Butcher's Cauldron - Mournfang Calvary Painting Tutorial.

It's time for the return of the Butcher's Cauldron! In today's article Stronghold member dreadboi shares with us a brief tutorial on how to paint the Ogre Kingdoms Mournfang Calvary. Each step includes a brief description of what was done with a photo to accompany the work. Check it out!

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Things you will need (if you want to follow my step-by step without edits of your own):

• Paints (GW or your preferred equivalent)- Bleached Bone, Gryphonne Sepia, Dheneb Stone, Skull White, Codex Grey, Fortress Grey, Calthan Brown, Mithril Silver, Asurmen Blue, and Graveyard Earth.
• Washes (GW or your preferred equivalent) - Badab Black, Gryphonne Sepia, and Devlan Mud.
• Forgeworld Weathering Powders - Aged Rust, Light Rust, and Orange Rust.
• Brushes!
• An airbrush (or be prepared to do some blending of layers).
• Time and patience!

This tutorial is focused on the Mournfang itself. Painting the rider is much like painting any other Ogre of your tribe and is very much an individual experience! Now let's get started!

Undercoat

I first sprayed the model in black undercoat and dusted it in white using a white spray.

 Fur

I base coated the whole model with a Bleached Bone equivalent (I used Vallejo Model Air Sand). Once this dried, I washed the whole thing with Gryphonne Sepia in order to give it a nice warm shade to work with!

I then feathered some Dheneb Stone onto the skin areas increasing the contrast to the fur.

I also drybrushed the fur with Dheneb Stone then Skull White after that!At this point, the fur should be looking pretty good!

Underskin Areas

I simply base coated the underskin areas in Vallejo Dark sea grey (Codex Grey works here), washed with Badab Black, reapplied the base grey and then highlighted with Fortress Grey. If the contrast is too much after that, simply wash with Badab Black once again.

Strapping

Calthan Brown is your friend here! I very carefully painted all of the strapping and saddle Calthan Brown. It has a lovely rich brown color and covers very well. I then washed it with Devlan Mud and then reapplied Calthan Brown, leaving the darker shades in the recesses. Simple!

Horns

I masked off the Mournfang bodies with toilet paper and masking tape before breaking out the airbrush (for obvious reasons). I airbrushed the horns black and then slowly built up a brown color (I used Tank Brown VAC). Remember you want to leave the base of the horns more black than brown!

Using the VAC Sand color, I painted the tops and the tip of the horn in the lighter mix, making sure I feathered it in slowly. You don’t want dark colors right next to a lighter color with no transition!

After all the paint dried, I washed the horns with Devlan Mud... glorious Devlan Mud!

Metal

The metal starts off quite simply - apply a light silver color base coat (VAC Aluminum is what I used but Mithril Silver would work) to everywhere you want a steel/silver metal color.Wash it with Devlan Mud, .wait for that to dry, and then apply a slightly thinned Badab Black wash.

I used Forgeworld Weathering Powders for this next step (Aged Rust, Light Rust, Orange Rust). I find these give a very realistic rusty finish to your metals! Take the darkest rust color and mix it with water. It should be fairly thin, but not so runny it goes everywhere. It should look about the same consistency as what is pictured above. 

Apply the rust mixture to the metal in the places you would expect rust to build.

Using the next lightest rust color, mix it so it is slightly thicker than the last.

This is so you get a bit of all the different colors on the final model.

Finally, take the lightest rust color and make a practically dry mixture - apply this sparingly!

Once all the powder has dried, take a thin brush and some light silver paint (the same you used for the metal base coat) and add in some chips and details.Try to think about where the rust would naturally rub or flake off.

Mournfang Face

To give a contrast from the white fur, I glazed the face with Badab Black mixed with a touch of Asurmen Blue. This darkened the face and helped it stand out from the fur. Once this was dry, I highlighted back up with Dheneb Stone! The teeth are simply Graveyard Earth, Devlan Mud wash, with a Bleached Bone highlight. The eyes painted white with a black dot towards the front of the eye - careful you don’t want boss-eyed kitties! The tusks were done just like the horns, only I wanted more of a lighter tone on them, so I added more bone than darkness! The blood on the tusks is simply Tamiya Clear Red mixed with some brown and black washes. Use it sparingly though!

Basing

Paint the base Calthan Brown before gluing on some sand or basing material. Apply a heavy Devlan Mud wash to the sand. Drybrush with Dheneb Stone, and apply some static grass of your choice where you fancy it!

Voila! This should help you get a rather nice looking Mournfang unit on the table and into your enemies!

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Thanks to dreadboi for taking the time to put together this nice pictorial on painting a Mournfang Calvary! We hope this helps you get your big beasties out of the box and on to your painting table. Do you have some Mournfang painting tips or tricks of your own? Share them with us here in the comments!