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As I mentioned in a thread in P&M, I'm starting an Ork army.  While the bulk of construction won't occur until I get my hands on the new rules and models, there's plenty of work I can do.  While I plan on picking up some Stormboyz and basic shoota boyz, right now I have a GorkaMorka box, a few GorkaMorka blisters, and a pocket full of dreams.

My goal with this thread is simple: show what painting an army from the ground up looks like, and help to motivate myself to do it.  My schedule is pretty simple, I want to make at least some progress every week that's not finals or when a Writing assignment is due. 

I finally got around to sifting through the box, and found a little bonus: an extra frame and a half of boyz, giving me 18 total!  Thrilled with this, I assembled two batches of four.  One got primed white (it's what I had at the time), and the other is currently being primed black.  Here are some pics boyz unprimed:

Note: those unprimed boyz are the ones that are currently getting primed black.  I don't have any pics of the white primed boyz pre-paint, but I can assure you that they looked brilliantly white.

I want to stick with a fairly simple color scheme, as befit a no-nonesense army like Orks.  I'm not sold on any particular clan or warband color scheme, so I'm free to design my own theme.  Obviously the skin needs to be green, but I want to avoid the cartoony bright green and I'm aiming for a darker, more "realistic" tone.  To do this, I laid down a coat of USA Olive Drab on the skin.  The basic uniform leather was painted Flat Earth, which is a great tannish/brown.  The pants were painted Maroon.  While it's a little flashy, every image anybody has of Orks, both in photos and game play, virtually ignore the legs.  A little zest won't hurt anything on the legs.

A few models had fur, that got painted Smoke, which is a finicky dark brown, and I'll almost certainly replace it with something that goes on smoother.  Anything metal that is going to be highly rusted got painted Delta Ceramcoat Autumn Brown (I think, the label has worn off).  Metal areas that will be painted metallic were painted black.  While the determination was sort of arbitrary, close combat weapons and non-moving parts of sluggas will get highly rusted.  Moving parts (barrels, clips, etc) and jewelry will be metallic.  A few spot colors are getting painted Turquoise, which contrasts incredibly with the drab, nuetral colors of the rest of the model.  finally, the base got painted DC Autumn Brown (huh, I guess I don't know what the dark brown actually is). 

Note: unless otherwise mentioned, all paint colors are Valljo Model Colors, not Game Colors.

Here is an image with base colors:

Next, I inked the models with thinned down Model Color Black Ink.  This went over the entire model:

Keep in mind, these models are simply test models for the overall army color scheme, but already I like where they are going.  More to come once the work gets done!

P.S.: I'm having some difficulties with getting good images with my camera.  It's a Samsung S630, and if anybody has any advice, please let me know!

 

A good start to a solid test for your color scheme.  So far the colors are working rather well with one another.  Once you start getting more of the detailing and highlighting in will be the real test though.  Limiting your palette will help tie the army together, but I don't think you need to be afraid of taking wild chances with the secondary colors, and hell, even the primaries.  Subtle variations in the Ork skins will also go a long way toward showing the level of thought you're putting into the army.  I'd suggest that if you mix it up with colors, that at least one or two of the other colors stay in theme.  For example, should you decide that you want Ork 38 to have a Brown/black leather get up, his pants should be in red and his skin the dark normal tone.  Or if Ork 53 needs khaki pants, his leathers should be the tan/brown you have in these pictures.  I'm sure you get the idea. >.>...

I'm really looking forward to seeing how these guys come along. 

Oh and Warpaint is your friend!

Painting on black with your palette will be easier and faster - so a good call there.

I like the colors, some more glazing and highlighting/drybrushing and you'd be set. It's so nice to see those Gorka Morka Orks, for some reason I've always liked them a lot. Particularily the metal Nob models.

I like the really dark look you've got going there on the skin.
Eagerly awaiting more stuff!

I'm in class right now, so I can't post any new pics, but last night I added a little work. As I stated above, the weapons were partially painted brown in expectation of getting a rich rust tone. I've had good results with it in my BFSP night gobbos, and I'm going to re-use it here for non-moving parts.

