WIP: Orc Brave

Work in Progress - Orc Brave by Ouroboros Miniatures

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After years of painting Games Workshop miniatures, I decided to paint something that would actually only be used for display.  I came across this 54mm model while perusing one of the sites I check out and absolutely loved it (image below depicts the model as painted by David Powell).

Orc Brave - Ouroboros Miniatures

I ordered the figure for my birthday last year.  I received it and promptly ignored it for the remainder of the year (yeah...that's me when it comes to actually painting something....why do something right away when you can do it maybe....never?).

Well, I finally got around to getting it out of the box, washing the resin, making sure the model parts fit together, etc.  Afterwards, I set out to find a suitable base (plinth) to place this on and, not wanting to spend a ton of dough, got some scrap wood from a friend who was building a table.

The first challenge

So, the model is an orc brave, scout or whatever carrying a large axe in his right hand (not shown above).  When I put everything together, the angle of the right arm doesn't allow the model to stand flush on the base.  You either have to place the model so the axe hangs over the edge of the base or re-position the arm.  So I chose the latter.  I drilled the sockets where the arm would go and bent a paperclip at the appropriate angle and fit the pieces together.  A bunch of milliput later, I had the arm where I wanted it to go.

The second challenge

The next part was a bit irritating to me.  The salamander (or newt or whatever...zoology was not my thing in school) is sitting on a branch.  Well the sculpt doesn't include the rest of the tree or whatever the branch supposedly came from.  I've created terrain pieces for use in games I play but I have never actually made a tree.  Yes, the Internet is full of great ideas and advice.  But I was sitting in my hobby room and just started playing with milliput, shaping it around a large bent loop of wire just trying to work out what I thought a dead tree would look like.  Worst case scenario was that I could scrap the whole thing and start over (I mean, milliput isn't the price of gold after all and I could afford another box).  I got to a shape that I thought would work.

Putting it all together

So I had what I wanted but needed to bring all of it together on the base.  I positioned the tree on a corner and created a root system to anchor it there.  I placed the Orc where I thought he would be best put to appear to be either pointing at, or trying to pet, the salamander.  Then proceeded to watch a bunch of videos and buying a bunch of extra material (I am a sucker for hobby materials!).  I eventually got what I needed (and the nerve) to proceed.  My hesitation on these projects is attributed to my fear of screwing something up.  I just have to keep reminding myself that I can always start over!

Where the project is at now

So here are some pics highlighting the progress to date.  I am going to complete the whole base before I move on to the Orc so these pics reflect where I am at with the base.

Before the root system

 Then I built from there

So that's it for now.  I will post updates on this as I go.  I am enjoying the process of stretching my hobby muscles and trying new things.  If I screw it up, I can always grab some more scrap wood somewhere and start all over (on the base at least:-).