Identifying, Updating, and Painting a Bucket of 90's Era 40K Orks with Lawnor

I’ve split my Boyz in to two batches of 13 to make them more manageable.  The mission with this project is to “modernise” the paint scheme on these classic sculpts, while maintaining their character and appeal.  I want them to fit in with the paint jobs on the web store so if I buy any more Orks they will look like a cohesive army.

To start with, I painted the fur lining a few of them have as this would be messy.

I then base coated these Boyz the same as with the Gretchins from earlier:

Then, the wood got painted as such:

The foot wraps got a base coat of P3 Menoth White Base (Next time I’ll try for P3 Hammerfall Khaki.  Its a little darker and browner).  The leathers and the wraps all got a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade.
Once it was dry I drybrushed P3 Beast Hide over all the leathers.  P3 Menoth White base was then drybrushed as an extra high highlight on the leathers and all over the wraps.

While doing the feet I caught the trousers and I liked it so after wearing out the paint on the wraps I also used this drybrush to add highlights to the blacks and greys.  All the blacks and greys were then washed with GW Nuln Oil.

Now comes decision time.  Undershirts and their sleeves will be an off white.  I might mix tones between models.  Asset Drop just shipped out an off-white blue linen mix I’ve yet to try, and  I could make up a warm off-white from VMC Deck Tan or something else.  Guns, weapons and plates will be a dirty iron, with the odd  spot of gold.  I’ve an unopened pot of P3 Deathless Metal I’ve not tried yet but hear good things about.  I found some very old waterslide transfers I might scatter around the models later which includes some checker pattern.  I may even have the courage to paint some checker pattern.

This still leaves some large cloth areas like tunics in need of a colour.  I don’t want to go near-black again.  it would fit, but then they may as well be single colour minis.  This could be my opportunity to tie in some classic Ork Colorz ( https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Colorz) .  I could paint different models wearing red, blue or yellow.  It would help brighten up the unit, and allow me to paint similar models to look different.  I could pick out those colours on detail pieces or shoulder pads on the other minis to tie everything together.

I’m a little afraid it’ll look too bright though and not work.  The other option is something like Circle Orboros grey, or go for what I think of as Walking Dead White Shirt (You know.  They’ve been wearing that shirt for months without washing it.  Its filthy, and brown but you kinda know it was white once).

What are peoples thoughts?  I’d really appreciate feedback on this point, and soon as I’m hoping to start work again tonight, or tomorrow at the latest.  Here are some examples of some of the larger surfaces in need of a colour decision:

After the chat below I decided to go with my Walking Dead White for the tunics.  its a simple and lazy recipe, but it easily produces something that looks like it was white once, before you wore it for 6 straight months of post apocalypse without even thinking about detergent.  I also went over the wraps on the feet with this as I was not happy with my previous results.

Base P3 Trollblood Highlight

Wash: Agrax Earthshade

Drybrush: P3 menoth White Base

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I had a little time to paint this week so I painted the leather, then the cloth and then the iron:

Leather:

Base P3 Bootstrap leather

Wash GW Agrax Earthshade

Drybrush P3 beasthide, and then the upper parts with P3 menoth White base

Shirts:

Undercoat Black

Base Hakata Ocean grey

Highlight with Hakata Gris Bleu Fonce

Wash with diluted Instar heavy Black

Highlight with Grix Blue Fonce

The pictures in the Asset Drop guide for this suggested I would get more of an off white with a hint of blue to it than I actually got.  At this point I wasn’t impressed with the way the Orks were looking.  i got a lot happier once the wash got on the iron

Iron

Undercoat black

Base: P3 Pig iron

Wash GW Nuln Oil

Drubrush P3 Cold Steel

This leaves the straps, bone, gold and then the detail pieces which will allow me to add some colour, and some dreaded checker patterns!

On an unrelated note, if anyone has some spare Las Cannons for a Predator tank or a Land Raider (Which also needs a sponson optic) and doesn’t mind parting with them please let me know.  I’m fixing up some damaged second hand pieces and need them.  I also have the resin body for Abaddon the Despoiler.  He either needs all the other parts sending to me, or he needs to be adopted by someone else who has the parts.

Next stage was to pick out the belts, straps and other leather areas that needed a different tone.  They were base coated in VMC Panzer Aces 302 Dark Rust, drubrushed P3 Beast Hide, and then washed GW Agrax Earthshade.

The Golds were base coated P3 Rhulic Gold, except the Binoculars that were painted P3 Brass Balls.  Everythign was washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, highlighted back up with the abse colour, and then again with P3 Solid Gold.

Bone and horns were painted P3 jack Bone, washed GW Seraphim Sepia, and then drybrushed up with P3 Menoth White Highlight.

