Making Heavy Pike Ogres

In my previous post I showed 21 completed Ricco's Republican Guard models and stated my intentions to fill the unit out to a horde of 40 including 3 Ogre fillers. I've been quiet for a while on the blog, but I've actually been working on these silly Ogre pikemen every chance I could find. Progress has been slow.

My main problem is that I seem to be getting a bit pickier as I go with these Ogres. I already had moulds for the arms, legs and torso of an Ogre in heavy armour. The detailing didn't really match the Republican Guard, but I don't think that would have bothered me in the past. Apparently it bothered me this time though, because I set about modifying various components to get them to tie in better with their little friends. Here are some photos showing my efforts.

Making new heads and feathers.

Both faces received a shave (an aggressive shave - they lost things like ears as well as facial hair) before getting helmets.

Turns out feathers are tricky to sculpt. I don't know where these Ogres source their man-sized feathers from. They probably run around plucking them from the wings of Griffons when they're not looking).

The back of the feather. The feathers are actually thicker than I would have liked, because I built them around a nail and it started getting in the way when I realised I wanted to thin them out a bit. Oh well. Even if I'm pickier than I used to be, my standards have their limits. Close enough.

Before and after. Or rather, after and before. Maybe I should have laid them out differently.

Another before and after shot. So handsome.

See, the one on the right is armoured, I could have used that. But noooo. I had to go and turn it into the one on the left.

Note that the arm scored a hand during this process. I was a bit braver this time and gave the hands armoured fingers instead of glorified mittens. Remains to be seen how they come out when painted.

The other arm, with the original at the bottom and the new version on top. This original arm was closer to what I wanted, but it still got modified. And repositioned a little to accommodate holding a pike.

The master pike head, with the tip carved from some bits of sprue. It's a bit rough, and not really sharp enough. The copies have all been filed back a bit to make them slightly more convincing.

Anyway, after all this creation of new master components, moulds and cloned bits, I was finally able to put together the 3 Ogres I need for the regiment. Behold:

3 completed Republican Guard Ogres. 2 of them are largely identical, although the pose is shifted a little and the detailing on the back is different. I realised that they didn't need to look significantly different in a unit that is all about pointing all their sticks in the same direction.

This was the first one I assembled.

This guy is the odd one out, with feet and face facing forward instead of turned toward the enemy (where his pike is pointing). The pose (like the other) echoes one of the proper human models.

The second build of the original guy, with his arm posed differently.

They all got unique detailing on the back to tie in more with the proper human models, who all carry bags and stuff. It helps break up the back of the model and adds a bit more variation. There was no point trying to close these bits.

Anyway, the next time you see these guys they will be painted. Wish me luck!