Retro 40k Duck Style

Hello World,

Long time no update, but rest assured I have been working on some more retro Orks over the holiday period, in addition to the obligatory meat selection and minced pies.

I wanted to add some period terrain to go alongside the models that I have done and what says 90’s 40k better than retro spikey Jungle Trees? I wanted to share my process with you here.

First up I grabbed my extremely old, but trusty hot wire cutter and some expanded polystyrene blocks I have been hanging onto for ages.

These are then shaped into roughly the size and shapes that I wanted. I did not want them all being exactly the same sizes, so I tried to vary heights and shapes a little.

Next step involved creating my own custom jungle plant foilage – this is basically a 1:1 mix of cheap PVA glue and quick drying filler, this is then daubed (you can’t really brush it) on to the polystyrene balls, this takes a bit of time and I go back and spike up the mixture during the drying process to add some asymettry to the mixture, so it doesn’t just dry all smooth.

This gets left for 24 hours to dry and then gets hit with a black rattle can primer. The filler/PVA mix protects all the polystyrene to prevent it being destroyed. Then it is a simple case of drybrushing the colours you want. I went for a classic GW bright green.

In the background of the second picture the eagle eyed among you will notice the red spikes in progress!

The red cocktail sticks are then stuck and PVA glued into Jungle tree balls.

After the glue is dry, I painted in some black towards the base of the red spikes and that was pretty much that. Really simple, but can’t wait to get these onto the table for my second edition games.