Greetings Terrans, sorry it has been a while, but I was away with business the week before last – jet lag has combined with a busy week to reduce my output a bit, but I do have one last bit of Wolf Time progress to share before Orktober is done. Do you remember these guys?
For those that don’t know, these are all the named leaders of the RTB02 boxed set of ‘Space Orcs’ (sic) from back in the day. Thrugg Bullneck is da boss in the middle, and he’s very special to me, because this boxed set was my first Citadel miniatures purchase. I used to pitch my 18 or so Space Orcs against my mate’s 30-plus RTB01 Beakies, and I regularly got my ass handed to me… The Orcs were tougher, and could shoot just as good as Marines back then, but they really suffered for lack of armour and I was too skint to do much about it… I think I’ve carried a resentment ever since, so when I realised that I needed to do some power armoured orks with chainswords for the Wolf Time campaign, I pulled out a duplicate Thrugg and did this:
This was a few weeks back, but I’ve been too busy painting skwads since then to do much else with him. I didn’t have enough time to get deeply into anything this week, but when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, and so I used the few hours I did have to finish Armoured Thrugg. Here’s the result:
I must say, I am really chuffed with him – he’s the most ambitious bit of sculpting I have ever taken on, and, while a bit rough around the edges, he’s certainly fit for purpose. He has a Bolter, a converted hand flamer, sculpted power armour & chainsword, so he’s correctly equipped to lead one of Governor Kulo’s guard squads. More than that, he’s a gift to 16 year old me – a proper well-‘ard Thrugg, ready to boot some beakies right inna fork!
I’m away hiking with my youngest this week so I’ll be away from paints, but my success with this guy has got me motivated to try more sculpting. I’ve chopped up a few spare Orks and packed some putty & tools for a spot of evening putty-pushing while I’m away… if they come out half as good as Thrugg then I’ll be a happy chap :-)
Leadballoony - It's a lead thing 
That worked out fantastically well!
The paint job is perfect too. The finished model looks like it came from that era, for all the right reasons.
Brilliant work Alex.
Cheers dude, glad you like him. I’m ridiculously chuffed tbh – the paint job was a bit rough, but it works well with the amateur sculpting, and manages to make it all work somehow! 😆
I agree with cheetor, this is a great result on so many levels. The finished figure looks completely convincing as a period alternate production figure, which is testament to your conversion and painting.
I also love the fact you’ve been able to fulfil a long term ambition by creating him.
Great stuff!
Cheers Jon, very kind – catching that vibe is so pleasing, and 16 year old me is absolutely delighted :-)
Excellent work, mate!
Thanks dude! :-)
Very nice mate, very nice indeed!
Cheers TIM, first real hit-out with sculpting, so I’m pretty chuffed!
This is glorious! Such a change for the lad! Makes him look like he’s the lad in charge at last as your resculpting means he outbeefs over the other two character Orcs.
Thanks matey – yeah, poor old Thrugg has been having his arse kicked for years… he deserves a break :-)
And that’s “rough round the edges” is it? On that basis, I can only dream of making something half as rough! Excellent sculpting, excellent paint job! Love it!
Well, I don’t think Kev Adams needs to worry any time soon ;-) Cheers mate, much appreciated
He’s looking ace, the zig-zag pattern on his shoulder is excellent (always something I struggle with so I’m rather jealous whenever I see it done well). As others have said he’s an brilliant homage to the era and will definitely stand out in the army you’re building :-)
Thanks dude, glad you like the dags! I find them easier to do than chequers, but they are still fiddly little buggers… nice way to break up an area & add some interest though ;-)
That’s a huge improvement! Wow, the sculpt is so great, but the paintjob is out of scale. Totally awesome!
Thank you Suber! I’m so pleased that he turned out as well as he did mate – I thought I’d messed up the sculpting at more thsn one point! :-)
Great work on those old school classics.
Cheers,
Pete.
Thank you Pete, you’re right – Thrugg is a classic, but thankfully not too rare… Still a relief to not completely balls him up though ;-)
Always love this return of this of minis ! With great paint as here. Just waouhh!
