Five Armies: The Shadow

Shadow army

This post is how I painted the Shadow forces for The Battle of Five Armies, after they had been prepped as per my previous post. When I'd painted them, I based and varnished them as descibed previously. For comments on specific paint brands and washes etc., see that earlier post. I'll answer questions below.

Orcs

1. Green to skin
2. Metal to armour
3. Dark grey to shield and belt, red to shield icon (not shown in this picture)
4. Umber wash
5. When the wash is dry, pick out the eyes with red

Great Orcs

1. Green to skin
2. Dark grey to straps
3. Brown to the loincloth
4. Metal
5. Umber wash. When the wash is dry, pick out the eyes with red

Great Bats

1. Paint the whole bat black
2. Drybrush dark grey
3. Use a lighter grey to pick out some of the facial detail
4. Orange to the eyes, and white fangs

I tried red eyes but they were too dark.

Wargs 

(Don't worry, I added the 4th warg's teeth later!)

1. Paint the orc's skin green, and the warg and top-knot dark grey
2. Cream for teeth
3. Pick out the warg's face with a lighter grey. Metal to the blades
4. Umber wash
5. When the wash is dry, pick out the eyes with red and yellow for the orc and warg respectively

Goblins

1. Green to skin, grey to the rock
2. Dark grey to the belt, scabbard and ammunition box
3. Metal to armour and bits of the crossbow
4. Sandy colour to the bowstring, cream to the fletchings and teeth
5. Umber wash
6. When dry, pick out the eyes with red

Bolg

I don't have step-by-step guides for Bolg, but he was painted in a similar fashion to the Orcs, Great Orcs, and Goblins. I spent a bit of time on his face. I painted his eyes red and added a tiny dot of yellow for a pupil. I also gave a fine line of bright metallic paint to the edges of his blades.

Next: the Free Peoples