Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 17)

That's it, the Bonehead has his Chainsword and the final Ogryn his hand, though it was sculpted in the end.



And with that the Praetorian Ogryn Squad are complete, it's been a hell of a project, it's taken far longer then I could of imagined but the results are such that I'm really rather pleased with them. I think they're characterful, and fit the theme of a Praetorian unit, but one which is a wee bit on the rough side! I'll actually be quite sad to see them go and it's very tempting to want to get on and create such a unit for my own army - maybe sometime soon, it's not like I hav'nt got enough to get on with already!

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 16)

What will probably be the penultimate post on the Praetorian Ogryn Squad has finally arrived, 8 of the Ogryns are now to all intents and purposes finished as far as I'm going with them, weapons have been added, gaps filled, and only two now remain.



The Boneheads Chainsword needs to be finished and attached, it's built from two Ork Chainswords combined, however before I add a grip I need to pin it into his fist to ensure it stays in place.



The final regular Ogryn meanwhile is in need of a hand, unfortunately I've run out, but I'm hoping to acquire one from a club mate this week which will allow me to finish this model also with a few minor bits of sculpting left to do.

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 15)

At long last an update on the Ogryns.

A few days ago I recieved a package from TrooperPX, it's contents, the Ripper Guns.



I've got straight down to work adding the guns to the majority of the squad, there's a fair bit of gap filling and minor adjustments still to make, but all of aa sudden they've gone from work in progress to very nearly finished.



Finally the last two Ogryns are now underway properly, with the guns for fitting I've added the arms and am now working on the muscles (mostly on the back), so they look 'right' at the new angles, the first will be bare chested and is very nearly at the same stage as the first eight, while the second will be getting a vest making him the one with the most work to go.

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 14)

Another quick update on the Praetorian Ogryns, I can't believe the number of post's I've made in the blog already this month - can't help but get the feeling next month will be quieter!

The Corporal is now finished bar his weapon.



Of the other two this one is furthest along, he'll be bare chested, which will present the greatest challenge once the arms arrive as I've very little experience in sculpting muscles and no background in anatomy - result I'm currently doing my research on the net.



Slightly further behind is the final Ogryn, he'll have a vest eventually, again I@m stuck until the guns arrive from the caster before much more progress can be made, I'm hoping to get as far as possible with both of these however.

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 13)

Yet another update on the Praetorian Ogryns.



Another one is finished bar his weapons, to add a bit more variety to the Squad I elected to give this one and one of the others as yet unfinished a Glengarry cap which proved rather simple to pull off, with his completion only the Corporal and the two Ogryns which will be holding their Ripper Guns two handed remain.



The Corporal just needs work finishing on his face to tidy the removal of the models normal facial hair and work on the Pith Helmet he's now gained, this means detailing the press moulded piece and the join where it meets the heads - I'm thinking he may gain Mutton Chops as well similarly to one of the earlier models.




The remaining two have the furthest to go, I'm rather stuck too do much to them until the Ripper Guns arrive from the caster, however I am making progress with them, the heads and headgear are my current target, one has a Pith Helmet the other a second Glengarry, once these are finished I'll finish up the trousers and boots.

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 12)

Another update on the Praetorian Ogryns.

This guys is finished bar his gun now with the boots and hands added.



The Corporal is making progress, his cuffs are just about done, so he needs an Aquilla, rank chevrons, and a little work on the collar and belt - he'll probably get a helmet as well which means a little more work yet.



The final model of this group has seen the most work, cuffs, head, aquilla and some belt details have all been added and the epualettes finished. Now the belt needs finishing as does the collar and boots - again he'll probably get a helmet also to finish him up.

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 11)

Got to love working in a school, or at least a school which is closed when it snows! This is my first post from my new home, the internet is finally up and running, which means that everything is pretty much sorted here and my free time is mine once again - which means I'm back working on my hobby - and commission work.

