CLEAN UP Cut off more parts than you think you will need, so you can  try different options out. I cut the parts off the sprue with  side-cutters, the sprue is quite chunky so be careful and don’t try chopping at it with your knife. When I had figured out  what parts I needed for a properly gruesome Orc, I set about  cleaning them up before assembly. I cleaned the parts up with  a very sharp scalpel, there was very little to do in fact, just  scraping along the mould lines to remove these and removing  any sprue marks. ASSEMBLY For strength I used superglue and an accelerator for the initial  sticking, and then flooded the joints with liquid solvent  cement. The only slightly fiddlely bit is the jaw, which is a  separate piece to allow a really massive gape! Fit the jaw  before you attach the head to the body. Fortunately the jaw  has a slight bit of spring to it and locates and stays in place  ready for gluing, so you can do the wide open look or, well,  they don’t close like our teeth do, but the look good closed up too.

Then fix the head to the body, again you will have plenty of  options to move the heads about before final gluing. And then  attach arms and weapons. It is essential to choose the most  suitable arms for the body you have selected, if you want the  Orc anatomy to look good on the finished model. Try different  arms, temporarily fixing them in place with blue tack.  THE LAST THING BEFORE PAINTING The last thing I did was to glue the Orc to a bit of plasticard that fitted perfectly the recess in the bases supplied with the set.  This was so I could just pop him in the base when he was done  and then do the base texturing. I could have drilled and stuck a  pin in his leg ready to attach him to anyone of the many  aftermarket resin textured bases; maybe I will do that for the  next ones! UNDERCOATING Undercoating is essential as it provides a consistent surface on  which to apply the next coats of paint, and it shows up the  detail on a model much more clearly than shiny grey plastic.  

Above left. I cleaned the parts up with a very sharp scalpel, there was very little to do in fact, just scraping along the mould lines  to remove these and removing any sprue marks. Above right. Fit the jaw before you attach the head to the body.  

Below. Fix the head to the body, you will have plenty of  options to move the heads about before final gluing. then the  arms and weapons.

Below. The fully assembled Orc  primed first with aerosol grey car  primer, spray on lightly so as not  the clag the detail.