It's not a tricky technique, and it's taken right from the Ogre Kingdoms army book. Simply paint the surface in dark brown, then stipple (stabbing straight down with a dry-ish and preferably old brush) with both a flesh tone and bright orange. AFter that, dry brush the surface Gun Metal, and voila! You have a nicely rust looking area. The advantages of this technique are that it's quick, easy, can be done sloppily, and if you want less rust, simply use a heavier Gunmetal dry brush at the end.

As a bonus tip, I applied the rust before I painted the metallic areas, so any spill over simply got painted over at the end.

I'll try to get some pics up of what I've got tonight, and if I'm really lucky I can get the first highlight on and photoed as well.

Ok, now I have a few questions for my adoring fans.

1) the gorka morka orks have the delightfully ugly studded leather bodies. From my quick glance, it appears that the current Boyz box does not have them. If they don't, I'm stimply going to ignore the studs, and simply highlight them as normal. If they do have them, is there any advice on how to deal with them?

2) Part of me wants to blackline the metallic weapons, even those that are heavily rusted. Any advice on how that will look, or should I simply try it and see if it's worth doing? My current concern is that the rusted areas sort of blend together.

Ok, as promises here are some pics of the rust effects I've painted.  From here out, when I refer to rust, I'm going to refer to the four paint scheme (brown/flesh/orange/gunmetal), because even "bare" metal is going to get a brown and black wash for a light rust treatment.

This first picture really shows off the rust effects:

The actual colors used were a Delta Ceramcoat dark brown, which I'm now thinking is actually Walnut as a base, with Ral Partha Amerindian and DC Bright Orange stippling.  The metallic on both the rust and the bare metal is a late run Reaper Pro-Paint Steel Plate.  I say late run, because the first pot I bought was closer to GW chainmail, while this is pretty close to Boltgun.  I like it because it's a touch lighter than most gunmetals, goes on smooth, and is in a pot rather than a dropper.  Both have their place, but I love the convenience of a pot from time to time.  This shot also shows off the fur which I painted Smoke.

The second picture is the same boy, this time showing him head on.  I need to focus on the knife a little better (next time), but you can see how the rust appears on a bladed instrument.

here's a close up of the knife.  My camera is pretty limited (or my ability to use it is limited, which is more likely....), but I think it shows the rust pretty well.

Looking at a new boy, here is a pic of a choppa weilding ork:

 

Finally, a close up of the choppa.  If you're getting bored of looking at rusty ork weapons, have no fear, I should be adding a highlight or two to the skin in the next few days.

Looks like an effective enough technique.  Definitely gets the job done and without much fuss.  Might give that a go on some one off models sometime soon.

I added a drybrush of Luftwaffe Green, and I think it's a little too bright.  I picked up a bottle of VMC Extra Dark Green, which as the name cleverly implies, is a very dark green.  Regardless, here's a pic of the initial dry brush:



You can also see the result of the brown ink wash on the shoota.

Here are some more pics:








Coming up tonight or tomorrow morning are pictures of the boys with the full first highlight, and the beginning of the wash debate.  Also, the four black primed boyz are getting their base coat.  (I've been wanting to come up with a clever orky name for them, but couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't be horribly insensitive)

The great wash debate is referring to what, if any washes I'm going to apply beyond the basic black wash after the base coat.  Part of me wants to ink the boys with Vallejo Game color Dark Green Ink, and then apply a final highlight, and also ink the leather brown.  I'll try it on one of the boys, and see how it looks.

I like that rust technique quite a bit, it's a lot nicer looking than my lazy approach. It looks more like rust too.

I'm pretty sure the new boyz don't have studs, let me check at home though. the fantasy orcs are covered in the damn things, they're a *female dog* to paint.
Keep the pictures coming!

All right, coming back at you with some minor updates.  First up, the long awaited basecoat on Orks primed black:

 

As you can see by comparing these boys to the white primed ones, they're darker and grittier.  I like it alot, and will probobly run with it.

Here are some nearly complete orks.  I've added some static grass, touched up the inside of the gun barrels, and inked the skin with Vallejo Dark Green Ink,:

The dark Green ink tied the color together a little better, and the static grass always looks nice. 

Here's my question for the peanut gallery: should I attempt a color scheme with black/dark grey leather?  I've seen some examples online, and it looked really good with the dark green and a blue/grey pants.  Any comments?