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I understand a Clan is more like a specialist than an actual group whereas a Tribe is more like a Space Marine chapter.

However clans have their own colours, does that mean you have to paint each squad differently depending on their clan in one tribe or do they all share a tribe colour?

From what i was able to understand from my codex. You can do both. If you want to do a whole clan army you can or if you want you can do a freebooter army. Which is an army composed of multiple clans if you want.

Clan = Specialty, as an example say I had some Looters in my army, they would be Deathskull clan (Blue). What if I also used Flashgits who are Bad Moonz (Yellow).
Tribe = Mixed clans


Clans have their own colour schemes, from the sound of it that means a Tribe doesn't have one unifying colour scheme and is mixed. What I'm asking is if this is true as that would means buying a looot of paint.

Yes it is true. the ork codex says that tribes or mixed of different clans

however just because the Deathskulls have lots of looters that does not mean to say all looters have to be Deathskulls. there will be some looters in every clan, freebooters are orky pirates whom generaly hire themselves out so they don't actually belong to any clan or tribe so to speak however you tribe could have some orks that resemble the freebooters so closely that they can be called freebooters...

A tribe can have a unified color scheme if you want them to. possibly they've only just achieved intersteller travel so they haven't managed to pick up any other followers to their own little Warghhh.

I use the different clan colors to keep track of who's where on the tabletop.

As others have said you can do pretty much what you want, one of the joys of painting Orks is that you can justify pretty much anything.

Hell, my Goffs have all their vehicles painted red which I just justify by having a handful of Evil Sunz in my mobs who 'paint 'em wen dere not lookin'.

Having a whole army from one clan is (to my understanding at least) not overly common in the fluff but also not unheard of either. People just tend to paint them like that as it makes them look more cohesive on the tabletop.

So yeah, do whatever you want, with Orks, it's all cool.

Clans are more like an ideal or certain philosophy about life that orks share. It can span across tribes (and some tribes have no clan or is composed of several) and units don't have to belong to any certain clan. Lootas might often be Deffskullz but certainly not always.
A full scale WAAAAGH! is almost guaranteed to contain several, if not all of the clans, due to the sheer amount or tribes and, indeed, orks present.

Hindenburg wrote:Clans are more like an ideal or certain philosophy about life that orks share. It can span across tribes (and some tribes have no clan or is composed of several) and units don't have to belong to any certain clan. Lootas might often be Deffskullz but certainly not always.
A full scale WAAAAGH! is almost guaranteed to contain several, if not all of the clans, due to the sheer amount or tribes and, indeed, orks present.

This. Tribes are composed or one, or more warbands. A single warband will usually be made up of a single Ork clan, as orks of like-minds tend to hang together. Likewise, a single warband can also compose of mobs from differing clans. Therefore, you can have a warband, and thus a tribe composing of a single mass of like-minded orks. Alternatively, you can also have a warband, and thus tribe, comprise of mobs from various clans, and this is usually the case in a Waaagh! as multiple warbands break up and combine over the course of their great green crusade.

It's also worth keeping in mind that although Looters are generally associated with Dethskulls, Flash Gitz with Bad Moonz and so on, they're only the general representative of their respective Ork cultures. That means you'll find Lootas that are Goffs, or Evil Sunz or what have you, and you'll have Bad Moon Warbikers, or Snakebite Trukks decorated to look like their favourite Squigg.

In other words, Orks being Orks, do whatever you like. They're not gonna care and nor should you. Just make sure they get krumping!

It doesn't really matter, but I do find it fun coming up with ridiculous stories about how it came to be.

Btw, did you know grotsnik is a dethskull (loots body parts).

It's really an aesthetic choice. As others have mentioned, you can fluffily justify a single, cohesive scheme quite easily. Orks in a warband might don the colors of their boss, who has designed his own style of "yooniform." Equally valid is Ronin's point about variety within the clans. I seem to recall mention in the 'dex of groups of Goffs riding trukks and warbikes to get into krumpin' range faster - they needn't all be slugga boys.

On the other hand, considering how ork organization tends to work, it wouldn't be at all surprising to see a hodgepodge of clans band together, even just for the duration of the battle, to smash something (or someone). The most common direction that mixed armies go is painting units in the style of the clan most closely associated with their specialization.

There are practical considerations, as well as aesthetic ones. Having a single, cohesive scheme can be quite striking across the table and it gives the painter a chance to really nail down the process, but it can also seem a bit dull and/or limiting, to some. Painting clan schemes, unit by unit, gives the painter a bit more freedom to play around with colors and methods, but requires a larger range of paints and the possibility of extra effort reviving failed experiments or lower overall quality, for lack of practice.

Personally, I opted to paint squads by clan for the sake of variety. I thought that having a few different schemes would be more fun/challenging as a painter, first and foremost, but also that it would help distinguish units on the tabletop. Since I also had an army of Space Marines, I would have a chance to go the cohesive route elsewhere.

My slugga boyz are all goffs at the moment and my shoota's and lootas are deff skulls as are my meks.

My plan is to have an apoc size waaagh with a warboss from each clan.

GREEN!

Nah, just kidding, dethskull regal blue with highlights of ultramarine blue, snakebites need very natural tones, goffs skulls, checks and a little bit o' red

At first I was thinking of painting my army uniformly, like it was all one clan. But each of the clans have such fun character to them, that I think I'm going to paint some units to be from other clans. For instance my Flash Gits are in the process of being painted as Bad Moons (even though they are freebooterz.)

i have got an ork army with near enougth every unit in it and they are all painted as goffs there is no reason why they cant be the same