Thursday, March 18, 2010

Reinventing the Ork Battle Fortress







Until the latest batch of ork vehicles, released by Forgeworld, the collection on their website was grossly outdated. I recently had a client approach me with a project involving the original battle-fortress from forgeworld. Essentially, I was asked to update the model to be used as an ork super heavy vehicle. The customer had few specifications in mind (grot riggers, wrecking ball, big gun...) The project seemed simple enough. But what I would get in the mail changed all that.

To begin, this was no out of the bag forgeworld model. It had been purchased off ebay and had been previously assembled and painted.

LAW OF WILL states: any forgeworld ebay purchase that has been touched by un skilled hands will be an unholy abomination of misery to the buyer.

Having received the forwarded package in the mail. It was time to assess the damage. The entirety of the upper half of the model was in a crumbling state of decay. The model was not properly heated and shaped to fit together and the adhesive of choice was what appeared to me to be gorilla glue. Great if you wanna glue your drunk unconscious roommate to his computer chair, but not the least bit ideal for models. The model's original paint was red spray on top of un primered un scrubbed resin. Yikes. I began by ripping off everything on the model until only the tracks and the underbody remained. Knowing what original part of the model I could use in this update, I sketched a rough idea down on paper. I wanted this model to encompass the design updates that gw had made to the ork miniature collection. Sheet Styrene and would allow me to realize this vision.




To ensure a clean and sturdy restructuring, I rebuilt the deck of the wagon with styrene and anchored it into the resin with thick brass rods. Once I had built the frame of the new cockpit and integrated it into the original chassis, I was ready to add panels and walls to the structure.


The solid construction could now be given the "big mek's touch". Different gauge Hexagonal styrene rod sliced thin created the menagerie of different bolts and screws that appear to hold the structure together. A couple of reinforced plates and metal teeth were the finishing touches on the model. All was not lost from the original piece. I magnetized the zzap guns and and added magnetic mounts to the deck of the vehicle and created an option for a cannon on the top deck that could be swapped for a wrecking ball.



All in all this was a very successful salvage/ scratch build. Considering the steep price of the model 190.00 BPS new, it would have been a shame to let it go to waste.

I hope you all enjoyed my experience with this project and please comment or ask questions. This is my first post and I am happy to be a part of the site. If you are more interested in what I do or would like to inquire about my services feel free to email me at willtopaint@yahoo.com or check out my photobucket Page.

-Will
WilltoPaint

http://s543.photobucket.com/home/willtopaint/allalbums

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