The “Lu Shang” Project

Part 2 - Planning

For some reason, I had the idea that I wanted the figure to be constructed mainly out of plastic bitz with as few metal bitz and sculpted parts as possible.  I think it was because I remembered an article in White Dwarf where Aly Morrison constructed a Mordheim Possessed warband completely out of plastic bitz from various regiment sets.  This seemed like an interesting challenge so I scrounged around and came up with as many different plastic sprues as I could find and set about looking for parts that I could use.

One of the first pieces I came across was a Skaven Clanrat upper body.  The banded armor style would be a good start after shaving off the Skaven icons.  Next I tried fitting a Dark Elf Lower body because the "skirt" style armor was indicative of Chinese armor of the time.  I really liked the look and movement of the body but the chainmail simply wasn't right and neither were the feet.  I figured the feet could be cut off and replaced with something more suitable but the chainmail was a bit of a problem.  Upon closer inspection, I realized that the High Elf Spearmen bodies were identically posed but with a scale armor instead of chainmail.  Unfortunately I didn't own a box of High Elf spearmen nor did anyone I know (even if they did they probably wouldn't have had a spare lower body...).  This meant that if I couldn't find a suitable alternative, I would either have to buy a whole regiment box or mail order a frame and wait a week or more to get it.  As I continued digging through my sprues, I realized that I was simply not going to find a better alternative to the High Elf body.  Not wanting to waste time waiting for parts, I broke down and purchased a box of spearmen so that if the project turned out to my liking, I could make LOTS of Dreaded Wo Warriors!

What I really liked about the High Elf lower half was the scale or lamellor style armor and the movement of the piece.  It was evident that there was a knee behind the armor; it wasn't just a tube with feet sticking out of the bottom.  The cloth underskirt and the feet however, didn't allow for the movement to continue below the armor and the feet looked too "elven" anyway.  They had to go.  But what would I replace them with?  I would have preferred to use Mordheim henchmen legs because I had a few to pick from but it was obvious that these wouldn't be much better than the elf feet.  Going back to the Marauder sprue, I realized that the lower bodies had good motion as well as lots of buckskin, fur, and leather straps molded onto them.  This would fit in nicely with the eastern style clothing and depending on where I cut them off had the side benefit of adding a little height to the model.  I was a bit reluctant to start chopping up my brand new Marauder models without even having put one together yet!  In the end I decided it would be worth it if the model turned out the way I thought it could.

Next was the head.  I hadn't decided whether to give him a helmet, or a distinctive hairdo, or even if I wanted his face to be exposed.  Looking at my sprues, most of the Marauder heads had beards and/or helmets...the same went for the Mordheim henchmen.  The Elven heads were too effete and all the Chaos Warrior heads were helmeted except for one...but I thought it looked too fat.  Finally upon reexamination, I came across a Marauder head with a topknot but no facial hair.  It would be easy enough to carve off the topknot but there was something not quite right about the nose...if sort of had a "street thug" look too it when viewed in profile.  I figured this was as close as I was going to get and decided that a little "gray-stuff" (formerly green-stuff) would solve the problem with the nose and allow me to do whatever I decided on with the hair.

I tried several different henchmen arms to get a feel for different poses, and to see which direction the model would take.  I had several ideas for Kung Fu style weapons including swords, half-moon halberds, chain-whips and all manner of exotic weaponry.  The weapon would help dictate the pose so I felt it important to narrow my choices before deciding.  I really liked the look of the half-moon halberd but in an early attempt to make one, I found it too difficult to get the shape symetrical.  A Chinese sword would be cool but any warrior can have a sword.  He needed something special.

I went back to the internet and eventually came across some photos of Wu Shu competitors and weapons.  This was a great find as it helped not only to choose the weapon I wanted but it showed some really fantastic Kung Fu poses.  I wasn't able to make use of the extreme leg positions because of the restrictions of the armored skirt but the arm positions and hand movements were a great source of inspiration.  While digging for some different arms I noticed the hand on a Dark Elf Crossbowman.  It would be perfect for that classic Kung Fu hand!  That meant the "horse-chopper" halberd that I wanted to use would have to be held in the other hand.  A friend suggested that it be posed behind his back to look as if he had just completed a twirling manouver.  I found a straight arm and positioned it appropriately.  I hadn't made the weapon yet but a piece of brass rod inserted into the drilled-out fist allowed me to see where the weapon would end up.  The pose was really shaping up!

Building "Lu Shang"

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