Painting Guide: Thorin Oakenshield

Finally, the King Under the Mountain, Thorin Oakenshield, deigns to make his appearance!  Lots of detail, as befits his status, but not my best paint job unfortunately, too thick of paint obscuring those details I just mentioned. Click on the pictures for a larger view!

0. Thorin started with a Matt Black under coat.
1.   Paint the flesh using Tanned Flesh.

1a. Wash the skin with Red Tone to get the ruddier tone of the Dwarfs.

1b. Highlight using Barbarian Flesh.

2.   Highlight the hair and fur between the boot straps with a mixture of Uniform Grey and Matt Black in a 4:1 ratio.

2a. Highlight a second time with Uniform Grey.

2b. Highlight the fur only a third time with Skeleton Bone.

3.   Highlight the scabbard, elbows, knees, boot straps with a mixture of Uniform Grey and Matt Black in a 4:1 ratio.

3a. Highlight a second time with Electric Blue.

4.   Paint Thorin’s scale mail, belt, scabbard top, and steel toe caps with Plate Mail Metal.

4a. Wash the mail, belt and scabbard top with Strong Tone.

4b. Wash the steel toe caps with Dark Tone.

5.   Paint Orcrist in Shining

Silver.

5a. Highlight with Blue Tone.

6.   Paint the hilt and pommel with Plate Mail Metal.

7.   Paint Thorin’s tunic and wrist guards in with Deep Blue.

7a. Highlight with Ultramarine Blue.

7b. Wash with Dark Tone.

7c. Create the cross hatch with Matt Black.

8.   Paint the scabbard with Monster Brown.

8a. Highlight with Desert Yellow.

8b. Wash with Strong Tone.

Some last notes:  

A. The eyes were painted between the Flesh Tone Wash and the Barbarian Flesh Highlight.  The eyes are done with a 5/0 brush.  First paint a horizontal white line and then place a black dot in the center.

B. AP Soft Tone is a good wash for flesh and other light colored items.

C. AP Strong Tone is a good general brown wash similar to Citadel's Agrax Earth Shade. 

D. AP Dark Tone is a good black wash similar to Citadel's Nuln Oil.

I based the miniature with coral beach sand for the rocky/sandy caves of Goblin Town and added some Highland Tufts and Meadow Tufts from The Army Painter Battlefields range.  I then painted the edge of the base in Shining Silver and Electric Blue. 

That finishes up Thorin’s Company but what about the one who brought this crew together?  Stop by next week to see the best fireworks maker in Middle Earth!

I must thank TALE OF TWO PAINTERS for the inspiration for these tutorials.  Unfortunately, I do not have step by step photos like they do as I found their site after I was a quarter of the way complete.  They painted the miniatures using Citadel paints.  I felt a guide using The Army Painter brand was warranted, especially as there is no readily available conversion chart for Citadel and AP brands like the other major miniature paint brands (Vallejo, P3, Reaper, etc.).  When I painted these miniatures I only had the 42 bottle 2015 Mega Paint Set II, so there was a lot of mixing of paints to get the right color. 

Weekly Workbench 27 August 2017

 

    Another week of lots of different happenings, though  not enough finishing so far.  The humidity finally started dropping and looks like we are going to have a good week coming up as well.  This will allow for a lot of priming and and finishing to be done.  Be sure to click on any pictures that interest you for a larger view.

Historical:

    On Wednesday, with a nice drop to 47% humidity, I got a lot of priming done and the rest of my SAGA Scots warriors primed and ready for painting, which will hopefully be this week.

I also primed three Dark Age Archers, will will be used across multiple different games.

    Continuing my work on SAGA miniatures on Wednesday I started my base colors on my last Scots Thane and first warrior and finished them on Friday.

    Friday night I finished the the base colors, and following a technique Kenny Boucher of Next Level Painting recently displayed, I varnished the miniatures with a gloss varnish and once dried, applied the flesh wash and dark tone wash.  This seemed to work a lot better than usual and did not leave any "coffee stains".

On Saturday, I finished up with some highlights and laid down the dirt for the basing using Vallejo Earth Texture 26.219 Brown Earth.

    I also did this for the other Thanes and Warlord.  While I should finish the bases for the Thanes this week, the Warlord is waiting on a wolfhound coming from Footsore Miniatures. Unfortunately their furnace broke right after I ordered them and so shipment has been delayed going into the second month now.

