writes:
I glazed the horse body with a grey color that wanted to sit in between the dapples, then layered on the dapples themselves using my off-white mix. At first, the dapples looked unrealistic. What helped me was focusing more on the negative space between the dapples. Thinking of the dapples as irregular tiles, with grout between. I built each dapple up, dabbing on successive layers of the off-white mix, cut with Future.
Mane
The mane was pretty straightforward. I was blending from VMC Dark Grey to my off-white mix, then highlighting up to pure white. I tackled one side of the mane, then the other; one side of the tail, then the other. Over a dry basecoat of Dark Grey, I painted a second coat of Dark Grey mixed with retarder, then striped on the off-white and blended the two together.
Saddle
I spent a long time debating the saddle, and chose in the end a really dark, rich leather.
- Basecoat:
- Black
- Layer:
- VMC German Camo Black Brown
- Layer and glaze:
- C Snakebite Leather
Note: The old Citadel Snakebite Leather is very translucent, which means it layers nicely over the Black Brown even though the two are very far apart in tone. To my eye, the combination gives a believable leather look. And the edges, a build-up of Snakebite Leather looks convincingly worn. You can see from the shine in the pictures that I used a lot of Future with these layers/glazes.
Head
The muzzle of the horse was painted a lot like the initial blend from black to off-white. After the blend was smooth, I could highlight the black muzzle with gray.
The ears are black inside, and off-white outside. The eyes are simply black, with light gray light reflection points.
I tried painting the teeth in grays rather than browns, since I figured an Elven horse may have better hygiene that a regular horse. The result looked phony, though, so I gave the teeth a glaze of Snakebite Leather and painted up through Bleached Bone to white. The tongue has a basecoat of VMC Flat Brown, and is highlighted by adding GW Tentacle Pink and GW Dwarf Flesh, and White. The pictures I found showed horses with very light gums and tongues, and that was my aim.
Hooves
Hooves were painted black, then layered with VMC German Camo Black Brown. The edges were highlighted with C Snakebite Leather and a touch of GW Fortress Grey.