I did a little bit of painting on some Orcs tonight. I am incredibly frustrated at how slowly Orcs paint up compared to Skaven. For the ratmen I just slap on a medium brown basecoat for the fur; a light brown for tails, hands and feet; and hit the whole thing with a brown ink wash. After that the figure is mostly done and all that's left is armor, weapons, and a few little details. For Orcs I have to paint on a basecoat, then I have to paint the midtones, and finally I have to paint the highlights. It goes slowly because I can't just slap the paint on all over. I have to "stay in the lines" and only hit certain areas with each progressive coat. And that's just the skin. Perhaps once I've got a few units put together and painted I'll have a method developed and they'll go a lot faster. For now I think I'll just work on 5 or 10 figures at a time so as not to be completely burned out by the end of each step.

I've been hiding the primer-encrusted Space Marines in my drawer, not wanting to think about trying to fix the damage. I don't think I can paint the parts on the sprue. In theory it makes sense, but in practice I need to have the figure mostly complete in front of me before I can work on it. Painting random parts on a sprue just isn't inspiring enough for me to actually sit down and do it.