4 simple steps to paint high contrast, weathered leather on your miniatures. Only basic equipment and skill level needed!
The main focus of this simple warhammer leather tutorial is building up contrast.
At the start of my miniature painting journey I saw a lot of content around painting your middle colour first, then adding shade an highlights after. This works great for some features but it can often leave the model looking bland and doesn’t really teach the right fundamentals that more advanced painters use.
I’ve deliberately chosen to start from the darkest colour and work up to the lightest. This will allow you to control the contrast and see it take shape, as well as give you much deeper contrast which will really make the model stand out on the table.
Basics before we get started:
Brushes
You’ll need 2 types of brush:
1) A regular miniature brush
A normal miniature brush with a fine tip. Look for a size 1 or 2 brush.
2) A small detail brush
Probably a size 0 or 00. This will really help when it comes to fine details, highlights, and getting into tight spots.
Paints
A wet pallet
I cannot emphasise this enough: water down your paints! I use a wet pallet – put a blob of paint on the pallet and mix in a couple drops of water with your brush until you find a consistency that runs off the brush easily without pooling.
If you don’t already have one, you can make a simple wet pallet by getting a tupaware box, putting a wet paper towel flat inside, then covering the wet paper towel with a sheet of baking paper. This is critical to be able to control the consistency of your paint and keep it from drying out.
List of paints
- Rhinox Hide
- Dryad Bark
- Mournfang Brown
- Skrag Brown
- Deathclaw Brown
Note: I used Citadel paints for this tutorial, but there are some great alternatives for miniature painting!
I also do not use an airbrush. This tutorial is airbrush free!
Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate
Step 1: Base coat
Colours: Rhinox Hide, Dryad Bark
Coat all the leather areas in Rhinox Hide, Then add a thin layer of Dryad Bark on top, painting in the direction you want to build up colour, such as the edges and raised areas.
Remember to water down your paints! These layers need to be thin. Two thin coats are always better than one thick blob.
Step 2: Middle Tone
Colours: Mournfang Brown
Add a layer of your middle brown. Start from the most raised areas and edges, then work outwards. Small diagonal strokes like you’re sketching work best here.
Step 3: Highlights
Colour: Skrag Brown
Now add a light brown in the same way. You’ll find that you keep much tighter to the edges and areas you want to look raised.
Step 4: Edge Highlight & Weathering
Colours: Deathclaw Brown
With your lightest colour, a simple edge highlight will lock all the colours together and give you your full colour spectrum.
The last step is to get a brush with a very fine tip, and carefully draw some thin lines across the leather to imitate scratches and weathering.
I hope you found this warhammer leather tutorial useful! Please feel welcome to share your finished models with me on Instagram @the_hobbyhobbit
Download warhammer leather tutorial pdf:
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