1. To start off with, you need to wash and file down your miniatures. This removes oil and flash from the mini.

2. The second step is to undercoat. This can be done with Chaos black or Skull White paint – I personally prefer using black, as this gives the model automatic shading and you don’t need to get into all the gaps! A spray paint is best for this purpose.

3. You then need to contemplate which colour scheme you actually want to follow for this model. Always think about what colours you are going to use on the model before you start painting. I have a lengthy period between getting a model (usually from Wycombe) and starting to make it in which I look over the details on the model and decide what colours I will use and to make decisions on how I will go about painting it. On the way home from Reading with my Mûmak I decided early on that a £50 model needs time spent on it – time I duly have given it, highlighting each individual wrinkle!

With the Wargs, I saw the detail was too small to be highlighted accurately by me, and washing and drybrushing was the only comprehensible method of painting it. I also thought that Flesh Wash was going to be a predominant colour in the painting of these models – it gives metal a rusty look, the skin and clothes a dirty and greasy appearance, whilst giving the Warg greater detail definition.

You should make these decisions before you start painting any model. Quite often you will have a set colour pattern that is used for every model – such as, Scorched Brown highlighted with Bestial Brown and then washed with Brown Ink – this would make up the large part of brown sections on your models. This means it is very simple to know exactly what paints you need before you start – don’t be tempted to start before you have the right paints, or (as I have found) be tempted to miss them out to get the model finished!

Fur

The Warg is the first priority to paint, as the fur will be drybrushed. Drybrushing is where you get some paint on your brush and wipe most of it off. Then flick your brush backwards and forwards and the residue of the paint will be left on the raised surfaces of the model. The Warg is painted first with a basecoat of Scorched Brown, and followed with a heavy drybrush of Dark Flesh. This is followed by a normal drybrush of Snakebite Leather and then a light drybrush of Bleached Bone. This is then given a wash of undiluted Flesh Wash, followed by a further drybrush of Bleached Bone.

The Warg skin (The back legs up to the knees, the head and the front feet) is painted with a mix in equal parts of Scorched Brown and Codex Grey as a basecoat. This is done right up to the end of the fur. This is highlighted progressively by adding more Bleached Bone to the mix until you highlight on the very raised edges with 2 parts Bleached Bone to 1 part original mix. This is left to dry and then given an extremely diluted wash of Black Ink, extending slightly into the surrounding fur. When dry, this should tie the highlights together and blend the skin into the fur.

The Mane is painted Scorched Brown, with highlights of Dark Flesh, Snakebite Leather and Bleached Bone. It is then given a wash of Flesh Wash, followed by a heavy highlight of Bleached Bone, and another wash of Flesh Wash.

The details on the Warg are simple to paint. The eyes are not strictly necessary – but if you decide to paint them on, then I painted mine Chaos Black. The mouth should be painted Dwarf Flesh and then basecoated Red Gore where nescessary – the Dwarf Flesh means that the Red will be a strong colour, and it prevents you having to put on 4 or 5 coats of red, thus flooding the detail. You should then highlight this with Blood Red. The teeth can be painted Bestial Brown and highlighted with Blood Red. All of the cloth sections – the straps and the saddle – benefit from a clean paint job. Basecoat with Scorched Brown and highlight progressively with Dark Flesh, Bestial Brown and finally Snakebite Leather.

The Warg riders are all unique, so it is hard to create a specific painting guide for them! So, instead, I will give techniques of painting different colours that you can put into different places on each of your models.

Brown is going to make up a large percentage of your model. It is therefore necessary to have several different shades of brown on the model! The Warg, that is already painted, is made up entirely with almost every colour involving brown in it somewhere. To paint Brown, I start with a basecoat of Scorched Brown, followed by a heavy highlight of Dark Flesh. This is in turn highlighted with Bestial Brown. Occasionally, I then decide to highlight further with Snakebite Leather, which changes the shade of brown entirely! For an Orc, I then give the entire section a wash of Flesh Wash.

This colour scheme could be changed entirely by adding Camo Green or a colour to that extent to each highlight stage – something else to consider in the painting of your Warg rider!

There are several runs of green available from Citadel miniatures – the bright green, which contains Goblin Green, and is suitable for Warhammer fantasy more than anything else! The other is the dull green range, which as Catachan Green. This is obviously a more realistic range, and given the nature of the Lord of the Rings models, definitely the more suitable to use! I use green sparingly on Orcs, as Green clothing would have been rare in Mordor.

