Painting some warriors? Let me lend you a (Ro)hand.
The Warriors of Rohan are included in the War of the Rohirrim launch box for the new edition of Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. They’re pretty good looking, even by Games Workshop’s standards, but they look even better if you slap on some paint before getting them to the table. Now, I’m no professional painter, but I can get models looking nice enough in a reasonable time.
In this article, I’ll be telling you how to take them from grey to something that will look good in battle without too much difficulty. The majority of this will involve using contrast paints, which will increase the speed of getting them game ready by a considerable margin. These paints can be used straight from the pot, meaning you won’t need to worry about mixing water to smooth them out. There are a few little optional tricks too, which will give them a little boost in the visual department. The paints I’ve used are below.
Undercoat: Grey Seer Spray
Contrast Paints: Snakebite Leather, Cygor Brown, Baal Red, Black Legion, Ork Flesh, Guilleman Flesh, Skeleton Horde.
Base Paints: Leadbelcher, Wraithbone, Retributor Armour
Shades: Nuln Oil, Seraphim Sepia, Carroberg Crimson
Optional Extras: Stirland Mud Technical paint, Warboss Green Layer paint, Rynox Hide Base paint, grass tufts, Lahmian Medium.
Brushes: Size 00, Size 3, Size 6 base brushes, Army Painter Medium Dry Brush and Games Workshop Texture Spreader (both optional)
A quick note on the model bases before we begin. I’ve kept the bases off the models whilst painting. This is because I like to paint the bases separately, before attaching the models to them after. This isn’t necessary, and you can absolutely stick the models to the bases and paint from there. There’ll be more on bases later in the article.
Priming the models
The first step is to prime the models using the spray can. Make sure to give them a good spray all over. You don’t want to drown the model, so just a thin coat across them so your contrast paints will stick. I use a little blue tack to stand them up on a box and then spray on all sides. Once dry, I’ll lay them on their backs to spray into the areas I can’t reach whilst upright. Make sure they’re fully dry before you start!
Leathers, Wood and Cloths
Your first contrast paint will be Snakebite Leather. Paint this across the skirts and sleeves, as well as the hafts of any spears or axes and bows if you’re painting archers. You should also paint the inside of the shields if your model has one, or the flights of arrows sticking out of quivers. This paint may look a little blotchy once done, but it will be cleaned up later. I used my size 6 brush here.
More leather now, using Cygor Brown on the leather chest pieces, forearm guards, and leg coverings/trousers. Not all of the models have the chest pieces, instead being equipped with chainmail. This will get painted later on. If your model has a sword, this is a good colour to use on the grip and the scabbard of it. You can also use the for the quiver if you’re painting an archer. This time I switched down to a size 3 brush due to the arm guards being a bit more fiddly.
Once dry, you’ll want to paint the underclothes in Baal Red. This is really just the cloth between the leather skirt that you’ve already painted and should be a quick step. Why red though, when Rohan are known for green? This is because red and green are complementary colours, and a little splash of red will make the green stand out all the more. If you want to find out more about choosing colours for painting models in this way, take a look at colour theory videos on YouTube. A size 3 brush was used again for this section.
You’ll also want to paint the shoes at this point using Black Legion. Nothing fancy here, but try not to get any black over the Cygor Brown you did previously. It’s not a huge problem if you do, but it’ll look smoother if you’re careful and take your time. Still using that size 3 brush. It’s something of a workshorse!
Now for the big part of these models: the cloaks. And also the shields, but mostly cloaks! I use a combination of size 6 and size 3 brush here depending on if I’m working on a larger open section, or a part that’s more fiddly and hard to reach. Some of the optional paints can be used here, so you have a couple of choices of how to proceed. We’ll be using Ork Flesh here, which is a really nice green shade, but it can come out a little patchy at times, especially when painting something smooth like cloth. If you want, you can just go ahead and paint the shield fronts and the cloaks in this colour and move on. It’ll look fine for the most part, but if you want a smoother finish, read on.
To get a smoother finish, we’re going to thin down the Ork Flesh using some Lahmian Medium. This works better than water as the paint will retain more of its tension and won’t suddenly go running all over the model. On a palette, mix one part Lahmian Medium with two parts Ork Flesh, and then paint the above sections. It’ll look quite thin and anaemic in colour, so once it’s dry, paint another coat over and you’ll get a really nice finish. Watch out for the paint pooling on the bottom parts of the model, and try to move large patches of paint back onto your brush if you can. You don’t want to overload your brush for this part or you’ll end up with large, dark patches on parts of the cloak. You’ll need to be patient for this drying, so maybe go and have a lovely tea.
