Hey everyone. With the release of the new Battle of Pelennor Fields box set, and new rules for the Middle Earth SBG, I wanted to go ahead and create some tutorials on painting the miniature line offered by Games Workshop! This will be the first installment of my posts, which will hopefully include a number of armies and figures from the line.
This tutorial will give you a step by step guide on how to paint a clean Warrior of Rohan using simple layering techniques. The colors I've chosen somewhat match the GW scheme, but I've tried to make the model pop much more than the box art, as I feel it is a little drab. I will be mixing some paints during this process, but I'll explain when and where I do so. I hope this tutorial specifically helps you learn where to place certain highlights, and that mixing paints can help cut down on needing to buy so many separate pots!
I start by priming the model black. Any black or gray primer will work for this model. I would suggest starting with a darker primer, due to the amount of dark greens and leather surfaces on most Rohan figures.
From here, I started by painting the base. I try to do my bases en-mass for my armies. Painting these in batches of at least ten helps speed the process along, and makes sure that you won't ruin your paint job later on by a misplaced dry-brush of base paint. The first color I used was Stirland Mud, the technical paint from GW. I applied this heavily on the base, and was sure to push the sandy building into random patterns for a unique texture.
Next, I drybrushed GW's Ryza Rust using medium force over the entire base. Most of this will be covered by our next drybrush, but this adds a nice mid-tone color to the base. I recommend using at least 3 colors when painting bases, even for "table-top" miniatures, as it adds some more depth to the figure.
After our mid-tone, I drybrushed a layer of Eldar Flesh onto the base, trying to hit the high spots that we built up from the texture inside the Stirland Mud paint.
Now you have a nice base to add flock or additional items too after we complete the rest of the model.
Moving onto the model itself, I started with the cloak of the figure, as it was the largest part of the model, and occupied some deeper recesses on the front of the figure. I find it helpful to focus on the deepest recesses first and work your way out while painting, especially for a table top figure. This will help keeps things moving along and allow for minimal mishaps.
The colors I used for the basecoat on the cloak was Citadel's Warboss Flesh and Reaper Master Series Pure Black. Any black will do for this mixture, however. The basecoat should be very dark, and it may be hard to tell a difference between the black primer and the dark-green basecoat. I would add little bits of black into your Warboss Green on a palette, as the black will overpower the green color very quickly. You can alternatively use Waagh Flesh for this part, from the Citadel Range, if you don't feel comfortable mixing paints. Paint this over the entire cloak as so:
Next, we move onto our first highlight, which will be a mid-tone for the cloak. This is again a mixture of Warboss Green and Black. As we highlight the model we will use less and less black in our mixture. This will allow us to simply layer on paint without the need for much blending, but still end up with rather smooth color transitions. I painted this color over most of the raised areas of the cloak, being careful to leave our basecoat in the deepest recesses, to help create artificial shadows. Doing this as we build up our layers will help our mini pop on the table.
Once this step is complete, you will use straight Warboss Green. This time around, you will focus on painting closer to the "edge" of the folds in the cloak. We are trying to create the illusion of light hitting the peaks of the folds in the fabric.
After the Warboss Green highlight, we can move onto our final highlight of Nurgling Flesh. This color is much brighter than are previous colors, and will really push the contrast of our cloak up, giving our model a nice "pop" on the table. Be very sparing with this color, and try to imagine a hard edge along the top of the folds in the cloak, where light would be almost reflecting off the fabric. That is all we are trying to recreate with this last highlight.
Next, we can move onto the leather and cloth bits. I've base-coated the chest piece with Doombull Flesh, the "skirt" with Reaper Master Series Dark Flesh, and the cloth pieces with XV-88.
I'm now moving on to highlighting the cloth bits, since some of them are in the crevice of the skirt on the figure. My first highlight is done with Menoth White Base. Be careful to leave the XV-88 in the deep recesses of the cloth.
The next highlight is done with Menoth White Highlight. I used this color sparingly, and tried to hit the very top of the folds in the cloth.
Once the cloth was sufficiently highlighted, I moved onto the shading the leather bits. I mixed black into my original base colors, and began to paint this as a mid-tone/shade wherever I could see natural shadows forming, or in the deep recesses of the skirt where I wanted to create shadows.
