Orks are a brilliant army for painters who want character over precision. The whole aesthetic is scrappy, mismatched and weathered, so clean lines and perfect blends are not the goal - energy, contrast and a bit of grime are. They paint up fast and look better the rougher they get.
The signature look
Orks are defined by green skin and improvised metal armour and weapons. The skin recipe above gives you the ramp from a dark shaded green up to a bright, almost cartoonish highlight on the nose, brow and knuckles - that bright pop of green is what makes an Ork read as alive and aggressive.
Painting Ork skin fast
Green skin is the perfect candidate for the fast contrast/wash method:
- Basecoat the skin a mid green (or undercoat and use a green contrast paint in one pass).
- If you went the classic route, wash it with a green or black shade to sink the recesses.
- Layer the original green back on the raised muscle, then a final bright highlight on the very top - the brow ridge, nose, fists and shoulders.
For a whole mob, the one-coat contrast approach over a light undercoat gets you tabletop-ready in a fraction of the time.
Metal, rust and weathering
The armour is where Orks come alive. Keep the metal dark and grimy, not shiny:
- Basecoat plates a dark metal, wash heavily with a brown or black shade.
- Stipple or sponge rust (orange and brown) along edges and rivets.
- Add chips with a fine brush or a torn sponge so the metal looks beaten and scavenged.
- A few spots of bright clan colour (red, blue, yellow) break up the green and metal.
Clan colour variations
A spot colour ties a mob together and follows Ork "logic":
- Goffs - black and white checks, red details.
- Evil Sunz - lots of red (because red wunz go fasta).
- Bad Moons - yellow.
- Deathskulls - blue, plus a bit of everything looted.
Tips and common mistakes
- Embrace the mess. Sponge weathering and slightly sloppy chips look intentional on Orks - this is the army to relax on.
- Vary the skin. Don't paint every Ork's skin identically; small differences make a mob look like a horde, not clones.
- Batch the green. Skin is most of the model - do the whole mob's skin through each step at once, then individualise the gubbinz.