Well, as some of you know (I think nearly 30), Optimusdrizzt won my forever yes contest, thereby also winning a custom creation of his own. I had thrown up some random details on his forever yes contest, but thought I'd put something up here as well to be a little more thorough.
First step was ideas. I threw a pile of parts to Optimus and asked it he had any thoughts of his own.
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First thing that popped into his mind, being a Star Wars fan, was...
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We decided to run with it a little so I started throwing the pig head on various body configurations. Just checking here to see what felt like it worked together.
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Some torsos I was just holding over others to get a sense of what it might look like. I usually don't cut things up until I have a basic idea of where I want to put them.
At this point, Optimus put some of these up on his thread for opinions. Some suggested 3 heads (you monsters). Some suggested the penguin body (which was more original thought, but the proportions just felt wrong).
After measuring everything out, I was leaning towards the Ox body. It just felt right. I even liked the Ox arms as they matched the concept the most, which is something I don't often find (same arms and torso! nooooooo!). I asked Optimus his thoughts. He agreed and then it was off to the races.
First I gathered everything I thought I'd need.
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Then the rough head attachment.
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Then the adjusting to make the head fit properly.
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Then let's open that mouth and say hello.
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Then to work on the arms. I liked the Ox arms best , but they still needed some adjustments. I cut off the frog shoulder pads and sanded them to fit onto the ox arms.
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Then I put it together and worked on the head. I removed the ears, which I hadn't yet thought to remove. The horns were tough and you can see in my pig pile I wasn't really certain what would work. I eventually used Bison horns for the head and the tips of some Russian horns for teeth (it was tough finding the right size and proportion). I had a few ideas for the head piece as well. I debated a horse head piece that would wrap around, but it felt like too much. I tried a few others, but they mostly felt blunt and didn't imitate the look very well. I finally settled on the Tortoise head topper, which is only in the center of the head, but felt like it established the look and gave me the best angles.
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Then to painting. Base coat black.
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Then the armor and skin.
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Then, I black washed everything and added the finishing details.
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I put it a quick shot of the back to point out the tail. I just wanted to add a little curly cue tail.
All in all, I think it came out fairly well. It's not the most fantastical idea, but I tried to counteract that with some more technically challenging elements such as opening the mouth, adding the shoulder pads, and adding the little details such as the tail.