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So dudes, I need to share this because it is totally awesome.

A while back I wrote up a somewhat wordy backstory to my ork army, and slapped it up on The Warforge.

A dude named Zsoulless has been posting at The Waaagh for a while now and started posting some completely, ridiculously awesome Ork art that hes been doing in his free time.


Kaptin Badrukk, the meanest Flash Git in da 'ooniverse.'
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The artist's personal Big Mek art for his army.
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I sent him a PM asking if he did commissions, and he asked what I had in mind. I pitched my ideas at him. In my backstory, I laid out a number of orky characters that are in my army: Wurrzag da Weird, the feral-esque Warphead, Booma da Big Mek, the chief architect of all things explosive and stompy, and Warboss Gargrim "'Uge'" Mungus, a massive ork warlord who has an unusual fondness for grots.

He said he had been looking for a couple neat ideas to draw out, and after a bit of discussion where I explained a couple facets of the characters that I hadn't yet written out, he started drawing. He did a general rough sketch of Gargrim, but that's not what I want to show you guys. See, he's started drawing out Big Mek Booma, and oh man is it awesome.

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I just think it's amazing to see a character I imagined up rendered like this.

That's Booma with his signature weapon, da Boomhamma, a bionic arm, and a Kustom Force Field generator. It's still a work in progress, but holy crap guys, tell me this isn't the coolest thing. When he's done, he's given me permission to ink the thing and color it in. While I have no artistic talents as far as illustration goes, I can certainly wield photoshop well enough to manage that.

I get inspired by good artwork, and this is one hell of a kick in the ass to actually build a proper Big Mek model to represent Booma. That little project has rocketed it's way up to the top of my to-do list! I'm going to try and model as closely to his art as I can within reasonably boundaries.



That bionic arm is going to be one heck of a fun job. I'm mirroring the image for the purposes of modelling because the big mek arm I have holding the handle is on the right side, so Booma's model is going to have the bionic arm on his left side. I'll just flip the image when he's done drawing.

I expect this to take me a while, as I do intend on sculpting a decent amount on this model so I can do the art justice.

Ein, you are my Orky god. I'm starting to feel guilty about not planning any scratch building or conversions for when I start Orks...

I cannot share your fascination for his work but if he inspires you to do models it is good for something.

That Hammer is ridiculous! Such orkiness! It totally fits him(not sizewise)

I am seriously digging that hammer. Perfect for hammerin' dents out of the fenders of a proper battlewagon, or for playing a little beakie croquet!

I was looking forward to this model the first time I read about him. altough, in the sketch, he seems much more calm and peacefull than I imagined him to be.

and the hammer's great.

Just a brief little question: What do you guys think of the hammer capped off with leman russ tank wheel hubs?



It just seemed like it needed a little something extra on the flat parts.

I vote against caps.

I dunno. looks okay I guess.

but Ein, one thing is bothering me here...are you really telling me that you're building BIG MEK, with a GIANT HAMMER (and I remind everyone again, this is EIN we're talkin here) and said HAMMER is just a lot of plastic bits? shouldn't it...I dunno, spin, or have lights or make sounds, something like that. I mean COME ON! how about smoking? can you make it smoking?

Anung Un Rama wrote:I dunno. looks okay I guess.

but Ein, one thing is bothering me here...are you really telling me that you're building BIG MEK, with a GIANT HAMMER (and I remind everyone again, this is EIN we're talkin here) and said HAMMER is just a lot of plastic bits? shouldn't it...I dunno, spin, or have lights or make sounds, something like that. I mean COME ON! how about smoking? can you make it smoking?

I'll probably be pulling the caps off - I told the artist I wasn't sure and he's sketching ideas out now.

If it's any consolation, I suppose I could light his bionic fist?

Anung Un Rama, Head of the modeler's Police

instead of wheel caps, I'm picturing more of a texture, like a meat tenderizer, lots of little triangular pyramid shapes, or perhaps round studs? I dunno, but I'm sure whatever you come up with will be dead hard.

I mean it. you could put the batteries in his backpack or something like that.

come on Ein. spinning hammer.

What about mirroring the mechanicus symbol?
Instead of having a human skull with half bionics, have an ork skull with half bionics. I think that'd look cool on one of the flat parts of your hammer.

Yeah, my vote's with Foda - an Orkus Mechanicus logo. Either that or a good Ork runeplate.

This was a sketch I got today, and I think I like it. I popped the leman russ wheel hubs off and I had to putty the surface back over again so that it'll be smooth, but what I'm going to end up doing is adding a riveted outer ring with glyphs on the faces inside the ring - one will be of Gork, the other side will have Mork.



