Tolkien Orc Kitbash p.24 - Second batch of Uruk-Hai, and more trolls painted.

[emosbur]

I was thinking on using Fireforge Byzantine infantry as Umbar troops, and now that I see your minis, I think that my idea is spot on!!

Great minis!! Thanks for sharing.

[LazyStudent]

Wow! Amazing minis.

Just out of interest, can you explain the paint system you used for the elephant? It's a really nice scheme!

[Silent Invader]

So vibrant 

[Cacique Caribe]

Most excellent!  I love that serpent iconography too.

Dan

[Codsticker]

I would like to know when you plan to paint this:

 

[Captain Blood]

Thanks all

I would like to know when you plan to paint this:
 

Camo all over I think
(It's an Oliphaunt technical of the Harad Liberation Front )

Just out of interest, can you explain the paint system you used for the elephant? It's a really nice scheme!

Certainly

Most people think elephants are grey, but if you look at photos of actual elephants, most of them look closer to brown.
Partly this is because they spend a lot of time rolling in mud or covered in dust, but also because their hide is a kind of grey-brown colour, not a 'pure' grey.

- I mixed Vallejo Medium Grey and Flat Earth approx. 50:50, and painted it all over.
- Then I added a touch of Vallejo Pale Sand to that same mix and gave it a drybrush.
- Then I gave the whole thing a fairly dilute wash of Army Painter Strong Tone ink.
- Then I did something which I thought was a brilliant idea, but didn't quite work - I gave the whole thing a dilute wash of AK Interactive 'Africa Dust Effects', which is a very pale sand colour, and works a treat weathering Afrika Korps panzers! I thought some dust in all the cracks and crevices on Nellie's hide would look good. But as it turned out, the contrast was just too much, and the 'dust' got trapped in area where it just wouldn't (like all around the saddle cloth, which is meant to be loose fabric, of course). So I managed to wash most of that off again using neat white spirit. There's still a bit of dusty residue here and there though, which I think perhaps helps the overall end effect.
- Once I'd painted in all the ropes, furnishings, and details like tusks and eyeballs, I then used a raw umber oil paint wash, diluted with about 20 parts to one, white spirit. To redefine around particular areas, like the eye sockets and so on.

Truthfully, you could carry on titivating forever, and it would never be 'right'. I think the most important thing TBH, is to paint your elephant a browny-grey colour, not a true 'black+white=grey' grey. Get that right, and all the other effects are a bonus

I'm going to go a bit browner again on the next one. Watch this space...

EDIT: Added a couple of elephantine close-ups, in case it helps with the colours used on the hide...

[BZ]

Lovely vivd colors with a beautiful paintjob, like it very much!

[Grumpy Gnome]

Great work!

[onlysix]

Images that have a white background and stunning paint jobs (respect Captain Blood) work best 
I recently myself master shooting white background photography too 📸🖼😍
Thank You Richard for my motivation to take action   

[Hammers]

Fantastic freehand job on those snakes, Richard.

[Hammers]

I would like to know when you plan to paint this:

 

 

[Captain Blood]

Thank you gentlemen

[Hammers]

Most people think elephants are grey, but if you look at photos of actual elephants, most of them look closer to brown.
Partly this is because they spend a lot of time rolling in mud or covered in dust, but also because their hide is a kind of grey-brown colour, not a 'pure' grey.

- I mixed Vallejo Medium Grey and Flat Earth approx. 50:50, and painted it all over.
- Then I added a touch of Vallejo Pale Sand to that same mix and gave it a drybrush.
- Then I gave the whole thing a fairly dilute wash of Army Painter Strong Tone ink.
- Then I did something which I thought was a brilliant idea, but didn't quite work - I gave the whole thing a dilute wash of AK Interactive 'Africa Dust Effects', which is a very pale sand colour, and works a treat weathering Afrika Korps panzers! I thought some dust in all the cracks and crevices on Nellie's hide would look good. But as it turned out, the contrast was just too much, and the 'dust' got trapped in area where it just wouldn't (like all around the saddle cloth, which is meant to be loose fabric, of course). So I managed to wash most of that off again using neat white spirit. There's still a bit of dusty residue here and there though, which I think perhaps helps the overall end effect.
- Once I'd painted in all the ropes, furnishings, and details like tusks and eyeballs, I then used a raw umber oil paint wash, diluted with about 20 parts to one, white spirit. To redefine around particular areas, like the eye sockets and so on.

Truthfully, you could carry on titivating forever, and it would never be 'right'. I think the most important thing TBH, is to paint your elephant a browny-grey colour, not a true 'black+white=grey' grey. Get that right, and all the other effects are a bonus

Excellent tones on Dumbo, thanks for the detailed step-by-step.

I think I'll add a pink dapples on trunk, face and lips when I do my own.They seem to be more  usual on Asian elephants than the African subspecieseses... (don't know how to end spelling that word...)



Elephants do seem to excrete a lot from the head. When I go fulltime philantropist I shall sponsor a band of safari dermatologists and beauty technicians to travel the sub-Sahara region and advice elephants on the right use and application of deo sticks. Most seem like they could do with good defoliants and moisturisers to.

[Dr. Zombie]

Great work on all of it.
The Haradrim could at a pinch be conscripted as the Golden Company for GoT.

[Captain Blood]

The Haradrim could at a pinch be conscripted as the Golden Company for GoT.

Ooooh! Good idea Frede 

Peder, yes, I looked at hundreds of elephant pics. In some of them, they appear to be smeared with what looks like rust in patches all over their ears, faces and front quarters. I very nearly tried to do that, then thought 'too much', and left it.
But it's certainly true that elephants are covered in all sorts of colours and blotches. They are very rarely (as far as I can see) the nice uniform grey colour beloved of children's picture books.

But then (sorry, one of my pet themes!) children's picture books are responsible for very many enduring colour misconceptions, like:

Tree trunks are not usually brown
Rivers are almost never blue, nor is the sea
Sheep are almost never white

And so on...

Now I can add: elephants are not usually grey