Speed Painted Savage Orcs

Many years ago, I bought the Battle for Skull Pass, which contained plastic goblins and dwarfs. I started painting both sets of figures, and it rapidly snowballed. After several years I had two fully formed armies, though not fully painted. Fast forward to now, and times have changed. I am downsizing my collection and have found new homes for both armies. This week I have been finishing a unit of savage orcs I first started painting back in 2011. I thought I would add them to the blog before they are gone forever.

The process was quite a simple one. Spray a light brown primer, then wash with dark brown. Block in the green flesh, the bones with white or light grey. Glaze the skin with a green/blue for shadows. Paint basic tattoos and other details (banner, cloth, etc). Then oil wash the whole figure with a black/brown. Clean off the oil and then rewhiten the bones and axes. Dot in the eyes, glaze them and the mouths, and done.

I posted them on facebook and got a very good reaction, I think the simple palette and the striking face paint is key to the impact of the unit. Individually they are far from stellar, but they are speed painted and the end result is judged by the unit as a whole. I am still pondering about the oil wash, is it any quicker than using a standard wash? It certainly gives a nice grimy effect, which can be useful in some cases.