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Hi,

Waiting for the new Ork releases next year but wanted to paint them another colour than green, is this allowed (fluffwise)? Know some tribes use warpaint but are there any blue/purple/red orks etc...

Cheers

Jeff

what i am about to say comes from someone who has been building scale models for 25+ years . (man i feel old now) anytime i built something whether it was a car, plane or armor, someone would come out of the woodwork & say "it's nice ... but , this or that is not right, or fit the squadron, or time period, ect..ect..." now i build these models(40k) witch has more of a purpose than sitting on a shelf collecting dust. the other cool thing is there is no real being or object to represent a model so everything is up to your imagination. i'll give you an example when i was building my tau i couldn't decide what scheme to paint my kroot so i let the person in my house w/ the most imagination my 3yr old daughter not one kroot had the same color scheme & all together in a squad they look great & i get complimented by everyone who sees my "rainbow coalition" kroot. so in my opinion they're your models paint them how you want & enjoy them. sorry if i rambled on to much. 

The short answer - They are your models, you can paint them whatever damn color you want.

The longer answer - The 'fluff' says they are green. But fluff is not a rule. Yes, most orks are green as are most trees (and orks are supposed to be plant based life). However, plants of many different colors exist. You can paint them something other than green and say that something in the atmosphere of whatever planet they 'grew' on changed their skin color.

I saw some brown orcs in a really old book about Games Workshop. They were probably for 2nd edition Fantasy Battles, but what the hey?

Of course, Death Skulls are generally blue (due to their characteristic warpaint).

Well they hav algae under their skin you gota wide range brown, red and grey. Algae apear in all that colours. An Ork clan can decide to cover all its bodyparts in warpaint nothing unusual.

Not in the least: there are great images of old orks painted as space monkeys (i.e. flesh-colored), red, blue, black--pretty much whatever color you like. My Warlord Orcs are a ruddy brown, for example.

The fluff may say they are green, but the fluff also says that they are fungal creatures.

I dont recall seeing much fungus that was green. Sure there are lichens and such that are green, but green isnt a hue that normally enters the Kingdom of Fungoids.

That said, you would be perfectly withing rights to paint Orks nearly any damn colour you want, as I can show you reference materials for fungus that would make your eyes bleed from their vivid colours.

The above was for the benefit of fluff nazis who HAVE to have a fluff rationale for anything they do.

I say go for it. They can be any colour you want them to be.

Go for it. You'll have a unique and cool looking army.