Clans, tribes, colours and fluff

[pawl]

Ahoy!

So I've been tinkering with some Orks, but I've found myself rather stuck when it comes to colours, and I have questions.

 

For context, my warlord (by the name of Naffgit) doesn't have a clan, and I'm not sure I intend to give him one. Goffs at a push. I'm intending to use this guy as the basis for my warlord conversion, and he could only be a goff if anything.

His fluff is vaguely along the lines of "scrapped with Ghaz on Armageddon, caught a ride with some freebooters and ended up back 'home' where he pieces together and takes control of the broken remains of a Waaagh". Basically an excuse to steal colours from everywhere and not be tied down. Assuming this is 'acceptable', of course.

 

Still, however, I'm slightly stuck when it comes to colours. Is it expected for each mob to belong to a single clan? And if so are their colours exclusive? For example if I have a mob of shoota boyz should they only be black/brown (for cloth) and yellow? If so, when dealing with a small force will it not look a little odd to have one mob in heavy yellow, but another in black/white checks next to each other? Or is it more common to keep accent colours to a minimum (where the whole force isn't one clan) so that it's not quite so garish?

Failing that, if an army should be kept to one clan, how do units that don't fit the theme get explained? Goff lootas, for example.

 

 

There's probably more questions, but it's nearly 3am, I'm tired, and if I don't ask now I'll probably forget tomorrow!

[toaae]

First off, welcome to the meanest, greenest subforum on the venerable Bolter and Chainsword!

The short answer to your question is: paint them however you think looks best.

I'll endeavor to answer all your questions in the long version:

When it comes to what is "acceptable", you'll find that it's just about anything when it comes to Orks and colors. It's easy to get hung up on the "proper" colors for clans, but keep in mind that orks aren't a well-oiled, disciplined war machine. They are naturally gifted at violence and battle, but they are most-often ad-hoc and irregular. It isn't just acceptable to steal colors from everywhere, it's canon. That's why you often see players with looted vehicles that have the original owner's livery showing through a shoddy and hastily-done coat of Ork paint.

As for clan affiliation, the codex itself points out that "Although all Orks belong to a tribe, most also belong to a clan...". The presence of the word most implies that there are Orks who don't, which opens the option to not feel constrained to a clan. Hell, the Psychic Awakening supplement gave us Specialist Mobs to showcase how varied Ork's predilections for war are.

And if you do want to do a clan, or multi-clan, force, you shouldn't feel handcuffed to their colors. All Orks groups are subject to the whims of their boss, and if an Evil Suns Warboss decided all his warbands were going to be rocking red, you can bet he'd slap enough heads around to make sure the Bad Moons and Deathskulls following him would fall in line. In addition, because Orks are so irregular and their industry is so ad-hoc, it's easy to envisage warbands that simply don't have the colors available.

Finally, lets say you wanted to do a multi-clan force with traditional colors, but were still worried about how odd the force would look. My suggestion would be to use the clan colors as small accents, on armor panels, helmets, and the rare shirt, while having all other clothing share a palette between the clans to create a cohesive-looking collection.

Personally, I painted my first Orks in the Evil Sunz scheme because red is my favorite color. When I decided I needed some Bad Moons Lootas for competitive reasons, I decided to "rotate" my pallete, from Red primary with Orange and Yellow accents, to Orange primary with Red and Yellow accents. Because I use the same colors for my pants (a dark brown, a light brown, and a black, seemingly randomly), shirts (either primary color or dirty tan), and metallics, my Lootas fit right into the rest of my force, while still being obviously different than the rest.

I took a few pictures here to show what I mean:

[Magos Takatus]

That's quite a few good points Toaae. I did something a bit similar with the Camo on my Blood Axes. My default colour is a desert yellow with blue stripes. When it came to my Stormboys I simply reversed the colours to make them stand out. Not that I wanted to use different rules, I just wanted so variation in my army but it's a similar approach.

 

 

Clearly I was also going through a red phase with the Stormboyz too. I guess they just need to get into combat more quickly.

 

[Azaiel]

Toaeee explained it well.

For me Orks can be whatever color you want, heck they dont have to be green either if you choose. The change of army composition make the Klancolors mute IMHO. Especially now in 9 ed where multi klan battalions is detrimental to your CP (which we need so much!). As long as your opponent knows which klan(s) they are facing its all good in my and my gaming friends book. Orks are my "have fun with paint" army, they are a great creative outlet hobbywise since my other army is Deathwatch which is black,red and silver.

 

I also want to point out that the mini your painting close up will look different on the table. That popping garish blue/red/whatever detail you painted wont stand out as much as you fear on the table bundled up with the rest of the hoard. Heres a tiny mob of my boyz from this Sundays game, in it there are four klans represented. Yes, one deathskull "pops out" but not overwhelming in my opinion.

Edited September 1, 2020 by Azaiel

[pawl]

My thanks to all three of you for your replies!

 

I'll have to admit that I've never been much of a gamer, so I've not read the Codex, nor Psychic Awakening! I've simply always rather liked the Ork race - their disposition, mannerisms, outlook on things and general fluff. In this endeavour I'm hoping that they'll be something simple and fun to paint - maybe a couple of silly conversions, but lots of Contrast use and very little 'real painting' (I can't stand edge highlighting, and I love it when things are easy!). I might have to see what the Specialist Mob thing is about though!

 

So, on to yet more questions! Before I ask these, I accept that Orks are chaotic enough that the answer to nearly anything is "yeah, if you want", but common usage is obviously also a thing.

 

Is it common to find mixed-clan mobs like in Azaiel's photo? (great looking boyz, by the way!)

