Painting Poorly: A Song of Ice & Fire - Roose Bolton, Lord of the Dreadfort

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by CMON Games

"That Man Scares Me..."

What can I say about Roose Bolton except for #&^%! that guy!  He is a traitorous buttface, and to misquote Jack Sparrow, the deepest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers.

That said, today, we're going to be taking a look at the Leech Lord himself.


While he is not from the Stark vs. Lannister starter set, Lord Bolton is a commander that you can get from the Neutral Heroes expansion box, which comes with a Neutral Faction Tactics Deck, so you can even run a whole Neutral Army if you like, and are just a HORRIBLE PERSON.

Anyway, let's jump in.

1. Gameplan, Prep, and Prime

Okay, so I know Roose Bolton from the HBO series is VERY different from Roose Bolton of the books, but I just can't help it.  All I think when I think of that traitorous bastard is this:


I know.  I know.  There's no pink anywhere on him, but I PERSONALLY think the pink looks kind of ridiculous.  I know it's supposed to emulate the look of a skinless man, but it just looks like Hello, Kitty time to me, but if pink floats your boat, who am I to judge?

That said, I'm going to be trying my best to emulate the coloring of the above picture.


I've chosen Basic Skin Tone, Chocolate Brown, Flat Earth, and Gunmetal Grey by Vallejo.  I've also got Plate Mail Metal by The Army Painter.  You'll also notice my black and white from the craft store for us to make our 50/50 black/white mix.


Even though this mini is predominantly dark in its appearance, I'm still going to be using The Army Painter's Matt White spray on primer because a white base helps accentuate the highlights, and I'm cheap and I already have white primer.

2. Basecoats

So, the first thing we're going to be starting with is the cloak and tabard, and remember, we want to thin everything with an equal amount of water.


This is our standard 50/50 black/white mix.  Paint the cloak, the tabard, the belts, and the leather straps that run down from the belts to the rings at the base of his kilt.  Don't worry if you get any on his arms, as we're going to be covering that all up with gunmetal grey next.


For the gunmetal grey, we're actually not going to be thinning the paint too much with water.  If you use equal parts of water, it will lose that blackened steel look that we want, so really just use a TEENY TINY amount, and apply it to the armor.

This includes his chainmail, the platemail shoulders through the arms, and his boots.  While you're at it, also make sure that you paint the hilt of the sword.


Now, you'll want to paint Lord Bolton's face with your basic skin tone.  Nothing too fancy here, just try to stay off of his hair.

At this point, you can also paint his collar and skirt/tunic with the chocolate brown.  Don't be afraid to use your detail brush as the space is limited.  You can also paint his hair with this color, as I did so below:


When you're done with that, take your flat earth, or standard brown, and paint the handle of his sword, dagger, and the sheath of the dagger, again using your detail brush.


The last thing you'll want to do is use your plate mail metal to paint the remaining metallic parts.  This includes the blade of the sword, the pommel and hilt on the dagger, the metal portions of the dagger's sheath, and the metal rings at the base.  Once that's all finished, you're ready to shading.

3. Shading

We're going to be using three different washes for Roose, but not necessarily where you think they'd go...


Flesh Wash, Dark Tone, and Strong Tone, all by The Army Painter.  We're going to start off with flesh wash.


A little bit applied to the face is all you need to darken the eye sockets and mouth.


Now, you'll want to apply dark tone to the sword, dagger, the tabard, and the brown portions of the skirt and collar, including leather straps and rings.


The final bit of shading will be with the strong tone, and you'll apply that to the cloak and his armor, including his boots.  This provides a slight brownish tint to the blackened armor and gives the mini a little color variation.  Once all of that's dry, it's time for highlights!

4. Highlights and Finishing Touches

Okay, so since there's not much contrasting color on Lord Bolton, we're going to really focus on bringing out some of the highlights.


First, start on the face.  Using your basic skin tone, highlight the forehead, nose, cheekbones, and the tip of the chin.  Try to avoid any areas that have been darkened by the flesh wash.


Next, you'll want to take your 50/50 black/white mix and add just a TEENY bit of white into it, to lighten it just a tad, and you'll apply that highlight to the top of the hair, creating a darkened gray look, which will help age Roose.


Using that same mix, you'll also paint the folds of the tabard.  These should go from the belt all the way to the bottom of tabard, and remember, just paint the areas that billow outward.  You can also take the time to paint his eyebrows with this mix as well, as described in my Greatjon Umber tutorial.


Now, add ANOTHER small drop of white to your mix, and only paint the top third of what you've already highlighted on the tabard.  This second dimension of highlight really makes the tabard pop as opposed to simply looking like a black blob.


Now, you'll flip the mini over and repeat the exact same process, but for the cloak.  Making sure that you highlight each fold of the cloak, and then us a SLIGHTLY lighter shade to add a second layer of highlighting, as seen above.


The last thing you'll want to highlight is the brown skirt, the sword handle, and the dagger.  Start off with your flat earth, and just hit the outermost portions of the dagger and sword handle on Roose's right side, along with tracing a small line on each raised line of the brown skirt.

Now, to add a second layer, add a TEENY TINY amount of tan to the mix, but if you don't have that, you can use white.  Mix that together and like you did for the cloak and tabard, apply that to just the top third of what you've already added highlights to.

5. Spread Fear in the North!


That's it!  Hit him with your matt spray, base him, and the Lord of the Dreadfort is ready to flay some men!

Like always, you can find all of my tutorials on my blog here, and if you found this tutorial helpful, please consider becoming a Patron.  It's only $1 a month, and every dollar brings me closer to bringing you quality ad-free content on a weekly basis.

Remember to check back here and at MeepleGamers as we continue to paint our way through the world of Westeros!

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