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.