Constructing an Orky Settlement

Inspiration!

Back in the early '90s, I pored over these sorts of images for ages in White Dwarf magazine, imagining how these battles played out. I loved seeing the wacky, colourful Orks facing off against the puny humans or poncy Eldar, particularly when they were defending their ramshackle townships (probably erected in the ruins of whatever Imperial settlement the Orks had recently razed to the ground). Although it's easy to always see Orks as the perennial invaders, I loved the idea of recreating an Ork settlement and thinking about what that would look like. These blocky, sand coloured buildings always stood out for me and, though junk buildings made out of scrap have become a bit more the norm, I really wanted to have some of these for myself. 

Objectives

I had a few objectives in mind for making these buildings:

• Make them quick and easy to build using polystyrene I already had knocking about
• Replicate that old '90s look
• Be simple buildings to block line of sight and provide good gun emplacements, so good for gaming
• Provide an opportunity for my young daughter (she was 2 at the time) to paint them with me 

So nothing too fancy, cheap and cheerful and fun for gaming. I don't think there's anything overly complicated about constructing them, but I thought I would do a sort of step-by-step in case anyone needed inspiration. They certainly made a good project to do with a toddler, succeeding in entertaining the toddler and giving me something I could use in my games of 40k! 

Construction

I had a bunch of blocky polystyrene in the shed to use up. I cut it with a mixture of a big sharp knife (one I actually forged myself!) and a hot wire cutter. The hot wire cutter is an antique relic from the old days of Games Workshop that I still had in my toolbox! I found that the knife was generally better for getting flat surfaces on the big blocks, but the hot wire cutter is good for smaller bits. 

I roughly planned out three buildings of different sizes and shapes (Ork architects don't conform, of course!). I used PVA for sticking the blocks together, with cocktail sticks stabbed in for additional support and holding the pieces together. These worked very well - you could almost get away without the glue. Obviously I kept the toddler away for this stage! 

For this first bunch of buildings, I just wanted them to have a stone parapet round the outside. I had some thinner polystyrene sheets as well, so I used those to encase the larger blocks to make solid walls from ground up to the parapet. I used the Ork models to make sure they were about the right height for providing cover but letting the boyz shoot over the top. Nothing too precise, again, but fairly uniform.   

 

Painting

I used super cheap poster paints to do these. I mixed up tubs of paint, PVA, sand and water to get a consistency I liked, then used that straight onto the polystyrene. The sand gave it a good texture, the PVA stuck it all together and helped fill in any gaps in the polystyrene blocks. The mixture also made the outside tougher, good for gaming. They dried out in the sun and I was really pleased with the results - looked just like what I was after. The little squig had a good go at painting them as well, she enjoyed herself. 

After they had dried, I stuck on some doors, trapdoors and ladders that I made out of lollipop sticks and painted brown. Then I painted grey on the bases to match my gaming mats and did some simple black and white patterns. A lot of the inspiration pictures have more colours on them than this, but my main klan is Goffs so I kept it simple - just pushing the boat out by doing one of them with dags instead of checks! Again, being that it would have been Orks painting it, I didn't measure or draw guidelines, just got the poster paint out and slapped it on! 

Second Generation

I had a couple more polystyrene blocks that were a bit more dense and just the right size for some Orks to stand on, so I made a couple more buildings! This time, I wanted to try using some scraps of wood for palisades round the roof, so I chopped up some lollipop sticks and made some rough walls. These were all glued together using PVA and left to dry before painting them brown and then attaching to the painted buildings. I used PVA again, as well as securing them into the polystyrene with small nails - if these showed on the outside then they would look like whacking great Ork nails anyway! It definitely helps to think a bit like an Ork when doing things like this, and not getting too bogged down in details. The PVA was still drying when I took the photos, I'll have to take some more when I finish doing the bases of these ones, but as they stand I reckon job's a good 'un! 

Final Thoughts

These buildings will easily fill enough of a decent table (along with some suitable scatter terrain) to provide plenty of cover and an interesting battlefield to fight over. They were super cheap to make and good fun with a little helper. I might come back to do a little more details in the future - maybe some more colourful patterns, possibly some graffiti, maybe a bit of a wash on the bases and woodwork. But I'll see, part of me is really happy with them as they are, super simple and effective. They don't need to be overcomplicated. Besides, the boyz wouldn't be bothered about that sort of thing!