Tutorial: How to Paint Ork Gretchin (40k)

Here is YoshKa's detailed tutorial on how to paint Ork Gretchin. Full tutorial and pictures after the jump...


Again my paints are still old versions so I'll write the new versions in brackets (just the same as my Ork Boy Tutorial). With that out of the way - on to the Gretchin!!

I might as well start off by saying that you're going to need a fine detail brush for this - Grots are very small! So for pretty much the whole tutorial you can just assume I'm using the smallest brush I've got. So, we start with an assembled Grot (lets get our plurals and singulars right, eh...) who has been based with sand and sprayed black.

Sprayed black and based

1. The first step is to paint the skin areas with Knarloc Green (Loren Forest). You need to get it in all the crevices as this is the base colour.

Skin Basecoated

2. Then give the same skin areas a wash of Thraka Green (Biel-Tan Green). The difference isn't hugely visible in the pictures - but it does darken the colour and give it a little more depth.

Skin Washed

3. Next, highlight the skin ares with Gretchin Green (Deathworld Forest). At first this feels as if you are ruining the model because there is quite a big discrepancy between Gretchin Green (Deathworld Forest) and the colours already on the model, but if you keep going and only leave a little bit of the previous colour showing through - it looks fine. 

Skin highlighted

4. Make a roughly 1:1 mixture of Bleached Bone (Ushabti Bone) and Gretchin Green (Deathworld Forest). Highlight the areas that you highlighted in the previous step quite broadly with this mixture. 

Skin given secondary highlights

 5. Finally apply a very light/thin highlight of pure Bleached Bone (Ushabti Bone) to the most prominent areas of the skin. The subtlety of this highlight will determine the overall brightness of the model. Some smudging with your finger probably won't go amiss here.

Skin given tertiary (!!!) highlights... This is getting kind of silly...

6. For the metal areas: First paint them with Tin Bitz (Warplock Bronze).

Metal Areas basecoated

7. Then take Boltgun Metal (Leadbelcher) and drybrush it (see Ork Boy Tutorial for description) over the top. I only drybrushed the gun and painted it smoothly over the blade of the sword - it doesn't really matter where you do it. I also left the handle of the sword completely untouched - just the Tin Bitz (Warplock Bronze).

Metal given second layer/drybrush

8. Next you should highlight all the parts that have been painted with Boltgun Metal (Leadbelcher) with Mithril Silver (Runefang Steel). (I realised too late that I had forgotten to paint his belt buckle, so I painted that the same as the other metal parts, just later) 

Metal highlighted

9. I then painted the helmet with Scab Red (Khorne Red).

Helmet painted

10. Highlight the edges of the helmet with Blood Red (Evil Sunz Scarlet). 

Helmet highlighted

11. Paint all the leather areas with Snakebite Leather (Balor Brown). 

Leather areas painted

12. Paint the fabric/loincloth bits with Graveyard Earth (Steel Legion Drab).

Fabric areas painted

13. Wash the leather and fabric with Devlan Mud (Agrax Earthshade). 

Fabric washed

I have just noticed that I missed the tips of his toes, and some pieces of leather - so if you see these suddenly appearing in the photos - that's why. The lesson to be learned - check more carefully when painting a model for a tutorial... ;)

14. Next you'll want to paint the nails, horns on the helmet and teeth with Bleached Bone (Ushabti Bone).

Horns, nails and teeth painted

15. I should have done this earlier really, but it makes no difference. Mix up a (roughly) 2:1 ratio of Graveyard Earth (Steel Legion Drab) and Bleached Bone (Ushabti Bone). Use this to highlight (quite broadly) the flowing loincloth fabric. 

Cloth highlighted

16. Pick out the eyes (or in this case - eye) with Blood Red (Evil Sunz Scarlet). You probably can't see it, but here's a picture anyway.

Eye(s) painted

17. To finish the model off, I painted the skull insignia on his helmet in Mithril Silver (Runefang Steel). Then washed all the metal parts with Badab Black (Nuln Oil) and gave the entire model (minus the skin) a wash of Devlan Mud (Agrax Earthshade). 

Skull insignia painted and final, weathering washes added.

18. Finally, I painted the base. I used the same colour scheme as I did for my Ork Boy Tutorial. If you want though, to paint your bases like Crodon, he describes his technique here. 

And then you're done!

Hope you found this helpful, or at least interesting - please leave a comment below if there's anything you want to see a tutorial on, or anything you think we could improve.

Thanks,

YoshKa

Here are some pictures of the finished model:

Base painted