Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Group

 The Steps

1. (The Armour) Immediately after the whole model has been base coated with black. Apply a fairly heavy dry brush using Leadbelcher to all the armour (and sword/spear head/spikes on the bow). Follow this with a lighter dry brush using a 1/1 mix of Leadbelcher and Runefang Steel. The whole point of doing this first is so that you can paint over it. So don't worry at all about getting it all over the place, as long as all the metal is covered. This makes it easier to get a nice dry brush.

2. (Base coating) For the tunic under the armour use Mephiston Red. For the skin; Caliban Green. For the cloth under the braces; Gorthor Brown. For the bow/spear shaft, hair, quiver, arrow shafts and straps (around the arms, legs and holding the quiver); use Rhinox Hide. For the arrow feathers; use Dawnstone.

3. (The Wash) Mix the Abbadon Black with about three times as much water and use this to wash over the whole model. With mine I also mixed a slightly heavier wash which I used on the arrow feathers.

4. (Metal Highlights) Using Runefang Steel, lightly dry brush the armour and the weapons.

5. (The Skin) Paint over the skin with Caliban Green, but leave the darker shadows. Then paint the high points that pick up more light with Castellan Green. Follow this with a light dry brush with Loren Forest, and try and pick out the details on the hands, toes and face (including the ears).

6. (The Tunic) Paint the tunic again with Mephiston Red, but avoid the darker areas. Then highlight with a mixture of White Scar and Mephiston Red (using enough white to make it lighter, but not pink).

7. (The Browns) Highlight all the straps with Mournfang Brown. Then dry brush the hair with Gorthor Brown. For the spear-goblins highlight the spear shaft with Mournfang Brown and for the archers highlight the bow with Gorthor Bown and dry brush the quiver with Doombull Brown.

8. (The Face) For the teeth mix a slightly off-colour white using Yriel Yellow and for the eyes add a little more of the yellow.

9. (The Final Touch) To reflect the goblins use and neglect of their weapons, mix some Mephiston Red with 2-3 times the amount of water and paint this onto the shield  sword, spear head and the spikes on the bow. Remember your trying to just stain them, not cover them in splotches of blood.