Painting the Green Tide--Speshul edishun....

Over the past few years, I've experimented with a number of approaches to ork skin color. As I look back over my collection, I've realized that no matter what color combination and technique I chose, the results look pretty similar. This is mostly because the primary color I always lean back on is moot green.

My approach also varies on my situation as well. It is different for batch painting that it is for characters and orks in vehicles.

Recently I've stumbled upon an approach that I really like. It has a great deal of contrast (so the skin will really 'pop' on the table) AND it has a slightly glistening texture, as if the ork skin was worked into a bit of a sweat. Do orks sweat? Who the heck knows.

Here is what it looks like:

Here's how it goes:

1. Base coat WAAGH! Flesh

2. Layer contrast ork flesh over the WAAGH! Flesh

3. Go back with WAAGH! Flesh and highlight

4. One step higher with Warboss Green

5. Then Moot Green

6. Top it off with Gauss Blaster Green

Base coat of WAAGH! Flesh with wash onf Contrast Ork Flesh

We are done with the skin....now on to the dakka

There you have it! Depending on your skill level, you may want to blend the transitions. This would entail any number of techniques including wet blending (hard), thinning down the lighter shade color and laying the paint on top of the transition (little easier) or even drybrush the transition if you really want to harm your brush. Blends are hard and take a while to master, so be patient and even if you don't even bother to blend, your mini will still really stand out! Below is an example of the tiered approach:

Here is my favorite example of this approach. Enjoy and never forget WAAAAAGH!!