Tutorial: How to paint Dwarf Grim Hammers from the Hobbit

I’ve been itching to paint some more models from the Hobbit for a while now and I’m always being asked if I’m going to do more tutorials for the Hobbit. I thought I’d kill two goblins with one throwing axe and do both. Read on for the full detailed tutorial on how to paint Grim Hammers. 

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)

Iron Breaker (layer)

Nuln Oil (shade)

Leadbelcher (base)

Agrax Earthshade (shade)

Runefang Steel (layer)

Rhinox Hide (base)

Gorthor Brown (layer)

Eshin Grey (layer)

Dawnstone (layer)

Ulthuan Grey (layer)

Skrag Brown (layer)

Ratskin Flesh (base)

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. Paint the scales of the chain mail with Ironbreaker. I painted these individually leaving black showing through where they overlap. You can drybrush if you wish to speed it up. 

3. Wash the chain mail with Nuln Oil.

4. Basecoat all the plate mail, helmet and weapons with Leadblecher.

5. Wash over the plate mail, helmet and weapons with Agrax Earthshade. Because the model is predominately metal I wanted to try to make it more interesting by having two different types of metal A brighter shinier chainmail and a more worn and dirty plate mail.

6. Paint the scales of the chain mail again with Runefang Steel. Then highlight just the edges of the plate mail, helmet and weapons with Runefang Steel.

7. Paint the tunic (between legs and on the arms) with Rhinox Hide. 

8. Highlight the previous layer with Gorthor Brown.

9. Highlight the black loin cloth with Eshin Grey. 

10. Further highlight the loin cloth with Dawnstone.

11. Use Ulthuan Grey to paint a horizontal line along the bottom of the loin cloth.

12. Paint his beard with Skrag Brown.

13. Make a 50:50 mix of Lahmian Medium and Rhinox hide and run it into gaps of the beard to shade. 

14. Highlight the raised areas of the beard with Ratskin Flesh. 

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.

Tale of Painters has a whole host of Hobbit tutorials for you to check out.

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