Step by Step: Dwarf - Thorri Jarlsson

Hey Jungle Painters!

This is a compact step by step documentary about Raffa painting a "Thorri Jarlsson" sculpted by Tre Manor and distributed by Hasslefree Miniatures.

The goal of this paintjob was to paint a quick display miniature on a solid level.

Let's start to look at what the result looks like:

Let's start with the prepared and based miniature:

A very simple base was prepared using cork and a resin skull.

The first basecoat was applied using the airbrush. A desatured ligth brown was used to define the overall atmospheric color Raffa was aiming for.

Most of the basic colors were applied. A little bit of the base color was mixed into all colors to make the overall color scheme more harmonic.

An overview of the colors used so far.

First lights and shadows were applied to most surfaces. The metal parts were left with the base colors as they will be painted later with metallic colors. You can also see that the base was washed with Strong Tone by Army Painter.

More Shdaows were painted into the beard. The shadow color was a very reddish, dark brown to make the beard more interesting.

More lights were applied to all non metallic surfaces. You can also see the sword handle getting a some small freehand work to make it more interesting and less flat.
The horns were darkened at the part connecting them to the helmet.

The face was started with some red glazes and the leather belt was painted.

More red glazes were applied on the face.

Even more red was applied, slowly he looks like he likes mead, perfect for a dward :)

Some hightlights and shadows were painted in the face to give it some more depth.

Some parts were smoothed out and eyes were painted. This finished the face on this mini.
It's not a remarkably detailed paintjob but it perfectly works for quick paintjob on a small figure like this.

The wooden axe handle received some attention. Slight shadows were introduced with brown glazes.

The back of the fur was quickly painted using the wet in wet technique. After drying it also got a wash of Strong Tone.

The inside of the shield was sculpted very simple and to make such surfaces more interesting you can use simple freehand techniques. The first step was to paint a basic light-dark gradient.

Using black, Raffa painted some lines that made the shield look like constructed by wooden planks.
A light was painted on the edge and some basic wooden texture was painted. The greenish glazes makes the wood look much more alive.
The hand received some shadows and the leather strap was painted.

The inside of the cloak got some highlights. A stippling technique was used with different colored layers getting brighter and brighter with each layer.
The bottom edge of the cloak was glazed with grey to make it look more faded as it gets dragged along the ground.

The skull got some more highlights and shadows using green glazes for some parts of the skull.

All metal parts were painted with basic metal colors by Scale 75 colors.

Shadows were painted on the metal parts. For the gold a more intense dark brown was used, for the iron parts the shadow color was more desaturated. You can also see the small rivets on the padded armor were painted gold.

The gem on the sword hilt was painted.

The front of the shield is originally flat at the edge. By first applying a rim using pure black and as the second step using metal color to paint a metal rimmed shield while leaving a small black line it makes the shield much more interesting.

A simple freehand was painted on the shield.

On the last photo you could see a cool effect Raffa achieved by painting very small dots of thick, pure color along the edge of the metal rim. It makes the metal edge look really three dimensional.

On this photo of the finished mini you can see the finished base. Different rocks were glazed with different brown hues to make it look interesting but not distracting. Some hightlights and shadows were painted on the rocks.

This is the finished miniature. You can see some small changes Raffa did after the last photos.
Most noticable the finished freehand on the shield and the small rivets painted on the metal rim of the shield to make it even more interesting.


We hope you enjoyed this small step by step documentary!

Keep on happy painting!