If you want a warboss for your waaagh that isn’t as puny as the Games Workshop default,
you have three main options: convert the Orruk Megaboss into an ork, buy a third party model
like Artel Miniature’s Iron Boss, or the get the new Ghaz model. None of these options
are cheap: the megaboss is $40 plus the cost of additional bits, the Iron Boss is also
$40, and Ghaz is $60. Now, on this channel I’ve converted a multitude
of bigger orks, but those conversions are usually pretty complicated and not always
cheap. For this video I wanted to do something a little different and set myself a challenge:
could I create a cheap warboss that anyone could put together? One that’s cheaper than
any of the current options but still looks good?
As a base I’m using an $8 D&D ogre I got off of ebay. It’s not the highest quality
figure, but has a nicely dynamic stance, and in size is about the same as the new Ghaz
model. I started by decapitating him, and then shaving off the spikes from his pauldrons.
While spiked pauldrons are perfectly orky, in this case they look cheap, and I’d need
to shave them off to layer new, properly orky ones over them. I also snipped off his hook
weapon. You can pick any meganob head for your warboss
depending on what energy and character you want him to have, but for me I like this upsized
one I cast out of resin (€1). Before we get any farther, it’s worth pointing out
that the cost I’m listing for each bit I add is taken from a dedicated bit site, not
the whole kit it’s from. To start arming my warboss, I sliced off the
fist I’d cut the hook from. Once it was off I drilled into it so I could pin a weapon
there, and used greenstuff to attach the fist back at an angle that was more dynamic and
natural than the oddly stiff one it’s originally at. Once it was in place, I started testing
out different nob choppas. My favorite is this buzzsaw one (€1.50). It unfortunately
already has hands attached, so I snipped and scraped those off. I snipped off the end,
drilled into the haft, and pinned it with a wire to my warboss’s arm. With the altered
fist angle it has a really great sense of mid movement to it.
A true warboss needs to be able to dish out dakka as well as a hack at the enemies, so
I picked this meganob one for my warboss (€1.50). I hollowed out the back of it so that I could
fit it to the back of my warboss’s forearm. Getting a good fit also required shaving off
the back, but once glued it fit well. For my warboss’s other arm I picked the
saw blade from a meganob which I thought would go well with the punching forward motion of
it. I eventually replaced it though, so I won’t be adding the cost. To get it to fit
over the existing fist, I hollowed out the back just as I had with the gun for the other
arm. With his weapons in place, it was time to
armor my warboss. I sliced off more of the model’s original pauldrons and glued in
their place the pair from a killa kan (€1.25). I also added four nob and meganob pauldrons
to his right arm to further armor it, and one to the right (€1.20). They and the boy
ones are cheap, but an effective way of building up texture and heft. As a power source for
his weapons, I added one half of a deff dread’s engine to his back (€1).
To make space for more armor, I removed the skulls from his belt, clipped off his belt
buckle, and shaved down some of his upper harness.
For his breastplate I started with this armor plate from a deff dread (€0.75). To build
it up I cut a strip of plasticard and glued it beneath the armor plate, then repeated
the process with another strip to create a segmented look, that I then glued to his chest.
While I’d originally thought about using this warbike wheelguard as an iron jaw, it
looked dumb, so I instead opted for the meganob one (€1). I clipped off the inside of the
armor plates from a killa kan, and glued them to either hip to broaden his silhouette (€1).
For kneepads I used a pair of ogryn pauldrons, and this casting of a bullgryn armor tread
for crotchal armor (€1.50). This is the iron fist of an Age of Sigmar
ogre. I clipped off the blade portion to leave just the armor plate, then glued two of them
as shin armor beneath the ogryn pauldrons (€1). I later undid all this work by replacing
the kneepads with the pauldrons from the flash gits kit, and moving the ogre armor plates
to his thighs (€0.60). While the saw blade for his left arm worked
well, I’m simply too fond of ork power claws to not replace it with one. To get the desired
effect, I combined two that come in the meganob kit: one with two shorter claws, and one with
a single long one (€2). I wanted to position the claw differently than the default, so
I split the claws from the metal fist portion, and used greenstuff to angle them in a little
more dynamic of a way. I didn’t attach it just yet though, as the greenstuff needed
to solidify. While it did so I filled out the back of the
warboss with the gas can from a killa kan (€0.30), and sliced off the ammo belt from
a flash gitz pole (€0.50). To create shin guards I used a combination of greenstuff
and milliput to smooth what looks passably like armor plates. On his shoulders I added
the pole from a meganob (€0.50). My warboss was looking tough and armored,
but he had a fatal weakness: his bare feet. To replace them I snipped them off, and sliced
down the bottoms to leave stumps. This is the foot from a killa kan (€3). It was a
little too big for my warboss, so I sliced off the side toes. To affix the stumps of
the warboss to his new shoes I used globs of greenstuff. I didn’t have to, but the
angle of his feet has always slightly bothered me, so I cut open the left killa kan foot
so it would have a more springing forward pose. To hide the ankle joint I glued in place
the shoulder plates from the nobz kit (€1.20). And with that my budget warboss was done.
The final tally for him comes in at roughly 18 Euros, or $30 American Dollars. That’s
$10 under the Age of Sigmar megaboss, well under any of the other warboss options, and
he doesn’t look too shabby if I do say so myself. If you’d like to buy this warboss,
I’m selling him on Ebay, so head over there and bid whatever you’re comfortable with.
Before that though, hit the like button, subscribe, or check out some of my other conversions.
Thanks for watching.