How to Paint Orruk Warclans

Orruk Warclans is two armies sharing a colour. Ironjawz are enormous, armoured and few, wearing slabs of scavenged iron. Kruleboyz are lean, hooded and numerous, working with poison and mud. Both are green, both are filthy, and both are forgiving to paint - orruks are supposed to look battered, so the sins that ruin a Stormcast are features here.

The signature look

Green hide, from the deep bottle-green of an Ironjaw brute to the sicklier swamp tone of a Kruleboy. Rusted, dented iron rather than clean armour. Leather, rope and hide in warm browns. And one hot accent per clan - yellow plates for Ironjawz, poison green for Kruleboyz.

Ironjawz: skin and plate

1. Basecoat the hide Waaagh! Flesh.
2. Wash with Biel-Tan Green to deepen the recesses.
3. Layer Warboss Green across the muscle mass - shoulders, arms, jaw.
4. Highlight with Skarsnik Green on the brow, knuckles and the ridge of the back.

Ork Flesh contrast over Wraithbone compresses that to a single coat and holds up perfectly well on a rank-and-file Ardboy. Save the four-step version for the Megaboss and the Maw-Krusha.

The armour is the fun part. Basecoat Leadbelcher, wash Nuln Oil, then stipple Typhus Corrosion across the lower plates and dab Ryza Rust into it with a torn piece of sponge. Where you want the yellow, lay Ironjawz Yellow contrast straight over Zandri Dust - it shades and bases in one pass and looks appropriately grubby. Leather goes Rhinox Hide into Skrag Brown; teeth and tusks take Zandri Dust, Seraphim Sepia and Ushabti Bone.

Kruleboyz: swamp hide and poison

Kruleboyz want a colder, more diseased green. Gutrippa Flesh contrast over Wraithbone is made for exactly this and is the right answer for a unit of ten; highlight the ridges with Ogryn Camo if you want more definition. Hoods and cloth go Steel Legion Drab or Militarum Green contrast, and leather takes Snakebite Leather.

Their blades carry the signature effect. Paint the metal Leadbelcher and Nuln Oil, then work the poison along the cutting edge: Caliban Green at the base, Warpstone Glow over it, Moot Green on the last third, and a fine line of Ulthuan Grey at the very edge. A gloss coat of Waystone Green over the finished blade makes it look wet, which is the whole idea.

Speed and scale

Ironjawz are one of the fastest complete armies in Age of Sigmar. The model count is low, the plates are enormous, and rust and grime are meant to be uneven - there is no edge highlighting to agonise over. Kruleboyz take longer simply because there are more of them, but they are the ideal contrast-paint army: hooded, recessed, organic sculpts where one coat does the shading. Batch ten at a time, do all the skin, then all the cloth, then all the metal, and only detail the blades at the end.

Tips and common mistakes

• Two greens, not one. Keeping Ironjawz warm and Kruleboyz sickly is what stops a combined force looking flat.
• Rust with a sponge. A brush makes patterns; a torn sponge makes corrosion.
• Let the yellow be dirty. Clean yellow plate looks wrong on an orruk.
• Glow the blade, not the boy. The poison is the accent - keep it on the edges.

Compare an Ironjawz green against a Kruleboyz one in the scheme generator before you commit the clan.