Worst Figure Ever

Let me start with this: I hate this model:

Hate.

It's an old, out-of-production (oop) Citadel Orc Boss, or Warboss, from Games Workshop. I think I got it free during Games Day '95 or something like that. I've always hated it. The sculpt is from back in the early 90s when many GW hero figs were striking that oh-so-classic "hip and hand" pose: some weapon or other in hand over the head, and another in the other hand with elbow pinned to the hip.

Just awful.

The chin is pretty bad too, and it doesn't help that the model is essentially 2D.  Not only that, when I got the fig I had no interest in starting an Orc and Goblin army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. What the heck was I ever gonna do with this thing?

All that changed when I recently decided to start playing WHFB again with 6th edition.  Originally I was trying introduce some new players to the hobby and thought "hey, now's a good time to have a  house army available for new players to use".  Over the years I've collected enough miniatures to field at least 6 "house" armies, in addition to my regular fully painted Dwarf army. So, I started painting up my Orcs and Goblins, and that's when I came across this dreaded figure.

If I was going to actually paint this thing and put on a wargaming table, I wanted to make it somewhat presentable. So, out came the metal clippers and hobby saw. First, I removed the sword from the "hip" hand and found an old plastic shield from the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set.  I glued it onto the now-empty hand, and re-modeled leather handle straps with some greenstuff epoxy.

Looking better

After I removed the sword, I clipped off the peak of the helmet and I also clipped off those stupid prongs that were sticking out of his helmet.

Stupid.

(note: all images can be zoomed in by click on the image and "zooming" in your favorite image viewer)

After some dithering back and forth on color schemes, I decided I was just going to use this fig as a basic champion in the unit of plastic orc boyz that came from Skull Pass. Since GW started exploding the size of regular orc boys to be as big as the Black Orcs from back in the day, this guy actually fits pretty well in the unit.  Since the basic colors I'm using on the boyz is dark red, black, and brown leather, that's what I went with for this boss.  Here are two pics after the base colors and first level of highlights/shading.  These two pics also show the lack of prongs on the helmet.

no more prongs

leather cape

As I was finishing the final highlighting I realized I went a little overboard on the green highlight.  It's a little too Striking Scorpion Green (my Oldhammer friends will appreciate that paint name).

neon

That picture was also washed out by the camera flash. I tried sharpening up the contrast but wasn't really successful.
Anyways, I applied a thinned layer of Athonian Camoshade wash to try and tone down that final highlight.

almost done

So, there's the almost-final version. I need to touch up the dead hand that's nailed to the shield (looks pretty sloppy), and obviously I haven't painted the base yet. But this guy is pretty much done. Overall, I'm pleased with how he turned out especially since I hated the original sculpt and never thought I'd ever paint the fig. It's amazing what a few minor "conversions" and a decent paint job can do for a crappy fig.

This was also the first time in years that I painted the eyes and fingernails on a fig. Finally, a big thanks to my cousin who's the Bretonnian player in our campaign: I used his "battle damage" method for adding some chipped paint on the shoulder armor.  He employs it very successfully on his Blood Angels Space Marines. My Orc didn't come out as well as his Marines do, but it's the first time I've used the technique. I think it got the job done.

Anyway, my 1000pt Orc and Goblin army is almost completely painted for the final two battles in our Escalation campaign.