Build: Raiders of the lost Ork

Another Challenge - Another Diorama

Another Diorama based on a challenge. Seems 2022 was the year of challenges. But I get triggered when there is some limiting context and a deadline.
That one has been hosted by frontier wargaming and the task was to create a miniature around a famous movie or media event.

My Process Reversed

The tricky part is not in finding the scene, but having a miniature that somehow resembles it.
All previous projects worked the other way around - there was a mini and the mini triggered the idea, not an idea that requires a mini.

I wanted to go for an Orkish version of something.

So, what famous movie came to mind that could be done with orks?

• A love scene from Casablanca
• Marilyn Monroe as Ork
• Die hard
• The Smurfs
• Jurassic park

and so on…

Well that wasn’t leading to anything. No matter what great ideas came up I couldn’t find a matching mini, preferably a matching Ork. Or do you know curly Ork in Monroe style?

So let's just brainstorm movies with scifi flair or where the main character has a feature that might be available on existing minis - like a hat.

And that's how I came to Indiana Jones. Luckily there were some cool Ork Bitz from kromlech (https://bitsofwar.com/), that can be used to build your own mini and they got the perfect Indiana Jones head.

When I think of a matching scene, I’d say most people have the picture of the very first movies beginning in mind. In “Raider's of the lost ark” Indiana Jones is chased through a cave by a huge rolling stone.

The scene doesn’t have much detail. A ramp, some rocks on the side and a background showing the enlightened path where Dr. Jones came from.

So I just needed a cave, and a stone.

Sketching

I took a 7x5.5cm wooden block and carved a ball from styrofoam. Together with a set of printed rocks from epic basing. I had everything needed for some sketching.

The most tricky part was to get the scene dense but still get everything in it. The rolling stone requires a certain size and distance in relation to the mini. The surrounding shouldn't add much size to keep the focus and dense feeling of the cave.

It needed some trials to match that, and I even made the rock a little smaller to have enough space for the side ramp and some rocks.

I even tried to make the center view diagonal, but with one site partially open, the scene lost its narrow feeling. An open side doesn’t transmit the “there is no choice but running” feeling.

With the smaller rock everything fitted well and I started building and converting the Ork. It took some time and Milliput to put the pieces together in a way that imitates the original scene.

Converting the Miniature

The icon was put in the empty hand and is made from a skull from some GW set. I don’t remember where it was from but the backside had to be sculpted and some fingers had to be broken.

Also Indy just carried the icon in the movie but I wanted to add his whip for more character.
Therefore, the grenade in the right hand was replaced by a bent guitar string.

Putting it all together, add some modeling clay on the base and Ta-da!

Now it's time for little details. Foam, gravel and roots which are made of - well roots. And those roots were tricky to glue in place. The shape of the wall just wasn’t the natural shape they wanted to follow. So I glued every 5cm root in multiple steps - a drop of glue, fix a section root on the ground or wall, wait, repeat. The Gravel is not more than some foam, dirt and little stones.

And that’s what it looked like finally: