How to Paint Elrond

Materials used: Paints: Chaos Black Skull White Tanned Flesh Dwarf Flesh Regal Blue Graveyard Earth Shadow Grey Blood Red Scorched Brown Catachan Green Goblin Green Elf Flesh Bestial Brown Golden Yellow Bleached Bone Enchanted Blue Ice Blue Snakebite Leather

Lacquers: Testors Dull Coat

Basing: P.V.A. WS Ballast GW Static Grass WS Early Fall Foliage WS Late Fall Foliage Oregons

* all paints and inks are from GW ** GW - Games Workshop *** WS - Woodland Scenics

Inks: Brown Ink Black Ink Metalics: Tin Bitz Brazen Brass Burnished Gold Boltgun Metal Chainmail Mithril Silver

Preparation Before proceding to the actual painting, I had a good look at the miniature searching for both flash bits or mould lines; these were clipped off and filed. After this, it was washed in soapy water, and scrubbed with an old toothbrush. Finaly, when it was fully dried, it was undercoated grey.

1. Face As I usually like to do, the face was the first thing I started. I think faces are one of the most important parts of the miniatures and heroes, like this Elrond, deserve some extra time to really make them stand up in the lines of our armies. It's very important to keep your paints very thin (by adding water), to avoid loosing sculpt details and to get smooth finishes. This is especially true when painting a face.

To start, the basecoat was given using a mix around 25/75 Tanned Flesh and Dwarf Flesh, with just a hint of Regal Blue to make it look less pink. Using very dilluted paint means that you will need several coats before you get an even coverage. I then started to highlight by adding more Dwarf Flesh to the original mix (and more water). These highlights were concentrated in the forehead, top of the cheeks, nose and shin. Remember that, as the paints are very thin, you can use the same mix and still achieve a progressive tone variation by concentrating the coats. Less coats will show more of the basecoat, while more coats will show more of the colour you are using. When the mix was pretty much Dwarf Flesh, I started doing some shading. For this I took the basecoat mix, and added a bit more of Regal Blue, and more water. I used this to give a few glazes in the face recesses, such as the lower parts of the cheecks, bellow the lip, under the eyes and in the wrinkles. Again, the dillution of the paint is a key factor.

After having the guidelines of the face done, it was time to go a bit further. The eyes and teeth were carefully painted with Skull White with just a bit of Graveyard Earth (just so that it isn't pure white) and I started adding Bleached Bone to the flesh mixture to continue the highlighting, concentrating more and more the layers were the light gathers the most. When the white of the eyes was fully dried (it doesn't take long, but don't be too hasty), the eye pupils were carefully painted using Shadow Grey (its important to make sure they match). I also used this colour to separate the teeth, painting thin vertical lines. Don't go overboard and specially don't make the lines too thick. Looking at the picture for instance, the upper teeth look a bit wrong. Finally, Skull White was added to the flesh mix, and this was used to fine tune the face highlights. After this, a couple of very dilluted (almost transparent) glazes of Dwarf Flesh and Dward Flesh with just a bit of Blood Red were given to all the face surface (carefully, to avoid messing up the eyes).

Of course, the hands were painted in the same way and using the same colours as the face flesh.

The hair was simply basecoated with a 50/50 Chaos Black/Scorched Brown, and then highlighted by adding small bits of Graveyard Earth to the mix.

2. Armor and Robes

The chest and arms parts of the chainmail were basecoated with a 50/50 mix of Tin Bitz and Brazen Brass, followed by a wash of watered Brown and Black Inks. A bit of Burnished Gold was then added to this mix to basecoat the armour plates, adding more of this colour to do the first highlights, concentrating these in the edges of the plates and in the parts that gather light the most. The lower part of the chainmail was basecoated with Boltgun Metal (with just a drop of Regal Blue), followed by a wash of the same watered Regal Blue and Black Inks. Both the chainmail parts were then highlighted with light drybrushes of Chainmail and Mithrill Silver.

At this point, I started the robes just by giving a basecoat of 50/50 Catachan Green and Goblin Green mix, with just a hint of Graveyard Earth. I think this is a really handy colour as, when mixed with others, gives them a more 'earthly' shade.

The highlights in the armour plates were forced a bit more, by adding Mithrill Silver to the previous mix, and appling carefully in the edges. After this, I used a very watered mix of Brazen Brass and Brown Ink to shade the armour, adding Black Ink to the paint to use in the areas I wanted to look more darker, and also to sort of lining the different plates. In the end, I gave a few glazes of Catachan Green in the armour, though its not very noticeable in the pictures (or in real life for that matter).

To start the highlights on the robe, I simply mixed small ammounts of Goblin Green to the original mix, applying a few thin coats in the more proeminant parts, like the upper part of the folds. To force the light a bit more, I gave a few more coats, progressivelly adding Elf Flesh to the mix. To shade, I picked the inicial robe mix, and added a small ammount of Chaos Black and Regal Blue and plenty of water. With this really dilluted mix, I applyed several layers in the areas I want to look more darker, like the lower side of the folds. Finally, to smooth thinks a bit, a couple of really thin Green Goblin glazes were given to the robe. The sash was done in the same way as this part. The fake gold trim was painted with a Bestial Brown basecoat, adding Golden Yellow to highlight, and then Bleached Bone. Its not the best gold you can achieve, but then, the are is quite small. I simply dislike to use real metallic paints to paint trims or freehands on cloth.

3. Sword

The sword blade was basecoated with Chainmail, to wich I added small amounts of Chaos Black to give several glazes to shade, always keeping the paint very thin. The idea was basicly to emphasize the different plans of the surfaces. As more darker I wanted a particualr area to look, more glazes were given there.

After this, a 50/50 Chainmail and Mithrill Silver was used in the same way, but this time to highlight. Finally, pure Mithrill Silver was used in the very edges of the blade.

The sword hilt was simply basecoated in Scorched Brown, and highlighted up to Bestial Brown. The same mixes were used in the belt and in the scabard.

4. Cloak

To basecoat the cloak, I applied several thin layers of Regal Blue, keeping the paint very dilluted. After a few coats, the cloak had an even coverage and it was ready to do the highlights. For these, I simply added small bits of Enchanted Blue to the base colour, and gave some layers in the raised folds. Ice Blue was then added to the mix and a few final coats were given to highlight the folds were the light gathers the most.

After the highlights I proceded to the shading. For this, I darkened the Regal Blue by addind small bits of Chaos Black, and gave a few very thin coats in the recesses and in the bottom of the cloak. Following the same principle as before, I gave more coats in the areas I wanted more dark. Overall, the cloak seems to darken from top to bottom. To finish things, I gave severall very thin glazes of a 50/50 Regal Blue and Enchanted Blue on the cloak. These almost transparent coats (use plenty of water!) helped to unify the colours a bit and to achieve a much smoother finish. I considered a bit if I shouldn't paint some dust in the bottom of the cloak. In the end I decided that, if Legolas can walk over the snow all tidy when the others had snow to the neck, then probably the elves don't get that dirty. Of course, this is just a matter of tastes and you can do some weathering, if you like it.

5. Finishing touches

The boots were painted with a 50/50 Scorched Brown and Chaos Black mix, adding a bit of Bestial Brown to highlight. The boot straps were simply painted with Graveyard Earth. A dilluted wash of Black Ink was then given to all the boot to shade.

After this, it was just a matter of protecting the paint with some lacquer. I use Dull Coat, from Testors. I can only recommend this product as it gives a really nice dull finish to the miniatures.