Tutorial: 2 (+2) quick and easy ways to paint Ork/Orruk flesh

In this post I’ll teach you two quick and straight-forward techniques for painting Ork (or Orruk) flesh: One is based on the new Orruk Flesh base paint, while the other uses a combination of Contrast and traditional painting to create a great result without spending hours on blending or shading. I’ll also add links to two more Ork tutorials for even more ideas to paint your new Beast Snaggaz, Kommandos, or Kruleboyz.

This tutorial assumes you know the basic grips of painting Warhammer miniatures. Step-by-step I explain all the paints and techniques I used. I have a rather eclectic paint collection, so when I use a paint that is not from Games Workshop (or out of production), I’ll try to provide you with suitable alternatives from the current Citadel paint range [in brackets]. However, if you want to achieve exactly the same result as shown, I recommend expanding your paint collection. You’ll find a list of all the paints used in this tutorial at the end of the post.

How to paint light Ork skin

Basecoat the skin with Orruk Flesh. About three slightly thinned coats will be necessary.

Create a wash by mixing Creed Camo Contrast paint 1:1 with Contrast Medium and apply it all over the skin. Be generous with the wash, but if you notice any pooling, use a damp brush to remove the excess wash.

Pick out the most prominent facial features with Ogryn Camo. On the body, this could be knuckles, elbows, sinews, and sharp edges of muscles. For a smoother result build you might want to smoothen the transition with Orruk Flesh mixed with a little bit of Ogyrn Camo.

Wash the lower lip with Coelia Greenshade.

Highlight the lip with Sybarite Green.

Here is the finished head. The eyes were painted with Mephistoon Red, then I washed the whole eye socket with Creed Camo, and highlighted the eyes with Evil Sunz Scarlet afterwards. The nose ring was basecoated with Iron Warriors and highlighted with Stormhost Silver, while the beanie got two coats of Creed Camo and no additional highlights.

This greenskin recipe is based on the light green hue you see on most of the studio-painted Orks (and Kruleboyz), though the ‘Eavy Metal team will highlight even further up to Krieg Khaki and Screaming Skull.

The key to my simplified version is getting the wash of Creed Camo right. Add plenty of Contrast Medium and be generous when applying the wash. Wait a little while until the pigments have settled, and then soak up any excess to keep pooling to a minimum, and you will end up with a beautiful and smooth result that won’t need much more refinement.

Paints you will need for this tutorial:

How to paint dark Ork skin

Use Grey Seer primer to prime the model, then paint Grey Seer base paint over any areas the primer didn’t catch.

Apply a generous coat of Ork Flesh Contrast paint. Wait for a little while until the wash has settled, then soak up any excess with a damp brush where the Contrast Paint has pooled too much.

To enrichen the colour, apply a wash of Biel-Tan Green. Once dry, you can layer Warboss Green over any unsightly areas where the washes dried unevenly, though I didn’t found it to be necessary on my test model.

Pick out the features of the face with Skarsnik Green. For the body, this could be muscles, fingers, knuckles, and bulging sinews.

This is optional, but if you like, you can add a highlight of thinned Kislev Flesh to add a more fleshy look to areas such as the ears, nose, lips (and knuckles and elbows).

Here is the finished head. The teeth were basecoated with Skavenblight Dinge, then layered with Vallejo Game Color Bonewhite [or Screaming Skull] and highlighted with Pallid Wych Flesh. The earring was basecoated with Runelord Brass, washed with Agrax Earthshade, and highlighted with Canoptek Alloy.

Paints you will need for this tutorial:

If you need to expand your paint collection to follow the tutorial, check out our partner stores Wayland Games and Element Games, which offer an amazing range of paints at a discount.

Two more Ork tutorials

And it doesn’t stop there. Here are two more tutorials with even more approaches for painting Ork skin. This one is a Blood Bowl tutorial but essentially the Goff Klan paint scheme, using a pale green colour from The Army Painter plus Biel-Tan mixed with a lot of Lahmian Medium for the light green flesh tone:

Garfy painted this classic 2nd Edition plastic Space Ork and used a more traditional approach of basecoating, washing, and highlighting, with Citadel’s Waaagh! Flesh, Warboss Green, and Straken Green:

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If so, leave a comment or reaction below, and if you got any questions, leave them here so I can answer them for you.