Ork Painboy [WIP - Weapons and Head]

Capitalising on momentum generate by a brief respite from the haze, work on the Ork Painboy continued at a fairly steady pace. This saw me completing the paint job for his head and both his weapons which means the ork is about 90% complete. Not too bad considering the haze's return. 

A blood stained face mask, a head lamp with OSL effects, a metal helmet and two teeth completes the Ork head 

Painting the Ork Painboy's head involved going against my first colour choice for his face mask. I had wanted to go with the clichéd off-white/light beige look that seems to blend pretty nicely into the overall colour scheme (at least in my mind). Instead, I tried using light sky blue/turquoise for the mask. Partly to inject more colour into the overall piece and partly to stray from more well trodden paths, this choice will either be a brilliant choice or a 'what was I thinking' moment. Time will tell.  

Dull metallic colours of the buzz-saw, blades, gears, heat sinks, exhaust is contrasted with the blood stain, red/yellow stripped poison container and the tube/vial containing grape juice ... yes grape juice

Something I have probably repeated ad nauseam is the fact that I hate to paint metals. I was so bored by the dull metallic colours that I went ahead to paint a red and yellow stripped poison container (red and yellow because it reminded me the coral snake) as well as a tube/vial containing grape juice (more on this later). On hindsight, maybe this wasn't particularly clever of me but I'm still hoping that it will all come good in the end. It simply has to because I'm too darn lazy to repaint that small detail.

Liquid in a syringe: Grape juice is to Orks as prune juice is to Klingons

I was more at home painting his other 'weapon' which was less about the metal bits and more about the liquid that was contained inside the syringe and tube. Why purple/red-violet? Well, I was thinking in lines of a harmonious tetrad colour scheme based on the colour wheel. It's actually grape juice which has been known to have restorative effects on orks. But don't bother looking this up in the Games Workshop codexes because it's not canon. It's just something I came up with by referencing another violent alien race i.e. Klingons who seem to love prune juice. You gotta be a Trekkie to get it.

Purple (red violet to be exact) is the last major colour in the Ork Painboy's colour scheme

All that remains now is to glue the head on, build/paint up a base and put some final touches to ensure the overall colour scheme is in harmony. But as I'm wont to do right before a project is completed, the Ork Painboy will probably be put into a short 'gestation period' of about a week so that when I come back to it I will be able to see the overall colour scheme with fresh eyes. So there will be a short diversion to another project before I quickly return with the Ork Painboy's unveiling. Until then, here's wishing you sunny skies and smogless air.