When you are painting rank and file troopers you need to adopt a method of painting that is quick but effective. I find the best way of doing this is to paint the flesh in four separate stages. The first stage is the base coat, (on the miniature shown below this is Goblin Green). You need to make sure that the base coat is smooth and even, so you may need to apply a couple of coats of paint. When the base coat is dry, apply a wash of slightly thinned green ink. This will run into the recesses and provide effective shading. When the ink is completely dry, go back over the model with Goblin Green and apply a first highlight to the raised areas, being careful not to obscure the shading. The last step is to add a final highlight. For this I mix Sunburst Yellow into Goblin Green and apply this colour to the most prominent surfaces, paying particular attention to the face. The photograph on the left shows the four stages applied to a Forest Goblin, but the procedure applies to any Orc or Goblin model.

The technique I use for painting unit leaders and individual characters differs from that shown above in a couple of ways. The main difference is that I start with a dark colour and then apply lighter shades to create the highlights, so there is no base colour, shade and highlight sequence. The finished result is really effective and you can apply as many shades as you want to make the result more subtle.

I apply an initial coat of Dark Angels Green, though you could use -any deep green with the same result. When this coat is dry I paint over the surface with Goblin Green, just leaving the darker colour showing in the recesses to give deep shading and definition.

The next step is to start to highlight the skin. As above I use a mix of Goblin Green and Sunburst Yellow, adding more yellow as the highlights get lighter. For the very top couple of highlights I add Skull White to the highlight mix. Depending on how much time I want to spend I apply between three and eight successively lighter shades for the highlights.

Black Orcs are the meanest and toughest of all the Orc tribes. They take war very seriously and pride themselves as being the best fighters. They are the elite units in an Orc and Goblin army, so it's worth spending a little more time painting them. Their skin is very dark green, almost black in fact, and requires a slightly different approach in order to paint it successfully. It is not possible to use the quick wash and highlight techniques you use for painting other rank and file troops, as the skin is too dark. The method for painting Black Orc skin is similar to that used for painting characters, described on the previous page.

The base coat for the skin is very dark. I use a mix of Dark Angels Green and Chaos Black, sometimes applying a couple of coats to get an even finish. The highlights are built up first using Dark Angels Green and then by adding Sunburst Yellow to this. I keep the highlights small and limit them to the raised areas of the skin, especially the nose, cheek bones, ears and knuckles. This keeps most of the skin dark, but I apply Green Glaze if it starts to look too light.

Black Orcs are even easier to paint than other orcs. They always dress in black and rid, only ever using contrasting colours on small areas of detail. Checks are the only form of decoration Black Orcs use, and these can be applied to areas of armour or clothing. I also paint some parts of the armour red in order to brighten up the otherwise quite dark colour scheme.

Savage Orcs and Forest Goblins are distinctly different from other tribes in that they cover their bodies and faces with warpaint and tattoos. These are divided into two different types, geometric patterns and pictograms, both of which are applied in either blue or red.

Geometric Patterns
These are used mainly by Forest Goblins for the markings on their faces and limbs and take the form of bands or zig-zags of colour, usually round the arms or legs. Savage Orcs also wear this sort of warpaint on their faces, using bold shapes such as chevrons or lightning bolt pattems.

Pictograms
These are used by Savage Orcs as tattoos on their bodies, and it is usually the case that they will only use one design and repeat this several times on different parts of their bodies. Snakes, bones, skulls and lightning bolts are the most common designs, and are applied boldly to large areas of bare skin. Don't try and make designs too complex or fiddly, or the effect will be lost. instead, stick to simple and bold designs.