Ork Painboy of the Bad Moonz Clan [Completed]

Each and every W40K ork that I paint seems guaranteed to be a time sink. So it was with the Ork Painboy that I started working on three months ago. After hours and hours of trying to bring the many small details too life, I pronounce this latest addition to the Bad Moons clan finished. At least as finished as any miniature can be, considering none in my collection were given a protective anti-paint chip coat, which in turn leaves them open to paint modifications in the future. I guess that's a way to mollify myself with the thought that I can always come back to them when my skills improve.   

Games Workshop Ork Painboy [Completed]

Spin the doctor and he would move in a kaleidoscope of colours

Insane amount of details equaled many hours of painting put in

Colours are a mishmash of yellow-green, yellow, orange, red, red-violet, blue-green and neutral hues   

In a departure from the normal colour schemes expected of a Bad Moons Ork (or is it?), I went colour crazy on the Painboy. His colour scheme comprised a mishmash of yellow-green, yellow, orange, red, red-violet, blue-green and neutral hues. I was curious if such a variety of hues could work or would it just overwhelm the senses. Looking at the finished piece now I think it kinda does.  

Yellows of the Bad Moons Clan were limited to the bosspole and loin cloth

Temptation to splash blood everywhere on the Painboy's buzz-saw weapon was high ...  

... but in the end, only a dab of blood made it to a blade attached to the buzz-saw

This Ork Painboy has one of the most colourful schemes I have ever attempted

The Ork Painboy is actually part of a set with its other half being a Grot Orderly which I completed a year ago. Both complement each other colour scheme wise and are a welcome addition to my fledgling ork army. It will be a while before I return to painting orks though as I plan to move on to Chaos in my Games Workshop-related miniatures project. A break from green skin will do me good.

Games Workshop Ork Painboy and his Grot Orderly (front view)

Games Workshop Ork Painboy and his Grot Orderly (back view)

Perhaps it's fitting and ironic that my next Games Workshop miniature will likely be an ode to Nurgle seeing that this piece is dedicated to healing. More on that project in the coming weeks. Meanwhile the hazy conditions just won't go away. It's getting worse. A news report alleges that the carbon released from the Indonesian fires causing the haze have now exceeded the emissions from the entire US economy. Imagine that! In this day and age where war violence dominates global news, this environmental horror show seems to have largely escaped the attention of the rest of the world. I shudder to think the price Earth is going to pay for this tragedy that's slowly unfolding before us.

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.

Ork Painboy [WIP - Torso and legs]

Seeing the sun shine brightly in the sky for long periods has been a pleasant surprise in the face of gloomy forecasts of haze. Favourable wind conditions and intermittent rain this past week meant less pollution choked air to breathe in and more quality time to paint. (Jinx! Even as I revel in some sinus relief, a sheen of haze has chosen today morning to mark a return to unhealthier air levels. Nooooo .....) In the corresponding period of healthy air, I worked on the Ork Painboy's highly detailed torso (medical tools, loin cloth, shirt, pants, belly armour, symbolic plaque, straps) and legs (boot, wooden leg stump, bloodied bandages, pant stitching, alternative patch of pant colour, etc).

Ork Painboy, work-in-progress on the torso and legs (or leg and a stump)

Back view of the Ork Painboy's current progress

Like a climber who has to climb a mountain just because it's there, I'm a painter who just has to paint every single excruciating detail just because it exists. Unhealthy I know. But the obsessive compulsiveness in me refuses to back down. Little wonder my projects take an eternity to complete.

Old black leather boot look with rusted armour bits

Wooden leg stump with the upper portion wrapped in bloodied bandages

Closeup view of medical tools adorning the Ork Painboy's lower torso

Kept to a minimum, blood effects were painted to simulated coagulated blood. To recreated this gory look, I mixed Tamiya Clear Red X-27 acrylic paint with Citadel Chaos Black (Abaddon Black) and a little bit of Scorched Brown (Rhinox Hide). Consistency wise, the Tamiya X-27 closely mimics real blood. I was wiping some excess away with tissue and it looked like I had had a horrible accident with the hobby knife. Without the addition of black and brown hues, the X-27 resembles fresh blood.

