The ORCA jetbike

Hello jungle folks, 

it's been a while I wrote here, but the plan is to change that.
I was inactive a little while here on MV and if you don't remember me, I am Mati.

Today I'd like to show you the ORCA jetbike I was lucky to design, sculpt and paint for Wild House Models. It was a joy working with them and they have quite few amazing kits you should check out and even more planned for release in a not too distant future.

So let's talk about the model itself. The final kit is in 1:32 scale and measures 160mm in length. It consists of 40+ parts and is cast in quality resin ( not the stinky one! ).

Everything began as usual, with an idea. WHM wanted to create a vehicle and we agreed that a jetbike would be great, no sci fi universe is complete without jetbikes after all. So the first thing to do was to draw a few thumbnails to get some general ideas down on paper:

  And some more:

And even more:

In the end we settled for another design that was more aggressive and massive and just looked fiercer.

Wild House Models also sells other kits with optional lighting sets to light your models, so the jetbike was supposed to be lit too and had to be planned accordingly. On the inside it is hollow to accomodate the chip that controls the light effects and it has tunnels built in so you can easily run cables to all important spots without having to cut or drill out tons of resin. The engines can be lit, the headlights, two running lights on the sides and the console for the rider too, the console is cast in transparent resin as is the main headlight to make lighting it even easier.

Once we had a basic drawing down it was time to start sculpting the bike. I sculpted it in Zbrush and we agreed to have two versions of the bike. One military and a civil version, which you can both build with the included parts. Here are two 3D views of both versions, the civil one has transport containers and the military one has a wider front with a different silhouette with weaponry incorporated in it.

Orca Jetbike civilian version by matiwashere on Sketchfab

ORCA Jetbike military version by matiwashere on Sketchfab

When the model was done and printed, I also sculpted a rider to ride the bike. You can build it landed with the frontal landing foot out or in flight, so a pilot was a must!

After the kit was finished it was sent off to be cast. Here is a pic of the parts you get in the box (the riders heads are not on this picture though):

The casts are great, no bubbles, no flash no warped parts. There was only little work to be done on it and I could start assemblying it. First of course I washed all parts with warm water and a mild detergent. I decided to build the military version in flight, so I would use the pilot and build it with a closed landing foot hatch. I did not light the model using a lighting kit in the end.

A first test assembly to get an impression of the final size, quite a massive beast:

I primed the individual subassemblies with Vallejo light grey primer for the airbrush ( hard to see, almost the same color as the resin )

Then I did some preshading with black and sprayed the first coat of sand color ( GW commando khaki )

Next up I sprayed a slightly darker brown from below and a lighter sand color from above to get the first zenital lights down on it. While doing so I made sure to have a few hard edges with good contrasts in them to make the shapes and angles of the bike pop.

Then I started enhancing the shadows with thinned down scorched brown and to paint highlights with a mix of GW commando khaki and Valleyo ivory to further increase the contrast. After that I began to paint the first scratches wth a mix of scorched brown and black and add a few of the decals that are included in the kit. There are many to choose from:

Some white markings were added to the bike to break up the very even color on it a bit and make it more interesting. I also added a filter from True Earth called Worn Patina 1. Great stuff to dirten your models up a notch.

After the markings the pilot received some color too. For his armor I used the same colors as for the bike and for his jumpsuit I used GW desert yellow. I gave him a few markings to go with the bike and also added a few decals onto his armor.

Then there were only details left to do, painting the console + guns, adding endless highlights for each and every scratch on the model and making the final assembly.

Rider with alternative head, of course wearing some smart goggles as 400+ mph will make your eyes hurt and transform every bug into a bullet:

  

- Someone forgot to glue the transparent headlights in!

It was a lot of fun to design, build and paint it. Should you want more information on the bike, visit Wild House Models!

Cheers and thanks for having a look,

Mati