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What colour is Ork/Orc blood?

I've seen red, black, dark green even blue. I'm doing up a wounded Ork guy and I'd like to know.

Thanks.

its green from the lore.. cause of the alge within the blood.. atleast thats what i read in the codex

In Dawn of War (the computer game), it's depicted as being dark red (darker than human blood), but in WHFB, I distinctly remember it being black.

Thanks for the quick replies.

But the Painboyz always have red all over their scrubs or smocks or whatever. Maybe I'll just mix Dark Green with Terracotta, that should give me a heavy brown of some sort. For some reason, I always thought it was black. Maybe I'm colour blind lol.

Its very dark green , looking almost black.

But people paint it red so its easier to see and mroe dramatic.

They (GW) explained it as red because it looked better on the models as red.

I think I'm going to try and go Dark Green/Black - like the shade on Dark Angel armour. The greasy brown I made just isn't doing it for me. So I guess the flesh of a wound would be roughly the same colour but perhaps a little lighter. I might through in some blue for the highlight.

its red (iron based blood system) the fungi/algae is in the skin not the blood.

Your models, your world, you decide!

ARRRRGHHHH! Dr.Spock's blood was green due to copper. Ork blood is dark green due to algae? Or not? I don't know. Iron based blood in an organism from a mushroom seems far fetched. However, the whole GW world is far fetched.

This is a paradox.

corpsesarefun wrote:its red (iron based blood system) the fungi/algae is in the skin not the blood.

Not necessarily. While Orks are described as having both a 'standard' DNA strand (though they do not mention whether this is some form of animal DNA or not) and a symbiotic algal/fungal DNA, they don't specify exactly how these interact.

There are several possibilities for how an orkish cardiovascular system could function. Get ready for some awesome Biology 101! (apologies for anything remembered incorrectly)

1) Orks are like warm-blooded animals - this would require a substance similar to hemoglobin (the iron rich protein that gives oxygenated blood its colour) to carry oxygen (O2) to all parts of the body for cellular respiration. The Carbon Dioxide (CO2) waste product is then dissolved into the plasma portion of the blood and removed in a similar fashion. Ork blood would then most likely be red, but only if hemoglobin was the O2 carrier of choice. A different biological transportation protein could result in alternate colouring. This isn't terribly far-fetched since in our world we have an O2 carrier that turns blue (called Hemocyanin) when oxygenated (and another one that turns pink, but I don't recall the name).

2) Orks are like plants with a cardiovascular system - this would result in an interesting flip-flop of the normal blood transfer system. Since algae use photosynthesis to generate food and oxygen, they would actually need a constant supply of CO2 instead of O2. This means that Orks would actually breathe in CO2 and breathe out O2, essentially the opposite of your average Dakkaite. When someone receives a traumatic injury, the higher pressure blood is much more likely to gush out. With humans this high pressure blood is oxygenated, and therefore bright red. In this situation the high-pressure Ork blood is actually low in O2 and so would be dark red, if not purple.

3) Ork blood is actually a symbiotic relationship in and of itself - this is the most interesting situation (in my opinion) and would be the most likely result of the green or black blood people have already mentioned. Since the whole reason behind a circulatory system is to get food and waste to and from every cell in the body (respectively) it's possible that the blood system itself could be another biological entity specifically suited for that purpose. The algal/fungal portion of their genetic structure could have the opposite requirements of a animal cardiovascular system (as in option #2) but also require photosynthesis to function. This means the Orkish cardiovascular system would have 'blood' travel to the lungs to replenish CO2 levels, travel to capillaries in the skin to perform photosynthesis (changing the CO2 to O2 and energy) then travel to internal organs and musculature in order to oxygenate and nourish them. If this is the case the blood could be green (since the actual oxygen carrier is an organism and not an iron-rich protein compound), blue, red or black (since algae is not necessarily green).

Note: While I do understand this is a fictional universe, meaning any serious biological discussion is a bit of a waste of time, I still think it's interesting to think about stuff like this.

