Orktimus Prime!

It’s been a while since we’ve done any interviews. However, I happened across an amazing conversion recently and just had to interview it’s creator. Some of you may have already seen the Orktimus Prime, a conversion of the Ork Trukk model into a working Ork Optimus Prime Transformers model. This is the brilliant work of madscuzzy (aka Dom). If you haven’t seen it yet, well, it’s something you just have to see. I can’t really describe how great it is.

This is one of my favorite conversions that I’ve seen. It’s a great idea and madscuzzy did an amazing job with it! It turns out that he’s also done some other very fine work as well! I was very impressed with all of his conversions, and the great trench table that he built. Check out the interview below to learn all about Orktimus Prime and the man behind the machine.

What is your real name?
Dom

Where are you from?
Singapore

What is your occupation?
Lecturer in Game Design in Singapore Polytechnic.

Orktimus Prime

The Orktimus Prime is a pretty amazing mod. How did you get the idea for this or what made you want to do it?
Well… the name kinda sounds right doesn’t it? I’m a big transformers fan… so any truck is a potential Optimus. What sealed the idea was that the kit comes with a trailer joint under the flatbed… which will never see the light of day. It was a sign…

How long did it take to put together the whole thing from start to finish?
The building itself didn’t take very long, probably about a month or 2, in between other works. What took a long time however, was getting the courage to sit down and paint it.

Orktimus Prime Side by Side

What was the hardest part of putting together the Orktimus Prime?
Painting it. I don’t really like painting. And I didn’t want to damage the model with it. But it needed to be completed.

The Orktimus Prime was based on the Ork Trukk, but did you use any additional parts from other models to put this together? If so, what extra pieces did you use?
The only ‘non-GW’ parts are the ball joints, magnets and plastic rod. The joints are from 3rd party Gundam compatible parts (such as Kotobukiya’s M.S.G. Series of parts). The overall conversion scavanged parts from 1.5 ork trukk kits.

Orktimus Prime WIP Side by Side

How long have you been interested in the tabletop hobby and how did you get into it?
Was introduced to the hobby by a friend from way long, but officially started in ’97.

What games do you play? What armies do you play in those games?
Besides 40k, some computer games here and there (love DOW1 and 2 of course). Random stuff. But in terms of tabletop wargaming, only 40k.

madscuzzy's Trench Table

Do you have any rituals while modeling/painting such as listening to specific music?
Erm… working at night is fun? Music, Discovery Channel/History/Natgeo etc. usually. I like hanging out, doing hobby stuff with friends, so I do a lot of my painting (and some modeling at times) in my LGS (Paradigm Infinitum), but otherwise most of the modeling stuff I do at home.

What are some of your influences or where do you draw your inspiration from? Obviously Transformers was an influence with Orktimus Prime, but are there any other books, movies, art, or other sources that have had an impact on your work? Whose work has had an impact on you and your projects?
I believe anything can be an influence or inspiration. I could list stuff out… but it might take too long to read…

What is your favorite piece that you’ve done or what are you most proud of? What do you like about it?
To be honest, I have no idea. I do what I like, and what I want, so all of them are my favourite pieces. My current favs besides Prime are my Modern Heresy-style Vanguard, Sternguard, Mk1&2 Landspeeders, my Captain(Now with non-chappie parts) on stolen-and-converted-MotRW-jetbike and my trench table. Oh and the SM painter(s) on BnC (I didn’t do the ork).

Captain on Converted Jetbike

What is your favorite piece that someone else has done? What do you like about it?
Hmmm tough one. I do really like an Ork Dino Deffdread a friend did recently.

What is your favorite part of the hobby? Do you prefer working with terrain or miniatures?
Modeling. Conversions. I do both, a lot. Different methodologies and approach for both, so they are both interesting to me. Terrain does take up a lot more space though…

What technique has given you the most trouble? Do you have any tips for someone else who might be struggling with it?
Hmmm… Any new technique is difficult to learn. Advice? Practice. But practice the right stuff. Experiment, and ask those who have done it before you for advice, so you can skip some steps so you can move along faster. Don’t be stubborn and move with the flow.

Are there any areas that you’d like to improve on?
Painting armies fast I suppose.

