There Is A Reason You Do 'Painting Tests' Before The Real Project!
“The best laid schemes o' mice an' men ~ Gang aft a-gley.”
While rather suitable that I begin my first project post of the New Year with a quote from Robert Burns, I'd rather that it had not been that one!
First project and first fail, let's hope that's not a sign of this to come for 2025, eh? 😏
Let me explain. My lovely wee wife surprised me with a nice Warhammer Age of Sigmar 'Orruk Ardboys' set for Christmas. She had noticed that I had started trying to see if I could paint 28mm scale miniatures again (see, wives DO pay attention)!
Anyways, while a wonderful gift it did put my somewhat under pressure to - now - make a good job of painting them. And therefore, I decided that it was a good idea to buy a cheap single miniature with which I could carry out some Ork painting tests.
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| Above: My cheap 'Bones' practise 'ork' (I think it's actually an Ogre, but the size is equal to my Warhammer 'Ardboys'.) |
Now, after watching several YouTube tutorials (all optimistically titled 'the best/easy way to paint Ork skin') I thought I had a strategy that suited by preference for Vallejo brand paints (rather than Citadel - the little stubby pots of which I do not like). In particular, I wanted to give Vallejo's new 'Xpress Color' range a go as I had never tried these new fangled 'contrast' paints before and everyone is raving about them.
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| Above: A selection of the new paints I bought to try out various techniques for doing ork skin. In particular, I was keen to try out the new Vallejo Xpress Color contrast paints. |
So, paints and brushed in hand, off I went...
My First Mistake...
Unfortunately, I kinda unnecessarily complicated matters after reading a few articles on how 'painting Warhammer like 1990' was a bit of a fad at the moment. This intrigued me, both because I like retro things and because of the nostalgia of painting Ork like the last time I painted Orks, which was - in fact - 1990!
Sounded good, but it turned out to be a 'bridge too far' as someone who is just learning how to paint miniatures all over again. Following one tutorial suggestion (out of many) I laid down a yellow base skin coat...
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| Above: Another new range of paints are the 'Two Thin Coats' series. I have had a lot of problems finding a good opaque yellow so I was hoping this Duncan Rhodes brand might have the answer. |
Bad move number 1. The thought behind this being that once I added the darker contrast green over the top of the yellow, the combined effect should settle down into a nice retro looking lime colour.... Er, no. 😐
What I got instead - after adding a coat of Vallejo's 'Ork Skin' Xpress Color - was a nasty sickly shade of vomit....
Nope, didn't like that. Of course, Ork skin colours do vary widely, but for my Ardboys I wanted a more middle-of-the-road green tone, so back to the drawing board (and THIS is why you test on a spare miniature first).
Attempt Number 2
Now, I didn't want to have to strip the vomit colour back, re-prime and start again so instead I decided to reapply a darker green contrast wash over my phlegm coloured job. Let's see if I can turn the big bogey into a better green-skin!
I used Vallejo's Xpress 'Snake Skin' - a sort of darkish blue tinted green - to counteract and darken the yellow scheme...
And would you know... It kinda worked. It was a bit mottled and the combination of applying a contrast shade over the top of another contrast paint seemed to have the effect of making the overall result a wee bit glossy. But I guessed I could finish off the job with a Tamiya clear matt coat to get rid of that.
In general though, this was the starting base colour that I perhaps should have applied in the first place (a sort of mid forest green), and then gone on to apply a shadow shade on top. But you live and learn - which is what this test piece is all about.
SO, back to square one with a basic coat that I am now happier with. Next I shall start the highlighting and detailing of the skin, which is where we shall take it up in my next instalment on this project.
(Really glad UI didn't jump straight into doing the Warhammer Ardboys straight away now!) 😆
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