Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello all!

Im paintting up my first ork infantry units. I have painted a few test models with slightly different uniform schemes. I like them all and had the idea of having my infantry units..my runts.. having similar but slightly different colored uniforms. or different units haveing different scheme from one another..


My question is.. do you see the ork horde as being so organized that all the the same uniforms..or do you see them more rag tag..each ork aquiring the best gear anyway they can and not caring if it was within the armies color scheme..

My orks are a bit of everything. AKAIK during Waagghs!, many clans come together.

Ork Clans do have their own look eg. Evil Sunz lots of red, Blood Axes use camo.

When a WAAAGH! is called the clans come together. I've maded mine a mixture of Evil Sunz & Blood Axe. But most Ork armies you see do have a theme about them.

I'm painting all of mine the same color because I think it looks better that way. Perhaps when they raided a forge world, there was a shipment of red shirts, blue jeans, and leather vests on one barge and they divided amongst themselves. Or the Warboss wants them all one scheme so he doesn't confuse his boyz (and they don't confuse each other) with another warboss' boyz in battle. "Dat's usin' yer noggin', boyz!"

As Ugavine pointed out, Waaagh's do bring together multiple clans. Since each have their own look, there would be nothing out of place with seeing Evil suns running next to Blood Axes.

Further, I don't think that it would be out of line for a powerful warboss to gather multiple clans under his control. If he's bring them 'Propa spoils n gitz ta fight,' they would flock to him.

Perhaps you could paint each squad or unit type a different scheme? You could paint all of your slugga/choppa boys one way, all of your shoot boyz another, all of your loota/burna's one tribe, and so forth.

That's not a bad idea, actually. It would look cool. Perhaps you could paint all of the nobs like the warboss. They're from his clan and he wants them to keep the squads in line!

Switching up uniform colors and styles on different units is useful, as it makes your army striking to look at and easier to organize. When your Boyz all look the same, sorting out Shoota vs. Slugga during deployment can be a hassle, for instance. In my army, I painted my Slugga Boyz in purple/green color schemes with gold armor and white bodypaint, but Shoota Boyz wear urban camo with a little splash of blue for luck. Melee-focused 'ard Nobz are brutal and no-nonsense, so they wear almost all black, while Flash Gitz are "fancy" so they wear pink and gold, etc. It's more fun to paint and more practical to play with in my experience.

I don't think identical uniforms are very orky. Orks will certainly wear similar colours to show klan allegiance and to reflect their beliiefs, e.g. Deffskulls like blue, but a unit of them will wear a dozen different shades of blue and all worn in different ways, e.g. one boy will have blue trou and another a blue jacket. Done carefully, the whole unit will still look cohesive, without any two boyz dressed identically.

In this more then other areas, perhaps, either way is appropriate.

All the same type: It's just a very large warband.

Many different clans together: This is equally accurate, codex wise. All sorts of different clans form up for a proper waaagh.

As others have said, the latter approach is particularly useful for separating different squads that otherwise have very similar models (shootas vs sluggas).

Thanks guys!

I think blue, red, orange and khaki are going to be my sluggas squad colors. Lootas, nobs, and other units wil have different schemes also. Nobs and warboss will ahve different shades of green skin to.

I will have to give it some thought on what the name my warband.. if it is made up of several different klans....

Personally, I name my armies after one of the HQ units, just like I name my marine squads. Thus,a warband containing Warboss Grimtoof would lead to Warband Grimtoof or Waagh Grimtoof, depending on points value. The only time I ever reference this is on my army lists, as I get enough junk from my family without them known I'm naming them.

Banners or vehicles are a good way to tie in an army if you want differing squads. Just emphasizing metal bits works great as well. The green skin is fairly iconic as is, Ork's can be as wild as your imagination.