What projects are you working on currently? What would be your dream project?
Painting my marines at the moment and orks. Dream project… since the trench is somewhat done, probably a 40k compatible space hulk terrain board?

madscuzzy's Vanguard

What tips, tricks, or advice can you share with us? Are there any special brands or materials that you use that other people might not know about?
No tricks really… Oh GS doesn’t work with water (don’t listen to anyone saying water is good… it really isn’t). Vaseline is good. Don’t bend plastic card when you can get plastic rod/tube which is already curved. Dremels and electic screwdrivers(great for drilling) are fun, or failing that, Tamiya Hobby drills are great. Sandable putties such as Tamiya Epoxy Putty Quick Type are awesome. Don’t limit yourself.

What other hobbies do you have outside of tabletop gaming?
Drawing mainly…

Anything else about yourself that you care to share? Do you have a website that people can check out if they are interested in knowing more about you or seeing more of your work?
Besides my own long unupdated website www.scuzworks.com, madscuzzy.deviantart.com, The Waaagh!, there is always Bolter and Chainsword…

Landspeeder Squad

Thank you to madscuzzy for the interview! I hope you like the Orktimus Prime as much as I do. Check out the full thread of Orktimus Prime finished pictures or the Orktimus Prime work in progress pictures.

If you are looking for more miniatures pictures check out our member galleries.

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I tried a few different things with Sybelle. I tried drybrushing the black leather with a dark blue for highlights but it didn’t seem to work so well. It’s pretty hard to tell in the pictures as well. I also tried a combination of drybrushing, washing, and then drybrushing again to see how that worked. I feel like it did a good job of highlighting the skin tones and making her look sufficiently dirty since I’m going for the “fresh from the grave” look on all of my undead.

I also had some trouble deciding how to do the trim on her outfit but eventually settled on the white. It came out almost looking like a french maid outfit, which I really liked. It’s different than the usual paint jobs I’ve seen on Sybelle which is something I really strive for.

Finally, the mesh was interesting to try and paint. I started out with a wash of Pale Flesh over the mesh area, which I then highlighted with a drybrush of black for the upper parts of the mesh. I think it worked well enough. It seems to look much better in person than it does in the pictures.

You can find more pics of Sybelle in the full gallery in my gallery section. You can find more Malifaux pics in the Tabletop Geeks member galleries section.

Madam Sybelle

Undead Ladies of the Night!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted my miniatures here. I’m a bit slow with the painting. However, I have finished up all 3 of my Rotten Belles for my Malifaux Resurrectionist crew. I’ve got the Red Chapel box set along with a few additional models (Bete Noir, Copycat Killer, and Miss Pack). I’m trying to get at least a 25-35ss crew completed so I can field a fully painted army for simple games, and so I can possibly participate in some tournaments. I’m in the process of painting up Sybelle now as well, so I’ll try and get some pics up of her soon. For now, here are some pics of the finished Rotten Belles.

These pics and plenty more pics of all the belles are available over on my Tabletop Geeks User Site. You can sign up for your own Tabletop Geeks User Site as well.

The Red Belle

The Blue Belle

The Green Belle

Belles Group

These are the first models I’ve painted in a while and the first time I’ve tried to paint anything “pretty”. I’m used to painting demons and other nasty things where I can be somewhat sloppy and it still looks good. I am fairly happy with the way these turned out. I am very proud of the bases. I tried to go with a “fresh from the grave” theme, so I put some static grass down and made the gravestones from foamboard. The green bases I actually redid in a much darker green as well so as not to detract from the models themselves as much.

Hopefully I can get Sybelle finished soon. I’m trying to figure out how to paint black leather and black mesh on top of skin. Keep an eye out for those pics shortly!

A Real Woman

It’s been a while since I’ve put up any photos of my projects (because it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to do much work on any of them mainly). I just finished the painting on my first Malifaux miniature tonight, an undead lady of the night. I still need to decorate the base, but the painting itself is done.

I was going for a very “fresh from the grave” look for this one, which is why she looks so dirty. I also added a little touch of blood dripping from her mouth onto her breast. I’m not used to painting such pretty things though, so this one gave me some trouble. I’m used to painting rough Possessed models that are less than an exact science. Doing all the trim work and details on the dress was difficult for me.

I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. This was the first time I had used this camera, and the lighting situation was not exactly optimal.

Undead Lady of the Night!

Angled Shot

Another Front View

Back View

I’m hoping to get more of my Resurrectionist crew completed soon, so I’ll put more pictures up. I’ll try and get a better camera so I can take some decent pictures too.

