How to Paint House Orlock

Orlock are the House of Iron: miners, haulers and road gangs who work metal for a living and wear the results. The scheme is a rusty brick red over dark gunmetal, wrapped in brown leather - three warm, low-saturation colours that sit very comfortably together and hide a multitude of sins. It is probably the friendliest Necromunda gang for a painter who is still nervous about highlighting, because everything on the model is supposed to be scuffed.

The Outrider quads and their riders make this a gang with vehicles in it, and the same recipe scales straight onto a bike frame without changing anything.

The signature look

A muted rust-red - closer to old brick or oxide primer than to a fire engine - on jackets, tabards and cloth. Underneath and around it, dark gunmetal plating with real wear: chips, rust blooms, scratched edges. Leather in warm brown for belts, boots, straps and gloves. The gang should look like it works for a living and sleeps near the machinery.

The rust-red jacket

Undercoat black. Red over black gives you the deep, oxidised base this scheme wants.

1. Basecoat Khorne Red, two thin coats. It is a dark, slightly brown red and it is doing the heavy lifting - do not be tempted to start brighter.
2. Shade with Agrax Earthshade rather than a red wash. The brown in it is what pushes the colour towards rust and away from crimson.
3. Layer Mephiston Red on the raised folds and panels, leaving the shade in every crease.
4. Highlight Evil Sunz Scarlet along the top edges of the folds, collars and cuffs.
5. On leaders and champions only, add a final thin catch of Wild Rider Red on two or three edges. Any more and the jacket stops looking worn.

Vallejo Model and Game Color painters can run Hull Red shaded, then Gory Red and Bloody Red on top. Army Painter Fanatic offers Dragon Red into Basilisk Red.

The fast route

Undercoat Wraithbone, then a single coat of Flesh Tearers Red contrast for a bright, blood-red jacket, or Gore-grunta Fur for a browner, more rusted one - which is much closer to the studio Orlock look. Edge-highlight Evil Sunz Scarlet and stop. The Army Painter equivalent is Burnished Red speedpaint.

Once the reds are down, glaze a very thin Agrax Earthshade over the lower half of each jacket. That single pass unifies a fast paint job and a careful one.

The gunmetal

Orlock plate is the second half of the scheme and it should be dark.

1. Basecoat Leadbelcher.
2. Wash generously with Nuln Oil and let it dry fully.
3. Edge with Ironbreaker, then Runefang Steel on corners, blade edges and the lips of barrels and exhausts.
4. Stipple Typhus Corrosion at rivets, weld seams and the bottom edges of every plate.
5. Drybrush Ryza Rust very lightly over the corrosion, then knock most of it back with a clean dry brush.

Vallejo painters can substitute Gunmetal, edged with Natural Steel and Oily Steel for the darker, oilier areas.

Chipping. This is the technique that makes Orlock. Tear a scrap of blister foam, dab it in Rhinox Hide, wipe nearly all of it off on kitchen roll, then stipple lightly along the edges of plates and the tops of shoulder pads. Once dry, put a tiny dot of Runefang Steel inside the lower edge of the larger chips only. Two colours, ninety seconds, and the armour reads as steel that has been hit rather than plastic that has been painted.

Leather and cloth

Belts, boots, gloves and bike saddles: Rhinox Hide basecoat, Mournfang Brown on the raised areas, a Skrag Brown edge. For variety across the gang, run some pieces darker with a Wyldwood or Cygor Brown contrast over bone instead, which gives a drier, older-looking leather.

Trousers and undershirts break up the red nicely in Steel Legion Drab shaded Agrax Earthshade and highlighted Karak Stone, or in plain Eshin Grey into Dawnstone.

Skin: Cadian Fleshtone, Reikland Fleshshade, Kislev Flesh, with Bugman's Glow left in the deepest creases. Orlock faces should be weathered and outdoors-looking, so a touch of Agrax Earthshade stippled at the jawline for stubble works well.

Bikes, bases and grime

Outrider quads take the same jacket red on the bodywork, the same chipping on the frame, and one extra step: Typhus Corrosion brushed along the underside of the chassis and around the exhausts, then a light drybrush of Ryza Rust over it. Dust the wheels and the rider's boots with a drybrush of Karak Stone working upwards from the sole and fading out at the knee.

Bases in Astrogranite or Agrellan Earth technical paint, drybrushed Longbeard Grey, tie the gang to the underhive floor and take five minutes for the lot.

Tips and common mistakes

• Shade the red with brown, not red. A red wash gives you a comic-book crimson. Agrax Earthshade gives you oxide.
• Chip the edges, not the middles. Damage happens where things collide - corners, rims, the fronts of shoulder pads. Chips scattered across a flat panel look painted on.
• Keep the rust local. Rivets, seams and lower edges. A rusty whole model reads as a wreck rather than working kit.
• Vary the leather. Two or three brown tones across the gang stop the models blurring into one silhouette at table distance.
• Do not highlight the red too far. Bright scarlet everywhere is the single commonest way to lose the Orlock look; the colour should stay dusty.