As far as the OP is concerned, I agree with Alex. There is no WYSIWYG for what colour you have to paint your models (even Red Paint Jobs don't actually have to be red) so go for whatever strikes your fancy. If you really want to be true to the fluff, well then in my opinion your best bet is to either copy GW's models, go with the dark red of DoW, or maybe the blackish green of The Lord of the Rings movies.

DoW

DogOfWar wrote:Science

While this is all well and good, I think you should go with whatever color gives the best impact. You want the person looking at your wounded ork to feel like that wound could be real, and not that he got splashed with a random paint color

(Btw, it IS spelled with a K fyi)

I thought copper-based blood was blue like in crabs. I could be wrong. Ork blood I would assume greenish, but whatever is "right" or "wrong" as previously stated they are in fact YOUR models and can do whatever looks the coolest for you so have fun!

fat patty wrote:I thought copper-based blood was blue like in crabs. I could be wrong. Ork blood I would assume greenish, but whatever is "right" or "wrong" as previously stated they are in fact YOUR models and can do whatever looks the coolest for you so have fun!

Copper based blood is blue with a hint of green yes and is the base of haemocyanin i believe
but i stick to my theory, orks have nipples thus are mammals thus warm blooded and have iron based blood and algae in the skin to maximise sunlight for photosynthesis.
Red within, Green without.

Why do fungal based organisms have a cardiovascular system made up from Algae? That makes no sense, it would be like an Oak tree pumping around human blood.


Oh, and Orks don't have hair do they? They only have hair because they have hairy squigs they stick on their heads.

Howard A Treesong wrote:That makes no sense, it would be like an Oak tree pumping around human blood.

The rule of cool states that this actually makes perfect sense.

Howard A Treesong wrote:Why do fungal based organisms have a cardiovascular system made up from Algae? That makes no sense, it would be like an Oak tree pumping around human blood.


Oh, and Orks don't have hair do they? They only have hair because they have hairy squigs they stick on their heads.

They have been retconned to animals in symbiosis with fungus/algae rather than just fungus

I recall orks being described as a terrestrial animal with a symbiotic algae/fungi in them.

They've had both red and green blood before, although the newer art seems to universally have the blood red.

Howard A Treesong wrote:Why do fungal based organisms have a cardiovascular system made up from Algae? That makes no sense, it would be like an Oak tree pumping around human blood.

Check out the Ork codex, they go into great detail about how they are an amalgam of algae and fungus.

Corpsesarefun wrote:but i stick to my theory, orks have nipples thus are mammals thus warm blooded and have iron based blood and algae in the skin to maximise sunlight for photosynthesis.

Orks are most definitely not mammals. They do not sexually reproduce and they do not nurse their young (partly because they are asexual and partly because they emerge fully grown from their underground spawning pod whatsis) both of which being required to qualify as a mammal. It's very likely that if they use hemoglobin as their oxygen-carrier then they are indeed warm-blooded but, nipples or not, they cant' be classified as mammals.

They're also not hairy enough. And no, razor stubble doesn't count!

DoW

DogOfWar wrote:

Howard A Treesong wrote:Why do fungal based organisms have a cardiovascular system made up from Algae? That makes no sense, it would be like an Oak tree pumping around human blood.

Check out the Ork codex, they go into great detail about how they are an amalgam of algae and fungus.

I recall reading they grow from a spore that becomes a mushroom. The mushroom grows in a shaded spot and the ork grows in a sac in the ground and digs his way out once mature.

I paint it red for the sake of color differentiation. Green blood is hard to see on green models.

Personally I think they make the blood red just because. Just because you see red, and you know its blood. Anyone knows its blood.
"Why is there a giant pool of red on the table? Oh thats blood"
Plain and simple. Sure they used to say its black(super duper dark green) but got sick of saying oh... thats not bad painting its just Ork blood.
Do it, how you do it. Thats my 2 cents