Mörkö
LeBeN Models Miniatures
Six pieces
Light grey resin
Scale – 1/12 - 1/10ish, with the bust itself 59mm high.
Limited Edition: 250 copies
Original sculpture: Allan CARRASCO
Studio Painting: Benoit MENARD

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Ten years ago I pretty much gave up figure painting to concentrate on aviation art as a young family, full time job, and too many hobbies was putting too much of a squeeze on my time. Over recent months I’ve felt a growing urge to get back into painting figures, but without having to worry about accuracy and only being able to work in a fixed colour palettes as is generally required by historic figures, which is what I painted back in the day. I also wanted to work at a larger scale than before as 54mm or even 75mm figures are tiny when compared to the 2 or 3 ft canvas’s upon which I paint aircraft.

As a consequence I looked around for something different, and decided I wanted to work a small series of busts with a common theme. After much searching on the web and discovering sculptors and manufacturers that I had never heard of before I found what I was after – Orc Sailors !

For the moment I have found two firms producing these style of busts and have ordered pieces from both of them
LeBeN Models Miniatures from France
Big Child Creatives from Spain.

In this review I will look at Mörkö from LeBeN.



The bust arrived well packed in a small sturdy box, with the resin parts sandwiched between two foam pads, and some packing worms. Despite this however two smaller parts had broken from their sprue, although the break was clean and did not affect either of parts. In addition to the bust a small card certificate was included advising I have bust 158/250, with a colour photo of the completed bust.

A second card was also including with a hand written note from the owner of LeBeN Models - Benoit Menard – Thanking me for my purchase and wishing me “Bonne Peinture” which I thought was a nice touch.

The bust comes in two main parts, being the head and torso, together with a small sprue that includes two fangs for the orc, a birdlike medallion and shark tooth earring.



After careful searching I did find some very faint casting lines, although these are to the rear of the torso and under the chin on the head and not easily seen. In addition I think I have found one air bubble on the casting that will be easily filled, probably with just primer needed to do the job. Overall the quality of the casting is top notch, and what I had hoped for.

The two fangs are coded for left and right, with one have a double locating pin while the other has a single pin so as to ensure they are placed correctly. The positioning of the medallion and earring are obvious.

The head and torso have no casting plug to be removed, but do have a good size locating plug that ensures a good and accurate fit of head to torso, with the strap around the figures neck nicely hiding the joint. The design and fit of the parts is very well done, to ensure easy fitting, but with joints and seams hidden.



Straight out of the box, with no clean up what so ever and the head resting on the torso.

LeBen Models can be found here
https://www.lebenmodels.com/en

In summary this bust is exactly what I hoped for. It’s high quality and a good size to work on, but from a painter’s perspective it offers so much choice and options as how to be painted. There is a large expanse of skin which cries out for tattoos to be added, a fabric headscarf, a broad leather belt, and a face with as much character as you could ask for.

How well I can paint it remains to be seen, and some careful planning is now required. Tattoo designs, a pattern for the fabric and an appropriate triad or tetrad of colours to be used all come to mind as needing to be determined. One thing is certain at this stage however this bust will not be the “traditional orc green”.

P