Warhammer 40k Painting Tutorial - Orks with (mostly) washes

*MORE INFO AND INSTRUCTIONS HERE, PLEASE READ*
The idea of this tutorial is to get good tabletop-quality models out on the table in less than afternoon or evening without worrying too much about really fine details and complex highlighting techniques.
This is NOT a shortcut to display-quality or golden daemon standards and is aimed more at those of you who want something decent to put on the board but probably don't like investing time into painting as much, or play Imperial Guard, Orks, Tyranids or any other high model count army.
Hopefully this should inspire you to get them painted!
Credit to this thread on Warseer: www.warseer.com...
You'll need the following:
- Paints*
- Devlan Mud
- Badab Black
- Thraka Green
- Leviathan Purple
- Boltgun Metal
- Mithril Silver
- Blood Red
- Skull White
- Chaos Black
- White undercoat
*You can use alternatives if you can find them, this is what I had at hand!
- Tools
- Wash brush or equivalent
- Standard brush
- Drybrush or equivalent
- Optional stuff for the basing part at the end
- Bubonic Brown
- Bestial Brown, for the base rim, though this can be any colour of your choice
- Epoxy / Gap Filler - I used No More Nails, similar stuff like Polyfilla will do
- Sculpting Knife
'ERE WE GO
1. 0:40 Undercoat the model white, preferably with a spray of some sort. This will provide highlighting for the washes, any other colour might obscure them. I'm assuming in the video that this is already done, as some can take up to 24 hours to cure.
2. 1:10 Paint the whole model in Devlan Mud, this provides highlighting and shading in one step, with the washes going on afterwards filling in the colour in between.
3. 1:52 Thraka Green on the skin
4. 2:40 Drybrush Boltgun metal over the weapons, armour and other metallic details.
5. 3:03 Wash all the cloth areas with a badab black + chaos black mix, or use a colour of your choice mixed with Devlan Mud or Badab Black if you wanted another clan, E.g. Yellow + Dev Mud for Bad Moons, Red + Dev Mud for Evil Suns etc.
6. 4:20 For Goffs, paint red details with a Blood Red and Devlan Mud mix to break up the black areas. For other clans use their secondary colour, E.G. Bad Moons use black, Evil Suns use yellow, Death Skulls use white, Snakebites use Red and Blood Axes use whatever clashes with their uniform!
7. 5:04 Optionally for Goffs, add some checkers on shoulder pads or any other flat surface.
8. 6:22 Drybrush the metal areas with Mithril Silver
9. 6:52 Paint any tongues and / or gums Leviathan Purple
10. 7:17 Douse the model in Devlan Mud!
11. 8:28 Finish with a basing method of your choice
If you wanted to make your own version of the test fig, conversion bits are: Assault on Black Reach torso with original choppa and lug cut off, Slugga arm from the stormboyz sprue, head from the boyz heavy weapon / nobz sprue with the skull top knot trimmed off, stikk bomb arm from same sprue with hand trimmed off, choppa hand from warhammer fantasy orc regiment sprue.
The example Nob at the beginning of the video uses the following bits: Assault on Black Reach torso cutting off the choppa (but keeping the arm) and the lug for the slugga arm, head and chains from the warbiker sprue, power klaw from the nobz sprue.
Anything else I can think of I'll add later, hope this helps! Good Luck and thanks for watching!

[@Philtopy]

I got 750 Point worth of orcs, painted with this technique (but I used a yellow mixed with devlan mud and a blue wash as the main coloursceme ) . I must say they look wonderfull! the more models I paint the better the looks of the whole army gets! a great tutorial and so incredibly easy. You dont have to be a good painter for it, you just need the stamina to get going and the end result will be so rewarding.

