also flatten the part of it that's on the foot itself. This leaves the part above the nail as it was originally. This should look like there's flesh on top of the 'roots' of the nail.
I've actually only tried this on one model, since it does take a fair time. The results are very good, if I may say so myself.
I'm not to happy with the abdominal muscles on this one, but I'll sort that out when painting it.
If you've done all this it's time to paint your model. Give it a nice green look and some tattoo's. After painting it you've got a Savage Orc that can't be mistaken for anything else.
