Done some easy mods on my Gartogg that people not happy with the gamorreans (compared to film/hasbro 3'3/4 versions) might be able to do!
started as this :
(not my picture)
Firstly, I wrestled with the neck plug. This wouldn't come out for me before, and all but a few people's were the same - but I was determined to destroy it if it meant the removal of the elegant neck the gamorrean had! It eventually popped out in 1 piece.
The head is fine resting on the peg now, but will fall off, so a piece of blue tac keeps it on. There is a way to mod the plug I pulled out to fit in further and secure as before but lower, but I went the lazy route with blue tac till the time arises that I want to pick up the figure by the head lol
I also added the back cloth part to the helmet - this was a piece of brown cloth (belt backing in this case, I peeled it off and still use the belt
). It is held on by really strong double sided sticky tape, but glue would also work. I covered it in games workshop 'Devlan Mud' wash, but many substitutes would do - this greatly improved the squat look of the gamorrean, and brought it a lot closer to the film/hasbro action figure everybody loves
Secondly I got some Tamiya paint, XF-57 Buff (basically matches the yellow on the gam's face) and painted the nose area in accordance to this picture
(not my picture, wish it was)
I had never painted anything organic before, and freaked out before just picking up my tiniest paint brush and just copying the shape I saw in the picture
The Tamiya shade matches the lower lip colour, so no need to repaint that to match. While I was here I used pastels to darken the eye area, followed by a wash of games workshop Badab Black (be sparing, because when you run out it means going back to games workshop and trying to buy more while being asked what you're painting or if you want free lessons
) I also did inside the nostrils.
More sand colour pastels were wiped in a few of the wrinkles too.
Next the entire expanse of green body was covered in games workshop 'Gryphonne Sepia' - this brought out the green and added a lot of richness to the otherwise toyish SSC skin texture. It also dried slightly satiny in places where it was heavily applied, leading to a nice skin like look.
At the moment Gartogg was naked, and I set about weathering the clothes.
I mixed a little plastic pot full of water and some black and brown paint (can't remember the ratios, but its easy to work out by feel) and dunked everything in it, the fur, the shirt, the pants, the bandolier [the plasticy overshirt I left out, as that resisted the water]
I pulled them out (without ringing, you want the paint to stay in the fabric) and left to dry
When dry the fur went clumpy and natural looking, and it hardened in that shape as paint dried so it wouldn't turn back with minimal touching. All the outfit then had kind of browny dark variations of staining and looked more natural.
The paint bath also acted like a water treatment and left lots of nice body moulded creases in all the clothing
I coated the bandolier in heavy washes of devlan mud, badab black, sepia etc, basically everything till it went soft and darker, and dried satiny and looked more like real leather.
For the overshirt I got out the airbrush and sprayed it with a diluted tamiya X-19 Smoke. This is glossy so leaves a leathery sheen, and darkens the bad looking factory weathering. I added pastels over it just to add variation.
Lastly I didn't like the paint apps on the weapons, so I sprayed them enamel chrome, then airbrushed Tamiya xf-69 nato black over it. Before the black was fully dry I used grade 2000 sand paper to rub off scratches and expose silver below, I also used a scalpel to shave off bits of the blade to add silver highlights there
Same for the axes.
Finished pics
Overall this was very easy, and replicable if other people want a nicer guard. I'll answer any questions if anybody else wants to give it a shot.