Once you’re refreshed, it’s time to do the skin. I’d use my size 00 brush for this as it’s going to be focusing on small areas: the hands and face. Use Guilleman Flesh for this. The hands won’t be a big problem, as if you get a little on the arm guards it won’t show up. For the face, try to be careful. You want to get the skin without getting much, if any, on the cloak around it. If you have a steady enough hand and clear enough eyesight, you could even try avoiding the beards. Don’t worry unduly if you go get paint on the facial hair though. If your model has a helmet with a faceplate, make sure you paint into the eye holes too. We’ll paint over the helmet later, so getting some on the mask isn’t a problem.
Let the skin dry fully before moving onto the hair and beards. For this, we’ll be using Skeleton Horde. This may seem odd, but this shade of slightly off yellow is quite a nice natural looking shade for hair, especially if we add a shade to it later. Use a small brush here, especially when doing facial hair. When working on those beards, be gentle, and add small amounts of paint. It’s ok to get some on the skin, as the beards will still stand out well enough.
Moving onto Metal
Looks like it’s later now, as it’s time to paint the metal! Leadbelcher is a base paint, so put some on your palette and add a small touch of water just to thin it out to get a smoother finish. Use this to paint all the metal armour and bladed parts of weapons. Anything that looks metallic should have this added to, but ignore the metal on the shields for now. I used a size 3 for most of this, but switched to a 00 for the helmets. Be careful on that head armour, and take your time when painting the parts that cover parts of the face. Use the edge of the paintbrush to avoid paint slipping into those eye holes.
This section can be skipped if you want, but I really think the detail on the shields is worth highlighting. The slightly off-white shade of Wraithbone is a good choice here as it isn’t too bright against the more muted colour scheme. This is a base paint, so mix a little water with it on your palette before carefully applying the paint. Use the edge of the brush, not the tip, to paint the raised sections on the shield. If you make a significant mistake, tidying up with Ork Flesh later is a good fix and should hide the error well.
Whether you highlighted the shield design or not, we’re nearly finished! You’ll want to use Retributor Armour for some of the details, including that central piece of metal on the shield. The details you should focus on are that part of the shield, as well as the hilts of swords and the ends of and scabbards that might be poking out.
Concluding with shading & base details
To finish the model itself, we’re going to add some shades. These add some depth to the parts we’ve already painted, making them look less flat. These are used straight from the pot too and can be applied quite feely, but once again try not to overload your brush. You don’t want huge patches of these shades, so rinse your brush and try to reabsorb some from the model if it looks like you’ve used too much. You’ll want to let the model dry between each one of these, but we’ll use Carroburg Crimson on the red cloth, Nuln Oil on any metal, and Seraphim Sepia on the leather skirts (this will clear up some of the untidyness from earlier), the hair, and the beards.
And that should be it and you’re ready to stick it to your base! But before you do, you may want to get your base looking pretty first. Use Stirland Mud and the texture spreader (not a normal brush as it will get ruined), and just spread it across the base. Once done and dry, spray it with your Grey Seer spray. After drying, you can then paint the base using Ork Flesh to give it a dark green grass look. If you’d like, you can use a dry brush to apply a very slight layer or Warboss Green as a highlight. To do this, get a little bit of paint onto your drybrush, then using a piece of kitchen paper, rub most of the paint off, leaving just a little on the brush. Pass the brush backwards and forwards over the base, and the raised parts will catch a little bit of the lighter green to add some depth. If you have them, now would be a good time to add a grass tuft, which is always a great way to finish off a model. Paint the rim around the edge of the base in Rynox Hide and you’re ready to glue your model to it.
And we’re done! You should have a very nice looking model at this point. If you’re looking at the length of this and think it’ll take ages to do, well, you’re half right. I tend to paint these models in batches of six though, so whilst waiting for one bit to dry, I’m working on the same bit of another model which speeds your way through quite well.
I hope you’re happy with your model. I’ll be taking a look at how to paint the other main faction in the box, the Hill Tribesmen, soon.
Nice tutorial.