The Great Bears are in many ways a very typical Khadoran unit that have several of the traditional colours you might use in painting the Khador army. I painted these guys using pretty straight forward techniques, so hopefully this guide will be easy to follow.
Step 0: Clean, Assemble and Undercoat
I’m not going to detail this step other than to say you should always –
- Wash miniatures to remove mould release residue
- Use a hobby knife to remove flashing and venting
- File back any mould lines
- Dry fit the components
- Glue (and potentially pin) the components
- Apply several light sprays of undercoat (Army Painter’s Black Spray in this instance)
- Paint a watered down coat of the undercoat colour (GW’s Chaos Black mixed with water (3:1))
Step 1: Faces and Flesh
I subscribe to the “inside to outside” painting approach where you paint the miniature as though it were getting dressed, i.e. do the flesh first, then the next visible layer of clothing, etc. The flesh was base coated using P3 Khadoran Flesh (in 2-3 slightly watered down light coats), highlighted with GW Dwarf Flesh and then a lightly highlighted with GW Elf Flesh. That was then washed with a watered down Devlan Mud. I wanted these guys to look weather beaten so the deep wash and darker flesh colours makes it look like they’ve bivouacked for many years. The finished effect gives a slightly ruddy look appropriate for severely weathered skin. I wanted their hands to be gloved, so I didn’t paint them in this step. For the hair and beard of Volkov I used GW Bestial Brown as the base, highlighted with Snakebite Leather and washed with a 1:1 blend of Badab Black and Devlan Mud (if you only own one wash it should be this blend – it works on almost any colour). I also painted the neckerchiefs at this time using the same technique as for the cloak (see below).
Step 2: Chainmail and Mesh Armour
The next layer is the chainmail skirt underneath their armour. I used GW Boltgun Metal with a small bit of GW Chaos Black mixed in as the base coat. Base coat isn’t quite the right phrase as it is more of a heavy drybrush to pick out the details. I repeat this with pure GW Boltgun Metal, but with a lighter drybrush, i.e. more of the paint is removed form the brush. For the weapons I used the same colours, but instead of drybrushing I painted on a watered down coat and then highlighted by picking out the edge detail. All of these areas were washed with Badab Black.
Step 3: Cloak
Remember to change your water – otherwise you will have metallic flakes mixed into your non-metallic colours. The cloak was based with P3 Greatcoat Grey and highlighted by adding increasing amounts of GW Fortress Grey in 3-4 highlights. The whole area was washed with Badab Black. The fur edge was drybrushed with Fortress Grey and highlighted by adding a small amount of Skull white.
Step 4: Red Armour
Quite a bit of the miniature is covered in red armour and as red is notoriously hard to paint over a black undercoat a bit of patience is required. I use P3 Khadoran Red as my base coat, but I water it down and plan to apply 2-3 light coats. Patience is needed to not put on a very heavy coat that will dry in a blotchy manner and in ensuring the red doesn’t get on the finished detail (the chainmail is easily touched up, but the cloak isn’t, if you get red on them). Next I highlighted the red areas with a 1:1 Mix of Khadoran Red and Khadoran Red Highlight and then a highlight of pure Khadoran Red. All of these areas were washed with a mix of Badab Black and Baal Red (1:5) being careful not to let it run onto finished detail.
Step 5: Bear Pelt
The Bear Pelt was base coated with Fortress Grey in a very heavy dry brush. I had two highlighting stages – the first was a drybrush with a 1:1 mix of Fortress Grey and Bleached Bone and the second was almost pure Bleached Bone. The eyes and nose were picked out with Chaos Black and the visible leather was base coated with Snakebite Leather. All of the pelt was then washed the miracle wash (1:1 mix of Badab Black and Devlan Mud). I wanted the bears fur to look old and well worn. Polar bears (or whatever the equivalent is in the Iron Kingdoms) are not white, but rather a rich creamy colour. I deliberated washed it with a dark mix to make it look dull.
Step 6: Details
There are different metal areas on each miniature to be detailed –
- For the ‘spikes’ I used the same process as for the weapon blades.
- For the brass areas I used P3 Brass Balls mixed with GW Graveyard Earth (1:1) and a very light highlight of pure Brass Balls. This was lightly washed with Devlan Mud.
- The brass buttons were pure dotted with pure Brass Balls and then washed with Badab Black
- The Bottom of the chainmail skirt was painted in Greatcoat Grey and washed with Badab Black
- The weapon handle was painted with GW Scorched Brown, Highlighted with Bestial Brown and washed with the miracle wash
- For the strap on the weapon I base coated it in Fortress Grey with a bit of Chaos Black, highlighted using pure fortress Grey on the edges and washed with Badab Black
Step 6: Basing and Varnishing
I think that’s it for the miniature painting. The bases aren’t quite finished in the picture above (they are now, but I forgot to retake the photograph). I glued down builders sand, which is nicely textured and coloured, using watered down PVA glue. When dry I used a very wet Graveyard Earth to colour it. Being so wet it lets some of the natural colour of the sand show through. I sometimes will pick out larger stones in a grey colour and wash black. I then flock small areas of the base. The is a very basic basing technique, but it is consistent across my whole Khadoran army. All I need to do now is matt varnish the miniatures and the Great Bears are ready to join the rest of the army.
Here is a larger version of the above image.
Owen