Saturday, May 12, 2018

D&D Scratch-built Ogre

I finally finished the first of an ogre encounter group I started in 2012!


Ogre

Here's how I made him (pardon the crappy picture taken from too close):

Ogre WIP

The body is from a HeroClix "Bi-Beast" figure, with the legs cut and extended either side of the knee. The arms are GW orc arms with green/brown stuff to soften the muscle definition. The orc hands were too big even for an ogre, so I switched them for goblin hands (it was the era of big hands, what can we say). The feet are press-molded from a HeroClix "White Martian" figure. The "warty bumps" are to Monster Manual spec and are just sand glued on with superglue.  I imagined them as something like human keratosis pilaris and placed them in line with this. I sculpted the head and the rest of it.

HeroClix Bi-Beast


Back when I launched my D&D project I gave ogres a lot of consideration, but I had a particular vision of them with longer legs and a smaller head than the figures I was seeing. I don't like the long-running trend of making giant humanoids (except for fire giants) more dwarf like than human figures.

My first thought was to sculpt over Marx cavemen, which I think may have been used in the original games in Lake Geneva. I settled on this bi-beast "chassis," though, which I also used for a hook horror and umber hulks (still WIP).

The base was an experiment that took too long to be practical for other figures. I did a thin layer of concrete patch (which I do a part at time and then let dry or else the plywood base would warp), then green stuff stones as thin as I could make them. Looks great but takes too long. You can see I also changed my mind after initially going with an oval base. The round one is 33mm cut to order.

I like him a lot, especially how the face turned out, but would make a few changes if I did him again. I'd make the legs even longer, give him a paunch, change the ear design a little more in line with the Monster Manual illustration, and maybe do the neck a bit differently. I had put these choices into play in further ogres I'm working on, which I'll share in a future post, though I never made the legs fully as long as I would have liked. In a world of unlimited time and projects I would have a go at sculpting a range not using parts.

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