ORC EXPRESS
This month we talk to Reuben Turner, member of Peterborough Wargames Club and Show Manager for Hereward wargames show. Reuben has been a miniature wargamer since the age of 13, starting, as many do, with Warhammer 40K. With logical rules, and “highly amusing ways to inflict damage on your opponent’s army”, it’s a love that stayed with him to the present day.
Turner fluctuates between WWII and older Warhammer 40K miniatures “depending on how I feel and what rules I like at any given time. Recently it’s mostly been old 40K models which I’ve been using for games of Xenos Rampant and Grim Dark Future.”
For this, it was an early foray into new paints that prompted it being chosen. “I was a bit sceptical about the trend towards speed paints but I recently purchased the first wave of Vallejo Xpress Colour paints and wanted to see just how quickly I could paint a miniature with them and what sort of standard I could achieve. I really loved the way the Xpress Colour Orc Skin paint looked in the bottle so decided to do paint something... Orc-y with it. Rummaging through my bits box I found I had a single Orruk Gutrippa and he seemed perfect.”
“I undercoated the model with a couple of thin coats of Army Painter
Matt White then set to work with the Vallejo Xpress Colours. The skin is
Orc Skin, the robes are Copper Brown, the shield and other red details are
Cardinal Purple (which needed two coats to achieve a satisfactory colour) and the shaft of the spear is Mystic Blue. Metal parts are Army Painter
Plate Mail Metal and the teeth are Army Painter Skeleton Bone. Once I done all that I thought it looked a bit too bright so gave the whole model a wash with GW Agrax Earthshade. I applied Javis
Desert Sand to the base then painted it with Vallejo Flat Earth, washed with more Agrax Earthshade then dry brushed with Skeleton Bone and some Matt White. Finally a few pale tufts of dubious origin (they were in my box of left overs!) were added and the base rim painted black.”
“The actual painting time was about 30 minutes which certainly felt like it was a lot quicker than I would have achieved if I had been using traditional paints. Once you are used to them the Vallejo Xpress Colours are very easy to apply and I like the finish they leave. I’m definitely a convert to this way of painting!”