[@dimvw484]

don't care for what the others say, I like this style - gritty, dark, just like the universe of 40K should be. Sometimes I find all those models painted too nice :p

[@theycallmejamesy]

It's been a while since I stopped collecting 40k but the videos keep popping up in my feed and I can't help but watch them every so often. I've learned a huge amount from this video alone, I always tended to stick with just using the base paints to colour my models. I never realised it was so easy to make them look so good! Fantastic job, you're a brilliant painter.

[@onijasin]

Being a new painter I love this technique . The end result is very professional

[@distroya_]

There are now several videos of painting orks using washes, and this is still the best one.

[@TheNorthernFox]

This is great for anyone who struggles with time or if you're like me and are now overwhelmed with a grey horde. My only issue was how flat the black looked on the clothes. But I found an easy fix in a light drybrush of dark grey (Adeptus Battlegrey) over the black clothing. Adds that extra highlight I think it needed. With this technique I can now paint a squad (12 models) in an afternoon to a good tabletop quality.

[@Horrormovie_NZ]

This is so neat! I'm brand new to the hobby and quite intimidated about painting up my new vampire horde, but this has a lot of character and seems so easy- thanks a bunch!

[@peterlavalle]

Dylan Smart “It doesn't matter how fast you go, as long as you do not stop” (... according to Confucius ... who probably didn't have a drawer-of-shame but I think the sentiment is encouraging)

[@sabartadrel]

Just started trying this out with on a few minatures, the results are great, best of all is how forgiving the technique is. I also love how the final wash blends all the different areas together giving the model a consistant tone.

[@drunkenwoodelf]

Planning on getting into warhammer when i get some free money, the one thing i was worried about was the painting, and this made me feel a lot more confident! thanks man!

[@Lennysmash84]

I have to say I really, really like this tutorial. I have around 80 orks that need painting up, but they are not an army I actually collect. This should getting them looking good enough to game with at least.

[@peterbenson883]

Even though I don't play orks myself, I found this to be a great and most handy tutorial. Thanks for posting it!

[@MasterOfCornflakes]

i'm just now getting onto this hobby and i had gotten a cheap unit of Ork Boyz to work on. I already have my "Mulligan" Ork so i'm glad i ran into this video.

[@jtburtt]

I always come back to this video for a refresher.

[@thehobypainter6622]

Very nice ork painting, is a different way of painting with mainly washes. Thanks for sharing.

[@oiuykghkjgkg]

LOVE the sense of humor in the captions, super funny "41 millenium cave art" and "looks like the Orc painted it", I can picture him sitting and taking the time to be artsy before battle, hahaha!!!

[@CrashCarlisle]

Thanks for the tutorial. A couple of things: - the army as a whole looks 'washed out', bleached. I think that's because the green isn't green enough. Try it again with a mix of goblin green and thraka green. - for the goff checkered pattern, you did right by starting with the white, but get a brush dedicated just for that job and trim the end off so it is square. Then you can just drag the black paint across and make a consistent pattern.

[@Stefoserpent]

Fast , easy and looks great! Congratz to you sir , that's a hell of a way to paint an ork horde!

[@frankblaker8294]

Nice! Very nice! Well done mate. I also find, following your lead, that the initial dark wash allows me to see the mini clearly, understand what is what, and , cos I’m an old fart, this makes SO much difference, makes it all achievable. I really resonate with the grim dark style too, adds to the theatrical look of the whole hobby.

[@JigglingManBoobs]

Just wanted to say THANKYOU!! for this tutorial. It has inspired me to paint up my Ork army and I'm already under way, the results are fantastic!

[@thomasvandaele1947]

The result is quite good considering the time spent. Actually the model helps a lot with this "dirty" method. I mean, It's ok for a 40K ork but I'm not sure it could be applicable to an other mini. Personnaly I would spend an other 10mn to make some highlights on skin and clothes before the final wash. By the way, very well done tutorial, very clear and pleasant to watch. Thanks you.

