Boss green, boy green & runt green; ork skin colors

[Quantum]

Hi all,

 

I am (slowly) starting to paint my orks, and I wanted to differ the shade of green depending on the status of the ork in their hierachy. That is to say, bosses and nobs I want to paint a very dark green shade, grots very light green, and boys something in between.

 

Anyone can recommend some good color combinations (basecoat, shade, highlights, etc) for these skin tones? Thanks.

[Warhead01]

I can't recommend any paints because I use a lot of craft paints on my Orks and don't know what you like for paint. That said I'd pick maybe 5 colors. A Dark green for the big bosses base coat the next a lighter green for the highlight which you would then use for the nobs base coat, a slightly lighter for the highlight and then as a base coat for da boys. 
I use Craft paint, apple barrel for my base coats and some of my highlights mixed with old GW,P3 and Vallejo paints. I have no new/current GW paints. 

In Old GW I would have used Dark Angels green, snot green and Goblin green for layer painting And added what ever was brighter after the Goblin green but I can't recall a paint name.
I recall a paint color name chart over on Dakka Dakka for color matching old pant brands/color names to newer paint names and other brands. If that helps any. 

Good luck.
Maybe repost this in the Orks subforum for more help? 

[Karhedron]

I played Orcs in Fantasy. My usual recipe for Black Orcs and other characters was a base of Caliban Green and then highlight up through Warboss Green and Moot Green. This would be my "Boss Green".

 

Boyz Green would be Waagh Flesh, shaded with Biel Tan wash (or you can just use thinned Caliban green if you prefer). Then highlight up through Warboss Green and Moot Green as for bosses.

 

For Grots I would base with Warboss green and then shade more lightly with slightly thinned Biel Tan wash. Highlight with Moot Green and then finish up with a drybrush of Hexos Palesun just to give them a yellowish tint to the tips of the ears and noses.

 

These are pretty simple schemes, not too complicated, but look good, particularly when applied to large mobs.

[Firedrake Cordova]

One option you could take is to pick your "boyz" colour scheme, and simply start "darker" for bosses and "lighter" for grots.

 

For example, you could mix a dark green or Shade paint (something like Caliban Green or Biel-Tan Green) into the boyz base coat as your boss base coat, and then use the boyz base coat as the first highlight; for the grots you could start off with the boyz highlight and add Cadian Fleshtone, Ogryn Camo, or Nurgling Green dependent upon taste.

 

If it helps, how GW paint their Orks:

Edited November 12, 2021 by Firedrake Cordova

[Evil Eye]

I've been painting some greenskins for AoS, and I find that the best start for a nice Kev Adams-esque green is Militarum Green Contrast paint over a grey (in my case zenithal) primer. Depending on the "tier" of model you can go as far as you want with it- for the average gobbo, as their main areas of skin are just their hands and faces and they come in hordes, I don't tend to go too crazy with highlighting, but for your purposes I'd suggest the following. (Assume starting from a Grey Seer or equivalent shade of grey for primer, obviously works very well over zenithal or preshading too but that doesn't really change the recipe.) Obviously these can be simplified as needed depending on how many you're painting.

 

Runts: Militarum Green (possibly diluted with Contrast Medium?) for basecoat, Warboss Green highlights. Warboss Green + tiny bit of Ushabti Bone or other bone colour for final highlights. Tiny bit of Carroburg Crimson for targeted shading on noses and the like.

 

Boyz: Militarum Green basecoat, undiluted. Elysian Green highlights. Nurgling Green final highlights. Carroburg Crimson for subtle recess shading where appropriate.

 

Bosses: Militarum Green basecoat, undiluted. Shade all over with Carroburg Crimson. Death Guard Green highlights, Elysian Green final highlights, reapply Carroburg Crimson but far more sparingly.

 

Red and green are contrasting colours and work very well for shading each other- Carroburg Crimson is particularly good for that ruddy, "fleshy" red for a more convincing look, and also pairs up nicely with more muted greens. In addition, it helps make them look a bit more alive and less cartoony.

 

As a rule of thumb, if you're going to do zenithal priming (which can be done with spray cans incidentally) then for tougher, bossier Orks you'll want a darker priming. So for runts you'll want the black to be barely noticable, and if you're adding a white layer you'll want to go pretty heavy with it. For your regular boyz, you can let more black show through, and for bosses you'll want fairly heavy shadows- any white should be very sparingly applied.

 

This is just from paints I've used and have familiarity with so YMMV on what exact colours to use, but hopefully that gives you a rough idea!

Edited November 25, 2021 by Evil Eye

[MithrilForge]

So many good recipes here   . I'll chime in with my 2 cents though anyway 

As others said ,it all depends on what colour you want to use, i have gone with a military green palette for mine... but if were to do your thoughts i'd go with..

 

Warboss -  base -Castellan green ,Athonian camo-shade wash, Death world forest highlight and ogryn camo spot highlight.

 

Boyz - base -Castellan green ,Athonian camo-shade wash, Death world forest skin/muscle Layer and then ogryn camo highlight add white for final highlight.

 

Grotz and below   base -  Death world forest ,Athonian camo-shade wash, ogryn camo skin/muscle Layer and then add a touch of Averland sunset for final highlight.

 

Mithril