Status of Ork Painboy - headless and weaponless

Colour scheme seems to be gelling, for the time being at least

I'm one of those people who needs a 'wall of sound' whenever I'm working on something complicated or in this case painting something highly detailed. For the Ork Painboy, this comes in the form of music from the rock band Oasis. Their debut and sophomore album - Definitely Maybe and (What's the Story) Morning Glory? - got me through my final year at uni. And this time, I had their whole collection on iPod to get me through my obsession with the details on the Painboy's torso and legs.

In the time it took me to start and finish this post, the haze has worsened considerably. The smell of smoke is now heavy in the air. A simple face mask is proving fairly effective to allow me to continue working but for how long I don't know. Add to that a lousy economic environment, the ringgit depreciating without an end in sight, investors viewing Malaysian bonds as 'junk' status, violent posturing by racist groups/politicians against minorities, terrorist threat to a local tourist hotspot ... the only way things can get worse if a Godzilla-like monster suddenly appears in the country. Why? Because Ultraman wouldn't stand a chance in a haze. On that note, have a good weekend.    

Ork Painboy [WIP - Bosspole, Medical Cylinder, Shoulder Armour, Back Strap and Scalpel]

Verdigris, rust and grime were the go-to effects for this particular painting session on the Ork Painboy. But most of all, this session gave me the chance to practice recreating a chipped paint effect. Use of a Kolinsky Sable brush was critical to the 'chipped paint process' which was applied to the bosspole and medical cylinder. Critical because it involves painting different layers into ever smaller areas while leaving some of the previous layers showing. A rewarding technique if it turns out right.   

Ork Painboy's Bosspole depicting the Bad Moons Clan colours

Chipped paint, verdigris, rust and grime ... because the ork's worth it

One obstacle I had to overcome was my perennial reluctance to dirty up an existing paint job. Many a times have I hesitated at the last minute and left a miniature looking incongruous; an undecided half clean half dirty look. An extremely silly habit that has taken a lot of effort to break. Even then, the grime (perhaps it's more of a dirty stain) that I applied using a wash was fairly muted. I remain torn between wanting the colours to show through and wanting to have a realistic dirtied-up look.  

Before being grimed (left) ... after being grimed (right)

Effects on the metal bits such as verdigris on the bronze spanner symbol as well as rust on the rhombus shaped 'teeth' and shoulder pads were done using Citadel technical paints. Note, however, the rough texture on the spanner which was a result of a very old pot of dried out metallic paint. I've had that pot since my first days in the miniature painting hobby many years ago. I guess the time has come to throw that away and get a new metallic basecoat paint for smoother results in the future.

Turquoise was the medical cylinder's colour of choice ... chipped paint and all

Medical cylinder is held tenuously to the ork's back by a small strip of cloth

Scalpel holds a brand new blade unlike the badly rusted metal of the shoulder armour

Choosing turquoise for the medical cylinder on the Ork Painboy's back was an easy choice mainly because of two reasons. Firstly, turquoise fits in seamlessly to the existing colour scheme. Secondly, turquoise seems to be a fairly popular colour for medical scrubs. Since the Painboy is technically a doctor, it made sense to use it for his medical cylinder. Every colour in a project has its raison d'être. 

Overall shot of the work-in-progress so far

There is one more main colour to be added to the overall colour scheme

With so many small details to paint my sanity can only be kept if I focused carefully on a few bits at a time. That might make for an overly long-drawn miniature project but I'm hoping it will be worth it in the end. At the very least it will help develop my patience during the painting process. Or I could just be kidding myself and looking for excuses to paint at a snail's pace. Either way, it'll still be fun!

Ork Painboy [WIP - Skin, eyes and pants] & An Ode to the Gods of Chaos

Neglected and gathering dust, the Warhammer 40K miniatures in my collection remind me of the toys in Toy Story, only worse .... much worse. Some lie primed and abandoned, others half assembled without even a primer coat and yet more lie NIB (new in the box). Sick of the situation, I've decided I had better start doing something about it. So as a new beginning, the Ork Painboy is now back on the painting table while I'm gathering ideas on colour schemes to use for my ode to the gods of Chaos.   

Ork Painboy work-in-progress on its head: skin and eyes

Skin colour limited to Citadel Orkhide Shade, Knorloc Green, Gretchin Green ...

