What Shall We Do With A Headless Orc - part two

A little while ago I asked your suggestions for the headless orc here.

Thanks everyone who commented or contacted me directly, the consensus was that he should be a standard bearer. I've finished the modelling work, he just needs some paint next.

No longer headless, the Bad Moon Standard Bearer

Making the Standard Pole

I've tried two different ways of making standards in the past. Brass tubing slotted onto a wire peg, and a wire core built up to give it extra thickness. The former gives a nice smooth finish, suitable for dwarves etc, but for orcs I wanted something rougher, so wire core and some sort of putty it is.

I drilled a hole in his left hand for a wire core for the staff, glued a cross-piece close to the top, allowing for some wire to pin the Bad Moon icon to the top.

Wire core for the pole

Bulking Out the Pole

Over the years I've used a smelly (and probably toxic) toluene based putty, milliput, and green stuff for such jobs, none of which really did what I wanted. To be fair, it was probably my poor technique as much as teh materials, although they all have recognised weaknesses.

This time I used a roughly fifty fifty mix of Milliput and greenstuff. I've seen this recommended by several sculptors and decided to give it a go. It seems to combine the good points of the two constituents, and I'm very happy with the results.

I also gave him a strap to sling his shield, most of this will be covered by the shield, so I didn't smooth or shape it much. I'll see if I still have any of the nicely impressive Marauder orc shields for him, it will be added after painting.

The final bits were adding the Bad Moon icon, the weapon blade and the head, both taken from an orc, (or possibly ork) kit.

Once painted I think he'll make a suitable standard bearer for the Bad Moon section of my orcs. I certainly think I've achieved the objective of rescuing a mini that would otherwise have been thrown out.

It's also massively boosted my confidence for doing more conversions and repairs on minis.  I've already got another orc with a missing weapon that I think will make a great standard for the Severed Hands.