How to Paint Pale Orc Skin
No-nonsense guide to grim dark pale orc skin—Pallid Wych Flesh, Bugman's Glow, streaking grime. Plus the spit effect secret: UHU glue.
The steps
Base the whole model in Pallid Wych Flesh.
Mix Quick Shade Wash Medium and Bugman's Glow 50/50, and put it on the mouth, hands and elbows — anywhere the flesh should read pinker.
Cover the whole model in streaking grime.
Wipe it back with a sponge and a Q-tip. This is the step that turns the skin green.
Come back with mineral spirits on the tops of muscles, teeth and nails.
Highlight nails, teeth and the tops of the muscles with Menoth White, especially across the shoulders.
Optionally glaze a little Carroburg Crimson back over the Bugman's Glow areas.
Dot the eyes white.
For spit, dab UHU glue on with a toothpick.
No-Nonsense Guide
Today I have a no-nonsense guide on painting grim dark pale orc flesh.
The Spit Effect Secret
If you want cool spit effects, it’s just UHU glue on the model. Dab it on with a toothpick. It’s that easy.
The Recipe
Step 1: Base Coat
Pallid Wych Flesh all over the model.
Step 2: Pink Areas
Mix Quick Shade Wash Medium with Bugman’s Glow 50/50. Put this on the mouth, hands, and elbows—anywhere that’s going to be pinker flesh.
Step 3: Streaking Grime
Cover the whole model with streaking grime.
Step 4: Wipe Away
Wipe it away with a sponge and Q-tip. This is what turns the skin green.
Step 5: Mineral Spirits
Come back in with mineral spirits on the very tops of muscles, teeth, and nails.
Step 6: Highlights
Use Menoth White from P3 to paint the nails, teeth, and highlight the very tops of muscles—especially on the shoulders.
Step 7: Optional Crimson
In some places, go back with a small wash of Carroburg Crimson on those areas where you put Bugman’s Glow.
Step 8: Eyes
Just put a white dot for beady little eyes.
Very Fast, Very Effective
And there you go. Very fast, very effective.
If you want the brighter, faster green instead, the goblin skin recipe gets there in three paints. More in the painting guides, and the rest of the Games Workshop stuff lives on the Warhammer hub.
The Airbrush Shortcut
If you have an airbrush this gets much faster: airbrush the Pallid Wych Flesh and you are basically done bar the streaking grime.
Extra Time on Faces
Twenty extra minutes on a face gets disproportionately good results. The greener they come out, the more that pale colour underneath still reads.
Full transcript of the video
Today I have a nononsense guide on painting grim dark pale orc flesh like this or like this one. And if you want to do cool spit effects like this, it’s just ooh glue on the model. We got uh hu and you just dab it on with a toothpick. It’s that easy. First you want to start with pallet witch flesh.
Just base coat it all over the model. Next, you mix quick shade wash medium with Bugman’s Glow 50/50. And then we put that on the mouth, the hands, and the elbows. Anywhere that’s going to be like pinker flesh. Now, we just cover all the model with streaking grime.
And then we wipe it away with a just a sponge and a Q-tip to get to this point. And that’s what turns our skin green. And then we’ll come back in with mineral spirits on things like the the very tops of the muscles and the teeth and the nails. And that’s how we get to here. And then next I’ll use Menoth White from P3 to paint the nails and the teeth and highlight the very tops of the mus of the muscles on the back.
You can really see it on the shoulders here. And [snorts] then in some places I’ll go back and just do a small wash of Carboard Crimson on those places where we put Bugman’s Glow. And for the last bit, just put a white dot for beady little eyes. And there you go. Very fast, very effective.
From the second video (wide-frame re-upload):
Today I have a nononsense guide on painting grim dark pale orc flesh like this or like this one. And if you want to do cool spit effects like this, it’s just ooh glue on the model. We got uh hu and you just dab it on with a toothpick. It’s that easy. First you want to start with pallet witch flesh.
Just base coat it all over the model. Next, you mix quick shade wash medium with Bugman’s Glow 50/50. And then we put that on the mouth, the hands, and the elbows. Anywhere that’s going to be like pinker flesh. Now, we just cover all the model with streaking grime.
And then we wipe it away with a just a sponge and a Q-tip to get to this point. And that’s what turns our skin green. And then we’ll come back in with mineral spirits on things like the the very tops of the muscles and the teeth and the nails. And that’s how we get to here. And then next I’ll use Menoth White from P3 to paint the nails and the teeth and highlight the very tops of the mus of the muscles on the back.
You can really see it on the shoulders here. And [snorts] then in some places I’ll go back and just do a small wash of Carboard Crimson on those places where we put Bugman’s Glow. And for the last bit, just put a white dot for beady little eyes. And there you go. Very fast, very effective.
If you’re still here, thanks for making it to the end of the video. Uh, I thought it’d be faster to turn that into a short, but it cropped it poorly. So, I just also uploaded it here for full wide wide frame footage of it. Um, those are my Age of Sigma orcs. I’ve sold most of them.
Uh, and I I actually I made that guide while I was making them for myself. Like, I just took pictures. Uh, so cuz I did it like armywide and it was a ton of works at the time and I just didn’t want to forget what I was doing. Uh, but I I saw this comment which I’ll post right here and it reminded me that I had those photos still so I can show you how I like my take on grim dark uh orcs which is also really fast cuz if you especially have an airbrush cuz you can just airbrush piled witch flesh and kind of be done with it. Um, other than the streaking grime but here’s what they look like up close now.
And also a war chainer that I I just spent a little extra time on the face, like 20 minutes extra on the face, you can get really good results. And I still have these two guys. And you can see they’re they’re way more green or they come out way more green. Uh but it’s still that pale color. Pretty pretty sick.
Love this guy. This guy’s one of my favorites. I don’t think I’d ever get rid of him. Uh just cuz the mouth so gnarly. Goblin update is they’re coming along.
All the black is done. Uh didn’t get a chance to do the skin today. Son got sick, so I was just kind of hanging out. Uh keeping him happy. Tomorrow’s War Machine Day.
Very, very excited. Been watching the World Team Championship for War Machine all day while I was working on my goblins. So, ready to roll some dice which I will cover tomorrow. See you then.
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