Have to wait till the putty dries tomorrow to pull that off, unfortunately, but I've been killing time with a couple other projects while I wait.

Man oh man. Working on the head of this hammer has been some of the fiddliest scratchbuilding I've ever had to do, particularly that glyph, but I think I really like this more than the other designs. This is the 'gork' side - the 'mork' glyph will go on the opposite end when I get a proper chance to do it.

Also, I sculpted booma a larger tooth to match the art.

now THAT's gonna leave an impression.

Look`n nice! Only thing I'd chance is the outer ring in the glyph I think sticks out too far compared to the glyph. I'd make them more of the same depth/thickness so the ring obscures the glyph less.

I vowed to finish the other side and the glyph before I had to head back to school, so here is the 'mork' side of the hammer.





I understand that aesthetically it might look a bit better if the glyph were farther out from the face of the hammer, but I need to also reiterate how infinitely small they are to begin with - the only reason I was able to really cut something that size is because I used thin card. Sanding the outer ring hubs down isn't really something I care to do right now, either, because they've been riveted already. The ring is the thickness it is because when I tried making rings that were any thinner, they would fall apart when I used a pin vice to drill the rivet holes. I made about 6-7 rings before I managed to get a pair that didn't fall apart under the stress!

Still, I think it looks good all the same.

I still think it should light up or something.....the hammer I mean.

so, you say he'll get a kustom force field, ey? already looking forward to it. and the fist of course.

He'll have a Kustom Force Field, yes. A bit of Booma's character that I haven't exactly written out in the fiction to the extent I like is that he is overly protective of his creations. He is a fairly mellow and intelligent ork until somebody breaks something he spent time making, at which point he flies into a genocidal rage.

That said, in the game, I believe he'll be the Big Mek that follows my Dred Mob around - the KFF will give them a chance at hull down, and he can bang out any dents they get in the course of a couple turns. It fits his character, and makes for a neat model.

In my bigger games, though, he'll probably be riding a squiggoth. Nothing beats a 5+ cover on a gargantuan creature!

As to extra work on the hammer: Please no! D:

I like it the way it is, I don't want to start carving it up just to put a random light in it or something. Motorizing it is way more of a headache than I am willing to go through, too - finding a motor small enough to fit in there would be hell.

As-is, I am thinking I can stuff a SMT LED (the impossibly tiny kind) into his bionic arm, and maybe make the KFF light up. I have some fiber optic cable, and I've seen some interesting results with it in the past, so I may play around with it. 'Course, I'm going to wait till the KFF is drawn out a bit more before starting on it.

Oh! Nearly forgot: Z updated the sketch a little bit.

it's just that were so used to the fact that your conversions ar always so mind-blowing awesome that this seems a little bit, unimpressive in comparision, considering how excited you are about this project.

it's still a great conversion though, keep it coming.

Enough people complained to me enough times about the fact that the glyphs were a bit too recessed into the hammer that I popped them off and used a hole puncher to fill the middle of the ring in and push the glyphs out a little bit. There's some tiny gaps around the outside edges, but I'm working on melting those shut with a syringe and some Plastruct plastic weld.



I think this is where I leave it for now.

The Mork side isn't nearly scowly enough... I kid! Much better, I love it.

Seeing this and the looted Dread someone's working on makes me wish I had the time/money to start an orc army, not because I necessarily want to play one, just because I love to convert stuff, and the orcs seem to have the greatest potential for it.

a light-up KFF would be very cool and a change from 'ordinary' lighting jobs. Maybe it should glow from within, perhaps be made of clear plastic nearly covered with other plastic and paint so just the 'field' bits are glowing mysteriously. Bonus points if you can make it glow in a sequence of alternating colours... seriously, there are a lot of crappy little toys around with that sort of circuit in them...

dude that is so friggin' cool Some of these people cant apreciate good art. His sketches are amazing as well.

That hammer is pure money, Ein, great work. I like the rest of the model too, is that really just a stock big mek?? Guess I haven't really seen the model beneath all the gear they lug around ...

If you need something to Einify, I vote for the glowing KFF. Possibly with rotating worky bitz. And/or actual force field generation

- Salvage

yes, get a real force feild and tell your opponent that if he kills them, he has to remove them himself or they stay on.

I second Salvage. I fully expect this model to be able to absorb a .22 round to the chest with no issues. Well, 1/3 of the time, at least.

I am thinking the sketches remind me a lot of the artwork from the old Dragon Lance campaign books. Sort of makes me sad I consigned mine to the flames over the weekend...