Painting Warriors of Middle Earth: Rohan

 

Welcome to the first edition of a (hopefully!) ongoing series of painting tutorials. I often get asked how I paint my models, so I've decided start a semi-regular posts covering the process from beginning to end. Each time, we'll look at a particular army; if popular, I hope to eventually cover all races and armies of Middle Earth. Rather than looking at one step, these tutorials are intended to be more long-form, teaching you how to paint whole troops to a tabletop level, with extra optional steps if you want to push things a bit further! We'll also explore different colours, textures, and techniques. 

Without further ado, let's crack on! First up are the doughty warriors of Rohan. With quite a simple colour scheme of muted green and brown tones, there's instead a lot of scope for techniques like weathering to add a bit of visual interest:

Steel armour

1. Undercoat the whole model (I have used Zandri Dust here)
2. Undercoat all steel areas in Leadbelcher

3. Apply Basilicanum Grey contrast paint all over

4. Edge highlight with Stormhost silver; you can also add scratches here

Bronze armour

5. Basecoat all bronze areas with Gehenna's gold

6. Wash with Carroburg crimson

7. Edge highlight with Liberator Gold

8. OPTIONAL: Spot highlights with 50/50 Liberator Gold/Stormhost Silver on the sharpest points

Cream cloth

9. Basecoat Baneblade Brown

10. Layer Rakarth flesh, leaving Baneblade brown only in the deepest recesses

11. Highlight folds 50/50 Rakarth Flesh/Wraithbone

12. Edge highlight with Wraithbone on the highest creases

Brown cloth

13. Basecoat 75/25 Dryad Bark/Baneblade Brown; wash pure Dryad Bark into the deepest folds

14. Highlight 50/50 Dryad Bark/Baneblade brown. To add some texture you can apply this 'roughly', stippling rather than layering the highlight to make the cloth look rough

15. Smaller highlights with 25/75 Dryad Bark/Baneblade Brown, again stippled roughly on

16. OPTIONAL: Highlight the sharpest edges with pure Baneblade Brown, and add scratches across the surface of the cloth

Green cloaks

17. Basecoat Deathworld forest

18. Shade the deepest folds with 50/50 Deathworld Forest/Rhinox Hide

19. Layer 75/25 Deathworld forest/Ushabti bone over the majority of the surface

20. Layer 50/50 Deathworld forest/Ushabti bone, leaving some of the previous layer visible

21. Highlight sharper folds with 25/75 Deathworld forest/Ushabti bone

22 OPTIONAL: Spot highlight pure ushabti bone on the highest points

Flesh

23. Basecoat Knight-Questor Flesh

24. layer 50/50  Knight-Questor Flesh/Flayed One Flesh
25. Highlight raised areas with Flayed One Flesh

26. OPTIONAL: Dot Ushabti bone on the highest points (knuckles, lips etc)

Blonde hair

27. Basecoat Averland Sunset

28. Wash Reikland Fleshshade

29. Highlight strands 50/50 Averland Sunset/Ushbati bone

30. OPTIONAL: Dot pure Ushabti bone onto the highest points

Black leather

31. Basecoat Abaddon Black

32. Edge highlight with Dark Reaeper, leaving Abbaddon black in the centre

33. Smaller edge highlights with Russ Grey

34. OPTIONAL: Dot Celestra Grey onto highest points

Shields
35. Paint green areas using the same approach as the cloak

36. Basecoat the symbol Baneblade brown

37. Layer the symbol with Rakarth flesh

38. Edge highlight with Pallid Wych Flesh

39. OPTIONAL: Dot Wraithbone onto highest points

40. OPTIONAL: Sponge Rhinox hide onto lower half to simulate mud spatters

And there we have it! How to paint a warrior of Rohan, from beginning to end. As I say, I'd love to hear your feedback - would you prefer smaller, bite size tutorials over several posts? Also, any recommendations for armies you'd like to see next? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time,

Ben