I paint green with Dark Angels Green, highlighting up to Camo Green with Catachan Green in between. The whole section is then given a wash of Flesh Wash (I said it would be important, didn’t I!) Again, it is conceivable to mix greens and browns, greens and reds, or greens with just about anything, to produce different colours on the Warg rider!

Red should not be used much Orcs. Red is a colour that does not go over black well, as explained earlier in the article – but on Orcs, this is actually a decent effect! To paint red onto one of your Warg riders, I would use Red Gore as a basecoat with Blood Red as a highlight. This should not have covered too well – but give it a wash of Flesh Wash anyway, and it looks like a reddish brown colour. Red is not a colour you need to alter in any way – one shade on each model is more than enough!

I have probably given you enough colours to get you going for clothing! But I will now explain the finer details of Warg riders.

The weapons and armour are easy to paint – start with a basecoat of equal parts Boltgun Metal, Scorched Brown and Brazen Brass, and give this a wash of Flesh Wash. Then overbrush lightly with Boltgun Metal to complete the effect.

The furs are painted Dark Flesh, with a highlight of Snakebite Leather and then a drybrush of Bleached Bone. They are finished with a wash of Flesh Wash.

The skin needs slightly more detail than the clothes! I paint Orc skin in several different colours.

Brown - I basecoat with Dark Flesh, highlight up to Snakebite Leather, wash with Flesh Wash, highlight again with Bestial Brown and finish by painting the eyes (as below).
Green - Start with Dark Angels Green, highlight with a mix of Dark Angels Green and Catachan Green, and finish with Catachan Green.
Grey - Basecoat with Chaos Black, highlighted up to Codex Grey with several mixes in between.
Eyes - are painted Skull White and the sockets are then given a heavy wash of Flesh Wash.

The Quiver is painted Brown as described above, and the furs either side of it are painted Snakebite Leather and washed with Flesh Wash. The arrows are drybrushed Bestial Brown, and the “feathers” are painted Codex Grey and drybrushed Bleached Bone.

There are several details you can add to make your Wargs look even more menacing. I added a gouged eye to mine by streaking Flesh Wash over the eye and then painting a red scar over this. I also gave a Warg a savaged leg by scoring it in with a knife. These little details can really spice up a large collection of models!

The base can be done in whatever way you deem good looking. My basing method is as follows, then I add sand and bark granules to the top, paint the whole thing Bestial Brown, and then wash it with Flesh Wash (it even gets into the base!) A drybrush of Bleached Bone, a touching up of the rim with Bestial Brown and some Static Grass to finish it off.

This section of the article deals with converting a standard bearer for your Orcs. It cost £11 in total – and you get an extra captain and some spare parts (believe me, the spare part saved my Warg Rider! I dropped one of the spears that was loose between the washing machine and the cupboard completely by accident – but I had the spare to fall back on!) You need to buy the Warg Rider with spear and the Orc Command blister that has the helmet-less Standard Bearer in. This is a little brief, but I can’t put in any in progress pictures, purely because I forgot to take any!

First of all, you need to go about separating the top half of the standard bearer from the legs. I used a Jeweller’s Saw for this – it was incredibly useful! All my previous conversions I used a hacksaw to disastrous effect! Once you’ve cut through the waist (be careful not to damage the banner pole) you can leave this for a while!

For the Warg rider, you need to cut through:

1. The hand holding the “reigns”.
2. The furs form the back of the Warg – this then needs filing down to make it look realistically Warg like
3. The waist.

This should leave you with the legs still attached, the Warg in a normal position and ready to have a rider attached.

The next stage involves pinning. Pinning is where you drill holes into the two bits of material you want to stick together, insert a paper clip and glue them together with the paper clip holding it in place. You will need to pin the Standard bearer to the Warg rider legs – make sure the sword is pointing down the body of the Warg towards the head, or it looks really fake! The Banner pole needs a slight amount of bending to get it into the right place – by the rider’s foot.

The Warg at this point will look strange.

It took a while for me to put my finger on why, but I realised it was because the flag was just static while the Warg was obviously running at full speed! This required immediate attention. After some experimentation, I decided that the best looking pose was when I took a piece of Bark and glued it to the end of the base, using it as a rock for the Warg to be standing partially on. The back legs were bent into a squatting position and grooves were made in the base with a knife. The Warg was then posed as you can see in the picture below - facing upwards, one leg on the on the bark!

The only remaining problem I find is that the Banner is at an angle – but it is very slight!

Thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed this article!

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