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Sophomore Goffs


Sometimes a second album really is just refining the theme laid down by the debut effort. Similar riffs, but beefier; more assured. Such is the case with this second mob of idiots. While I'm sure there'll be further refinements, this post will outline the (generally simple) methods and colours used to paint them.

This scheme takes me about 60-90 minutes per ork, depending on the ork.

The Priming
This is absolutely key. I'm using TT Combat's Laser Cut Brown primer spray. It's available in a few places; I got mine from the dependable Firestorm Games. The first mob were painted with a black primer followed by an all-over basecoat of Vallejo Burnt Umber, which worked oh-kay, but on reflection the richer brown offered by the Laser Cut Brown spray (similar to Citadel's Rhinox Hide, I think?) works better.

Why is the primer so important? Because almost the whole paint job is done with drybrushing, and that primer colour is meant to show through, providing a dirty, earthy look. Not that this is all too obvious from the photos, natch. Shrugs apologetically.

The observant will note I added a single old-skool boy so I can field a unit of 20.

The method: don't worry about precision, don't worry about overspill, never go back.
Seriously, there's a lot of drybrushing here. I'm using a small makeup brush for most of it. Getting some of each stage on other parts of the model is unavoidable, but I don't go back and fix mistakes since subsequent stages just go over the top and (mostly) fix it, or make it hard to spot.

The order I've given below plays into the idea of being messy: it's carefully chosen to go in descending order of messiness, with one stage fixing the last, and the highlights also let you trick the eye into not seeing screw ups.

The Stages
By my standards this scheme uses a small number of paints. Should I have taken step-by-step photos? Yes. Did I plan to do so? Yes. Did I? No. The key thing is that there's a lot of steps, but most of them are quick.
  1. Tidy any bits the primer missed with Vallejo Burnt Umber or similar dark brown.
  2. Drybrush your fabric in your colour of choice. For Goffs, I used Vallejo matte black.
  3. Drybrush your fabric with a midtone. For Goffs, I used the Army Painter's Filthy Cape.
  4. Drybrush Vallejo Cayman Green over the skin.
  5. Drybrush Vallejo Camouflage Green over the skin.
  6. Drybrush Leadbelcher/the Army Painter's Gunmetal over the metal.
  7. Paint any bullet cartridges with Citadel Hashut Copper.
  8. Highlight the metal with a bright silver. I used the Army Painter's Shining Silver. This is easily the most time consuming stage, but I find you need the pop of a highlight. Sorry. Them's the breaks.
  9. Paint tongues with Citadel Bugman's Glow.
  10. Paint teeth and horns with Vallejo Beige Brown.
  11. Highlight teeth and horns with a bone colour (I used the Army Painter's Skeleton Bone).
  12. Highlight the lips, noses and ears with a 50-50 mix of Vallejo Camouflage Green and Citadel Cadian Fleshtone.
  13. Highlight the lips, noses, tongues and ears with Cadian Fleshtone.
  14. Glaze the lower lips, noses and ears with Bugman's Glow.
  15. Paint checks, dags etc wherever you like using a matte white basecoat, then draw on the design with matte black, then tidy up as needed.
  16. Drybrush a sparing edge highlight of Citadel's Pallid Wych Flesh over the fabric areas.
  17. Use Citadel Contrast Black Templar to block in any wiring and lenses.
  18. Bonus step if relevant: lenses
    1. Paint the lower half of the lens with a 1:1 mix of Vallejo matte black and Army Painter electric blue.
    2. Highlight the lowest edges of the lens with pure Army Painter electric blue.
  19. Recess shade the metal areas with rusty colours. I used the old Forge World rust weathering pigments mixed with Vallejo matte medium.
  20. Paint eyes with Citadel's Averland Sunset.
  21. Paint the eye pupils - and any random shadows that really need tidying up - with Reaper's brown liner.
  22. Apply Citadel Armageddon Dust to the bases. When you've applied it, get a wet brush and glaze/recess shade the Dust up onto the boots and calves of the ork, as well as any details/rocks on the base.
  23. Drybrush the Army Painter's Skeleton Bone over the bases.
  24. Paint the base rim Vallejo Earth.
  25. Apply the hilariously named Mordian Corpsegrass tufts to the bases.
Komparisons

Komparing mobs 1 & 2
The brown primer and the rusty line-in are the two things I changed for this second batch. You can see the newer lads on the top row in the image above. For added utility I've made a point of lining up some of the repeated minis. You'll probably spot that I made one or two ultimately futile attempts to create variety; on the far left you can see, for example, I removed the cartridges on the gun, the scars on his back, and the skull on his belt. It's still extremely clearly a repeat, since the overall silhouette is unavoidable.

What's next?
Da boss.

Mörkley Crüe had absolutely trashed the hotel


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