Revisiting the Ork Desert Fort

One of the things I liked about Cities of Death was the large Ork “town” which was there alongside the ruined Imperial Cities. I know I will never have the time, space or resources to make something similar, but I did like the concept and thought it would be nice to have some buildings for my Orks.

Many years ago I made an Ork Fort using a DVD-R spindle tub (remember those).

I used wooden sticks, plasticard, spare parts to add detail to the fort. For many years it was painted a rusty red colour, but I had never got round to finishing it off.

Getting it out I gave the model a spray of Citadel Zandri Dust.

The next stage will be to use a shade on the model.

See the workbench feature on the Ork Desert Fort.

Retiring a few projects

I was doing some clearing out of the garage and realised that in a plastic bag (of all things) were some old Ork scenery projects that I had started over a decade ago, but never got around to finishing off.

I did some hard thinking and decided that if I hadn’t finished them by now I was never going to finish them, so I threw them out. I did think that if I wanted to do some scenery it might be easier to just start again.

So which projects have I retired?

Well the first was the Ork Defence Line which was based on some Imperial scenery pieces I had got at a Games Day. I had built some scenery at GamesDay and came home with the bits. These I then decided to take apart and re-build them as an Ork Defence Line.

Another project I retired was the Ork Desert Fuel Depot which was part of an Ork Cities of Death project. I did nearly finish one Ork Desert Fort, however that one I am keeping. Having liked that I started another fort, I took an old DVD-R spindle tub and covered it in plasticard and strips of wood, as well as spare parts from Rhino and Land Raider kits. 

The final project I retired was the Stompa Gantry which was based on a broken toy crane.

I think part of the reason this was never finished was I never finished painting the Stompa!

Well I can always start these ideas again if I want to in the future, in the meantime I must try and get some of my exisiting collection painted and finished.

Inking the fort

Having gone back to my Ork Fort I decided to give the roof floor a wash of brown ink.

Now I have done this, I will drybrush the floor of the roof of the fort to highlight the detail. I will then add further washes and use some Forge World weathering powders to show a more used and worn look.

As for the walls of the fort, these I will wash, drybrush and weather, but not as heavy as the roof floor.

Still lots to do.

Ork Fort

One of the things I liked about Cities of Death was the large Ork “town” which was there alongside the ruined Imperial Cities.

I also really liked the Ork Shanty Town which was the new Forge World display at GamesDay 2009. Some great scenery in there too.

I know I will never have the time, space or resources to make something similar, but I did like the concept and thought it would be nice to have some buildings for my Ork Airfield, well at least something that could be used alongside my Ork Bommer.

So I took an old DVD-R spindle tub I had, these are available in various sizes depending on how many disks there are, I used a 25 disk tub. The first thing I did was cut up some plasticard, wooden sticks and Starbucks™ wooden stirrers into similar lengths. I also delved into my bitz box to get some parts, in the main from Imperial vehicles, ie Rhino and Land Raider doors. Then using a hot glue gun I stuck these to the side of the DVD tub. A hot glue gun is perfect for this kind of thing, as both plastic and super glues are unsuitable for this kind of model. When I thought about the floor of the fort, I did initially think about adding a series of wooden planks or metal sheets, however in the end I went with using modelling sand, which I think will look quite effective when painted and somewhat Orky. The next stage was to add rivets using cut plastic rod and plastic sprue. I used both strips of plastic rod and hexagonal rod. Using the hexagonal rod to make nuts and bolts.

Having got far as I wanted to with the scrap, I gave the model a black undercoat, the next stage was a red primer basecoat. At this stage I realised I could use it in a game.

See the full workbench pages for the fort.

Undercoating the Ork Fort

One of the things I liked about Cities of Death was the large Ork “town” which was there alongside the ruined Imperial Cities.

I also really liked the Ork Shanty Town which was the new Forge World display at GamesDay 2009. Some great scenery in there too.

I know I will never have the time, space or resources to make something similar, but I did like the concept and thought it would be nice to have some buildings for my Ork Airfield, well at least something that could be used alongside my Ork Bommer.

So I took an old DVD-R spindle tub I had, these are available in various sizes depending on how many disks there are, I used a 25 disk tub. The first thing I did was cut up some plasticard, wooden sticks and Starbucks™ wooden stirrers into similar lengths. I also delved into my bitz box to get some parts, in the main from Imperial vehicles, ie Rhino and Land Raider doors. Then using a hot glue gun I stuck these to the side of the DVD tub. A hot glue gun is perfect for this kind of thing, as both plastic and super glues are unsuitable for this kind of model. When I thought about the floor of the fort, I did initially think about adding a series of wooden planks or metal sheets, however in the end I went with using modelling sand, which I think will look quite effective when painted and somewhat Orky. The next stage was to add rivets using cut plastic rod and plastic sprue. I used both strips of plastic rod and hexagonal rod. Using the hexagonal rod to make nuts and bolts.

Having got far as I wanted to with the scrap, I gave the model a black undercoat.

This was really to ensure that when painted there would be an even tone over the model due to the diverse nature of the materials used in its construction.

See the full workbench pages for the fort.