[@Nystel1]

I am new the Warhammer 40k community. I have yet to buy my army, but I believe have careful thought that I am going to go Ork. I love the craziness about them. I have been thinking about how to paint them, and I knew that I did not want to go the conventional route b/c its always done and it boring to me. Your wash meathod is the perfect thing that I had in mind. In fact, when I think of orcs I see something like this with lighter shades of green. It just looks more realistic to me.

[@Dreez76]

I am buying Thraka soon and this tutorial helped a lot. Thraka will be my first object to paint ever and probably a great challenge. But i am a perfectionist so it will have to take the time it takes. I will most likely do a LOT of research before even starting to make it look awesome.

[@TheSmithlaw]

I just wanted to say that I just tried this method and IT ROCKS!!!

[@TanneriteStuffedDogForTheATF]

Definitely going to have to try this. I've always hated the GW painted stuff because even though they look great, I never understood why everything (especially Orks and Chaos) looked so pristine and shinny. This gives a more dirty/battered/sun bleached appearance which I much prefer.

[@Nilaats]

I did a few of these guys and tried some things out and found that I personally like using the last wash (after its all done) with light coating of the badab black really makes things pop out

[@mandolinka29]

I painted my first 12 boyz using this as a guideline and they turned out awesome! Thanks for this video

[@FloridaEccentric]

Looks great would have never thought to do the whole model in washes but as you said if you believe it works....it works.

[@Quickslvr311]

Amazing video Thoume. I just wanted to thank you for this technique. I've used it on over 100 boyz and it works like a charm. Quick, painless, and easy. My only problem is that sometimes after adding the last wash of devlan over the whole figure, the skin becomes a bit too dark. I try to lighten up on my application of mud and things are awesome. Keep up the good work

[@GOMMetalGods]

Awesome! I just painted up a squad of boyz using this guide. Turned out great. the only thing i did different was during stage 5 (The red Detail stage) i added in some additional details. Great Guide! Thanks!

[@chrisw.4600]

Great one ! I will share this to my son he is 14 and likes nice miniatures too. He will be able to get a nice army with long time fun. I use the same technique for Zombicide Zombies. Thanks for making this!

[@Da40kOrks]

That's an awesome first video! great work on the model, love the method and love the quality of the video.

[@JPate33]

awesome job, i used to collect orks and the one downfall was how many i had to paint but i still may use some of these techniques, thanks.

[@ImmortalRaZdu]

I always was thinking how you paint a model like that ? But you answered my question. Million thanks.

[@hooliganyouth]

Excellent video. I've been using washes to paint Skaven for quite some time. The new washes are great but if you can get your hands on some Citadel paint from the 90s you'll find that they work excellently as an acryllic wash. I prefer using acyrillic washes with a touch of dish soap because they don't have that plastic-y look some of the new washes have.

[@massgps]

I really liked the checkered pattern and I like how you dis it freehand I tried it on a couply of my nobz and lootas they turned out really well

[@crym77]

DOW 2 Ork music is so good with this video. The ork is great too! I'm going to use this method for my Age of Sigmar Orks.

[@Ginoitaliano]

Thanks for this mate, it's brilliant! I'm gonna loosely do my orks like this, I suppose most of the skill involved is understanding how different paints e.t.c will turn out. Thanks again!

[@Gigas0101]

"The Unpainted Horde" stuck out to me at the start of this video... Great tutorial, thanks!

[@biblicalgoatboy4385]

wow, you have basically re taught me how to paint, thank you so much. Great work.

[@jnulpi]

thank you very much for this great video.this is exactly what i searched for.simple and looks great.i have already the tyranids.and they all gwashed.they look solid.

[@StarcraftOakley]

very nice paintjob, I like the grungy look one can achieve with mostly washes. :D

[@TheAegisClaw]

Its a technique where you use a non-pointed brush with most of the paint wiped off and just gently rub it against the raised areas and it creates highlights very easily.

