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Starting to paint this model I had several considerations: to try new orc skin color scheme; to once again experiment with metal colors, which I must confess never were an easy thing for me; to document the whole process as this seems to became my habit already

First off, the miniature has been cleaned up and primed with black.

I’m used to paint orcs starting from their skin, this model is no exception. Catachan Green and Scorched Brown mix in 2:1 ratio has been used as a base layer. To highlight the details I have added some Chaos Black to this mix and washed the mini several times, while generally you could omit this step.

I have used Catachan Green color for the first highlight and Catachan Green and Goblin Green mix in 2:1 ratio for the following highlight. I will limit myself to one picture here as both pictures do not differ much.

After that I start working with the light. While my previous highlights have been done evenly all over the mini, now the highlights were put on more lighted areas only in an attempt to emphasize light and shade play. I wanted warm green tone for the skin and had to move the spots’ color more to yellowish, therefore the mix of Catachan Green and Camo Green in 1:1 ratio has been used.

I have continued with the highlights of pure Camo Green over smaller skin area.

Finally I draw the spots with the mix of Camo Green and Sunburst Yellow in 1:1 ratio and then slightly accented them by adding Bleached Bone to this mix in 1:2 ratio.

Scorched Brown has been painted over the parts which should look like the leather.

I used the mix of Scorched Brown and Bestial Brown in equal parts for the first highlight. I have then added Chaos Black to this mix, heavily diluted it with water and worked over the folds and recessed parts.

Pure Bestial Brown has been used for the second highlight.

The mix of Bestial Brown and Vomit Brown in equal parts has been used to highlight those areas which in my opinion got the most light. I have selected too wide area for highlighting and this resulted in pants becoming too bright and, even worse, turning pinkish. To mute this unnatural color I have washed the area with the mix of Bestial Brown and Chaos Black 3-4 times. By doing this I have made the pants look even more like old worn slightly dirty leather, while they still were lacking the contrast.

Trying to overcome the lack of contrast I have made the highlight with the mix of Bestial Brown and Vomit Brown, some Catachan Green added to the mix. Green color has been added to avoid turning pinkish again.

Afore mentioned mix with some Bleached Bone added has been used for the final highlight. I was not completely satisfied with the outcome, but have left the miniature as is for now.

As I have mentioned in the beginning, I had an idea to practice metallic paints on this model. I have armed myself with metre’s advises, read over several articles and finally painted metal parts of the model with Boltgun Metal. Those fragments which did not get smooth coverage for the first time were painted over 2-3 times more. Probably I should not mention here that I have diluted the paint with the water, however I will emphasize this here, since metallic paints require dilution in a same way as any other paint.

Using model’s right boot for experiments I have tried several colorings on it, and finally decided to stick with Allan C’s recipe which is comprehensively described in a number of articles. As the metre had recommended, metallic areas were toned with Snakebite Leather.

Several more shadings were made, this time using diluted Bestial Brown. Places which have completely lost the spots were re-highlighted with the mix of Boltgun Metal and Snakebite Leather.

After that I made a number of shadings with Bestial Brown and Blood Red mix in 3:1 ratio. Special attention has been paid to shaded areas and recesses. In some places I have highlighted the spots and edges once again using Boltgun Metal and Snakebite Leather mix. Finally I have finished the metallic areas by washing them several times with the mix of Bestial Brown, Blood Read and Chaos Black in 3:1:1 ratio.

The belt was painted fairly quickly using several sequential highlights with Chaos Black and Bleached Bone mix right over the prime color. More and more Bleached Bone was added to Chaos Black for each subsequent highlight.

Before painting the bone parts (including teeth and nails) I have painted tongue and gums with Scorched Brown and then highlighted them first with the mix of Scorched Brown and Blood Red in 1:1 ratio and then with pure Blood Red. Scorched Brown has been selected as the base color for the bone parts and Bestial Brown used for the first highlight.

For the second highlight the mix of Bestial Brown and Vomit Brown has been used.

I have added some Bleached Bone to the above mentioned mix for the third highlight.

At last I have painted the eyes, although it’s more correct and more convenient to paint them right after the priming. Eyeballs were painted with Blood Red, pupils with black and spots with bright white. Easy enough, but looks all right, provided the paint job is done neatly. The eyes reflect the character of the miniature so take your time painting them.