28 - Orks! Waaagh!!!

The painting's coming fast and furious! I guess that's what happens when a) you're a teacher who's work schedule lightens up dramatically during the summer months, and b) you're in the process of quitting smoking (day 6 of going cold turkey is in the books!) and need something to keep your mind from giving in to the hourly cravings.

When I attempted my first ork miniature, I didn't find it at all interesting to paint. The palette seemed very limited (green everywhere and dark, earthy tones). The fact that the ork miniature I painted was from the Black Reach set, and thus was very limited in its customization possibilities, might have also made it harder for me to become invested in the model. I seem to have more fun painting a miniature when I feel I've been able to inject some individual personality into it - the less customizable a model, the less interested I am with it.

Well, my second attempt at a Black Reach ork was a totally different experience. I had a lot of fun painting this beastly fellow. I wanted to maintain the Snakebite Clan theme I began with the first ork, but after studying the unpainted miniature for a little bit, I realized I could add a bit more color to it without totally turning it into something jarring and clownish. To keep the paint schemes coherent between the two orks, I selected a few colors that overlapped between them - for example, both models have Fawn colored pants and Brown Velvet leather straps; their sluggas are also painted in the exact same color schemes. Where I added more distinguishing and vibrant colors were in this model's topknot (Opaque Red) and his armor plates (Antique Gold with a Gryphonnia Sepia wash). I also went to town highlighting his skin - an initial layer of Green Isle then a careful highlighting with a 0 sized detail brush using Apple Green and finishing it off with a heavy wash of Thrakka Green. Overall, I'm very happy with the highlighting on the ork's skin. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, these next few months will be my highlighting months. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, highlighting (very likely through the layering of gradually lighter colors up from the base color) will be a natural part of my painting process.

Alright, my next miniature will most definitely be a Chaos Space Marine done up in Black Legion colors. It seems like 95% of my predictions of what I'm going to paint next turn up wrong (to paraphrase a famous military aphorism - "No painting plan survives contact with my capricious moods." But since I've already begun painting said Chaos Space Marine, I'm pretty sure this particular prediction will come to pass.

For more pics of the ork, click here.