I also placed the LBMS transfers onto the shields. I will touch up the paint this week and attach them to the Thanes.

Also on the historical side on Wednesday, I textured the Normandy base with Rust-Oleum Multicolor Textured spray paint in Desert Bisque.

Sci-Fi:

    No work on my Boromites as I am still debating on continuing with touch-up and dark tone or stripping and starting over.  I would like to get them on the table though so I might just push through with them.

Fantasy:

     My Dwarf Runic Golem arrived and after some cleaning and washing I glued him together and primed him.  I cannot wait to paint this large fellow up! 

Standing next to Shep's Chronomaner shows just how Large a construct he is!

    In the same delivery from Alternate Armies I also received their Eternal Guard which will make for some nice armored skeletons in Frostgrave!

    I started with the base colors on Mugzy's Sigilists from North Star Figures, as well as their flesh and eyes.  Their trim and cowls will be in white, while the fur lining will be in a snowy grey.

    I also did some sculpting work on the wizards' bases, a skeleton's cloak, as well as some spear hafts and sword blades to replace the flimsy PVC ones on the Reaper miniatures.  The Green Stuff is only slightly more firm than PVC at that thickness though, so I am not sure how well it will work out.

Terrain:

    I finally broke out my hot wire foam cutter and tried out some terrain building with insulation foam.  Here are two 3" x 6" walls that will be useful if any of the kids' wizards take the wall spell.

    I also build the corner of a ruined building to give the Frostgrave board some height beyond the Stone House Miniatures wall segments.  I started off planning on doing the walls in field stones and realized how much time it was going to take I decided the ground floor was good enough before being switched to cut stone.

    The outside join came together pretty smoothly and only needed some minor compound to smooth the lines.

    I did realize I am going to need to find some thinner foam or a way to uniformly split the thickness of the foam as the two wall pieces did not come out even thickness.  I think I could figure out a couple of plywood jigs to do the trick.

  Well that does it for this week, be sure to stop in Wednesday to see the painting guide on the King Under the Mountain himself, Thorin Oakenshield!

Painting Guide: Bombur

The last, but certainly not the least, of Thorin’s dwarves comes rolling in looking for a feast.  A fairly simple paint job but a very enjoyable miniature. 

0.  Bombur started with a Uniform Grey under coat.
1.   Paint the flesh using Tanned Flesh.

1a. Wash the skin with Red Tone to get the ruddier tone of the Dwarfs.

1b. Highlight using Barbarian Flesh.

2.   Paint Bombur’s shirt in Goblin Green.

2a. Highlight with Necrotic Flesh.

2b. Wash the shirt with Green Tone.

3.   Paint his boots with Oak Brown.

3a. Wash the boots with Dark Tone.

3b. Highlight the boots with Leather Brown.

4.   Paint Bombur’s vest in Leather Brown.

4a. Highlight with Monster Brown.

4b. Do a second highlight of Monster Brown and Desert Yellow in a 1:1 ratio.

4c. Wash in Strong Tone.

5.   Paint Bombur’s hair in Fur Brown.

5a. Highlight with a mix of Lava Orange, Skeleton Bone, and Pure Red in a 2:2:1 ratio.

5b. Wash the hair in Strong Tone.

6.   Paint the trousers and gloves in a Uniform Grey and Matt Black mix in a 10:1 ratio.

6a. Highlight with Ash Grey.

6b. Wash with Dark Tone.

7.   Paint the satchel in a 1:1 ratio of Desert Yellow and Monster Brown.

7a. Wash in Strong Tone.

8.   Paint the butcher knife and ladle handles in Oak Brown.

8a. Paint the metal of the butcher knife and ladle in Gun Metal.

Some last notes:  

A. The eyes were painted between the Flesh Tone Wash and the Barbarian Flesh Highlight.  The eyes are done with a 5/0 brush.  First paint a horizontal white line and then place a black dot in the center.

B. AP Soft Tone is a good wash for flesh and other light colored items.

C. AP Strong Tone is a good general brown wash similar to Citadel's Agrax Earth Shade. 

D. AP Dark Tone is a good black wash similar to Citadel's Nuln Oil.

I based the miniature with coral beach sand for the rocky/sandy caves of Goblin Town and added some Highland Tufts and Meadow Tufts from The Army Painter Battlefields range.  I then painted the edge of the base in Necrotic Flesh. 