[@natepetersl14]

I will say simply that quick model looks much better than my 45 minute painting ones do. Mainly because I use just acrylics, up until recently the idea of washes and drybushing and highlights never occured to me

[@shadowsoldier74]

If you spend a little more time you can dry brush vermin brown and blood red on metal parts to give it a rust effect

[@Demonicpayne]

Great vid ! after trying this method personally i can say you are awesome and thanks for the tips, it certainly makes me want to paint the rest of my orks now as its so easy to do XD

[@fantasyfollowers7424]

wow just the vid I have been looking for me to kick start my WAAAAAGGGHHHH. Cheers pal easy to follow and well presented.

[@MortisDux]

I actually do paint separatly and then glue them, and I just did with the blue scribes, because there is too much details, once painted, its hard to glue like it, so i rip off some of the paint with a sharp small knife, the other way i used with my terminator, was to glue one part and paint it, and then glue the next one, and just paint part that won't be accessible before you glue them! :)

[@Eesoteric43]

Really good intro to preshading!

[@robertproudfoot7990]

Well the problem would be the skin, because a green wash onto black will still be black :P the reason white is used is because washes will then show up relatively easy. Many other ork painters use black as a base coat and im sure there are loads of videos for those as well :) its just a different technique, as with this he is basically just slowly shading up to the colours he wants.

[@Polored1066]

Looks quick and fantastic. Damn I need to do this for my boyz

[@ElZilchoYo]

Very nice, but very pale green, must be a young ork!

[@romahoffman8178]

Woww.. I knew you could paint a model completely with inks, but I didn't know what it would look like.. Very awesome.. well done! This method/ theory blows my mind!! I will try it some time! : 0

[@lorelepri_1249]

Amazing tutorial really cool effect

[@gondowisp6082]

another good way to do the base is to before painting take 2 parts water and 1 part pva glue or elmers and dip the base in then take cat liter or sand and dip it in and tap it off then take about 5-6 parts water and 1 part glue and go back over the cat liter then tap it off it is very effective

[@MoreDakka101]

interesting. You've used soooo many washes that I'd almost think just painting the fig would have taken less time LOL Looks good. A bit too light for my taste (I'd probably have to do the green wash 2 or 3 times) but the beautiful thing about orks... you can pain them anyway you want and nobody can say it's wrong :)

[@pmrize]

@thoume2 Many thanks for the feedback, ive been experimenting with an old bottle of red Parker "Quink" ink on a few old space marine banners, results were a lot like valejo red wash, neat from the bottle seemed to work best but 50/50 with rubbing alc worked quite well.

[@Daveydee72]

this would be great for a production line of boys great job mate!

[@VoragoTitan]

great vid! I think this is how I will paint my lil orksies I have around. they arent my main army but this should still be fun...

[@massgps]

@lukekennedy1001 Drybrush is when you use a fat thick brush and put a small amount of paint on it that paint becomes a little dry and when roughly brushed on comes out on an even shaded look

[@ButtersRealm]

Ooh this looks nice. I'm gonna try this

[@Generalsplatton]

Really like the style bud!

[@sodapopbrosky]

awesome!!!!!!! loved these when i was younger!

[@saj1986]

nice method :) will try it out on the new horde i plan on purchasing

[@ilikestripes100]

Generally 40k painters will use skull white or chaos black spray-paint to do undercoats, as it is almost impossible to get a good undercoat with any white paint that isn't spray or airbrushed.

[@dreadpiratedan]

really well produced, going to check your channel for more :)

[@mulletking]

You are a talented painter, and this is a great method for horde Painting. However, I find the finished model visually unappealing, from a painting standpoint. Much too muted. But I cannot deny that you have some great skill with the brush.

[@thucster5]

hahha, a negative and a negative makes a positive. This guy is really smart.

[@SturFriedBrains]

Never thought of doing mainly washes & shades as my basis for all the painting... I have always liked the washes & shades better than the paints...

