Citadel of Paint: Tutorial: How to Paint Ork Boyz

So, with exams over for us both :D, I figured I should get posting and what better way to start it all off, than with a tutorial on a subject very dear to my heart - Ork Boyz!
This is an in depth and detailed tutorial for painting an Ork Boy in the Evil Sunz colours complete with high resolution images and detailed instructions. Full tutorial after the jump...

So, we start with an assembled Ork Boy who has been based with sand and then spray painted black. I should probably mention that most of my paints are still the old versions - so I'll use those names and the name in the brackets is the equivalent taken from the chart.

Assembled and Undercoated

1. The first step is to paint all the flesh/ skin areas with Orkhide Shade (Caliban Green). This doesn't need to be done carefully as mistakes can be easily touched up later - you do, though, need to make sure that you fill in all the crevices in the skin (and there are many) with it because those are the parts that will show through in the end.

Skin Basecoated

2. Now we need to drybrush a layer of Knarloc Green (Loren Forest). We do this by taking an older, more mangled brush and putting a small amount of paint onto it, then wipe most of it off until you are left with just a little bit. You then brush that over the skin sections so that it only paints the raised sections, leaving the Orkhide Shade (Caliban Green) showing through in the crevices.

Skin Drybrushed

For a lot of my standard Boyz I'll leave it at that for the skin - as I want them to not stand out to much and be more of a horde. But for my more important characters there are a few more steps which make the skin brighter and makes the model stand out more. (it's also more like the ones on the boxes).

3. If you want this brighter look then the next step is to take Goblin Green (Warboss Green) and using a detail/fine detail brush paint on highlights onto the raised areas of the skin. If you follow the lines that appear when you drybrushed it, it makes it easier. The idea is to leave the Orkhide Shade (Caliban Green) and the Knarloc Green (Loren Forest) showing through beneath it. At first it looks pretty garish and I find that just taking your finger and smudging it a little bit really helps keep it looking more natural - it's gonna get dirty at some point ;)

Skin Highlighted

4. Again, you could leave it at that, but I don't think it looks very good. The final step for the skin is to make a 1:1 mix of Goblin Green (Warboss Green) and Bleached Bone (Ushabti Bone). Apply it in pretty much the same way as you did the Goblin Green (Warboss Green). You want to try and pick out little details, especially on the face (edges of ears, eyelids, rims of gums etc.)

Skin Given Secondary Highlights

5. Now that all the skin is done, we can move onto the cloth. As this is a Evil Sunz colour scheme we're gonna paint the cloth Mechrite Red (Mephiston Red). I say cloth, but you can paint pretty much anything you want red - leather, shoulder pads their little glove things etc. Personally, I paint their shirts, shoulder pads, any wrist gauntlet/gloves but not the leather straps or back/front armour plates.

Red Areas Painted

6. Next we'll do all the metal. The primary colour for this is Boltgun Metal (Leadbelcher). Simply paint all the metal parts (gun, choppa, armour plates, toe-caps etc.) with it.

Metal Areas Painted

7. Next we'll do the leather - I use two different colours to add a bit more variety - Snakebite Leather (Balor Brown) and Calthan Brown (Mournfang Brown). I do the main, bigger straps with Calthan Brown (Mournfang Brown) and the smaller, thinner ones in Snakebite Leather (Balor Brown), it's just that bit brighter and makes them stand out a bit more.

Leather Painted

8. Now that all the main colours are on the model, we can go ahead and start highlighting some of them. Use Chainmail (Ironbreaker) to highlight the edges of the metal. You can be quite careless with this because the colours are very similar.

9. Continuing with the metal, continue highlighting with Mithril Silver (Runefang Steel). These need to be more careful as the colour shows up more.

Metal Highlighted

10. At this point you're probably thinking it looks a bit too bright and shiny to be an Ork's - and you'd be right. So to dull it down, give all the metal a pretty liberal wash of Badab Black (Nuln Oil).

Metal Areas Washed Down

11. Now onto the red parts: give them all a very light highlight of Blood Red (Evil Sunz Scarlet). You can also add some chipping to the shoulder pad (or any other metal parts that are 'painted') with Mithril Silver (Runefang Steel).

Red Areas Highlighted

12. Wash all the leather and red areas with loads of Devlan Mud (Agrax Earthshade). This makes such a huge difference to the model! You can also add a lighter layer to the metal.

Red Areas and Metal Areas Washed

13. Teeth, nails and eyes - paint the teeth and nails with Bleached Bone (Ushabti Bone) and the eyes with Blood Red (Evil Sunz Scarlet).

Teeth, Nails and Eyes Painted

14. At this point you're pretty much done - all that's left is the base. There are loads of different colour schemes, but this is the one that looks like the one on the box (I also think it complements the model really nicely) You start with Bestial Brown (Mournfang Brown). Paint all the sand, filling in all the gaps.

Sand Basecoated

15. Once that is completely dry (and I mean completely, I've had to start again so many times because of that) you need to drybrush the sand with Bubonic Brown (Zamesi Desert) leaving the layer below still showing.