Heyyy, it’s me, again. Seeing as I got bored with the previous version of Olisi, I decided to try once again to craft a different variant, this time with far larger proportions. In addition, I have once again returned with my paints, this specific model sporting somewhere in the ballpark of 15 painted parts, all done by yours truly.
Goodness me, this mask. It has consumed more paint than any other piece, and I can’t stop ogling it. I painted it initially with a rusty, crusty look, but halfway through, it felt like this model of the Olisi Kanohi mask had a sort of grate-like mouth, as if something could spill out. Therefore, I began painting green at the lip, as if some sort of nasty bile or other blighting substance was spilling out from within him.
This MOC is riddled with issues, mainly in the legs. Yes, I know they’re ugly and gappy. There is a definite room to improve those legs. I may also try to paint the head and make it one eyed. The arms are a bit floppy, and the feet have terrible stability IMO. Despite these flaws, I’m still happy I could get this out. This MOC has consumed a ton of my time, and has been months in the making.
Gonna be honest with you, the departure from the longer, gangly-lookin’ Olisi, while he received better proportions, didn’t really feel like him anymore. It’s nice to see a return to form.
Obviously it comes down to the parts availability in one’s collection, but the red axles on this thing jump out at me, especially on the ankles. Probably just because the rest of the model is so dark, and has fairly decent color-blocking to boot. Greys, browns, and silvers all come together to pair surprisingly well with the rusted custom pieces.
Proportionally, this Olisi is a mile ahead of his other long-legged iterations, feeling massive but not cartoonish. Whereas before he felt like a horror game deviantart OC, here he feels like a threatening presence with just enough ambiguity in his design that it’s impossible to tell if he is an ancient sage of some long-forgotten civilization or an undying threat.
My only two real complaints are that the knees are extremely bare and flat, especially in comparison to the puffy shins, and I was a bit surprised to not see something covering them. The other is his chest gives an extremely muscular impression while the rest of his body does not, and the lead-in from the chest to the gnarled intestine tubes in his midsection gives me the mental image of a college jock too happy to be on steroids but not willing to admit he uses them (this may be colored by my knowing too many people like that ).
Overall though, tremendous step forward all around. If only one thing could be different, I’d flip those pieces on the shins around the other way, so they taper down instead of up. Fantastic work!
You and me both. That model, although most definitely well-designed for stability and a more compact form, also felt terribly limiting- I could barely get him to even sit- (Which this model thankfully can do)- Which drove me crazy. It had barely even been a month before I tore it apart and started all over again.
At this point, I can’t even do anything about it. My economy is nothing but blue pins and red axels.
This was actually because of my original inspiration for this MOC, which soon became vestigial when I shifted my focus over from it. The original idea was for this character to be a sort of ghoul, some sort of hungry monster that would run amok. But that idea shifted as I began to make the chest. Now I imagined some sort of great figure, some warrior aged and ravaged by the course of time, yet still standing with a mangled blade clutched in a battered, bloody hand.
In fact, that’s when I got my inspiration from this:
It’s very likely I will update this model accordingly. I am looking at possibly painting half the face to give a blinded look, rebuilding the sword to incorporate more gold, as well as possibly introducing gold as highlights to contrast the rust, and as you already mentioned, modifying the legs so that they’re more of a cohesive whole.
I like the tube-filled torso, and the little prickly plants add a lot to the arms. The chain-covered head definitely helps with the aesthetic, and the painted parts also help well to convey it. I also like how the arms are still slightly disproportionate, persisting the off-putting proportions of previous versions. Great work!
This MOC is excellent! The custom parts on this build look exceptional, and the build quality really communicates that diminished/withered aesthetic you seem to have going on. The abdomen looks brilliant, and the proportions are spot-on. Maybe the arms are a bit long, but here it’s not a problem because it adds to the aesthetic. I like the blood on the sword; it tells so many stories just looking at it. Really, the biggest complaint I would have is that chest, which looks kind of like… how do I put this? It looks feminine to say the least. I don’t know if you were aiming for that look. I haven’t seen the prior versions, so you tell me: Was it intentional or not? You already said that the legs can use improvement, so I won’t bother knowing that you are very aware of that. Great MOC with great presence!
Completely irrelevant suggestion, but perhaps the gear mechanism could churn the visible tubes in some fashion? Might give them the impression of being alive. Not sure how you’d do that though.
I had the same initial impression about the chestplate, and I think it’s just because I’m used to nearly every female BIONICLE model using similarly curved pieces. I doubt that impression would go away even if they were flatter and more matched male pectoral structure, just because of the association. You could consider the muscle chestplate from Hero Factory Breakout as an alternative - I used it a lot when I was making a lot more BIO-MOCs.
The legs would probably not be as much the issue as you think they are with some more encompassing armor. If this were my MOC I’d probably stick a whole foot piece on the front of the shin and add in some extra details on the sides/calves. That particular foot piece is also a little odd to use because the joint is higher up than usual. Looking at the Brutaka you used for comparison, that Piraka foot might be the best wide foot you can go for.
I think it’s worth asking yourself, what are you getting out of the custom limbs that you can’t get from prefabricated limb parts? Just height? It seems like most of the problems you’ve mentioned come as a result of the larger MOC scale, and could be tightened up with a slightly smaller scale closer to the reference Brutaka.
Also poseability, compatibility, and to a lesser extent, bulk. I don’t have a ton of prefabricated parts, or at the very least, my imagination may be a bit stunted. As far as I can tell, if I used a different leg design, there’s a very good chance the legs couldn’t bend backwards on account of the need for the extra bendy bits at the waist. On top of that, I don’t have too many CCBS pieces that would be of appropriate size and proportion. I don’t want him looking like he’s got stubby legs.
I don’t have those parts unfortunately. Hero Factory took a backseat when I started getting sets.
).
