#sporktober part III - The making of

It's time! #sporktober is almost over and I completed my entry for our little challenge.

In this painting report I'll show the very simple way in which I painted the Orc my pals chose to be painted during this amazing Orctober. The winner was the classic monopose Orc Warrior Boy from the 6th edition of WFB.

Here he is in all his greyness

Few musings (as always)

So, I decided to follow step by step the painting tutorial from the Orcs & Goblins Army Book for the 6th edition (published in 2000). It's a standard tutorial, made to paint an entire army of Greenskins in little time, and I really appreciated it. I'm not a fan of the "standard" method of painting (base colours, washes, highlighting), because I'm not a very precise painter and I like a more dirty finish. During the last years, even if I painted only few minis, I tried both washes and Contrast colours on light primers, and I'm quite happy with the results.

However, another try at this method gave me some boost and will to paint more miniatures, in general; to paint my Orcs maybe following these easy steps (maybe for one entire unit, just to see it completed); to try the same tutorial from the Empire Army Book with my Empire State Troops. Eventually, it was a nice painting session(s) and I had lots of fun. But now I'll stop ruminations.

The tutorial

The journey

First thing first, my faithful Chaos Black spray

During the process, I tried multiple ways to make nice pics, not always with a good result. This second pic it's not really interesting, but represent my struggle in finding a way to take a photo of a completely black model. Probably I wasted my time

My palette, confronted with te one in the tutorial. The ✅ means I have the same colour in the newer Citadel range; the ☑️ means I'll use an equivalent from another producer

Here they are. I'll use washes instead of the inks

Step 1: basecoating the green skin

Step 2: finishing the base colours. I used the "two thin coats" approach on everything, which is the main reason I don't like this method: more layers mean more time. The red was a little translucent, maybe the colour is particularly liquid or I didn't shook it well (or both), so I needed three coats 

Step 3: my favourite step ever, because this little details such as the teeth on this Orc really make the miniature gain life. The tutorial consider this step the "battle-ready" level for this miniatures: in the process of painting an entire army this could be the standard minimum level to have a painted regiment on the table. Not very nice, but surely better then waves of grey plastic!

As you can see, the pics above are not really in focus, and even the light is not my favourite. I tried to use a light box but I'm not quite happy with the result, so I used the lamp whose light I normally use for painting. Nicer, in my opinion. I all the photos as a reminder for me

Rear view of the battle-ready mini

Step 4: washes! Another step I personally adore. Here I painted also the eyes, an anticipation of step 5, but to represent that this is my battle-ready level if I would choose to paint my Orcs following this method

Step 5: highlighting and the base. I used my Citadel flock I bought in 2009 when I started playing. I used it... few times, as you can see. I painted very few miniatures in these almost 15 years! Partially joking: I painted few minis but I used lots of static grass instead of this flock

Finished! Here he is, my entry for #sporktober 2023: Wintag the Orc Warrior!

I didn't use highlights on this particular mini: it's a step I can easily take on later at any time, and I preferred a more "honest" approach, because probably I wouldn't highlight a core miniature like this while painting an entire army. The only thing I'll probably do is some drybrush with a lighter green on the skin... maybe I'll try it later

The tutorial don't say anything about the back of the mini, so I left it plain black. Here you can see the wash in the recess of Wintag's mighty muscles

Ready to slay some monopose Empire State Troops!

And here we are! I completed the challenge and I'm happy with the result and ready to compete against Michele. A part from the contest, I want to ride this wave and get on painting. So may Wintag be the first of a Greenskin powerful Waaagh!