Orruk Boar Boyz arrive just in time for Orctober

For a second I was worried that I did not pay enough attention to orcs/orruks this Orctober (Orruktober?). But a quick scroll through the past month shows I need not have worried. I did complete Grom (honorary orc) and had some fun with orcs in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th. Now all I needed to do to complete Orctober was to finish painting some actual Orruk/Orc/Ork (this is getting out of hand) models. Luckily two projects have been hiding on my painting station: Kaptin Badrukk and five Boarboys I picked up second hand a while back. This weekend I completed the Boarboys.

Oh what a day. What a lovely day! 

The main attempt here was to paint reasonably interesting boars and to try out something new for green skin. As I keep painting orcs over the years I keep enjoying trying out fresh recipes, especially when there is an interesting YouTube or Blog tutorial to paint along with. In this case I followed the Orc skin recipe by RobPaintsModels. All I added was a Waywatcher Green Glaze at the end of the process to make the skin pop slightly greener (and some human skin color on the lower lips because purple is just too over the top eighties (even) for me and nothing is a bit bland and lazy).

Looking at the pictures I think I need more boarboys in my orruk horde.

A major challenge on this project was that the previous owner had not only glued the orcs and the boars together before priming (a big no no for cavalry in my book), he'd also used a glue that I suspect usually holds skyscrapers together if steel girders are unavailable (rest easy I'm not a civic engineer). It proved utterly impossible to separate the riders from the boars (or the shields from the riders). In the end I just had to paint the entire lot fully assembled (and I had to use a razor saw to separate the boars from their original square bases).

I have always had a soft spot for the orruk (and orc) faces GW has come up with over the years. From way back when until the Megaboss and friends we have today. The boy on the right is just wonderful.

Aside from using an airbrush for the skin, which helped hit the hard to reach parts like the bellies and shield arms, I also used the airbrush to give the boars a nice Mournfang Brown basecoat. I decided to keep the rest of this process simple drybrushing the boars Scrag Brown and Deathclaw Brown followed by a heavy wash of Agrax. The boar's faces where painted Bugman's Glow and layered Cadian Fleshtone. For some reason my painting skills (such as they are) disappeared during this part and the faces looked as if covered by a terrible gloopy mess. I tried to fix the horror by watering down Reikland Fleshshade and just layering it on carefully (and I think it worked). Finishing up I decided to give the eyes an extra evil look by applying a careful recess wash of Nuln Oil to make the red pop. Last but not least I went for a simple Leadbelcher/Ironbreaker/Agrax look on the armor parts.

Seeing this angle reminds me I should flock the abandoned mine shafts I used as background for these pictures.

In the end the orcs looked very brown and dull so I took some of my (quickly decreasing) Modelmates Rust Effect to go to town on the metals. After building up some base rust this way I watered down Nihilakh Oxide and took some Ryza Rust to the models to add more color to all orcs. This helped make them a bit more interesting (in my very humble opinion). To add even more color (and because I love crazy contrasts) I added some pretty flowers to the base which help offset the brutish orcs. I did the same ting on my Ironjaw Megaboss a while back (and I stand by it!). Next up Badrukk, who's turning out to be hellishly detailed and difficult (yet interesting) model to paint.