Where Do Orks Get Paint?

[Chapter Master Jake]

For those more conspicuous and ostentatious clans and tribes who use copious amounts of black, red, blue and yellow paint, where do they get it?

I doubt very much that any Warboss takes the time after conquering a planet, save perhaps a forgeworld, for looting 20 metric tons of paint in Goffik black, Bad Moon yellow, Lucky Loota blue, and Speed Freak red... >.>

That said, the question stands. Where do they get so much paint? How would they make it themselves? And a more whimsical question is... do they grow "paint squigs" that secrete colors or something? (I mean they seem to have a squig for just about every facet and utility of Orkid infrastructure.)

[DarkLink]

Take certain plants and rocks. Smash them up. Smear them on stuff. Done.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Yeah. Making paint is very low on the list of technological marvels the Orks have mastered. Hell, even Savage Orks manage it!

I also like the idea that Freebootaz are running a "green market" for looted paint from Forge Worlds or Imperial shipping, though. :)

Or, you know, here's a hook: Ork Warboss knows red wunz go fasta, but they're out of the good stuff. Off to the nearest Forge World, ladz!

[Mr.Pickelz]

Paint is a generic term for color being splashed on an object for an Ork. Red Paint could be human blood or splattered squigs, etc... Paint's chemical composition doesn't have to match what we know goes into it.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

But seriously: ever seen a cave painting? It's just animal fat and pigment.

[Zac78]

Maybe there's a lot of paint laying around, the imperium paints all there space ships

[SecondJames]

Certain species of Squig produce bodily secretions that make excellent paint.

[This Dave]

Ork technology is based on two things: Nailz and Squigs. Grab a paint-squig, slap it against the buggy, and job's a good 'un! :)

[Path Walker]

Yep, Paint Squigs, all the colours of the rainbow.

[ElectricPaladin]

So, do paint squigs sweat paint? Or are their innards all painty and you squish them?

[Path Walker]

Give em a squeeze and paint comes out I think

[Inquisitor Nelson]

But actually squeezing a squig? That's a job for the gretchin...

[This Dave]

So, do paint squigs sweat paint? Or are their innards all painty and you squish them?

Kind of like a spice-weasel from Futurama. BAM! :)

[Crevab]

Paint Squig! (http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Squig#Paint_Squig)

[Darren Richardson]

Paint Squig! (http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Squig#Paint_Squig)

bloody hell!

I didn't know there were so many types :O

[Lunar Camel]

That's easy! Humans = red, Eldar = blue, tyranids = black ichor and yellow, other orks = green.
They kill everything else, so why not use the blood of their foes to paint their stuff.

[ElectricPaladin]

That's easy! Humans = red, Eldar = blue, tyranids = black ichor and yellow, other orks = green.
They kill everything else, so why not use the blood of their foes to paint their stuff.

Blood actually makes pretty lousy paint.

[Lord-Boofhead]

Blood actually makes pretty lousy paint.

But it is where the practice of painting buggies red came from...

[ElectricPaladin]

But it is where the practice of painting buggies red came from...

I thought that it came from the Blood Angels? The "red ones" that go "faster" were originally red Blood Angels rhinos and predators that the Orks encountered and did battle with starting more than ten thousand years ago. The Orks were doing their best to imitate the Lucifer-pattern engines, but they did it stupidly (Orks) and it worked (Orks).

[Wolfshade]

The red ones go faster is an interesting thing.

Consider:
Lightening McQueen, he is red
Ferraris are red (or should be)
The Flash is red
Saim Han are red and the "quickest" craftworld, well deploy on predimoninately bikes and skimmers
Sonic's shoes are red

[Harley]

The red ones go faster is an interesting thing.

Consider:
Lightening McQueen, he is red
Ferraris are red (or should be)
The Flash is red
Saim Han are red and the "quickest" craftworld, well deploy on predimoninately bikes and skimmers
Sonic's shoes are red

I think it's a basic human instinct that red is the primordial color of heat and fire which is the fastest thing known to prehistorical man.

[Psychosplodge]

That's easy! Humans = red, Eldar = blue, tyranids = black ichor and yellow, other orks = green.
They kill everything else, so why not use the blood of their foes to paint their stuff.

