A Change Of Pace

For the last ten years my entire painting schedule revolved around Imperial Guard and Dark Angels. It was the same thing over and over again as I tried to get my rank and file troops painted. I didn't even stray from those just to break the monotony. It was hell. In fact it was that bad that it was one of the reasons I put down my paintbrush six years ago and didn't pick it back up until very recently. I swore it would be different this time though.

After painting the start of my latest Imperial Guard army I started to get jaded around about the 14th or 15th model so I started looking for something different to paint. As I've lost a lot of my figures during house moves I could actually only find one non-IG/SM figure. I'd completely forgotten about the Tau and kroot I've got sitting waiting to be painted but I'd found an unpainted Space Ork that actually had arms. I'd found a few old armless madboyz but I don't have any spare ork arms anywhere.

It's been about twenty years since I last painted ork skin so please bare with me on this one. Primed with Chaos Black and then the skin was base coated with Dark Angel Green. It was then highlighted with Snot Green and Goblin Green. It was then given a good wash of Agrax Earthshade. I went back over the highlights with Snot Green and Goblin Green to lighten it back up before giving it another wash of Agrax Earthshade but this time 50/50 between shade and water.

The trousers were based with Eshin Grey and highlighted with Codex Grey and Fortress Grey before a 50/50 wash of Agrax Earthshade. Further highlights of Codex and Fortress Grey were added. Eyes and nails were picked out with Blood Red and again washed with Agrax with another 'highlight' of Blood Red afterwards. The oil rag was treated the same but a little Sunburst Yellow was added to the red for a final highlight. Oil splodges were added with black ink. The leather and fur were painted with Snakebite Leather and highlighted with Desert Yellow with a wash of Agrax.

I've never been able to get metal just right so I basically threw some paint on to see how it looked. It was either based with Boltgun Metal, washed with black ink and the drybrushed with Boltgun Metal or the same was done using Tin Bitz with a light highlight of Shining gold after the drybrushing. That will need redone. At least on the backpack metals. I'd like to get some tattoos or woad on there and can't think where to put the clan symbols without running the risk of ruining the model.

I'll revisit this once I've worked out the finishing touches.