121 - Fíli! (tutorial)

Mae govannen, mellon nín!
In this post I'll make a tutorial on how to paint Fíli, yet another dwarf from Thorin Oakenshield's Company, a miniature from the Escape from Goblin Town starter box (Games Workshop).

The main problems I found with this mini were, by my mistake, the molding lines (which I forgot to clean) and the very pour sculpting in certain areas (like the hands, that have a tremendous lack of detail).
Aside that, this was a very pleasing miniature to paint, and I very much enjoyed playing with the many different tones of grey.

Assembled and unprimed miniature of Fíli.

Who is Fíli?

"Dwarf of Thorin and Company.

In the year 2941 of the Third Age, Fíli joined the Quest of the Lonely Mountain, which eventually resulted in the slaying of Smaug the Dragon and the reclamation of the Dwarf-kingdom under the Mountain at Erebor.

Fíli was born in the year 2859, the son of Thorin Oakenshield's sister, Dís.

Fíli and his brother, Kíli, were so fiercely loyal to their uncle that both were slain while defending the dying Thorin in the Battle of the Five Armies."

Source of description: David Day, Tolkien, the Illustrated Encyclopaedia.



Tutorial

The skin painting method I followed is the exact same presented with Glóin (you can check it here).

V. Carefully pick the beard and hair strands. 

VI. Wash the entire part of the hairs, trying to get an even and yet not pooled covering.

VII. For this step I've picked the more prominent hairs individually, rather than drybrushing it.

VIII. Just a plain normal basecoat over the entire upper cloth and boots.

IX. Basecoat the cloth details and belts.

X. Highlight the areas of the previous step as well as the rest of the cloth.

XI. Shade with glazing effects with the black (achieved by a wash thinned with medium) and weathering with the brown.

XII. Basecoat the leather parts (quiver included).

XIII. For the highlights of the leather I decided to try a little wet blending (I'm currently trying to get better with that technique).

XIV. The furs were done with a very careful drybrush, followed by an edge highlight on the most prominent parts.

XV. A normal basecoat over all the metallic parts (don't forget the belt buckles).

XVI. Highlight on the areas of the previous step (on a smaller area). The rings of the hair, beard and moustache were also painted in this step (and highlighted later).

XVII. Final highlights on the metallic parts.

XVIII. The golden parts (not forgetting the small dagger on Fíli's arm). You can give it a final touch with a thinned sepia wash  (or even a flat brown, although the sepia will do better) to make it a bit more distinct. 

Showcase

And here's Fíli after basing the miniature! Ready to defend Thorin!

And that's all for now my friends!

The next tutorials will be focused on Kíli and Bifur!

I really hope you find this tutorial useful!

Until next time! Keep on Painting and Wargaming!

Namárië!