Empire Ogre Swordsman Progress

Yesterday saw me make further progress on the Ogre unit fillers for my Empire Swordsmen. It also saw me commit to the monthly painting challenge on the Warhammer Empire forums. I thought I might try publicly committing to something and see how that went. So, what did I say I would do?

January 2012 Target:

• 40 Empire Swordsmen including 3 Ogre unit fillers
• Halblaster Volley Gun
• Celestial Wizard

Ideally I'd like to get this stuff done before Cancon, which starts on January 27. Including them in my army would be a good way to ensure this happens. Having said that, the targets above are really rather ambitious - especially when you consider the fact that I'm still building the Ogres. I think I will be working on things most evenings between now and Cancon in an attempt to get it done.

Anyway, now that I have set myself up for public ridicule, I need to get working. Here is the progress I have now made...

The Ogre Swordsman with his sword and shield

And how he looks from behind

A slightly closer look at the Ogre as he stands

As you can see, I have indeed made progress. The arms of the model are now done, and I've detailed his torso as well. The legs and torso still come apart, and the arms come off as well. This is good, because I'm planning to clone all these bits. It also means I can potentially rotate the arms a bit on different Ogres without having to make completely different components. I went for the eagle shield boss from the old 6th edition Swordsmen because I couldn't think of any original detail I wanted to sculpt myself, and it filled up his breastplate nicely.

An Ogre shield and a human one. Just to show the size difference. It's about double the size in each direction

I did some rough measurements and decided the shield should be twice as tall and wide as one carried by a human. I made it out of plasticard, however I only have a couple of thicknesses available. I went for the thick stuff, which is several millimetres thick. It may have been a mistake - I then spent ages shaving out the centre of the back and the edges at the front to make the thing less thick and give it some curve. I also then bent it a bit around the handle of my knife, however I should have heated it first - it started to crack. Silly me. Anyway, the process was far too involved to repeat it, so I'm going to try cloning it and see how it goes.

A human sword and the one I made for my Ogre

And finally we have the sword, which was made from some spare plastic sprue I had lying around. I just hacked at it with a knife and some files, and gave it a simple hilt from another piece. I think it will do the job. This too will be cloned. Can't have too many swords. I might make another version based on a different human sword, just for some variation.

So tonight I have a lot of mould-making to do. I also need to work out a head for the model, make an alternate puffy-sleeved right arm, and make a puffy version of my walking Ogre legs. Once I've got all this stuff cloned and those things worked out, I should be easily able to create 3 Ogre Swordsmen. Then I just need to paint them and their 28 little mates. Easy, right?

I have a lot of work to do.