Next week we come to the end of the company and the King Under the Mountain makes his appearance!

I must thank TALE OF TWO PAINTERS for the inspiration for these tutorials.  Unfortunately, I do not have step by step photos like they do as I found their site after I was a quarter of the way complete.  They painted the miniatures using Citadel paints.  I felt a guide using The Army Painter brand was warranted, especially as there is no readily available conversion chart for Citadel and AP brands like the other major miniature paint brands (Vallejo, P3, Reaper, etc.).  When I painted these miniatures I only had the 42 bottle 2015 Mega Paint Set II, so there was a lot of mixing of paints to get the right color. 

Weekly Workbench 20 August 2017

Lots of different workings being done this week, though not as much as I would have liked.  I did figure out some better lighting for my pictures today though, so everything but my Scots should have better lighting!  Remember to click on pictures to see larger versions!

Historical:

Speaking of my Scots, I nearly finished my Thanes for SAGA.  I still have to add the shields, and spear for the Warlord, once I add the LBMS transfers tomorrow.

Sci-Fi:

A little more work on the Boromites testing out some similar schemes.  Not sure I like anything so far and might just strip and restart as I have learned a lot from when I first started on these.

The first picture is where I left off last week.

This next picture is what I tested this week, adding The Army Painter's Rough Iron to the Mag Gun and some of the equipment and then washing in Dark Tone.

The last one was my original plan from a couple of months with the Rough Iron added.  It was washed in Strong Tone and maybe Red Tone on the skin.

Fantasy:

A lot of work done here this week.  First up, Shep and I went done to Fredericksburg to Your Hobby Place, our first trip since they opened and a really nice looking store and gaming area, and picked up a bunch of cheap Reaper Bones miniatures to flesh out the Frostgrave bestiary before we start playing.

Skeleton Swordsmen and Skeleton Spear-men are the most common.  On the right are two packs of Giant Rats, important in one of the scenarios for intro campaign.

Next we have a Great Worm, hungry with empty sewers for the past 1000 years.  We also picked up a ghost to use as a Wraith.  All primed (except the skeletons which we will just use unpainted) and ready for some paint.


We also picked up a Warhound for Shep's war-band and a two figures for Gideon's apprentice (r) and Enchanter (l).  Gideon painted his team himself, not bad for a five year old!





As stated last week, Shep's Chronomancer and Apprentice were the first Frostgrave items to be worked on this week.  Shep, loving all things frog like, wanted green to be the primary color for their attire.

The Apprentice usually comes with a half mask on the left side of her face but we thought a scar from a time jump incident looked much cooler.  I did not feel up to the task of doing a clear hour glass with sand so we went with the red mystic power instead.

 I also got Ivy's Water Elementalist and her apprentice completed.  These were much simpler paint jobs due to the very clean sculpts.

Last up, Duncan wanted a Summoner for his wizard, and as I did not have one I decided to make him one for the Triple Sprue Challenge competition being put on by Osprey Publishing.  The rules are pretty simple, using one sprue from each of the human box sets (Soldiers, Cultists, and Barbarians), create a wizard, apprentice, and a captain.  Putty is OK for filling gaps and metal rods or green stuff may be used to make staffs but no other outside materials or pieces.  All entries must be unpainted and submitted via email or using the hashtags #Frostgrave and #Triplespruechallenge on social media (FB, IG, and Twitter).

Summoner

I made the Summoner using a Barbarian body, Soldier head, Cultist arms, Cultist spear haft, Soldier flame from the torch, and Cultist pouch.

Apprentice

This was a modification from my first attempt, fixing the staff and adding the bag.  The apprentice is made from a Soldier body, Cultist Head, Soldier right arm, Barbarian left arm, Cultist left hand, and Soldier bag.  The staff is made from the Soldier glaive haft, Cultist shield, and Cultist skull head.

The Captain

Originally starting off to be another Enchanter, the Captain has a Cultist body, Barbarian head, Cultist right arm, Soldier left arm, Soldier backpack and pouches, Barbarian right hand with war hammer, and Cultist spear tip for a knife.

That's it for this week but be sure to stop by on Wednesday for the painting guide on Bombur from The Hobbit!