How to paint a Thundertusk Dreadboi style!

Hey Chaps!
Whoa! what a busy month...far too much work to go and do and not enough painting!
Anyhow...I have managed to finish the Thundertusk itself (no riders yet!) and decided to try and describe the steps that I took to paint the fine beast!

Thundertusk Body

I first sprayed the model in black undercoat and dusted it in white using a white spray! (well duh )


I then basecoated it with the airbrush with Vallejo Model Air Hemp!


Very lightly, I sprayed it white once again trying to keep some of the Hemp colour coming through as a midtone!


Drench the big boy in Gryphone Sepia!!


Once the wash had dried (I left it overnight!) I drybrused it with Vallejo Model Colour Offwhite


Using Dheneb Stone I painted all of his skin using very thin coats of the paint to try and keep the colour interesting without blotting out all of the previous drybrushing steps!

At this stage I also base coated all of the rocky parts/Hooves (where the skin is rubbed off!) in a codex grey equivalent...i think it was 'neutral' grey from VMC!


I (slowly!) painted in all of the strapping/harness on the model in Leather Brown (VMC)...i did this in several layers as i didn't want to blotch it all on and risk getting leather paint on my nicely detailed fur!!

I washed it with devlan mud and then rehighlighted it with Leather Brown! easy peasy!



Next stage, I painted all of the silver plates and other bits silver! I used Vallejo Model Air Aluminum for this I then washed the silver and grey parts in Badab Black!



I painted his gums in Liche Purple and repainted the teeth dheneb stone!



I painted the maw symbol on his hind leg with Ice blue!



To make his face a little darker, I glazed badab black and a little asyurmen blue over his skin and rehighlighted with Dheneb stone...I felt this helped it be distinguised from the fur a little more!



THUNDERTUSK HORNS!

Firstly I sprayed them black with an airbrush....using Vallejo Model Air paints (Burnt Umber, Light Brown, Flat Brown and Sand!) I sprayed from black through umber, to light brown, then flat to sand! I will cover it in more detail later on when describing the horn on the saddle! Exactly the same process...The horns just kind of happened and I didn't document it as well as the rest! 



It turned out like this!!


METAL SHIELDS

Basecoated in VAC Aluminum and VAC Gold...all of the brass bits where done with Brazen Brass!



Washed with Devlan mud and Badab black!

Drybrushed very lightly with Silver and then the gold parts were washed with Gryphone Sepia to get a nice rich gold colour!

Using the forgeworld rust powders, i added the 'orange rust' to the silver bits sporadically...i added iso alcohol to the powder and carefully applied it in patches...

I then took the light rust and just added it to the model when the previous layer had dried!



The patina effect is simply watered down hawk turquoise with a little bit of ISO alcohol in it! I detailed this in my how to paint ogres tutorial!

Once the powders were dry, i rehighlighted them with silver, trying to think where the rust would wear away on the edges etc!


ME GUSTA!

The saddles were painted the same way as the straps and the metal, but with Khemri brown washed with devlan mud for the wood! nice and easy!



HORN TUTORIAL!

This was my setup!


I masked off the saddle with some tape and sprayed the base of it black



Using the darkest brown I sprayed the middle part and feathered into the black!


Next brown up and did the same up to the tip!


VAC Sand was used from the tip down...do this VERY lightly as you want it to look natural!


White for the tip

Then i washed it with devlan mud being careful to mop up any that has pooled or changed the white tip from being so bright!



BANNER POLE

The horns were done in the same way as previously detailed!







Wood was done with Khemri brown washed with devlan mud and highlighted with khemri brown/sand mix!



Silver and Brass were done as per the shields!




BOOM!

Thundertusk!!!


For those interested, here is the base before i stuck him on it!!



As I say, I haven't done the ogres yet but they will follow very closely to the tutorial done previously!

Hope this helps
cheers!

Wow! that is very nice indeed. You have great control of an airbrush. Really clear steps and great pics.

lovely stuff, just started to paint with an airbrush and i cant believe how ive done without one for 16 years in the hobby. cant wait to see it finished.

Another excellent tutorial! Keep them coming!

very nice.  I was curious how you did the fur.

Just makes me want to get an airbrush.... what model do you use?

What are the benifits of dusting a black undercoated model with white??
TLK

Great Tutorial! 

Definitely gonna use some of the techniques for my Thundertusk

What are the benifits of dusting a black undercoated model with white??
TLK

Put fairly briefly it's a way of ensuring your highlights look more natural in a fairly passive sense: the stuff underneath will look darker than the stuff on top, even if you paint it with the same colour in the same fashion.


Absolutely brilliant tutorial bud, very thorough!

