Wedding gift - Ork Shield

Friends of mine where getting married & I was at a loss as for what I could get them. Then it hit me "Make them something!" I don't know where the idea of making an Ork shield, based off a tattoo the brides has, came from but they love it so that's all that matters!

Sadly, this idea to make them a gift came 3days before the wedding. Happily I already had Eva foam mats at home & I know I could cut, shape & paint them quick & easy enough to make this work

First things first was the size & a stencil for the Ork face.

Cut from Eva foam I then planned out the checkered pattern on the shield.

I wanted to make it a piratey looking crest so I cut out & shaped these Ork Choppa & Chain Sword parts to add as cross guards behind the shield. Again, these pieces where stenciled out, & I used a dremel to add in all the damage detail & shape the blade, spikes & handles.

These being an Ork shield I cut a section of the shield out, making it look broken, then added some spare scraps over it to give it a bolted back together look.

I used a 9mm plywood board, hot glued to the back, to make it nice & stiff & easier to mount on a wall

Then it was a simple matter of gluing the rest of the pieces in place. Once I got to this stage, & after the glue was dry, I went back over with my dremel to add in the "battle damage" scrapes & cuts to give the shield a better look as I knew I wanted to weather it heavily later on when painting so have a lot of pre-made scars helps with that.

 Then time for a few coats of black primer & the painting can begin!

Nice bright base colours to begin with, very unOk like .

& now every prop makers favourite  part, weathering! I have learn a huge amount of tricks over the years on how to get a realistic worn metal paint job. Both from trial & error, practises & fellow Master Prop Maker Volpin Props & Chinbread.

 

Nice blood one the teeth there

The worn away metal look is something I really happy with on this build.

& here we have the finished piece. Not shown as the two little D rings & added to the back so that it can be hung on a wall.

Transporting this thing was a game in itself! I have to make a custom box, for left over Eva foam as inserts to that the sword handles & blades would not get damaged. Over all I loved making this thing & with that little time I had I am really happy with how it turned out.

I plan to make a few more of these guys, smaller next time & in a merriment of different designs from Zelda to Pokemon to Assassins Creed & everything in-between

-M