... and a wash of Citadel Athonian Camoshade to tie them all together

For the Ork Painboy, I will be painting it from the inside out. Essentially what this means is painting will start from the deeper niches of the miniature to the outer layers and from the central axis (torso and legs) towards the outer limbs (both arms and their respective implements). And to keep from being overwhelmed by the Painboy's many small details, they will be painted one section at a time.  

Colours inspired by a certain great noble house of Westeros

Bright orange PVC pants, the kind only an Ork can pull off

To prevent the Warhammer 40K projects from getting stale, a slightly different approach had to be taken especially towards colour schemes. Previously, I would assiduously research the White Dwarf magazines and respective army codices to get the colours exactly right. Well, no more. Priority would lie in creating (hopefully) pleasant colour combinations. Some leeway will be given to at least getting the clan or chapter emblems correct. But in the end it will be as it should be, all about the colours. Why else would the Ork Painboy suddenly sport a garish and supremely bright orange PVC pants.

An Ode to the Gods of Chaos   

Chaos Space Marines soon to be dedicated to (from left) Nurgle, Slaanesh,Tzeentch and Khorne

All the miniatures are from the Dark Vengeance starter set

If colours are the whole point then the Chaos Gods have a whole kaleidoscope of them. From the sickly greens of Nurgle to angry reds of Khorne and mysterious blues of Tzeentch as well as sadistic purples of Slaanesh. That's going to be difficult but fun. There is that. To make this possible, four Chaos Space Marines from the Dark Vengeance set will be used. Only time will tell if attempts to kick start my Warhammer 40K project will take hold. Four chaos marines and an ork will be the first step.

Grot Orderly of the Bad Moonz Clan [Completed]

Once when I was young, I momentarily harboured the idea of pursuing a career in medicine. Then, I asked myself if I was truly willing to dedicate my entire live towards the service of the poor and sick. Ashamedly, my answer was no. I couldn't reconcile between my selfish desires to live a normal life with lots of family time and that of a selfless health care worker. So to me, nothing is more horrifying than health care workers who kill patients with their ineptitude and indifference. This brings me to my piece for this year's Halloween, a bumbling Grot Orderly who calls himself Baldrick Greenadder. 

Meet Baldrick Greenadder, grot orderly extraordinaire and assistant to the Ork Painboy

With so much blood on him, things don't seem to be going too well for the patients

If your health care worker has this expression on his or her face ... run

Because I couldn't really make out all the items that were placed on Baldrick's surgical tray, I had to make things up as I went along. Hopefully you can spot some of the items listed below:
1. Magnet - For pulling out those hard to reach bullets;
2. Surgical knife - For slicing and dicing those damaged parts away;
3. Rusted blades - For initiating a medical procedure the orks lovingly call Gangrene-sectomy;
4. Piece of dirty cloth - For bandaging wounds as orks believe dirt helps initiate blood clotting;
5. Metal rods - For when all else fails, it doesn't hurt to poke around for a solution. 

Can you spot the surgical knife, magnet, spare blades, extra cloth and some pokey things on the tray?

Baldrick's cloths were painted in a colour that you would usually see in a human health care worker while some yellow bands of cloth were added to indicate where the Grot Orderly's loyalty lies i.e. the Bad Moonz Clan. The only other clothing on him were the bandages which had some blood effects painted on them using, for the first time in my miniature paint works, the Tamiya Clear Red X-27.  

Baldrick seems to have a lot of arterial blood on his work clothes ... not good

Grot Orderly's pants were painted in the colours of a hospital orderly's attire

One key challenge I faced when painting the Grot Orderly was trying to make the liquid in the syringe look realistic. Though I can't say if I truly managed that, it was my first try at painting a liquid inside a clear container so I certainly hope to get better at it in the future. The liquid is blue in colour because Orks use a human drug called Viagra which serves like a shot of adrenalin for them.

Is that a liquid solution of Viagra in the syringe?

Thin line of highlight was applied to simulate reflection of a cylinder glass syringe

Side view (right) of the Grot Orderly

I hope you liked meeting Baldrick Greenadder. But I hope too for your sake you never have to meet one yourself whether in-spirit or in-real-life. Happy Halloween and go give yourself a good scare.