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I have currently come into the liking of an Ork army, yet I don't know where to start as far as painting tips are considered, let alone a many other tips I've yet to discover. From base coat to army lists, anything is welcomed as I read every tip.

Uhhh, a lot of green stuff?

Do you play at a venue or GW shop? Advice will differ depending on how much scratch building you can get away with. Otherwise...

1. Stock up on thriftstore/yardsale model tanks trucks and hotwheels bikes. Buy Plasticard, Greenstuff and Foamboard. Start collecting random little bits of scrap and toy/mini weapons like you're auditioning for Hoarders.

2. Lots of glueing and gubbins.

3. Lots of green paint.

4. WAAAAAAGH!

Seriously though, I think the most productive thing would be to look through this site's P&M blogs, and you tube videos for painting/modeling ideas. Let those ideas stoke your creative fires; the rest is just experimenting and practicing. (Oh, use superglue on plastic but never on foamboard, there's one for free.)

I think you guys are misunderstanding 'from scratch'. The tone of his request isn't scratch building, from scratch just means 'I have no Orks, how do I go about building an army of them'.

So far I'm really liking the insights. Keep whatever you guys have coming *taking notes*

1. Pre-mix your skin-colours.
I have three separate skin-tones; Straight Catachan Green, 4-parts Catachan Green/1-part Goblin Green mix, 2-parts Catachan Green/1-part Goblin Green mix.
I use the first one as base coat, highlight with the second and use the third on lips, knuckles, ears and so on.

2. Paint 10 Boyz.
Always alternate between painting whatever and 10 Boyz. You will need a boatload of Boyz so getting started (and keeping it up) is important for your mental health.

3. When painting Boyz I put ten of them in a line in front of me. Then I grab 6 or 7 muted colours, like browns, tans, greys and black. I then place them in random order in front of the Boyz.
Then I paint their pants. The ones who doesn't have a pot in front of them gets blue pants (because I play Deffskullz).
Next I move all the paint-pots two places to the right and paint their shirts with whatever colour is in front of them (using blue the same way as before).
Same goes for webbing, and then for the arm-wraps/wrist-wraps/gun-wraps.
Boots I usually paint black.
Then I paint the weapons and helmets Boltgun Metal with some random blue and Brazen Brass details.
Finally I wash the ENTIRE model witth Devlan Mud.

I followed this guys guide for painting my orks, it works amazingly fast. http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/374651.page

 -Loki- wrote:
I think you guys are misunderstanding 'from scratch'. The tone of his request isn't scratch building, from scratch just means 'I have no Orks, how do I go about building an army of them'.

My advice on hoarding tidbits, and crafting supplies still stands. (Nothing makes an army pop like custom gubbins.)

When you're looking to buy, I'd keep a few things in mind;
Right now there are only a few competitive Ork builds. Green Tide has the strategy of flooding the board with boys, focusing more on redundant units and board control than elite killy stuff. Lots and lots of boys, led by Power Klaw wielding Nobs, some truks for transport, and build from there. (People recommend Kustom Force Field Meks, but I've never found them that useful. I'd suggest screening with grots, but whatever works for you.)
Speed Freaks use lots of vehicles to get across the board quickly. Nob bikers, truks, dakkajets, deffkoptas and battlewagons fit well. In that vein Battlewagon Bash uses multiple battlewagons with deffrollers to tank shock units, bust vehicle armor and just generally panic your opponent with a wall of AV14 rolling doom. You can take 3 as HS, take 2 warbosses and turn nobs or mega nobs into troops. Nobs can use BWs as dedicated transport, and you can take them as elite units, meaning you can take up to a startling 8 battlewagons in a 2000pt force org chart and still have points for scoring and shooty units. A boarding plank means any Poker Klaws inside don't go to waste.

As a general rule, lootas, dakkajets and shoota boys are always points well spent. For 50 points, you can buy an aegis defense line and camp 3 squads of 10 lootas each. They can go to ground with a minimal impact on their shooting and get an obscene 2+ cover save. People will rail against certain units like flash gitz, but generally, if you like the look of something you can toss it in your army with minimal suckage. Orks are showing their age, but they're still the most forgiving codex in the game. You might want to check out the Imperial Armour and Apocalypse II supplements; they have tons of new 40k approved forgeworld units to play around with

As for buying, again you're in luck. Anyone who complain about orks being the most expensive army is doing it wrong. Even if you play at a GW store, the rules for allowed % of non-GW bits is looser for orks. The Assault on Black reach starter and over 25 years of 40k means that there are always tons of loose orkyes on ebay. You'll be shocked how far you can stretch simple figures with green stuff and plasticard. AOBR boys and action figure guns = lootas. Nobz with plasticard mega armor? Still following GW rules.
If you don't play at a GW, you HAVE NO REASON TO EVER BUY RETAIL! (Other than to support your venue of course.) Look for lots of loose and broken boyz on ebay. (Theyz Gork childrin too!) Model planes, GI Joe tanks, 10 cent kiddie trucks at yard sales will take the place of your opponent $100+ pansee flyer! Learn have to make Green Stuff push molds to decorate your trucks with orky panels and rivets. Build bikers from matchbox motorcycles and ebay AOBR nobs. Conker da ooniverse for pennies! Muhahahaha!

I used to speed paint my orks by
1 spray painting matte black
2 dry brushing the major colors
3 tidying and highlighting
Primitive, but it worked and sets a good base for more sophisticated techniques. Orks also take dipping very well. Paint on all colors; use the bright colors you would normally highlight with, don't worry about base coats or blending borders between colors, the dip does that. You dip the model in a can of minwax or other stain and sealer furniture varnish. Shake off the excess. (Please do this outside! I use a pair of pliers with elastic bands wrapped around the base of the head so they grip the model and don't try to slip off. Vice grips would also work.) Just matte seal them later so they don't like all shiny. I'm dry for right now but I'll post anything else I can think of later.

I use this video when I started Orks:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=J5mcpGhUJzM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJ5mcpGhUJzM
It worked really well for a beginner at painting.

Are youlooking to give your army a special theme? Maybe mod something onto them? Maybe you want them all to have a special head type.

Puppetswar have quite a variety of special ork heads.

Sorry for the confusion with the "from scratch" words. I don't really care what tips you guys give, so long as they've proven good for you before. Also, still taking notes, so hold nothing back.