From the Workbench: Taking a Look at Skargob'z Boyz

As I mentioned earlier, the Challenge is underway and so is my painting! So far I have assembled and almost completely painted one entire mob, Skargob's Boyz. Here is a picture of them in all their dirty, Orky glory.

I still have to paint Skarbog himself but the rest of them are ready for basing. Now I just need to assemble the next mob, add a few finishing touches to all the Nobz and the Warboss, and then get them all painted up. Should be a piece of cake since I am using a super-secret-ninja-shortcut for my painting.

Right from the start, I knew that I was going to be painting a lot of Boyz. Orks and giant mobz just go hand in hand from everything that I have seen. With this in mind, I decided that I should keep the paint scheme relatively simple but I didn't want to have it completely uniform. They are Orks after all, right?

For a base coat, I used the tried and true method of spray painting them with Dark Angels Green. This gave me a nice base to work with and let me take care of Ork skin tone all in one step. Next I highlighted their skin, first with Goblin Green, then with Snot Green, just to give them a little bit of depth. The next step was to start adding some of the details to make them really stand out. First I batch painted several different colors of shirts, then pants, just to mix things up. Having a cohesive looking force and painting uniforms doesn't have to mean the same thing after all.

Once their clothes were done, it was time to paint on the various leather straps and belts that Orks are prone to wearing. I originally tried to use Snakebite Leather for this (seems fitting somehow)but I couldn't get a good layer on with one coat. This wouldn't be an issue for a single mini or even a small unit, but I am looking at about forty Orks that I need to get done pretty quick. To solve this problem, I switched all the leather bits to black and it went on like a dream, as you would expect. The last step for the painting was to hit the sluggas, choppas, and all the little plates and buckles with some boltgun metal.

This gave me a unit of painted Orks but they still weren't quite done. As a finishing touch, I went over all of them with Vallejo Game Color Sepia Ink. This gave them a nice a dirty look and really just made them pop IMO. As I said before, they are Orks, and everyone knows that Orks and hygiene are two things that will never go together.

And there you have it! As I mentioned before, Skargob is still not done but I'll get him taken care of with the next batch of Orks, which I should have assembled and at least base coated by this weekend. This will give me an eighteen strong Boyz mob to throw down onto the table.

Up next is Wazgut'z Boyz mob which I am hoping to make some serious progress on this weekend, and yes more pics (perhaps even with better lighting!). Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!