Space Crusade Reboot, part 7: Orks

To finish the squad of height Orks I purchased a box of Boyz which provides exactly four minis, which is perfect as I had only four of the original Space Crusade Orks out of the original height.

These are much more fun to paint than the fuzzy oldies, their details are sharper and really easy to read. The challenge here is to paint them with the same color theme, in order to give consistency to the squad, even though the first four are really different in shape.

To do so, I plan to paint them using the black and red combo I used on the first ones, and also by putting a checker pattern on each of them (either on their weapon or on their clothes).

Painting Method

I started with an undercoat of Greenskin by Army Painter. For the gretchins it was a good idea, as most of their surface is green, but for the Orks, I’m not sure, as a black undercoat would have been good for their clothes as well…

Anyway, after that, I shaded their skin with a Green Shade from Army Painter and then worked on the highlights, by using successive layers of brighter green colors. I like the result, it’s way better than dry-brushing the skin, which will give a dusty effect. It needs more time, but the result is worth it.

The highlights were applied by following the technique explained by Duncan Rodhes in his video How to Paint Ork Skin:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFpqxHFMZXs]

At this point, I stopped working on the production line (where I had height miniatures, to focus on only two. I like to do that to keep my focus strong. I found that working on a production line is good when doing the first steps of the painting (undercoating and base layers) but working on the details of many minatures at the same time consumes to much attention, and in the end, we loose control.

The black and red colors work well together and give a funny « Mad Max » effect to the mini, which is great for an Ork Squad!

To finish the mini, I wanted to apply a checker pattern on them, in order to give a consistency with the previous four I painted.

This has been done by applying first multiple layers of White Scar on the weapon, to get a very clean white surface.

Then, I painted very carefully the checker lines with a fine detail brush. This is mainly the critical step: be as steady as possible, and your lines will be straight and so will be the checker in the end.

Then all remained to do was to fill in black one square, leave the next one white, and so on. When the checker was complete, I painted small impacts on it with the same metallic paint used to paint the blade. This gives an impression of « life » to the weapon, reminding that the checker is just paint on the blade.

I’m happy with the result and this makes the two groups of Orks merge gracefully. Waaaagh!

To finish the squad, I used Blood for the Blood God to make the klan look a bit violent, as if they had cut some Space Marines a minute ago.

This post is part of a series where I log all the progress I make on rebooting Space Crusade with modern miniatures.