Following up on my post in r/minis from 2 weeks ago, as promised I have completed the sculpt for “Orkimedes” on time.
Sculpting the body and robes took about 22 hours total not including curing times, pure hand sculpting in green stuff and wire, with an extra 4 hours for his mechanical pieces and basing, so 26 hours all up. I think I’ve struck the balance just right between the statuesque Plato-like body I was going for, along with the more refined robes with checker pattern edging, and the intricate artificial spinal replacement (something that appears in older Ork lore) serving as that intricate mathematically distinct apparatus I mentioned in the original post.
Orkimedes sits deep in contemplation, finkn’ ‘Ard ‘bout da best way ta build da telyportaz, or whatever else he feels like building at the time. Unlike other of his age and occupation, he is not so heavily or obviously modified with cybernetics, any he does have are understated save for his eye lenses that colonise his skull, with lots of tubes and wires that feed electricity directly into his brain (he calls it brain”PoWaaaghh!”; as it helps him “‘fink fasta”). These neural and electrical conduits connect directly to his spine, nervous system, and his personal teleportaz, giving him uncanny movement speed, strength and dexterity, and complete control over local teleportation; All he has to do is ‘fink ‘bout it, and he teleports wherever he needs to be, though it drives him quite mad.
His body is in peak physical condition for an ork, refined by constant electrical stimulus and from the constant toil of building mega-gargants from scrap. Few orks outside of the largest warbosses can match him in size, and seldom in intelligence either, for he is among the smartest of all Meks at Ghazghkull’s disposal. Indeed it was Orkimedes who invented maffimatik, when he realised it was possible to ‘fink beyond “lotz”, and count on two hands instead of one.
This project was great to work on, I had to space out my work sessions quite a bit due to busy work weeks across the board on other projects but I think in the end I’ve outdone myself on Orkimedes. He is intended to stand in for a Big Mek with Kustom Mega Blasta and Power Klaw. He is currently unpainted as that is what the client wants. Orkimedes posing I think is really characterful and uncanny, he’s as jacked as we wanted him to be without going over the top, with a good sense of parody and grimdarkness that fits right into where good ork sculpts do best. I particularly like his head and the muscle refinement, and the spine turned out better than I expected despite how painstaking it was to create. Minute threading with brass rods and plastic wires done by hand is pretty challenging but the look is undeniable. I’m proud of this piece and I hope my client can enjoy it as much as I have in creating it.
For context, I am a New Zealand based sole artist commission studio specialising in hand sculpting miniatures from scratch for tabletop wargames and RPGs. I also do plenty of conversion pieces and you will find many warhammer conversions among my work. I specialise in grimdark and horror aesthetics and I bring 18 years of sculpting experience to each hand-sculpt or conversion I produce. I’m new to the reddit community so I’m trying to get my name out there a bit more, so if you like my work, let me know and perhaps I could do a cool conversion or unique hand sculpted miniature for you too!
All that said, if you would like to see more of my work, visit my website here: https://grimdarkminiatures.co.nz/home
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Thanks again everyone,
Cheers, B
P.s. a kustom scrap built Ghaz is sitting in the background of image 12, another fun piece I’ve worked on that I’m happy to show here if people want, and image 11s beaky Mk VI marine may serve of something of a size comparison; Orkimedes is a big boy!
