To make the ork's mechanical arms, a number of Evergreen styrene extrusions came in handy. Tubes, up to 1cm diameter, L shapes, I beams and many others were used, but anything bigger had to be scratch built, so other 'stuff' was put to good use. Standard styrene of various thicknesses was the mainstay of these builds, but you will recognise other bits all over the place. As this model is at least 5 years old, I really can't remember what I used or what was difficult, but it goes without saying that all problems can be overcome with a little ingenuity or a radical change of plan - nothing is set in stone.
You can see above that the large blades of the arm are chamfered to produce the cutting edge. This was done with the most valuable tool of all, the hobby knife used as a scraper, not a cutter. The other thing I like doing is making hex head bolts from punched plugs of styrene, the less accurate the better, ork mechanics remember.
These three photos give a good idea of the way I go about dressing up the arms. Colours other than the stark white of the styrene (unless I used black sheet) give the materials used. Greenstuff, to create a welded look next to a major plate, strips of dark grey sheet lead for strapping cylinders in place, orange and tan looking plastic pieces, probably from an old tank model, shiny wire wrapped to become some sort of major connection etc, etc.
In this sort of build you really cannot have too much textural "gizmology", the thing you can't have is a large blank surface, so fill it up!
To show the extent to which I go in re-using materials, have a look at the pieces of styrene that had circles punched out of them. Normally this is 'waste', and is binned, but with the circular shape on the edge they make perfect bolt surrounds.
Work continued on the ork body and I had changed to a fresh batch of Sculpey, flesh coloured even. The new stuff was much easier to work with and the sculpt really started to move along. Here you can see the use of thick lead solder as a connector to the belly armour.
This is the completed right arm, together with shoulder girdle adorned with pyramidal shaped spikes. These spikes were actually quite difficult to make, seeing as they were very visible and needed to be roughly the same size. I seem to remember having to make a mould using the blue two part silicon system by Gedeo called Siligum. It mixes quickly as two solids and the resulting compound, once cured, is quite firm, so can take the forced-in Sculpy to make a plethora of spikes.
The work has begun on the back pack and shoulder support features. Large pieces of styrene were used and sometimes to get the correct thickness, they had to be laminated, glued and clamped. That big cylinder was a model in itself (as were many of the individual bits ) but I remember it to have been a particular trial, due to the curved ends. Those inset dials were a complex job of 'layering' in that they needed to be deeper than the surface but also, in having them covered, they had to be pre-painted and hence, protected from all the surrounding work. Do you like the three blue beads?
To finish off this entry, I will show you my favourite bit of the whole build- the right foot! Starting as only as a connective element to the base board, it developed into a strong ork boot, (a good match for its partner), then developed into a braced and electrified member attached to its own power source on the belt above. The reference I had to build this, was very sketchy to say the least, and I'm incredibly pleased that it turned out at all.
Here he is in a sort of totality, at a solid slump forward (which would be a real problem to overcome before the end).
By the way, have you figured out how the base was made? Whatever money I made on the sale of this guy, that base cost me at least half.
