LOTR SBG Army_Building.pdf

PAINTING

WORKSHOP

painter, whose work has graced

many army books, White Dwarf

issues and our website. With the release

of War of The Ring this month, and the

excitement generated by last month’s

Apocalypse releases, many of you will be

taking up your brush and setting out to

paint a whole host of models. This month’s

Painting Workshop is about just that –

painting a whole army.

university, so I’ve got a basic understanding

of the principles involved with colour

contrast – certainly not to the level of ’Eavy

Metal painters such as Darren Latham, but

enough to get me by when it comes to

picking colours that work for my army.

Once I’ve finished the test model, I start

to plan out how the whole army will be

painted. The way I do that might sound a

bit weird, but hear me out as it’s for a very

good reason. I take my test model, hold it

up and then squint at it. This blends all the

colours together and lets me pick out the

dominant colour of the model, which I

then employ across the whole army. Try

this trick with a fully painted army too –

squint at it, and you should see the

dominant colour for the army.

Using this colour as the basecoat ties

the army together – if you squint at a

model and can’t make out a single defining

colour, then the chances are it will look far

too incoherent when a whole army is

painted in this way. This may seem

obvious for an army such as Space

Marines, which has a bold, single colour,

but it applies just as much to a multi-

coloured army, such as Eldar. In fact, in

such armies it applies doubly – a single,

strong colour can really unify an otherwise

disparate force.

Chris: I often have to paint a whole army

at a time, sometimes in a week or less,

which means that when it comes to

painting large numbers of models quickly

and to a high standard, I’ve got a few

techniques and tricks up my sleeve to help

me out. Hopefully you’ll find some of this

advice helpful. Painting an army is not

necessarily the same as painting a single

miniature, so it’s important to get into some

of the theory behind army painting before I

show you how I painted my Mordor army.

I always start by painting a single test

piece. This gives me a good opportunity to

experiment with my colour palette. I see

what colours look good on the model,

selecting a good basecoat colour, as well

as picking out some good contrasting

colours too. I studied colour theory at

Over time, the

Painting Workshop

series builds into an

invaluable resource

of techniques, tips

and tutorials covering

every aspect of the

painting hobby.

C hris Peach is a renowned army

ASSEMBLY AND UNDERCOATING

working out a rough army list,

and then assembling the

miniatures in accordance with that.

Sometimes I just grab a box set and dive

in, but it’s always useful to have an idea of

the size of units, and the options they’re

equipped with before you get started. I

sometimes change my mind about my

army list midway through a project, but

that’s OK – nothing is ever wasted in this

hobby, it just provides me with more

choice in the future.

On the face of it, it might seem a bit

excessive, but I like to assemble a whole

army at once. I think a lot of the reasons

for doing this is to do with discipline –

when I’ve finished, I know that everything

is built there in front of me. If I’ve

assembled that Chimera already, I know

that I’m much more likely to paint it; if it’s

still unassembled in a box at home I’m

much less likely to. There’s also that

incentive to press on and paint them all –

after all, I’ve invested all that time in the

assembly so the army is halfway there!

I don’t go over the top with an army to

start with, I make sure I keep it to a

manageable size – with a horde army such

as Skaven or Imperial Guard, I start with a

smaller force (500 points, say) so I don’t

get overwhelmed. Whatever the army’s

size, I always make sure it’s legal on the

battlefield – that way, once assembled and

painted, I can begin playing right away.

I tend to tip all the plastic kits onto the

table and then assemble them a unit at a

time. I like to mix and match as much as

possible between kits, so it’s handy to see

them all together. This is just as true for

The Lord of The Rings as it is for

Warhammer – I quite often swap the arms

of my Men of Gondor about, for example,

turning spears into banners, and so on.

For my Mordor Orcs I assembled all of

the plastic Orcs, then the Trolls, and finally

the character models. Once the army is

assembled, I base it all at once. I almost

always undercoat an army with Chaos

Black spray, using my painting stick.

Technique

Painting Sticks

I use a piece of wood (called Narsil) as my undercoating stick. Most of

us in the Studio use a stick for undercoating, such as ’Eavy Metal’s

ancient stick, with a several inch-thick layer of old sticky tape from

years of use. It’s not just faster and more efficient, but also better than a

box. With a stick you can rotate it as you spray, ensuring you coat

every part of the model. With a box it’s trickier, often leading to parts of

the model getting missed. I stick double-sided tape to all four sides of

Narsil and attach models to every surface – it may look like some sort

of stone-age mace, but it means that there’s less wasted spray; if it

misses one model, it’s bound to hit another! Once sprayed, I either

balance the stick until the models have dried, or use a hairdryer to

speed up the drying process.