Thanks Le Bim, glad you like him mate – you can’t keep a good Warboss down :-)
Undoubtedly a massive success mec. Really well done, now we want more of those conversions !
Thanks JB – only 18 more to go! :-)
Looks absolutely boss mate, and fits in nicely with his contemporaries. Good job brother!
Aw, thanks Brother, t’was a labour of love… and swearing… ok, mostly swearing :-)
that is a fantastic bit of convertin’. looks great.
Cheers dude!
Now that is something that I didn’t even consider while doing my WT minis. I was one PA Ork short so I ended up buying another armoured Nob from Knightmare games instead. He’s a little too big to be honest, but he’ll do. Your’s is a much cooler and aesthetically pleasing solution by a country mile!
He looks ace mate! I’m running out of enthusiastic adjectives to describe how awesome he looks, so I’ll just stop now.
Well done mate, see you next year at BOYL :)
Ah, thanks mate, I’m glad you like him – your WT minis are a huge inspiration, so that’s awesome coming from you. btw, loving that board you made – still having issues commenting on anything other than WordPress, but I’ve been lurking and enjoying… That burned out forest is just incredible! Here’s to BOYL 2019 – see you there dude!
No need to apologise mate, I’ve beena lazy fucker commenting on your blog too. Can’t wait to meet up again next year Alex. It’ll be grand :) Still itching to know what you do do create Kilo ;P
Cheers :)
You’ll see… :-D
Wow, that’s some above and beyond work for Orktober! I always like seeing your paints, but the green stuff work is pretty sweet. I’m guessing people are going to be scratching their heads trying to figure out where you picked up that exclusive GW mini.
Cheers mate, that’s kind of you, and who knows – he may end up being a bit of a head scratcher! :-)
Hang on, hang on, hang on just a damn minute! Did you sculpt him from a block/chunk of green stuff? Or is he a done from a mould of some kind? He’s great mate and I’m very intrigued about the process???
Yeah, he’s sculpted mate, but sculpted over the existing mini rather than from scratch. I did have to chop a load of sticky-out bits off the original mini to give me space to work, but nothing too drastic. The shoulder studs are drilled holes with small ballbearings sunk in, and the rivets are thin slices of thin plastic rod glued on. The stuff on the back is odds & sods from the bits box… I think that’s it! :-)
Wow! Really impressive man.
Cheers dude :-)
Great work, mate. Top job :)
Cheers dude ;-)
Sculpture is a bitch, and you took this bitch down. Very nice work!
Thanks mate – very early days, but I do hope to improve… it’s a brave mew world!
What did you sculpt with?
This guy was done with greenstuff, but I’ve switched to brownstuff since – same 2-part idea, but holds an edge better apparently (though I might try some liquid greensteff to help smooth things)
Looking good there my friend. I remember having few of him myself back in the day. Your green skills are coming along nicely as well. I’ll be starting your bits drive soon :)
Thanks mate, Thrugg is just one of ‘those’ minis… such a good sculpt. Looking forward to the bits mate – got some more power-armoured Orks on the go, so I could really do with those chainswords! :-)
Sure thing mate.
Nice job! On top of the seamless sculpting and bitz box work, I am really enjoying the paint job. Great weathering on the red armour!
Cheers mate – seamless for an Ork maybe ;-)
As usual fantastic job on painting. Congrats dude!
Best wishes
Cheers mate, and to you
Good painting as always, but it’s the sculpting that I’m really impressed with. The miniature could have come out of RTB02 looking just like that!
Thanks mate, that’s the highest accolade possible I think :-)
That up-armoured Thrugg looks fantastic. I think I have a duplicate of him as well somewhere, and I’m going to have to add ripping off your …conversion? resculpt? oversculpt? to my ever-growing list of super-cool models that I see other people make that I want to copy but may or may not ever get around to doing.
Kudos, mate!
Cheers dude, glad you like him – he’s one of my all-time favourite ‘fings wot I dun’ :-)