115th post - Théodred on horse! (Tutorial)

Mae Govannen!!! ... and welcome to this blog post dedicated to Théodred, son of Théoden!

This miniature comes with the Battle Games in Middle-Earth issue number 65 and it's the last of the series (they've only released 65 numbers in my country), which gets me to have mixed feelings, but I'll surely dedicate a full post to this matter in the future.

Who is Théodred?

Prince of Rohan and only son and heir to king Théoden and queen Elfhild.
Théodred sadly dies while his father's mind is under control of Saruman by the medium of Grima Wormtongue.

Prince Théodred was the second marshal of Rohan and commanded the western hosts of his country, being slain by an orc in the first battle of the Fords of the Isen river.
Grimbold, one of the commanders at the battle, boldly defended Théodred's body.

By Théodred's death, Éomer became the heir to the throne of Rohan.



Tutorial

After priming the model black I proceeded to basecoat the metallic parts: mail and scales.
I wanted a worn look for the mail part, so I basecoated it with Rough Iron (Army Painter) and then
gave a medium drybrush with True Copper (Army Painter).
Aiming for a bright look of the scales and also the sword, a Gun Metal (Army Painter) basecoat served me really well.

While the scales and the sword share the same goal, i.e. to shine brightly,
the process on these ended up being the same, safe for the brush strokes used.
The shadows were done with Nuln Oil (Citadel) and the highlights with Shining Silver (Army Painter).
For the scales I tried to brushstroke only the lower part of each individual scale,
keeping the shadows on the most deep recesses.
As for the sword, I simply painted the areas where the light hits.

The leather parts and the hair received the same basecoat: XV-88 (Citadel).
The saddle, boots and gloves were then highlighted with Iraqui Sand (Vallejo)
and the hair was drybrushed with Ochre Brown (Vallejo).

To end this part I went for an Agrax Earthshade (Citadel) glazing effect.
Be sure to thin down the shade a lot, otherwise it'll be ruined.
I'd recommend 3 parts water for 1 part shade.

This one is by far the most laborious part of the miniature, as usual with the Rohan commanders.
I painted first the whole armour plates and the sword hilt with Bright Gold (Army Painter).
The next step is to basecoat the plates with Death World Forest (Citadel) and trying to leave the inner golden lines untouched. It is required a lot of precision and steadiness of hands.
After that crucial step's done, I highlighted the plates with Middlestone (Vallejo).
Finally, the borders of the plates were painted with Dragon Red (Army Painter).

Finally, the skin parts (only the face in this particular miniature).
The basecoat was done with Cadian Fleshtone (Citadel) and the shades with Fleshtone Shade (Vallejo).
After this step I usually paint the eyes.
Then came the highlighting with Kislev Flesh (Citadel) for the most prominent features of the face
(cheeks, forehead, upper lip, eyebrows...) and Basic Skintone (Vallejo) on the same places but in a lesser area.

... and this finalizes the miniature!
The next step is to glue Théodred to his horse ans base the miniatures the way you find more suitable.

As always, I hope you have enjoyed my little tutorial.

Keep on painting and war-gaming!!!!!

Namárië!