OC Redesign: Kurgan

Speaking of one of my most beloved characters let me introduce you to Kurgan, the half-orc barbarian.
For today's standards, a half-orc barbarian is pretty much a common thing to behold in roleplaying games. Back then in late '90s, half-orcs were not that common and there was no such a well-established imaginary as today about them.

Plus, Kurgan was a Middle-Earth half-orc, something very different from the WOW/D&D canon.
A half-orc (or more properly man-orc) in the Tolkien canon can be referred to the a specific magical breed of orcs, hybridated with humans - or vice-versa - developed by Saruman in Orthanc (forget the movie crap about Saruman breeding the Uruk-Hai: those were a special breed of Orcs made by Sauron in Mordor, while Saruman bred the Men-Orcs or Half-Orcs - the two things might well be the same, but also otherwise; like many things in Tolkien, this is deliberately kept vague and undefined). Or, the half-orcs could have been a particular breed of Southrons, the Variags, that in some appendix are implied to have mated with Orcs from Mordor. The results were the so-called, very rare Half-Orcs or Men-Orcs.
Whatever... Kurgan was a "Middle-Earth half-orc". As so, he wasn't (only) a hulking brute, but he was also a cunning mind, although totally dedicated to warfare, battle and bloodlust. Even if his kin was described as inherently Evil, Kurgan was not evil per-se. He certainly was brutal, aggressive, violent and pragmatic, but not evil. He was however destined to struggle against this inherently evil nature of his race - and this was very interesting to play out. He was a berserker, meaning he indulged in a bloodlust frenzy when in battle; but he was also best friends with the Elven warrior Belrain, and in love with a human maiden, Estrella.

The original design for Kurgan (here pictured in his last "evolution", when he was pretty high-level, and wielding two greatswords) was more human-like than orc-like, sporting "only" a powerful frame, black skin and yellow eyes, pointed ears and teeth as proof of his hybrid nature. He was also pretty handsome, for human standards. For this redesign, I tried to push this concept a little to make him look more "orcish" yet still basically human-like, in both body proportions and general looks. I made his face more recognizable as a human/orc hybrid while still trying to maintain his rugged good looks. I also gave him two orcish-shaped scimitars, heavy and stubby but still reasonably maneuverable. I'm pretty happy of this redesign: I think it preserves the essence of the character updating him to a more plausible look.