[@Intercore222]

I was painting Tyranids but stopped painting 2 years ago. Maybe I will start again and will paint Orcs :D

[@StarcraftOakley]

the nice thing about orks is that they splash paint randomly around on their bodies so if you mess things up during painting it still looks orky

[@SteveSilverskull]

Real nice technique. Ill certainly incorporate some of your ideas into my style. Off to my local outlet for a few washes I think.

[@natecoram6582]

OMG... I did not know you could paint with mostly washes!

[@killa1triangle13]

Oh, sweet prince, Devlan mud, how we mourn your loss.

[@Bacxaber]

Either I missed it, or you didn't cover how to paint brown belts at all. You just left them white with devlan mud accents.

[@KelemenAndrasPatikus]

After I saw this, I have painted my green tide:) Thanks a lot!!!

[@monstermorrill]

woot finaly go all my paints in and doing my first ork! doing just one for now to get a feel (test model i supose). unfortunately its really cold outside some im priming with gesso (first time ever using it ), and i think i thined it too much cause it flaked some during the first devlan mud wash...oh well. drying so hopefully eveyrhting else will could out smoothly

[@Darkbulborb]

I think you should do your bullets shining gold. Cuz it looks awesome :D

[@felipegomez6729]

This tutorial, helped me a lot. Thank you

[@kvarntobben]

so cool it looks

[@khaymaneights]

I wonder how hard the author of this video laughed when they first heard what GW's contrast paints are meant to do.

[@lilithnerevarine5834]

Imho the figure looks great! But the base looks like an omlette xD

[@TheNorthernFox]

Nice vid, will definately be giving that a go on my boyz... Seem to always have trouble getting the painting done when doing proper highlights and such. It's good on warbosses and nobz but on 30 boyz... not so much...

[@12345mmo]

great vid mate, im buying loads of orks soon from wayland games great people save loads , anyway will copy your idea and apply it to them, thanks for this vid. :)

[@TheFisher1973]

cant wait to see some more!!

[@jkvk2]

awesome.. i tried to use this technique with my blood angels and the final result is fking awesome if you wanna try my way you need: flesh wash, red gore and black chaos(with a lot of water;) )

[@mikedorazio275]

Excellent job for the time it took and perfectly appropriate for people such as much with little pantience and fat fingers :s

[@juventinhoPL]

Between step 1 and 2 drybrush skin with green paint (I use goblin green)

[@TNorberg]

Man, you're incredibly skilled! Im going to paint my first Orks this weekend (my first Warhammer characters actually), and I don't even know if I dare to try this. Are you just making it look easy, or isn't it that tough? I have painted some plastic models when I where younger (planes and things like that) so I guess I have some experiance, even though it isn't much.

[@TheMiniDicky]

This is Awesome Mate!

[@senfone]

you've forgotten to paint its eye(s), but it is a fantastic and fast way to paint a massarmy. I ilke you washskills.

[@daninjcks]

Awesome job. I saw you hand rocking when painting red you should support it with your other hand or table edge for stability I am thinking this was because of the camera. Do you thin your paints or washes? awesome vid

[@sylux22100]

can i paint with waaagh! flesh ?

[@lorcanbowens6939]

Could I use Army Painter Skeleton Bone as the primer for this method?

[@Obi_boy]

lol i just asked this 4 years later still no reply! did you preshade after the bone?

[@Warhammerplayer13]

This is the best tutorial on KZbin! I just started the hobby, and I am using this method. Also, what was the ratio of badab black to chaos black, and the ratio of blood red to devlan mud?

[@vincentblack7856]

Great tutorial!

[@HammerandAnvilStudios]

great way to do a tutorial dude props

[@KnightOfTheRealm1]

devlan mud fixes EVERYTHING!

[@DannyDark2008]

Amazing Work!

[@VoodooRob75]

Not the style i prefer, but great vid and excellent commentary. I am going to borrow some techniques.

[@slow_runner]

I found this in my bookmarks and the Dawn of War music hit really hard for some reason.