Batch Painting Da Boyz

I have over 60 fully painted Ork boys in my collection, and I'll share my process and some of the things I have learned while batch painting. There are faster and more efficient ways out there I am sure, but this process gets things to the level that compliments the more stringently painted character models I have in my army. Hopefully you will get a few tips that will bring your army to life! Now lets get to bidnezz...

Step 1: Prime & Prep [10min]

• Construct ya orks. Clean up any mold lines. Be prepared to find mold lines you missed as you paint (be strong solder, and keep a exacto knife handy).

• Prime Apothecary white (or Gray Seer will work too).

Step 2: Base Coats: [30 min]

• Apply Contrast Black Templar and Contrast Ork Flesh.

• "Black Templar to everything but the flesh" you ask? YES you...and pipe it down a bit! This will save you from painting the straps later on, which I have found to be a time consuming effort when you can save that effort for things like painting checkers....or chess...or checking Instagram for those depressingly good minis those people post. The tradeoff here is you paint the leather with traditional paints, leaving the straps black.

Step 3: Leather and Metal [20min]

• Apply Doombell Brown, and then on more raised areas Skrag Brown. Top off with Jokaero Orange. Leave the recesses the contrast black.

• Make sure to water down the paints a little and don't put too much paint on your brush at once (always a good rule of thumb here).

• Transition too strong? Go back and apply a light glaze of the darker shade and then you'll get some creamy goodness. 

• For the metal bits, dry brush Necron compound. Alternate base coat with a metal color and then Nuln Oil it. 

Step 4: Red and Da Teeph [30min]

• Apply Mephiston Red base coat to ya red parts.

• When the red is dry, liberally apply Carroburg Crimson. No crimson wash? Water down some nuln oil and apply. No nuln oil? You poor soul. Create a wash out of Mephiston Red and Incubi Darkeness. Darren does that here >.

• Apply Zandri Dust to teeth and other leather areas. When dry, ink with Agrax earthshade. No Agrax? Stop where you are and go get it. Seriously. 

• Don't skip over the ork teeth. What good is an ork with green teeth? Why you wanna dis em' like that? How is gonna buy a snack if he can't knock out some perfectly browned teeth? 

Step 5: Blending time [20 min]

• Go back and apply Mephiston Red to the inked areas, then blend up starting with Evil Suns Scarlet, then edge with Trollslayer Orange. Too harsh of a transition? Go back to the darker shade of red and apply a thin glaze over the lighter area and get more creamy blend goodness. Example of that here > 

• Add Ushabti Bone to the raised areas of the teeth. Admire ya teeph....

Step 6 (optional): I got a FEVER, and the only cure is BOLDER GREEN!!  [10min]

• Take moot green, and gauss blaster and highlight the raised areas of the skin for tha POP. 

Step 6: Extra Gibbins [10-30 min]

• Touch of gold in spots for your ork bling and shiny stuff

• Add a metal color to hinges 

• Add checker transfers, OR use this as a chance to work on your checkers. You will get better with practice and be ready when you need to get really fancy with checkers on characters. You will thank me later...or curse me.

Step 7: Basing time [10 min]

• Paint base black

• With an old brush, paint white glue. Apply turf or other blend of your liking. 

• Apply tufts. I spray painted my tufts a cranberry color to give it a more sci-fi look.

Summary

Keep those paints at hand! As you go through the steps, you will inevitably come across areas you miss. Keeping black accessible is helpful. Also a wet palette will help in keeping paints longer so you won't have to keep extracting paints from those pesky paint crusted pots.

2hrs for 3 orks??? WTF?? (what the fungus?)

After some practice (or skipping a few steps), you probably can get this down to 1.5 hrs. Ideally, I aim to get about a squad done a week (around 6 hrs total for 10 ). This too much for you? Sure you can skip steps. Or you can prioritize and maybe skip a few TV shows for ya boyz. They will thank you.

Even when painting hordes, I find that playing the long game is more rewarding that rushing the job. I know its a challenge, especially when most of us are afflicted with that GW disease of OH LOOK AT THIS NEW ARMY! LET ME BEGIN A NEW ONE! If you can hold off from that impulse (I know its tough), then you will no doubt impress your friends with your zen like patience and commitment to the craft....and be sure to give em' a good waaaaaaagh! as you set em up on the table.

-MinipainterZ