Hi there! Haven't been on lately, but I'm back, and I need some advice.

I've been painting some Mordor orcs, and I want to vary the flesh tones a lot. I've done a range of browns, greens and greys, but what else? Do you guys have any tutorials to help vary the tones, as I'm sure you all paint them similarly different. Or any pictures I can look at to try and copy? That'd be great. Thank you!

Any colour you want literally! Use Blue, purple, orange, yellow anything. The trick is to keep the colour muted and dark it doesn't have to be really dark but avioid bright colours (well actually you can use white for Azog and his cousins).

Add brown and/or grey to the colour to keep it muted this avoids the colour looking to bright and unrealistic.

I have lots of orcs in my WIP the link below

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Check out my WIP> viewtopic.php?f=50&t=26737

Orcs look great in quite muted versions of most colours - they don't tend to suit being too bright, but it can work with the right theme.

As for my collection, Morannon Orcs are fleshtones, lesser orcs are in shades of browns and earthy colours. My orcs from Angmar have a lot of grey and blue-grey, for a creepy look that's quite fitting for the force. Misty Mountains orcs are a quite pallid green, goblin town are almost albino. No photos unfortunately. i really ought to get a log going on here sometime.)

There's no real rules on what you can do, but the only thing I'd really suggest is that you might want to try to theme the skin colour for your orcs' geographical location. If they spend a lot of time underground, then pale colours will suit, whereas the aforementioned spooky blues, greens and greys work nicely for Angmar, or the Morgul vale, so if your force has some Nazgul or ghosts it might be worth adding some of that skin colour to the rabble. It's not really required since Orcs vary much more than humans, but it can be quite satisfying to have clearly distinguished themes to your collection, and skin colour can help do that.

Oh, if you have any Hunter Orcs, those models look quite attractive with War Paint, which is a nice opportunity to break up the earthy skintones with some bright tribal patterns.

Creaky would it be possible to tell me what specific colours do you use to achieve the tones of your Angmar force?

It's been a while but much of it was achieved with washes over a white or grey basecoat (I changed it up to add some variety). I can't recall the exact composition, but if I were to attempt to add to the force I'd try Mechanicus Standard Grey or Ceramite White as the basecoat, perhaps some Fenrisian Grey or Dawnstone over the Mechanicus Standard to lighten it up a touch, and then a wash with Drakenhof Nightshade to add the colour.

I'm sorry I can't be more precise - I really am terrible, I recently had to go through half a dozen test models because I'd forgotten the mix I use for my elf cloaks. I need to start recording this stuff down when I use it - my memory is like a sieve with the mesh bit removed. It does end up looking quite good, and goes well with the ghosts (who are just Nihlakh Oxide over white for a good spooky glow).