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So all painting tutorials I see for orks the models are primed black but wouldn't green save time? Or is green hard to paint on

Black would be easier imo, it's not so much about the area 100% it's more about what is easy to reach with a brush.
Depending on what skintone you prefer green generally covers quite well.
Your other option is to spray the arms and heads green and bodies and legs in whatever colour you fancy prior to assembly.

What Clan you want to paint?

Maybe is better idea spray with the colour of the clan

In anny case, Grey is the way if you are not sure, you can apply easy any colour. Black gonna be a hell if your choice is Bad Moon, better Spray white and apply a wash of Casandora Yellow directly.

I love black primer for 2 areas: skin and leather (ok, that implies a whole lot that I did not intend...)

Anyway, I prime black, then paint a single, highly thinned Waaaagh Flesh layer followed by a single medium "dry" brush of reaper viper green. The interplay of black, pale dark green and the viper makes awesome, easy and very fast.

The leather effect, though, is just awesome. Reaper's HD Ruddy Brown, thinned a lot, can be just slapped on the black and it creates instant weathered leather, one coat no fuss. Just don't put it on too thick and the flat, exposed surfaces look like blackened, grimy ork leather, instantly.

Anything in a crevice looks like fairly clean brown, as if it was protected from the ork's grubby fingers. Instant skill!

Black. 'Nuff said.

An alternative approach:
I've been getting great results by priming WHITE. After that use washes to create the colors you need. If you need bright colors like yellow or red you might not be pleased with the method but for earthy tones for a Goff klan you'll save a TON of time if you plan on painting tens and even hundreds of Boyz. Just the time saved on the skin makes it worthwhile. From an arms length you cannot tell if it's washed or layered and it beats a shoddy layering job hands down.

Here's a good guide: http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/painting-ork-with-washes-a-photo-by-photo-tutorial

Black is generally used if you want deeper richer colors. it wont be as bright and you will need to put in a little more work to get to brighter colors like yellow or white as those will take many many more coats of paint then going over say white

but the benefit would be that you wouldn't have to worry about darker recesses as its already black and naturally shades it

white will make the models pop more but you need to make sure you get those recesses and under cuts or becomes really noticeable

though i really like white as you can basically paint the whole model with inks and washes and way less coats of different colors.

You could go green which is less work just make sure you have a color very close to the primer so you can touch up areas

 Weazel wrote:
An alternative approach:
I've been getting great results by priming WHITE. After that use washes to create the colors you need. If you need bright colors like yellow or red you might not be pleased with the method but for earthy tones for a Goff klan you'll save a TON of time if you plan on painting tens and even hundreds of Boyz. Just the time saved on the skin makes it worthwhile. From an arms length you cannot tell if it's washed or layered and it beats a shoddy layering job hands down.

Here's a good guide: http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/painting-ork-with-washes-a-photo-by-photo-tutorial

That seems like you need more layers than you would with paint, thus taking more time, wouldn't it?

Black imo

Best for overall as you'll be doing alot of metals.

Unless you like a lighter skin, and are doing more yellow bits, then I'd go white.

I don't use green myself, because on most orks the skin bits are so all over that it isn't worth it imo. I might make an exception for snakebite/savage orks tho, if they have a lot of bare skin.

On the other hand I prefer the black undercoat/primer as well, because I tend to like darker richer colours, but ymmv.

 Infantryman wrote:

 Weazel wrote:
An alternative approach:
I've been getting great results by priming WHITE. After that use washes to create the colors you need. If you need bright colors like yellow or red you might not be pleased with the method but for earthy tones for a Goff klan you'll save a TON of time if you plan on painting tens and even hundreds of Boyz. Just the time saved on the skin makes it worthwhile. From an arms length you cannot tell if it's washed or layered and it beats a shoddy layering job hands down.

Here's a good guide: http://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/painting-ork-with-washes-a-photo-by-photo-tutorial

That seems like you need more layers than you would with paint, thus taking more time, wouldn't it?

Well yes and no. You need two layers for the skin but it's much faster to paint on since you don't need to be super neat to preserve all the darker recesses etc. Obviously shades also takes longer to dry than normal paint, but doing batches of 10 or more is the way to go. Once you're finished with the last one, the first one should be more or less dry.

Just an alternative. I really can't be bothered to neatly layer tens of Boyz really. I've painted about 60+ Boyz, 10+ Tankbustas and a handful of Nobz with this method and I'm very pleased with the results. I mean I probably would have already burned myself out layering all of those.

When you spray black black gets into the nooks and crannys the green brush wont reach, creating shadows.

Would you prefer the orks teeth have green between them or black?

Sprayed mine German armour yellow primer here

mostly because it was to hand and the cloth colour on my Blood Axes goes over it.

Have used black, grey, even red before depending on what I have to hand

I sometime use Rustoleum's flat dark brown Camouflage rather than black. It depends if the monster is generally dirty, and if the model will have much brown on it (eg. leather armor vs. metal). While orcs are green, they do wear clothing and armor, and this may be more important than the flesh to determine which primer color to use. And, yes, the shade from the black and dark brown definitely make painting easier.

I also undercoat, which makes the color of the primer less important. My undercoats are generally brown, which is a good transition from black to a lighter color. Also, of course, many models use brown as a basecoat, so a brown undercoat also serves as a basecoat.

I do mine in white primer, then Warboss green and them a green wash, really makes the details stand out. Most green primers are too dark.

I'm a fan of white primer. No matter what colour you use, if you *thin the paint* then you wind up with natural highlights shining through, and natural shading where the paint pools in the recesses.

If you then go over with a wash, all the better. You could just use washes. I love working with washes, myself. Paint is perfectly consistent. If applied thin, not soaking, it doesn't take that long to dry.

I love working with thin paint, as it's quick, easy, and looks quite decent for the time invested.

I like brown primer. Easier to paint with a thin base coat than black and if you miss anything it just looks like dirt.