I have been fascinated with Orks for as long as I can remember, when you make them space Orks with guns and rockets well I am hooked. I had a chance recently to paint up a Painboy from the Warhammer 40k game. Painboys are part medic, part mechanic and all caring medical professional as they patch up a lost limb and replace it with a rocket launcher or flamethrower. To help you get those Orks on the table quicker than a Grot gets out of the way when the Warboss is cranky I have put together this guide.

Rather than go into every detail I will only going to go into the process for the skin and the metal but I have included all the other paints I used below.

Base coat

Black Army Painter Primer

White Army Painter Primer

Skin

Vallejo German Cam. Dark Green 979 from the Flames of War range

Vallejo Game Colour Sick Green 72.029

Vallejo Model Colour Off White 70.820

Metal

Army Painter Gun Metal

Secret Weapon Blue Black Wash

Vallejo Model Air Silver 71.063

Blood

Army Painter Pure Red

Vallejo Model Colour Orange Red 70.910

Games Workshop Blood for the Blood God

Other

Vallejo Game Air Ultramarine Blue 72.722

Vallejo Game Colour Electric Blue 72.023

Vallejo Model Colour Iraqi Sand 70.819

Vallejo Model Colour Pale Sand 70.837

Army Painted Desert Sand

Vallejo Game Colour Bright Bronze 72.057

*Note - These random paints are just what I have lying around from various projects however you can use approximations and obtain the same result, basically a dark green is a dark Green no matter brand.

Ork Skin

There are many variations on the skin tone of the 40k Orks and all of them are 100% accurate. I stumbled on this particular recipe because they were the first paints I grabbed in my stash which were close to what I thought would be about right.

I follow the classic layering technique which involves a dark to light principle. Each successive layer is lighter than the last and tapers up to the highest point on the area you want painted. You can make as many layers as you want, in this case I did eight in total. The more layers you put on the smoother the transitions will be. I do not use a wash for the skin and while I recognise it is a great shortcut I sometimes feel this technique allows me a little bit more control over the colour variation.

I start with an even coating of the dark green then follow it up with a 50/50 dark green/sick green. For this stage I paint most of the skin leaving only the deep recesses in the original colour. The next layer will be 25/75 dark green/sick green and then straight sick green.

I then use a different ratio when I introduce the off white as it has a much stronger effect on the overall colour. Initially it may be as low as 95/5 sick green/off white then scales up each time, you will get a feel for it. With each layer really concentrate on the focus points, it may look a bit ordinary at this stage but don’t worry, it will all come together.

Eventually you will get to a point you are happy with the layers and you can then move on. As I mentioned earlier this is 8 layers but only took me an hour to do all of them.

Metal

I have a very simple recipe for metal and the first step is a coat of the Army Painter Gun Metal metallic paint. I use this on every bit of metal such as guns, blades and armour, it is a fantastic paint. I then use a Blue/Black wash from secret weapon and finally a silver from Vallejo to mark the highlights like the edge of blades. This is a very simple yet effective way to make your metals look good.

Adding simple effects like a bit of blood can really add to your miniatures, in this case I used Blood for the Blood God. It was the first time I have used it and I was really impressed with how well it maintains its rich colour after application.

I hope this little guide may give all you Ork enthusiasts an alternate way to paint that skintone so it really pops and lets all the humies know you are on the table!

Patch's Paint Tutorial - Ork Painboy