I love trying to build big orks. But since the ones from Games Workshop are all really
stunted, the only option to build a truly huge ork is to convert one. In this case I
decided to use this minotaur demon from reaper miniatures. He has a really interesting lean
look to him that I thought would make for a good conversion, even if his proportions
are really wonky looking originally. I started off by snipping away his digitigrade
legs. The fact orks don’t have them is one of the things that limit big conversion simply
because most big models do. In this case the middle portion of his legs are so long that
they make for perfectly good shins, which isn’t always the case.
I also started shaving off the portions of his armor that I didn’t like or simply thought
read as too medieval and wouldn’t synergize well with the armor plates I was planning
on adding later. The most extensive area that needed shaving is the minotaur’s mane. I
probably could’ve left it and made it just look like a pelt the orc was wearing, I decided
to cut it off anyway to try and get the cleanest look possible. I didn’t worry too much about
being careful because I knew later on I’d go and smooth it over with milliput.
For my ork’s head I tried a few different options, but ended up going with this maxmini
teach freak one. It has a great angular look to it, and matches his lean build. I had him
look straight forward because I wanted to give the sense that he was bearing down on
you ready to slash and savage and kill. His legs as they were weren’t going to work,
so I chopped the left off at the knee. My original plan was to glue it on at an angle
more plausible for standing and then fill in the gap with greenstuff, but once it was
off I realized I could just replace it with a deff dread leg. They’re roughly the same
width, and the deff dread leg honestly works perfectly as a knee, shin, and foot. I wanted
to give the impression that the deff dread portion was fully integrated into the leg,
so I carved out the middle of the thigh so some of the skin would overlap the edges.
With the deff dread leg glued in place, I realized that my ork now had a kind of mid
stride sprinting look. I really liked the sense of dynamic motion and energy it gave
him, so I decided to lean into it. The right leg, which I’d been planning to reposition
like the first, I instead left in place and cut off just the foot of another deff dread
leg to fix in place. The angle is such that I could’ve replaced the whole bottom half
with the deff dread leg, but I liked the uneven look of having one leg mechanical and the
other biological. With his legs done I started layering on armor
plates to his shoulder. These are the ones to a deff dread and killa kan, which are the
only ones of the correct size I had available. It’s hard to tell without something to compare
him to, but he’s roughly as tall as a deff dread, and by no means a small fellow. Because
he’s actually so big I drilled out some of the insides of him so that I could reduce
his weight. I was worried a bit about that one spindly leg bearing all his weight, but
it was never actually much of a problem. While I liked his left arm, his outstretched
right arm kind of bothered me. Even with his original pose it doesn’t really look that
naturalistic. To try and fix it I cut off his hand and shaved off some of the top so
I could reposition it to fit better with the line of his arm.
While it was off I also drilled in a hole so I could fit in a wire and connect it to
this buzzsaw. It’s a deff dread or killa kan one and fits the scale nicely. Instead
of plasticard for the pole I used the plastic portion of a cue tip. They’re cheaper and
the right diameter, though really hard to glue for some reason.
Even with the angle of the hand changed I didn’t love how it looked. It was just a
little too straight for my tastes, so I cut the arm off and decided to replace it with
this bloodthirster arm that was already bent the way I thought would look good. While the
angle was much better, the arm is simply too muscled compared to the rest of the model
and looks really out of place. At this point I decided to embrace the cybork
element of my ork and just swap out his right arm for the burner one from a killa kan. Not
only is the angle better than the original, I think it helps give him character and sell
the idea of his mad dash forward, almost like he’s so reckless he’s constantly losing
limbs but doesn’t care and just keeps bolting new ones in place, or replacing those that
are too slow to keep up with him. Instead of trying to make the buzzsaw ax work
I decided to use a power claw instead. This is by far my favorite of them, and only adds
to his deranged look. For the arm to fit right I lengthened it with this bit from a killa
kan leg. I glued the lengthened arm in place and then molded greenstuff around it, though
I later went in and thickened the arm’s bicep by sandwiching more killa kan shins
around it. For the left hand I liked the grasping pose
it’s in, but also felt like it could be improved. This is the double barreled shoota
from an ork warbike. With a little slicing off of his gauntlet it fits flush against
his forearm. Before glueing it in place I decided to add
a skirt to my ork of greenstuff. It wasn’t great, but mostly got covered up by armor
plates so it didn’t matter. I also glued the shoota in place and bent a wire to make
a kind of handle for it to match up to his hand so it looks like his fingers are flexing
around it. To cement the shoota in place I glued in a bracket so it connects to the original
model’s arm band, and also added a piston in the back that makes it look like it’s
hanging from his pauldrons. And with that in place my cybork was ready
for battle. I’d originally planned on adding more armor plates, but this I think is a good
middle ground. Anymore would distract from the mad dash quality he had. You can just
imagine him bearing down on some poor imperial guardsmen with deranged and vicious glee,
ready to slice him in two with his power claw, the body parts of him that couldn’t keep
up replaced with metal limbs that could. Though I originally got the model on a whim and wasn’t
sure I could make anything good out of him, I’m really pleased with how he turned out,
and how dynamic his pose is. But what do you all think? Love him, hate
him, let me know in the comments, and if you liked this video subscribe or check out some
of my other ork conversions. Thanks for watching.