Long promissed here is an update on the Praetorian Ogryns to start with.

The first of the second batch now just needs his boots and hands adding, the sprues still need to be unpacked for his hands and probably won't require any modification however.



The Squad 'Corporal' has a bit further to go, I'm working on finishing off the Epualettes at the moment, which will be followed by work on his tunic and belt, that will bring him to the 'almost' finished stage.



The final model in the current batch has the most work to go, the tunic is almost as far as I can take it until the head is added (also still to be unpacked), the Epualettes are well under way however.



More importantly for the moment the master 'Gatling' Ripper Gun is finished and now on it's way to get cast up, some of the final guns will have stocks, some will have them removed, the weapon is also slightly wider then I'd originally planned which will probably mean I'll have to do some further work on the otherwise finished first batch to fit the weapons appropriately.




Here's the master test fitted to the Bonehead, the stock makes it impossible to fit in place snuggly at the moment, but it does give a good idea of scale for the weapons.

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 10)

It's been a busy couple of days with various projects underway, a little fustratingly none of them for my GT list, still that'll be mostly what I'll work on next week!

First update of the day is ongoing work on the Praetorian Ogryns.

At the moment I'm still churning out the gun barrels, I've almost got the first five finished now so I can move onto the rest of the guns, though I'm gonna try an do all ten at the same time.



In the meantime I've been working on Ogryns six, seven and eight (for nine and ten I need the completed guns first before I can resume working on them).

Number six is another vested Ogryn, his trousers are more or less complete and I'm just working on the vest now, both front and back are done leaving the straps over his shoulders.



Number seven is the closed jacketed Ogryn, he'll also be a 'Corporal' and so built appropriately to be a second Bonehead if the customer wants to have two squads of five Ogryns rather then one big squad of ten. He's still quite raw at the moment, thoguh the trousers are dne the lower jacket especially has a long way to go.



Finally number eight is even further behind, he'll eventually have a tunic hanging open in a similar fashion to one of my own Praetorian characters, Captain Caine. I'm currently roughing in the jacket and belt.

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 9)

Lets talk guns, Ripper Guns.

For the Praetorian Ogryn Commission the customer is after something based on a Gatling Gun design, the same sort of weapon as my Heavy Bolter replacement Gatling Guns, it's a weapon which fits more with the victorian feel of the Praetorian Imperial Guard.

Now the problem with this is either purchasing a number of suitable assault cannon components (often in high demand and so quite tricky to get hold of in numbers), historical weapons (which would mean buying whole sets and hopefully suitable scale wise weapons), or converting from scratch. I've never really had a great deal of success with such endevours for my own use but this I'm aiming for a really good result - and things are looking up.

Not being much of a drawer, I used state of the art computer graphics to knock up this as a concept for the customer early on while we were chucking around ideas...



He's asked for a different style of ammo drum, but something otherwise more or less per the concept.

The first stage of making these guns reality was the barrel assembly, this proved very easy, I picked up some half-pipe plastic tube and some thin plastic rod cutting this into 10mm sections, three of the rod sections then slip nicely on top of tube for the multiple barrels of the Gatlings Gun. To explain this design, Ogryns being the civilised brutes they are do tend to use their weapons as clubs - so the mechanism needs to be protected while still allowing some air cooling. I then replicated this once for each gun.



Next up comes the muzzel of the gun, I was a little concerned on how to get this done identically ten times, but realised it would be a nice simple piece to employ a bit of green stuff casting with so I create a suitable master.



This is as you'll probably have spotted an Imperial Guard tank wheel, as it was the perfect diameter for the piece I needed and had a good sized grip section which came in handy for the making and molding stage. I simply filled in the recesses, and then added some detail with greenstuff and a little more plastic rod.

I then made a greenstuff mold in the usual way (tutorial coming up on this soon, though there are plenty to be found on the net already).

