"Non Green Orcs" Topic

I'm painting up some orcs but don't want green ones, has anybody tried some other color that has turned out nice?

Orange. I paint them orange from time to time. It usually is best if you start with GW vermin brown, it is a very organgey brown. I then highlight this with Cell Vinyl's greyed Orange and do a further highlight with a true orange, I use GWs but at that point any brand will do.

On smaller than 28mm scales I start with the grayed orange and do the highlight then put a brown wash on them.

Back in the days I used to paint them black with a very dark flesh tones as highlight.A lot darker than the Peter Jackson Orcs but you get the picture.
I always hated that funny green parody of the descendents of tortured elves.

Browns, grays, dark/neutral reds, caucasian flesh tones (in which case I guess that makes them more ogres than orcs?)

What most people fail to realize is that orcs are albino. The green comes from layer upon layer of an aloe based sunscreen.

We have a few batches of red orcs that we use in our games. I also have at least one until of blue orcs.

I painted my goblins in red, orange, 3 shades of green, and a couple of browns. I liked the mix but will never use them. I got them over in the marketplace if anyone is interested.

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Whatever looks best for the figure in hand.

GW's Warhammer orcs (and orks) look best in fairly bright skin tones, regardless of actual hue. The one exception is that they look good in black or charcoal grey with a bit of highlighting. I also have a set of fantasy orcs in a "cocktail olive" green, and they look rather good.

Jackson's LotR orcs (and thus the related GW line) really seem best suited to the broad spectrum of "near human". The sallow yellows and greens that show up still shade like skin, as do the more common leathery reds.

I did Flintloque's Sharke's Rifles (British Orcs) with a dark skin tone. I normally use GW colors of Dwarf Bronze, Bronzed Flesh and Elf Flesh for the shade/base/highlight. For these guys, I used bronzed flesh and a flesh wash and then highlighted with bronzed flesh. They looked sufficiently ruddy and tough.

Brown and grey are good colors for orcs….. you can also do ochre and dirty yellow colors.

I've been giving mine variable skin tones with pale/low saturations of colors ranging from reds to blues… and reptilian skin patterns when there's enough exposed flesh. Some of them do go a bit yellow-green but it's not at all the bright primary GW fosters.

My goblins however are mostly just trying to look like regular flesh tones with a layer of filth.

All my Orcs and Goblins are painted in human fleash tones , some are lighter or darker than others. It looks ok but i had to be consistent with the whole army and now when i use the army i often get asked what race i'm using the Orcs as , not many people recognise it is actually an Orc and Goblin army i'm feilding. I just say they are all a nocturnal species .
i think it looks ok and its very easy to tell who is who when i play other Orc armies .
I think browns and greys and muted greens like the GW LOTR Orcs looks better than all green . cheers Tom

used a light beigish colour (originally Humbrol Oak) with Khaki lowlights and human flesh coloured lips. Works OK

Lots of different Orcs out there, to suit all interpretations. Tolkien himself uses the terms "sallow" and "swarthy" both to describe his goblins/orcs, and these don't seem entirely consistent, maybe. Of course, there are different tribes of goblinoids in Middle-earth, plus the influencse of the Uruk-hai and the Olog-hai.

I have always favored the Tolkienesque view of Orcs for my armies, so I usually collect more humanoid, but debased, type figures and paint them in dingy colors and armor, assuming they just don't give a damn and make their own things perfunctorily or loot from others. For skin tones, I usually paint my orcs in dark grey and then wash in black, giving a very dank, even burnt appearance. With burning red eyes (also alluded to by Tolkien). Looks distinctive and menacing but not overly cartoonish.

True Goblins I usually paint, showing my old school D&D influences, in sallow yellow tones. They are more cartoonish in appearance than true Orcs on my tabletop.

Various human flesh tones ranging into a few non-skin tone browns and greys. Uruks are painted dark brown and highlighted with a roan (horse color).

I did meet one guy who painted his blue. When it was brought up, he just said "bring me a real orc to prove me wrong" and he was left to his own devices.

Mostly caucasian with heavy dark brown ink washes, although I have painted a few goblin bright green with electric blue noses. Dont ask.

Phil

I have seen Orcs of various armies in gray, gray-green, and a gray-earth brown color.

And red-brown.

I did my first citadel orc army back in the 80's with electric blue skins, washed with a purple bruise blue, with purpley-red armour and snow on their shoulders and base.
I called them frost orcs in the campaign. Looked great. never played with them sadly. Highly recommend that sceme if you want to turn some heads.

Wow. I think that these two in the front have the absolute best color I have ever seen for Orcs:

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I must borrow that skin tone for mine.

Very close to what I think would be natural for a subterranean humanoid:

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Thanks.

Dan
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