Tutorial: How to paint the Ork shanty town terrain from Kill Team: Octarius

In this tutorial I’m going to explain how to get the Ork shanty town terrain from Kill Team: Octarius ready in no time, while matching the colour palette of the Octarius gaming boards. This technique works very well for all sorts of terrain and also Ork vehicles, so make sure to check it out.

This tutorial assumes you know the basic grips of painting Warhammer miniatures. Step-by-step I explain all the paints and techniques I used. I have a rather eclectic paint collection, so when I use a paint that is not from Games Workshop (or out of production), I’ll try to provide you with suitable alternatives from the current Citadel paint range [in brackets]. However, if you want to achieve exactly the same result as shown, I recommend expanding your paint collection. You’ll find a list of all the paints used in this tutorial at the end of the post.

How to paint Ork shanty town terrain

Basecoat the terrain pieces with Matt Black Colour Primer from The Army Painter [or your favourite black primer], then paint the areas the primer didn’t catch with Matt Black Warpaint [or Abaddon Black].

Pick out a few details with Castellax Bronze.

Pick out some more details with Vallejo Mecha Color Dark Steel [or Leadbelcher].

Wash the brass areas with Agrax Earthshade Gloss.

Wash the steel details with Nuln Oil Gloss.

Drybrush the whole terrain piece with Vallejo Mecha Color Dark Steel [or Leadbelcher]. The Army Painter’s Masterclass Drybrushes are ideal for this, as are soft round tip make-up brushes. Wipe the paint thoroughly and be gentle to prevent streaking.

Use a ripped piece of sponge, dab it into Rhinox Hide and wipe away any excess paint, then dab it onto the edges of the model in an irregular way to create a weathered effect.

Repeat the process with Gorthor Brown, but apply it more sparingly over the areas you stippled with Rhinox Hide.

Apply a final layer of Vallejo Mecha Color Light Steel [or Stormhost Silver] with your sponge. Use it even more sparingly.

Pick out a few more details with Averland Sunset. You might need a few coats for an even result.

Shade the yellow areas by adding a selective wash of Reikland Fleshshade.

Highlight the yellow with Morghast Bone. I applied the highlight in a slightly irregular way for a chipped look and also added a few scratches.

I completed the yellow with a final edge highlight of Screaming Skull.

I basecoated any bandages parts with Corax White.

The bandages were then washed with Agrax Earthshade.

To make the terrain pieces better blend into the Octarius Game Board, I drybrushed the lower third of the model with XV-88, adding more pressure towards the bottom.

Finally, I gave the lower half of the area drybrushed with XV-88 another drybrush, this time with Zandri Drust, again adding more pressure towards the bottom of the model.

Here we have the finished terrain piece. As you can see, I concentrated on painting only the bare minimum of details of the sculpt, so feel free to pick out more armour plates and junk pieces. My approach of painting terrain is less is more, it will allow you to churn out a lot of terrain pretty fast and won’t draw the attention away from your miniatures.

The colour palette matches the design of the Octarius gaming board, but you could swap the yellow with a colour that matches your Ork collection – red for Evil Sunz, blue for Deathskullz, and so on. This tutorial also works great for other buildings and Ork vehicles in general.

Paints you will need for this tutorial:

If you need to expand your paint collection to follow the tutorial, check out our partner stores Wayland Games and Element Games, which offer an amazing range of paints at a discount.

Do you need some more terrain painting inspiration? Check out my tutorial for painting the old Cities of Death buildings in a deep crimson paint scheme:

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If so, leave a comment or reaction below, and if you got any questions, leave them here so I can answer them for you.