In other news, I have the layout ready for the hosting/user pages part of the site! I’ll be integrating all the functionality into it, putting it through some testing, and then opening that section up soon. Keep checking back!

Daemonette

The Daemonette Mutant is coming along. I’ve got pictures of her in her current state, but she will most likely be changing a bit. I’m not sure if I like the claw arm or the hair. I have no idea what to do for the claw arm, mainly the part before the claw. It’s currently a reddish but it doesn’t look right. The hair looks fine how it is now, but I think I might want to change it to a bright, fiery red instead of the darker red.

There are also, obviously, some unfinished parts to her. The spear needs to be attached. It keeps falling off so I’m gonna have to set up a pin. The face hasn’t been touched yet so that will need to be done. Also, I haven’t done any washes at all yet. And then finally there is the base. Since her foot is sticking up a little bit I’ll probably try and make it look like she’s standing on a piece of the rubble. I’m hoping to have all of this done by Saturday for our game.

Daemonette

Side view, showing off the claw

Other side...

This one isn’t turning out as well as the Marauder. Hopefully with some slight modifications and washes it’ll look a lot better. I’m gonna need to practice some claws for the Possessed that I need to paint though. Keep an eye out for more of the Daemonette very soon, and hopefully some terrain soon as well.

Related Posts

• Possessed and Mutants and Green Stuff
• Finished Mutant!
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Group Photo!

The Marauder Mutant is fully finished, based and coated with a Matte finish spray. I also based and finished my Magister and Possessed. I used Ben’s basing method for the bases to give a rough ruins look instead of doing cobblestone. You’ll also notice that the pictures look much better. I used Hyun’s guide to taking photos of your miniatures to learn how to take some better pictures, and I am now using Picasa to touch them up before posting. Oddly enough I switched to a lower quality camera for these pictures, as my usual camera was not available.

I added a shield to the mutant on his third arm. The whole model naturally leans forward so the sword and shield look a little odd as they are pointing down some instead of straight ahead. Overall I’m happy with these 3 miniatures. Looking at some high quality pictures I can see some places where I could use improvement, but those things are not nearly as noticeable in person. I’m pretty excited to be able to use the Mutant in games now. I also really like the basing style for these guys.

Finished Mutant!

He's leaning a bit forward, ready to charge!

Back view of the Mutant

You can see the sword pretty well in this shot

And the other side...

Magister, finished and based!

Back shot of the Magister

Finished Possessed!

Back view of the Possessed

Group Photo!

Next up is the Daemonette Mutant. I’ve started a base coat for her flesh so far. Now that I finished my first model in several years, I’m much more confident and ready to work on the other Mutant. With any luck I’ll have her finished this week and ready to play in our game next weekend. After I get her done I’ll probably go back to terrain for a little bit since the rest of my models are at least useable right now.

Related Posts

• Mutants Update
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I should be doing the shield and putting him on a base this weekend. I’ll also be starting work on the Daemonette Mutant as well. She’s a bit smaller and a little less detail heavy so I should be able to finish that much quicker. Anyway, enjoy the new pics!

Front View

Back view... good shot of the spikes

Showing off the sword

A shot of the spikes

Overall, I’m happy both with how he turned out in general, and with my sculpting skills! The spikes look really nice. I can’t wait to get his shield and base on him so I can start using him in games.

Related Posts

• Possessed and Mutants and Green Stuff
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Marauder Mutant

I finally got a chance to start painting my mutants. The Marauder mutant is mostly finished, but still has some work to be done. Mainly, I need to do the spikes, color his beard, and put some washes on him, but he also will be getting a shield on his third arm which I have not painted yet.. I am fairly happy with how the green stuff bits turned out. This is my first attempt at painting a model in several years. For some reason I can’t seem to figure out drybrushing again, even though I’ve done it before. It just doesn’t look right. It’s hard to tell on this guy, but his pants have been drybrushed with codex gray over the base of black. His boots were also drybrushed some as well.

I decided to keep his main clothing colors black and blue to match the rest of the warband. I wanted to keep his skin tone to a human looking color instead of going another color since he’s got demon in him so that it’s easy to differentiate between the mutants and possessed. My two possessed models will be Red/Pinkish and Blue/Purplish while the two mutants will be mainly flesh colored.

Marauder Mutant

Back view, notice the shading on his pants

Another rear view

Showing off the (unpainted) spikes

Showing off the sword, which needs details

Full view

And one more

I plan on trying to finish him soon. I want to paint the spikes with bleached bone/skull white and possibly bloody them up. I have to paint the beard (though I don’t know what color yet). I also want to do some washes on all of the skulls, his sword, his helmet, and his skin. I am excited and hope to have him finished, attached to a base, and in battle soon! Next up after this guy is the Daemonette who I expect might be a little bit more simple.

Related Posts

• Finished Mutant!
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My mutants

I just wanted to post a quick update to show off the progress on the mutants. Yesterday I finished the modeling of both of the mutants so they are ready to paint! I made a few minor changes to both of them. The daemonette mutant now has a spear instead of the axe. I cut down the arm a little bit as well because it was just too long. The marauder mutant got spikes. I added 7 spikes to the shoulder area where the new arm was placed. I was considering adding something else but I couldn’t think of anything that was simple enough and would fit nicely on the existing model. The spikes and extra arm should hopefully be enough to make it stand out as a mutant after it’s painted. With any luck, I’ll be able to get them primed and painted this week.

The spear was actually a halberd originally that I cut and filed down to make a spear. The green stuff work on her leg is a bit messy. I had a lot of trouble getting it to stay together which caused a lot of problems.

Now with spear!

Back View

I’m pretty happy with how the spikes turned out. I wasn’t sure how to do them at first… but it came to me just while working with it. I simply placed a small blob on the arm and smoothed out the base then I grabbed the end and pulled it slowly until it tore apart. It naturally made the point for me. I then just gently nudged it to the direction I wanted it.

Spiky!

Reverse view

My mutants

Well, that pretty much concludes my first jump into the world of green stuff. I’m pretty happy with these mutants. The goal was for the possessed to be extremely daemonic looking, but keep the mutants pretty simple and retain enough human features on them. The marauder is clearly humanoid with minor mutations. The daemonette is pretty extreme, but once painted up with some flesh colors she should retain some of the human look I think.

Related Posts

• Mutant Painting WIP Part 1
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• Finished Mutant!
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Rawr!

After a long time spent working on terrain and neglecting my warband I decided I’d like to try and finish all of my models. I had 7 (near) completed models already, but was lacking heroes. I picked up some additional Brethren, Darksouls, and another Possessed model. I wanted my mutants to look very much human and fleshy, but with some noticeable mutations. I also wanted to try to do some conversions. I picked up some Daemonettes and some Marauders of Chaos to use as the bases for my mutants, and some green stuff. I’ve never really worked with green stuff before, so this was a fun experiment.

I planned out my two mutants before I started. I decided that I wanted one of them to have a claw and a tail, and the other to have an extra arm and spines. I picked the Daemonette for the claw and tail since those were already part of the Daemonette model.

This is my new Possessed model that I ordered. He already has a claw and spines, so I decided to not make any modifications to him.

New Possessed Model

While certainly not amazing, I think this turned out pretty well. I’m usually terrible when it comes to anything art related, so I was impressed with myself and how I did the sculpting here. The extra arm actually appears to have large muscles much like the other arms. I didn’t get around to it last night but I want to also use green stuff to add some spikes/spines to this guy as well.

Front of the Marauder Mutant

Another view of the Marauder Mutant

Back view of the Marauder Mutant

And one more...

The claw and tail were already part of the daemonette, so I didn’t have much to mod here. The left leg and torso I picked for this mutant were not supposed to go together, so I used some green stuff to fill in the gap here. The daemonettes only have arms with claws so I needed a human arm to put on here. I took the arm of a marauder and cut it in half at the muscles because it was too thick. I then used some green stuff on the arm itself to give it a more rounded and smooth look. I used more green stuff on the shoulder of the daemonette to make an attach point. The daemonettes usual point for attaching arms is very tiny, and pointing backwards because their arms are all bent so I needed something else. I would have just attached the arm with the green stuff but the legs were drying and I kept knocking them off when trying to attach the arm.

Side view of Daemonette Mutant

Back view of Daemonette Mutant

Rawr!

Here’s a shot of all three. Along with my existing possessed these will be my heroes for my Possessed warband. I’ve got a few slight modifications to make before painting I think. I’m excited to see how these look once I’ve got some paint on them!

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• Mutants Update
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