I then picked out the studs etc with P3 Cold Steel.

I’ve never painted check patterns before.  I have a hard enough time drawing a straight line with a pencil.  I watched some guides and experimented on an old coffee jar lid to see if I was brave enough to do it on a model.  I primed an area white, marked out some lines in off white (P3 Sickly Skin) so it could easily be painted over again. I put a small dot of black in the middle of every to-be black square, and then went back and filled in some areas with black using multiple careful coats.  After painting the black, I tidied up the white.  It worked out well enough so I picked some areas on the models to apply it to and repeated the process.  It’s not perfect, but Orks painted this on their armour themselves so it probably wouldn’t be prefect.

Next I painted the scabbards with a Foundry African Flesh Light 126C base, Agrax Earthshade wash, and a Menoth White Highlight …highlight.

Bottles and glass got a base of P3 Coal Black, a wash of a mix of Coal Black and Black, and highlighted back up with Coal black with progressively more Menoth White base added to it.

Ropes and cords got a base from a mix of P3 Mouldy ochre, washed with Agrax Earthshade (Why don’t they sell this by the pint?), and a drybrush of Menoth White Base (It seems to work well with most things).

Corks were based with P3 Hammerfall Khaki, Washed with Agrax Earthshade, and drybrushed with Menoth White Base.

Some of them seem to be carrying divers flippers for whatever reason.  I went with the Secret Weapon rubber mix for these.  Undercoat black, base Tire Black Highlight Rubber, and highlight further with Rubber Highlight.

It was at this point that I remembered to take more photos.

This leaves picking out some primary colours, adding a little rust, applying a transfer and basing.  Only 1 text box and 1 pic slot left is this entry so lets see what I can do.

Yellow:

• Undercoat P3 Mouldy Ochre (Yellow has poor coverage, except for this colour)
• Base: P3 heartfire mix with P3 Cygnus Yellow
• Highlight 1: Cygnar Yellow
• Highlight 2: Cygnar Yellow mixed with Menoth White Highlight
• All glazed together with a few coats of P3 Yellow Ink

Red:

• Base: GW Khorne Red
• Highlight 1: GW Evil Sunz Scarlett
• Highlight 2: GW Wild Rider Red
• Highlight 3: GW Wild Rider Red mixed with Menoth White highlight
• All unified with a glaze of P3 Red Ink

Blue:

• VMC 70.899 Dark Prussian Blue (I love this colour)
• Highlight 1: P3 Cygnar Blue Base
• Highlight 2:  Cygnar Blue Highlight
• Highlight 3: Cygnar Blue Highlight mixed with Menoth White Highlight
• All unified together with a glaze of Cygnar Blue Highlight

White:

• Base: P3 Sickly Skin
• Shade: P3 Trollblood Highlight wash
• High: any White

I found a sheet of Ork transfers printed in 2000 in a box of second hand stuff so I thought I’d give them a go.  There was only really one surface suitable that wasn’t already covered in check so I only applied one.  Having used Mantic, Warlord, and Flames of War transfers before I would have to say I was not impressed by GWs transfers.  It’s an old design and possibly it hasn’t aged well so perhaps a newer sheet would impress me a little more?

The rust was made up from a dilute mix of Vallejo 73.108 Brown Iron Oxide pigment, and Alcladd II ALCWP-001 Deep Rust. because they are what I own and a mix has looked better than one or other alone before.  I kept it dilute and applied it in select places so it did not take over the iron.  When I applied it over a large flat surface I dabbed it with my finger after, often applying a few coats this way to diffuse any hard edges to the stain.

The bases were prepped along the way as they have some long drying times.  Pin holes were measured before painting.  Any slots were covered with masking tape and everything was primed black in advance.  As before, they were given a heavy coat of GW Martian Ironcrust textured paint.  I find that old pots of this work better than new pots.  If you plan on using some allow it to age suitable before use if you can.  Crack the seal once, close the lid and just leave it somewhere for 6+ months.

Anyway, the textured paint was given a day to dry and then flooded with GW Agrax Earthshade.  This was left overnight to dry and drybrushed up with P3 Beast Hide.  The lip was then tidied up with black paint again.  The Orks were attached when all painting was finished and everything was airbrushed with a coat of gloss varnish, and then a coat of matt varnish.  Glassware was then picked out again with gloss.  They were then allowed to dry thoroughly before having Serious Play’s Baked Canyon Landscape Texture applied.  Before giving them a thorough dunk in the mix, I added one small piece of the green sponge from the tub as this helps set everything off and just dunking did not guarantee a base got any.

I will include more detailed shots of everything in a gallery at the end, but for now here is a group shot.  I am currently most of the way through the final 13 Ork Boys using the same methods as above.