I would have expected Orks to be drawn to others of the same clan, resulting in more uniform units. That said the more mixed look seems to work better. I would imagine however that certain units (Flash Gitz, for example) are more likely to be affiliated to certain clans. Similarly are grots allowed to affiliate themselves with a clan, or do they just wear the colours their Runtherd tells them to?

 

Lastly a more game-related question, but mixed Slugga/Shoota?

 

 

I know that Orks should (or at least could) be treated with quite a relaxed view to any rules or expectations, but I overthink and don't want to make any silly mistakes!

 

Again, thanks to all three of you. I've some stripping of test models to do later, but I'm already feeling happier about my next play with the brushes. =]

[Brother Sergeant Tiberius]

If you want mixed clan colour schemes, my way to go would be Freebooterz. Orks who have left to go be pirates. Some do leave their old clan ways behind but the colours would still be around and be a nice way to have mixed clan units in terms of paint schemes. All Orks are highly individual so your freebooterz could be more the mercenaries rather than exiled freebooter pirates. Choosing to go pillage and wage war as a pirate instead of being banished would make it a good fit to keep more clan aesthetics/scheme on each model in a mixed unit but that's just my opinion influenced by my view of orky nature. Rule of cool always for orks

[Lord_Caerolion]

It really is up to you. I'm of the opinion that orks tend to stick together in like-minded groups, so multi-clan squads would tend not to happen, outside of Oddboyz. After all, in the old Rogue Trader fluff, mobs were "family groups", often called households, so they weren't just a bunch of orks that happened to like each other, they were somewhat related to each other, and clan membership appears to be genetic.

 

Where it does start to happen is when you get the orks that are starting to become... Odd. Things like Burna Boyz, Lootaz, Stormboyz, etc, are all comprised of orks to whom their mutual obsession has started to override clan behaviours, and then the Freebooterz, who have entirely distanced themselves from their original clan.

[pawl]

There will be a proper reply when I'm not in work, but for now have a WIP.

 

 

Thanks again!

Edited September 3, 2020 by pawl

[Lord_Caerolion]

What colour did you use for the skin? That looks awesome.

[MithrilForge]

That skin colour scheme is really nice on dem grots,

did you use green and yellow there?, My guess...i sense Casandora yellow was put over some form of green contrast or normal green…

you missed two of his fingers by the way ...he wont like that at all

 

Mithril

 

++EDIT++ Very clean and crisp, just how I love orks to be 

Edited September 4, 2020 by mithrilforge

[pawl]

Mithrilforge was closest! It's a base of Iyanden Yellow, with a Biel-Tan Green wash over the top. Nice and simple, and I think rather effective. Leaves the grots with a slightly dirty look which I think is rather fitting.

For the Orks themselves I do the same thing, but based with Plaguebearer Flesh instead. Both over Wraithbone.

Comes out like this - https://i.imgur.com/lpv1k1D.jpg

 

The fingers that have been missed are his nails, which I've not done yet. At least, I think they are - these aren't the best casts I've ever seen. The guy on the right is missing half his toes and his face seems to have dropped on one side! Fortunately the latter problem isn't immediately obvious unless you look for it.

Annoyingly though I have spotted a couple of little mistakes now I've looked at the photo properly, and a missed mould line on an ear!

Edited September 4, 2020 by pawl

[tentagil]

I have a similar fluff behind my force, partially to justify not having to repaint a ton of boyz when I decide I want to try a new color scheme. So I go with with each unit having its own color scheme but with a few shared things across the army. So within a unit I might have two shared colors that are different from every other unit. But I use a lot of copper and brass across everyone, and then I always have some detail picked out in purple. So while all the units standout as their own groups, everything also works together as the larger waaagh!!

I even use different skin tones so the skin of one mob of boyz might be darker or brighter then another. Gives the army that ragtag look I think orks should have, but with things still looking semi orderly.

[Nexus17]

The fingers that have been missed are his nails, which I've not done yet. At least, I think they are - these aren't the best casts I've ever seen. The guy on the right is missing half his toes and his face seems to have dropped on one side! Fortunately the latter problem isn't immediately obvious unless you look for it.

Oh, the grots are absolutely atrocious for this. The toes in particular wind me up no end, although the newer ones irk me as well because GW seem to have decided grots now only have 4 toes.

 

These look great - I like the bright skin tone on the grots and look forward to seeing the darker cast to the orks.

Edited September 4, 2020 by Nexus17

[Smoke Frog]

My ork force is definately on the "garish" side of orky paint schemes, but I really like all the clan colors. Since the theme of the army is 'flyers' I took this to mean that when the greater waaaagh gets together, all the speedy flyerboyz would get together and come up with a clan similar to the one I am putting together. 

 

 

Toaeee explained it well.

For me Orks can be whatever color you want, heck they dont have to be green either if you choose. The change of army composition make the Klancolors mute IMHO. Especially now in 9 ed where multi klan battalions is detrimental to your CP (which we need so much!). As long as your opponent knows which klan(s) they are facing its all good in my and my gaming friends book. Orks are my "have fun with paint" army, they are a great creative outlet hobbywise since my other army is Deathwatch which is black,red and silver.

 

I also want to point out that the mini your painting close up will look different on the table. That popping garish blue/red/whatever detail you painted wont stand out as much as you fear on the table bundled up with the rest of the hoard. Heres a tiny mob of my boyz from this Sundays game, in it there are four klans represented. Yes, one deathskull "pops out" but not overwhelming in my opinion.

 

Such a beautifully painted unit, and a lovely board!