Top Tip

Assembling Regiments

When assembling a unit for Warhammer you have to consider how the

models will work together, especially with regard to how they rank up.

I work backwards when assembling a Warhammer unit, starting with

the back rank and moving towards the front. I try to make sure that any

model will fit in any position. I sometimes use regiment bases, which

are a great time-saver in game for larger units. I save the command

group until last, as they can be assembled in cool poses.

With War of The Ring movement trays, there’s usually no problem

getting all the models to fit, but I always check just to be sure.

www.games-workshop.com 85

W ith any army I like to start by

PAINTING UNITS

then basecoat all of the models. If

you remember at the start of article

I talked about squinting at my models to

discern an overall colour – well, that’s the

basecoat! In the case of my Mordor army,

this was Scorched Brown. Actually, brown

is one of the colours I readily default to

when basecoating an army, especially one

for The Lord of The Rings or Warhammer.

Many of the fiddly bits of detail, such as

the belts, are going to be brown anyway,

which saves a great deal of time. From a

distance it looks good across the whole

army, as it adds an overall dirty and battle-

worn appearance.

I apply the basecoat with the Spray

Gun when basecoating an army, although

I do sometimes use a tank brush when

basecoating a small number of models. I

tend to use the Spray Gun regardless of the

colour, even spraying metallic paints such

as Chainmail when painting largely

armoured armies.

I then split the army up into formations

or units, and begin to pick out the details.

With my Mordor army I started with my

Mordor Orcs (yes, all 72 of them) and

applied all of the brown, then all of the

metal, and so on. I apply each colour to all

the models in the formation – this might

sound like a hard slog, but it does mean

that once you’re finished, that’s the hardest

part over with.

Before embarking on painting the

whole army, Chris paints a single

test-piece. This gives him the

opportunity to experiment with

different colour palettes and

techniques, making sure they work

on a single model before applying

them to an army.

Batch Painting & Spot Colours

The reasoning behind painting such large

batches at a time is simple: it’s all about

keeping up the momentum with an army.

If I paint 72 at once, I’m much more likely

to push on and finish the army – not least

because I’ve got 72 painted already, but

also because if I paint my models in

batches of 10, once those 10 are done

there’s a tendency to sit back and think

you’re done, when in reality you still have

the same to do six or seven times over.

It’s worth talking about the colour

palette I’ve chosen for the Orcs and the

way I’ve applied it to the models. I try to

limit myself to four colours in my palette,

not including the flesh tones or the brown

Technique

Painting Elites

The Morannon Orcs are meant to

be more elite than the rest of the

Orc rabble, and I’ve tried to

reflect this in the way that I’ve

painted them. I’ve added a second

highlight, but I’ve also tried to

make them appear more

regimented by painting the areas

of clothing the same on each.

In the case of more

regimented armies, such as my

Gondor or Imperial Guard, the

converse is true. The novices,

such as the Conscripts, look clean

and fresh, whereas the more

elites, such as Hardened Veterans

or Osgiliath Veterans, look more

battered and battle-worn.

86 WHITE DWARF PAINTING WORKSHOP

A fter undercoating the whole army, I

basecoat. For my Mordor army these were

red, grey, silver and brown/hide. When I

apply these colours to the rank and file, I

try to vary the areas they’re applied to so

that they don’t all appear the same. So I

might paint ten with a red tunic, then ten

with red trousers and so on. It keeps the

army coherent, but also gives it the

appearance of a rabble, rather than a

uniform army.

In the same way that a spot colour is

often used in a colour palette to tie the

different areas of a model together (See

Darren’s use of Bleached Bone in last

month’s ‘Eavy Masterclass for a good

example of this – Ed), when painting an

army a spot colour can be used to tie the

different models together. For the Mordor

army I used red as the spot colour, and

almost every model has red somewhere on

it. The one exception to this is the Witch-

king, who has deliberately been left

without it to contrast with the rank and file.

Unlike undercoats and basecoats,

I don’t use my hairdryer to speed the

process along, as this ends up blowing the

wash out of the cracks. Instead I use it as

an opportunity to take a break and go and

make a cup of tea (Aah, so that’s why Nick

and Chris have so many tea breaks – Ed),

which is important when you’re painting

large numbers of models at a time.

