May Day painting challenge – Update #2

I thought that I would start with something easy – the Wargs. These are big models with very pronounced detail.

The first question is: what colour to paint them?

With this entire collection I want to take my inspiration from the artwork that Fantasy Flight have produced for Lord of the Rings, rather than use over influences, such as the films. The best way to do that is to look at the artwork that has been used in the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game.

Whilst some Wargs are brown, or even white, most of the artwork I have seen shows them as being dark grey or black, so I took that as my colour guide. I could of painted the Wargs in different colours to add some variation, but this approach would be more time consuming – plus if they are all the same colour they look more like a pack as opposed to individuals , at least to me.

In all the models I am painting for this game I am aiming for a finish that gives a decent ‘Tabletop’ standard which should look good when the figures are placed on the table. Generally this will mean I will be painting base colours, applying washes and the odd highlight and detail, but nothing too fancy.

As a first step, I drybrushed the black primed Wargs with grey primer which highlighted all the detail on the model, making it easier to see. I used a wide, flat brush and only painted with down strokes – it’s almost a poor man’s zenital highlight, but not quite! Whilst it certainly helped to pick out detail on the model (black primer is notorious for making detail invisible – especially for those of use with aging eyes!) I am not convinced that this step affected the finish of the final model.

Next I applied the basecoat. The flesh was painted in Coat d’Arms Dark Grey whilst the fur was given a coat of Revell Tar Black. The tongue was also painted at this point – Citadel Liche Purple mixed with a small amount of Citadel Ceramite White.

Once this was dry, the entire model was given a wash of Nuln Oil, which had been diluted with Lahmian Medium in a 3:1 ratio.

For the final details the teeth were picked out with Citadel Ceramite White, the fur was given a light drybrush of Coat d’Arms Iron Grey, followed by Coat d’Arms Mid Grey. Finally the eyes were dotted with Citadel Mephiston Red.

I will be basing all the miniatures together as the final step in the process, so I am calling these done for now. They look OK, but I am all too aware of the transformative properties of putting a decent base on a model, so these will improve greatly once the final step is complete.