There's a thing somewhere might be from a WD about why Ork blood is actually more red than humans and has a higher oxygen content, and the green is just under the skin.

I love the idea of the paint squig, or the waaagh to the forgeworld in search of paint.

But mostly I have the idea the orkboss screams at his grotz for paint and paint is procured.

[Cutter]

Paint Squig! (http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Squig#Paint_Squig)

Cheers Crev, you gave me a reason to crack open Waaargh Orks (1990),

"Paint Squigs: This small, vividly coloured Squig excretes powerful dyes that are used as warpaint. These paints are also used by Gretchin artists as pigments for wall paintings and decorative banners. Many Paint Squigs have tufts of hair on their tails, which allows the artists to use the Squig as both a brush and tube of paint simultaneously. The shells of Edible Squigs are also used by Gretchin artists as paint pots and pallettes."

p.69

[Chapter Master Jake]

Holy crap... I was right and I didn't even know it! :P Paint Squigs... what a universe :P

Thanks Crevab btw, great link. I always wondered also how come some Orks had top knots... now I know... it was a Squig!

They certainly do have a Squig for every job... even an arse wipe... O.o http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/e/ee/Squig-swab-3.jpg

[Dual_Face]

Do squigs lay eggs? You can make tempura paint out of eggs and i can imagine orks doing that

[Thornblood]

I imagine an orks thinking isnt more than telling a grot to make it red. Or blue. Or whatever.

I think grots have many many ingenious ways of making paint in different colours. Paint squigs and looting from humans being the favoured two, but all the primitive ways of making paint... its a big galaxy and there's alot of grots not communicating with each other having to come up with it all on there own... over and over and over.

[tcraigen]

The red ones go faster is an interesting thing.

Consider:
Lightening McQueen, he is red
Ferraris are red (or should be)
The Flash is red
Saim Han are red and the "quickest" craftworld, well deploy on predimoninately bikes and skimmers
Sonic's shoes are red


Blood Angel's Rhinos are the fastest and they love their jump packs.

[Sigismund420]

im lazy, so rather than look and see where the question has ended up, ill just answer it. paint squigs exist, and even form a neat little paintbrush for the user. they would grow something akin to how the orks, grots, and other orkoid races, as fungus at first. of course, orks being orks, they will also gladly use other things that work. like blood, or dung.

[callboggy]

I always assumed it was part of the chain of looting, Warboss gets the best stuff followed by the Nobs, Meks, Boys and finally the gretchins get any that hasn't been looted like paint, bones and any floorboards that weren't already looted.

[Flintlock_Jack]

There's a thing somewhere might be from a WD about why Ork blood is actually more red than humans and has a higher oxygen content, and the green is just under the skin.

I love the idea of the paint squig, or the waaagh to the forgeworld in search of paint.

But mostly I have the idea the orkboss screams at his grotz for paint and paint is procured.

Yeah I remember that and the actual reason was way more mundane. You see, it's because green doesn't look like blood when you paint blood on a miniature. I believe they described it in that white dwarf, and I'm trying to quote it from memory without having to trawl through 200 back issues, as looking like that they "went at it to a gooseberry bush". Green just doesn't come across as blood and offers a poor contrast to the orcs/orks own skin. It's an effect even found in film an tv as a device to desensitize what ever violence, make it less offensive and allow themselves a lower rating such PG or MA15+. One example, Samurai Jack. Another example, Transformers across most continuities.

There are some visual conventions that will speak more loudly than actually applying logic to the fluff and really these should be considered in order for the idea to make sense ad easily as possible. Things like making the blood all glowy and you got robot blood as an example (except in the Aliens films, their bots have white blood). Green reads as slime and mucous. Red though contrasts with green which will have a strong visual impact, something that you want when representing the insides of another being spattered here, there and everywhere around your badass hero.

Around the white dwarf issue 200 mark Wayne England was painting the titular white dwarf and whenever there was a severed orc head he painted them with green blood. It was kind of a dark angels green in colour.

And that was a ramble on the colour of greenskin blood.

[Psychosplodge]

I never remember seeing it painted green, but that makes perfect IRL sense.

[banicrhys]

From da big hair stick in da sky.