I find that when you’re painting a

whole army, it really pays to consider the

order that you do things. So, whilst waiting

for the wash to dry on the Mordor Orcs, I

started applying the basecoat to the

formation of Morannon Orcs. And as that

dried, I went back to highlighting the now-

dry Mordor Orcs. It helps break the whole

process down and makes for a much more

efficient use of your time.

Highlighting

Because I’m often painting such large

quantities of models, I often only apply

one highlight, and sometimes don’t even

do that for real horde armies. Leaving

the wash as the final stage and letting it

do all the hard work for you lends the

army a really dirty look. At heart I’m a

perfectionist, but time constraints often

dictate otherwise.

I tend to use the base colour as a

highlight, applying it as a simple edging

highlight to the raised areas of a model.

I don’t usually bother with mixes for the

rank and file – the washes have darkened

the paint down already, so the basecoat

stands out nicely with no messing about.

Applying Washes

After I’ve applied all of the basecoat to a

formation, I apply a wash. I use a 50/50

mix of Devlan Mud and Badab Black for

most things these days – it looks good over

metals, as well as flesh and cloth. I tend to

have a couple of pots mixed up in these

quantities on my desk. I sometimes use a

tank brush to apply the wash, stabbing at

the model from above so that the wash

runs into the crevasses, but the Spray Gun

works well for large numbers of models,

making the whole process nice and quick.

Three versions of the same

miniature, showing how Chris

applies different colours to

different parts of the model. By

varying the placement of colours

across the model, Chris creates the

appearance of a rabble.

Top Tip

Command Models

I paint a command group at the same time as the unit. Once the rest

of the unit is finished, I go back and apply another highlight to the

command group, typically applying a cleaner highlight to more of the

surfaces. The aim is to make the command group stand out, whilst still

appearing to belong to the unit. The same is true for Warhammer 40,000,

where I will spend more time on a sergeant,

painting the face a bit better or posing the model

a little more dynamically. I like to make sure that

banners tie in with the rest of the army too. My

Mordor formations all have black banners with

red symbols, for example, which adds coherency

across the army.

Two models from Chris’ Bretonnian army, a

Warden and regular Man-at-Arms, showing

the extra detail and highlights he applies to

his command groups to make them stand

out from the rank-and-file. Chris paints the

command group at the same time as the unit,

to keep the painting consistent.

www.games-workshop.com 87

LARGE MONSTERS

Top Tip

the Trolls as a treat for myself (see

the Top Tip on the left). I wanted to

spend a bit more time on the Trolls, so I

painted them individually. I used the same

palette of colours on them as I used on the

rest of the army to avoid having them stand

out too much. I used a similar technique as

with the Orcs, but added a few more stages

of highlighting. I concentrated the most

time and effort on the largest areas – the

flesh and the metal – as the eye is naturally

drawn to them.

Because they are large centrepiece

models, I added a few conversions to the

Trolls to make them even more individual.

I used short lengths of brass rod on one to

represent arrows sticking out of him. I also

repositioned the arms to give him a unique

pose. I glued some casualties onto both of

the bases – many of The Lord of The Rings

character models have dead models on the

bases, so I used a couple of these. I find

little finishing touches like this really help

to place the army in the context of the

battle, making them seem like they have

already been in the thick of the fighting,

rather than being new to the war.

The same is true for monsters in

Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.

I like to paint my monsters, monstrous

creatures and walkers to a higher standard

than the rest of the army, but I make sure

that I use the same colour palette, to make

sure that they fit in with the infantry. I also

like to add extra details such as battle

damage or scenic bases – as they’re

centrepiece models I like to go to town.

This is partly because the larger size of the

models gives me the space to create a

vignette or story – for example, the Scythed

Hierodule in my Tyranid army has one of

its claws plunging into the ground, and an

Imperial Guardsman clinging onto the

scales on its backs with a grenade in his

hand. Likewise for monsters in my

Warhammer army – the Shaggoth in my

Warriors of Chaos army has a scenic base,

with slaves chained to the rocks that it’s

standing upon.

Rewards

I’m very disciplined

when painting an army,

painting all the infantry,

then all the cavalry. I

make this a bit easier

by rewarding myself –

after I finish a stage of

one of my units I go for

a cup of tea. But after I

finish all of my models

I reward myself with a

painting treat; so I

painted my Trolls after

my infantry, and I

painted my Heroes

after I’d finished my

cavalry. I find that this

breaks up the painting,

and is a nice incentive.

WHITE DWARF PAINTING WORKSHOP

A fter finishing the infantry, I painted

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