Tutorial: How to paint Ori the Dwarf from the Hobbit

Can you believe this is the seventh tutorial in this series? I only wanted to create tutorials for Bilbo, Gandalf and maybe  the Goblins. I didn’t comprehend how useful they would be to the hobby community. I want to thank everyone who left words of encouragement for me to continue. I can confirm tutorials eight and nine are scheduled for the blog. Will I do a tenth? Who knows. For the moment though, read on to find out how to paint Ori and his slingshot in just 18 steps.

This tutorial assumes you have a basic understanding of how to paint. For the beginners, I will explain the techniques as I go along. Each picture below shows four chronological steps. Underneath each picture are the corresponding instructions. Each step shows the paint I used during that step. It’s good to have reference material close to hand to check colours. I used google images for film stills and Games Workshop’s 360º pictures on their website were a great help. 

Paints you will need for this tutorial:

Black Undercoat (technical)

Cadian Fleshtone (layer)

Bloodletter (glaze)

Rhinox Hide (base)

Kislev Flesh (layer)

XV-88 (base)

Balor Brown (layer)

Gorthor Brown (layer)

Baneblade Brown (layer)

Karak Stone (layer)

Carroburg Crimson (shade)

Stromvermin Fur (layer)

Dawnstone (layer)

Castellan Green (base)

Loren Forest (layer)

Ushabti Bone (layer) 

Iron Breaker (layer)

Stirland Mud (texture)

In case you need to expand your paint collection, head over to Wayland Games or Slave to Painting, which both stock a huge selection of paints at competitive prices.

1. Undercoat the model. The details are small, so I hand undercoated the model (rather then use a spray) with Imperial Primer.

2. I painted the face and fingers with Cadian Fleshtone. I painted around the beard. 

3. I changed the hue of the skin using Bloodletter glaze. Dwarves are a little more red in complexion then humans.

4. I watered down Rhinox Hide heavily and then shaded around the eyes, nose, inbetween the fingers and around the face. 

5. I highlight the face with Kislev Flesh. Also if you’re feeling brave, this is the opportunity to paint the eyes with a thin black line and two white dots.

6. Use Rhinox Hide to paint the boot straps, the boots, the coat, fingerless gloves, hair, beard and slingshot.

7. Paint the knife scabbard with XV-88, then use XV-88 to highlight the slingshot. Finally paint some very thin lineson the hair and beard with XV-88. Sadly the hair isn’t raised enough to dry brush, so you just have to pick it out carefully with thin lines. 

8. Highlight the hair and scabbard with some more fine lines but this time use Balor Brown. 

9. Highlight the coat, gloves and the leg straps with Gorthor Brown.

10. Highlight the coat, gloves and the leg straps with Baneblade Brown. Then paint the coat trim with Baneblade Brown. 

11. Paint Karak Stone diagonal cross patterning on the Baneblade Brown. If you water it down it flows off the brush bristles smoothly. This stops the brush dragging and you can get thinner lines.

12. Wash Carroburg Crimson over the coat, boots and bootstraps. This will colourise the garments and make them a little more accurate to the movie. 

13. Highlight the trousers and belt with Stormvermin Fur. Thin lines are perfect for this. 

14. Highlight the belt and trousers further with Dawnstone. 

15. The satchel and shoulder pad are painted with Castellan Green.

16. Make a 50:50 mix of Loren Forest and Ushabti Bone and highlight the edges of the satchel and shoulder strap

17. Paint the shoe, satchel and belt buckle with Ironbreaker.

18. Ushabti Bone is used to paint the two bone sticks on the satchel. 

Finally base the model in a way which fits in with your collection. I used Stirland Mud texture paint highlighted with Karak Stone and the base edge was painted with XV-88. Static grass and scrub were glued on in small clumps.

For more Hobbit tutorials check out my Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin, Gloin, Bombur and Goblin tutorials. If you found this tutorial useful, let me know in the comments. 

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