Building the Ork Aerodrome
Aeronautica Imperialis fever has hit the BoLS crew. While I’m waiting for the Ork squadrons (or skwadrons for you purists) to arrive from Frogeworld, I thought I’d give my orks a place to land when they arrive. The design was pretty easy, I went with an old WWI style aerodrome (air base) as it seemed to fit the ork’s style. I kept it pretty simple, a runway, control tower and a couple of hangars. Construction took about 2 hours not including painting and drying.
The runway was the easiest, so we can start there. I cut a 12″ x 3″ section of plasticard. I sanded down the edges to give it a gentle slope, then scuffed up the surface to give the texture something to adhere to.
I then textured the top with some carpenter’s wood filler. I made it pretty smooth, then let it dry for a minute or two. I then came back and roughed it up a bit. Giving the top a few minutes to dry let it ‘crackle’ a little as I re-textured it.
I then covered it in a dark grey paint, followed by a lighter grey and finally a white drybrushing. The runway markings were done with Citadel’s foundation Iyanden Darksun paint.
The control tower started out with some old sprues I had sitting around. I cut them to length (about 4″) and glued them together.
For the base I used a fantasy base with some plasticard to cover up the slot. I did similar work for the control tower as well.
I used a washer and a radar dish from the whirlwind sprue to top it off.
The hangars were the most fun to build and paint. I used a new technique I learned a couple of months ago for the basic shape. Start with 2 pieces of plasticard cut to 3.5″ x 5.5″.
Wrap one of them around a coffie cup (note: this is my painting cup, I don’t drink out of it 😉 ).
Cover this one with glue then tape the second sheet on top of it. The glue needs to dry completely; for superglue this is about 2 hours.
Once the glue has dried, you can remove the tape and you are left with the two pieces of plasticard that have been laminated together in the same shape as the cup. It is a great way to make curves, and they keep their form very well. Trace the semicircular front and rear onto some plasticard and cut them out.
Don’t forget to cut out a section for the door!
I waned to have a row of checks along the front and rear of the hanger. I taped off 1/4″ on each end so that red paint wouldn’t get on there.
The pigment used in most red paints has a tendency to bleed through to colors painted over it. White checks over red paint would have left me with a very unorky pink color.
Add an ink wash and a few decals, and they are done.
And they you have it. Your very own ork aerodrome. Now I only need to wait the 6 months for forgeworld to ship to planes 🙁
