After my first game of Blood Bowl, I felt the need to reward myself with a new model for my team. And since I had wanted to do something with GW’s plastic Savage Orc Waaaghboss anyway, this was a very nice excuse to add another player to the Orkheim Ultraz.
I’ve worked with quite a few of the WFB plastic characters by now, and they are usually really excellent, easy to put together and highly detailed and dynamic. Using them for conversions takes a little thinking, however, since the parts fit together in a very specific way. Still, it’s usually possible to bend them to your will, if you’re a little careful with the cutting.
In this case, The objective was to build an orcish star player for the Orkheim Ultraz. It really was a modelling and painting project, first and foremost, with very little rules consideration in place, yet I suppose the model could be used as Varag Ghoulchewa.
Anyway, I assembled the model, basically only changing the arms: the huge axe normally wielded by the model went into my bitzbox, while the forearms were replaced with Black Orc gauntlets. This was done both to give the model a suitable pose for a Blood Bowl player and to make this guy look like he could pull some really nasty punches with those armoured fists of his. And while I wanted to keep the “almost naked” savage orc look, I also added some 40k Ork armour plates here and there to give the model at least a suggestion of armour (and better tie it in with the rest of the team).
This is what the model looked like before painting:
After taking these photos, I realised that I would have to shorten the model’s left arm by a notch, so that’s what I did: This guy may be an Orc, but that arm did look too long even for a race of malproportioned green monsters.
In hindsight, I might have done something more involved with the model’s arms, of course, changing the pose into something different, but to be honest, I didn’t want to have to do lots and lots of sculpting, so I went for a rather simple solution.
Actually, the most involved part of the conversion was to cut the rock the model is jumping off of from the surrounding WFB base to be able to use it on a round base. I added the usual mix of glue, modelling sand and cork around it to blend it in and create some texture on the base.
Anyway, when it came to painting this guy, I stuck to my tried and true Orkheim Ultraz formula. Of course, the fact that the model has so much skin on display meant that Brian’s fantastic recipe for orc skin could truly shine once again. And I also added some yellow Gorkamorka decals on the armour plates.
Painting this guy was a blast, and so, a relatively short while later, the model was completed:
As you can see, I also added a generous helping of static grass again, to emulate the football pitch look.
All in all, I think the Waaaghboss makes a nice star player for the Orkheim Ultraz. And with his distinct look and imposing frame, he makes for a stunning centrepiece:
As always, let me know what you think! And, of course, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
Filed under: Conversions, Orcs & Goblins, paintjob Tagged: bb, blood bowl, conversion, orc, orc team, orcs, orcs & goblins, orkheim ultraz, paintjob, star player