After I created the mid-tones, I went back with another mixture, this time with much more black to create harsher shadows and push the contrast of the leather. I come back to the leather later on in the model to add some slight highlights, as I wanted it to pop more, but even with just these simple shades you can have a nice muted and natural looking leather for your figure.
Its now time to move onto the flesh! I began by painting Bugman's Glow as a base-coat on the face and hands of the figure.
Next, its time to move onto Cadian Flesh. I painted this as a first highlight for the flesh. On the face, focus on the top of the cheekbones, the top lip, and the forehead (if your model doesn't have a helmet). Additionally, this figure had "bags" under his eyes, so I went ahead and highlighted those as well. On the hands, be sure to paint the individual fingers, while leaving the shadow color in the recesses.
After I finished this step, I moved onto Kislev Flesh. This was used more sparingly, as it will be a brighter highlight. The technique you used for Cadian Flesh is essentially the same, but you need to be more careful, and apply it to the "edges" of the face where we are wanting to create a light reflection. This is the same concept that we used for the cloak. Focus once again on the top of the cheekbones, forehead, and top lip. Be sure to leave enough of the base-coat and mid-tone showing to create contrast. On the hands, we focus on tips and knuckles of the fingers, as well as the "crest" of the thumb.
Next we can move onto the helmet. I started by base coating the sides of the helmet with Doombull Brown.
I then glazed black onto the backside of the helmet, as shown. Keep your paint thin and move from the center of the helmet towards the back to get a smooth transition of color.
After shading the sides of the helmet, I painted the metal bits with either Balthasar Gold or Leadbelcher, depending on what I wanted gold or silver accordingly.
I then shaded the metals with a wash of black.
After shading I highlighted the silver parts with Ironbreaker, and the gold parts with Auric Armor Gold. I made sure to keep the black wash in the recesses of both the gold and silver. Focus the Auric Armor Gold onto the tips of the gold bits, and keep the silver parts dark towards the back of the helmet to follow the shading we did earlier on the Doombull Brown.
At this point, I wanted to leather skirt to have a little more contrast, so I painted some XV-88 onto the tips of the folds to add more contrast, as seen here.
From here I mixed Dusky Skin Highlight from the Reaper Master Series in with the black to create a mid tone. I then painted this onto areas that I felt would catch light. This included the top parts of the belts and straps, as well as the boots.
After the mid-tone was laid down, I did a final highlight with Dusky Skin Highlight. I focused on creating the light illusion we've talked about previously by putting the color on the tips of the leather, as well as creating a "sun spot" where I felt light would reflect off the material.
I then moved on to painting the hair and beard. I used Palomino Gold from the Reaper Master Series line for this. Take your time and don't rush this step, as yellows/blondes can take a few coats to get a nice base set up. Once this dried I washed the hair with Seraphim Sepia, from Citadel.
While waiting for the wash to dry, I moved onto the shield of the figure. I painted the outer rim Khorne Red, the horse design Menoth White Base, and the metal bit Balthasar Gold. The backside of the shield was painted Dark Flesh.
Once the wash had dried I finished up the hair by highligting the strands with Bright Skin Highlight from the Reaper line.
From here I moved back to the shield. I highlighted the horse design with Pure White from Reaper. Additionally, I shaded the Balthasar Gold with a black wash.
To create some more contrast, I shaded the horse design with Seraphim Sepia, being careful to only put the wash into the recesses of the design, as so.
I then began highlighting the Balthasar Gold. I started by creating a mid tone of Balthasar Gold over the shaded areas, focusing on where I felt light would ultimately catch on the rounded surface, towards the top front of the "orb."
This was followed by a highlight of Gehenna's Gold, being sure to leave some of the original mid tone behind.
I then highlighted this once again using Auric Armor Gold, really trying to focus on a single point to help create a sun spot.
I then used a touch of Runefang Steel on the very top of the orb, to further enhance the reflection. The same metal techniques were used on the sword and hilt of the model. Additionally, I painted the rim of the base with Mahogany Brown from the Reaper line, but any warm brown or black would suit this model nicely.
Voila! You should now have a pretty clean looking Warrior of Rohan, ready to do battle with the likes of Isengard and Mordor! Thanks for reading the tutorial. I hope you got something out of the pictures and write up! Please be sure to come back and check out my other posts. I appreciate it!
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