I'd be interested to know your process for the base as well as I think it looks great. Also that's a mighty fine airbrush you have there; I'm still using the fairly standard first one I bought (Iwata revolution CR) do you it makes a big difference doing these types of things with a more adjustable and (I presume; mine's a 0.4)) a smaller nozzle?

Eagerly looking forward to more, and seeing some chappies riding this noble steed

@vichor: Cheers pal!

@bork da basher: best thing i have ever bought hobbywise! Took a little while to get used to it...but now i can see results! Horns are so easy to do

@Blunt Object: Next up, Firebelly.....hopefully sooner rather than later!

@Enkiel: I use a Harder & Steenbeck Infinity airbrush...got it on ebay for around 150GBP...a little pricey but it's worth it! I'm sure there are others that do the job just as well...but this one kinda works for me! 

@Thunder lord klement: It simply makes the shadows more shadowy and the highlights lighter! You really don't have to do it...it's just how i roll! 

@Brutus Thunderbacon: Cheers matey! Hope I can help you out with some techniques/tips...i'd love to see what you come up with!

@Byronic: The base was done like so...

Base Calthan brown....sand EVERYWHERE!!!!

Devlan mud the sand!

Drybrush with tau ochre sept....

Drybrush with Dheneb stone...

Static grass of choice where you fancy it!

stone was done codex grey - wash - lighter grey...

simple but effective!

To be honest, nozzle size wise (eh?!) i have noticed little difference between using a .15 and a .2...so little difference! The biggest thing for me was to invest in a good tip cleaning device to get out all of the remaining paint that may be in the nozzle! That, and keep it very clean

I realise that bumping is sometimes frowned upon, but there's been some people talking about thundertusks recently and this is the best guide bar none I've seen around so I thought I'd bring it back to page one in case people have missed it, I'm also about to start using it for my 2 thundertusks

How the Maw did I miss this one???


Superb...   

Makes mine look like a white turd

Looks damn good. Have a gnoblar for a great guide mate!

blimey! thanks guys...

By putting this up, i hope to encourage and help rather than just 'show what i can do'...

I have been painting for nearly 15 years, so i thought it's about time to share what i have learnt over those years!

 

Awesome work dreadboi, i love the thunderdusk,

i don't have any skill in airbrush but it sounds interesting

i will start my thunderdusk in the next month, thanx for your guide

matt

Good tutorial mate!

Fantastic.
Just blows me away everytime

I just started building my ogres(my 1st army of any sort) so im very new to the hobby, but your painting is amazing, and i hope that one day i can be anywhere near as good as you are.  I dont have an airbrush, and i have never used one, do you think that your quality of work or something close can be done with regular brushes?  Or should i be thinking about buying an airbrush and practicing with it?  Also what kind of airbrush is that you are using?  Thanks for the inspiration and the awsome tutorial.   

Most of my work is done with brushes! airbrush is a fantastic piece of kit for blending (such as on the horns) and for basecoating/preshading!

I'd suggest for your first few years of painting, stick to brushes and learn the basics. By that, I mean literally everything! Paint consistency, layering, washing, shading, brush control etc. The best way to do this is simply by painting!!

I have been painting for a long time - an airbrush does not make this easier...it simply helps me to blend much faster!

What i'm trying to say, is that all of my skill comes through many years of bad paint jobs...you learn lessons for your next paint job!

Having said that, if you wanted to learn how to airbrush then by all means start! I can suggest all kinds of airbrushing techniques and point you in the right direction. I'd be more than happy to do so...don't forget though, again it takes practice! I love my airbrush It does speed up techniques that would otherwise take AGES!

fairly costly mind you I use a harder and steenbeck infinity 2in1! great piece of kit.

Thankyou so much for the kind words...have you checked out my other tutorials? The ogre skin one uses no airbrush...it may help you in terms of brush skill? Link is in my signature

Cheers Kuzimo!

Very very nice!  are those tufts you use on that base?

The slightly darker one is a static grass and the lighter one is a tuft! i like the two tone effect!

glad you like the model one of my best i think!

This is amazing!! Will be using this

  To be fair, the dude is right. This is an excellent thread. It makes me wonder why we don't sticky this stuff. Perhaps I'll pick up that project later and try to create a collection of links to handy tutorials.

Yep, excellent tutorial, will be trying this out soon.

Outstanding tutorial! Really great work!

Brilliant tutorial here Dreadboi, without unnecessary info but covering everything in detail. Have a pet gnoblar!

(CORRECTION)
* I see somebody has previously crept into my tent and kidnapped the gnoblar I intended to give you as reward for your efforts. I was going to sternly punish them when I realised they had given the gnoblar to you already so no harm was done. I will be looking into my tent security and a few of my gnoblars may well be killed for their laxity in this matter.

Thankyou everyone  happy to share!