Painting Tutorial: Morgrim Elfdoom

I didn’t rush to choose the miniature I would use to represent the hero of my Dwarf army, the mighty Morgrim Elfdoom, hero of my new Dwarf history. I waited, looking round to find the best miniature to represent what I wanted.

Now I know as well as anyone that Dwarfs do not get ridden mounts in the normal army list, but this is a home grown special character we’re talking about so what the hell! The miniature is produced by Scibor and is listed as a Dwarf General on War Bear. They also do a Dwarf King and Dwarf Warrior on bears as well as two riderless bears but this one was my favourite, largely because he was pointing forward. Having said that, how cool would it be to invent a unit of three riderless warbears?

I painted Morgrim in one evening and here is the best painting tip I can ever pass along:

Always use at least three shades of a colour on each area of the model.

Here’s how I did Morgrim:

Although I’ve laid it out simply, in fact I always time my painting so that I can do various colours of ink wash all over the model at the same time, to save on drying time. On that subject, I use a drying lamp – basically just a desk lamp – to speed up drying between coats.

The Bear

• I started from a black undercoat (like always)
• I painted the bear Adeptus Battle Grey (dark grey) then highlighted him codex grey on the upper areas to suggest overhead lighting
• Then I gave him a Badab Black ink wash
• I then dry brushed a highlight of Adeptus Battle Grey and Codex grey on the upper areas
• His teeth and claws were painted Codex Grey with a Fortress Grey highlight

The Armour Plates

• I painted the armour dwarf bronze on the bear and on Morgrim
• Then I gave it an Ogryn Flesh wash
• After that I dry brushed it in increasingly smaller areas with the following colours, working up to the top point (again assuming the light was coming from above)
• Dwarf Bronze
• Shining Gold
• Burnished Gold

The Chainmail and Leg Armour

• Starting with a base coat of Boltgun Metal, I washed the areas with Badab Black
• Then I highlighted back up with Boltgun Metal and Chainmail

The Axes

• The axes were painted the same golds that the armour plates were but to get a deadly looking blade edge I gave it a light dry brush with chainmail.

The Dwarf

• Morgrim’s face was painted Bronzed flesh, then inked with Ogryn Flesh.
• I then highlighted with bronzed flesh followed by elf flesh.
• I never do eyes. They’re my kryptonite. But by shading them with the ink wash it seldom proves much of a problem. I’m trying to create pretty well painted gaming miniatures, not win Golden Demon.

The Base

I painted the base the same colour as I do all my bases (and the same colours I used for my war board), in overlapping patches:

1. Scorched Brown
2. Bestial Brown
3. Bubonic Brown (my favourite colour)
4. Bleached Bone

• His beard was painted Fortress Grey and then highlighted Skull White

The Weathering

• The wearthering on the base of Morgrim's cloak and on the bottom of the bear's legs was done by dry brushing Graveyard Earth and then Bleached Bone on top

And that was pretty much it. I finished him in record time and I’m particularly pleased with the effect.

Don’t tell anyone, but the test of whether I’m really pleased with a miniature is whether it winds up on my bedside table on the night I painted it. I am pleased to say that Morgrim kept watch while I slept and was there to say hello at daybreak.