I've just pulled the first result and I'm really pleased that it looks the part, just needs a little tidying then I'll do the rear block and then do it all again for each of the other guns - then theres the stock and ammo drum to do... hmmm.

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 8)

At last the first five - bar weapons - are finished, I've completed work on the Ogryn Bonehead tonight and also a few minor touches to the earlier open jacketed ogryn just to hopefully improve it a little, I wont ramble on any further and will let the pictures do the talking instead.

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 7)

Just a quick update, the Ogryn Bonehead is very nearly there now, a few more details like rank chevrons and his buttons, a little tidying and its time for weapons, fingers crossed he'll be finished on Sunday and I'll have the first five finished completely shortly thereafter!

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 6)

Second hobby update of the day, the main project around which everything else is still being fitted in is the Ogryn Commission, and the first half of the squad continues to near completion.

Ogryn number three with his open jacket has had a tweak with a vest rather then a bare chest after some discussion with the customer, I'm definately much more happy with him now as a finished piece, bar weapons as usual at the moment! I have been thinking about giving him a Pith Helmet, but given they'll feature quite strongly in the second part of the squad I ended up leaving it for the time being.




The Sergeant has seem more work to his tunic, the epualettes have been added as have the tails to the tunic at the back, I'm starting to do a little detailing now with things like the aquilla on his chest - rank chevrons are also on the agenda, the next update should bring him virtually to completion

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 5)

It's been a slow couple of weeks hobby wise, as a result of a weekend spent at Tournaments (reports to come), work and lots besides keeping me busy. However I have kept plugging away in whatever gaps I've had on two projects the Ogryns and the Leman Russ. Top priority has of course been the Ogryns and it's on these I've got a small update.

Firstly one more of the first five is finished bar his weapon, Ogryn four with his Tunic, considering where he started I'm pretty pleased with how he's come out.





Ogryn number three meanwhile will almost certainly also be finished by the end of the day, his mouth needs just a little work around the lips where the facial hair was removed, and his boots need finishing. I'm not 100% happy with him, the jacket is a little rougher then I'd like on account of how many times I've gone back and 'tweaked' it a little more to get it as I wanted, thats said I'm confident it'll paint up well, hopefully once the client has it in his hands he'll agree.



The Bonehead is coming along nicely, I've press molded his helmet which I'm now tidying and his uniform is taking shape, his weapons and rank stripes will be what really seperate him from the group, but I could'nt resist adding some augmetics to one side of his face to represent the surgery used to boost the squad leaders intelligence.





With a little luck this chap will also be ready very shortly at which point I'll do the entire squads weapons in one hit, the first batch will then be ready for the client while I continue work on the second five members of the squad who have ended up seeing no additional progress this week.

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 4)

Another evening spent working away on the Ogryns, the second two are nearing completion now, the third is still furthest away, the epualette on the left is'nt quite as I'd like it, but I can't quite place how to improve it, however the jacket is coming along nicely I think. I've been using a piece of paper cut to the shape of the jacket too allow me to get the right shape for it with the folds, the right hand side is more or less finished with the left still being worked on.




The forth Ogryn meanwhile is very nearly done, hands are all that definately need to be done, I'm pondering over the Pith Helmet as I've found he looks quite cool without one, I'm also keeping in mind that the Ogryn Bonehead will have a similar uniform - but probably only one should have a helmet to keep the models suitable different. What do you think? Helmet or not?



Finally a package arrived yesterday with the remaining two boxes of Ogres I needed to get on with the rest of the squad, I've quickly got to work on these six. They're in very varying states at the moment, but all are making progress, I'll keep working on all of them for the time being, but the Bonehead is going to be the focus on the work - alongside the existing two which are almost finished. The aim is too get half the squad ready for the customer within the next couple of weeks, with the other five to follow in early September - lets see how that works out!



Oh and I almost forgot! Courtasy of Longinus on Boot Camp - it gave me a chuckle...!


"You've spilt mah bloody tea, Im gonna CRUSH you!!!"