Painting Guide: Bifur

The last group of dwarves arrives and Bifur is the first one to come tumbling through the door.  This older dwarf comes in a goblin ax embedded in his skull (have to tell these 13 dwarves apart somehow).  Lots of browns and greys used throughout this paint job and a lot of detail work.     

0.  Bifur started with a 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. Wash the skin again in Flesh Tone.

1c. Highlight using Barbarian Flesh.

2.   Paint Bifur’s hair in Black.

2a. Highlight-1 with Uniform Grey.

2b. Highlight-2 with Ash Grey.

2c. Add a third highlight to the mustache with Matt White.

3.   Leave the black base coat on the spear shaft.

3a. Highlight the shaft with Ash Grey.

4.   Base coat the overcoat and boots with Oak Brown.

5.   Paint Bifur’s belt with Matt Black.

5a. Highlight the belt with Ash Grey.

6.   Highlight the Belt, overcoat panels, and boots with Leather Brown.

7.   Paint Bifur’s overcoat diagonal stripes, tunic, and fringe with Monster Brown.

7a. Highlight-1 with Desert Yellow.

7b. Wash with Strong Tone.

7c. Add a last highlight with Skeleton Bone.

8.   Paint the buckles, weapon blade & pommel, goblin ax head, sheath end, and sword hilt & pommel with Gun Metal.

8a. Wash all these metal bits with Dark 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 Demonic Yellow. 

Bofur and his ear-flap hat is the next dwarf to come tumbling through the door next week, be sure to stop by!

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.