Learning new tricks: The Orcland Raiders
When I first returned to Warhammer six or so years ago, one of my ambitions was to paint orcs again, just as I had in the 1980s. Well, it has taken longer than intended but I finally painted the Blood Bowl team I snapped up when the game was relaunched three years ago.
Another reason for painting these - other than the guilt of playing with unpainted models - was to learn some new skills. I haven't painted much in the way of flesh tones, for example, even green flesh, and I certainly want to improve my face painting. In particular with these, I got a first chance to make proper use of the airbrush I bought in the Spring, one of the reasons for buying it being that I wanted to be able to varnish my models. These orcs have so many spikes on, that even handling them during painting kept rubbing the paint off. So two coats of gloss varnish were a must, and then that made for a good surface for putting on the transfers. Finally a matte varnish, to dull down the sheen and seal the transfers on. I used Humbrol's gloss varnish straight through the airbrush and Vallejo's matte varnish for airbrushes the same way, all without any misting of the varnish (I'll never forget my randomly bad experiences with Purity Seal). Never again will I be afraid of varnishing my models and a new skill acquired!
These took a lot longer than expected, partly because I had intended to paint them with the Contrast paints but changed my mind; partly because I changed my mind on the colour scheme; and partly because there are so many primary colours. The freehand flames took very little time. I guess if you can paint straight hazard stripes, you can paint wavy flames.
I painted the bases a mix of Doombull Brown and Bugman's Glow before using Martian IronCrust, Agrax Earthshade and finally a Cadian Flesh tone highlight.
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