Rohirrim Horses

Thermo · **Posted:** Sat Jan 26, 2013 3:40 pm

Any horse painting tips one ring team?

Also, any lore buffs remember what colour rohan's horses were mostly? I'm sure most were grey in the books but some help with that would be fab!

Rognarr · **Posted:** Sat Jan 26, 2013 3:47 pm

I'd definitely go for white for horses of the nobility, as they surely ride on mearas.
Still not sure about the grey horses and can't remember to have read that. I'd go for a veriety of brown tones, since that would look most natural. ofc you can add the one or another grey horse and Éomer ofc SHOULD HAVE a grey horse!

Monotone_Matt · **Posted:** Sat Jan 26, 2013 3:59 pm

Hey Thermo

Horses can be quite fun to paint but it helps if you have some reference material for markings and hoof colour. Giving horses random blazes and stockings really make them stick out and gives each one a personal touch.

I seem to remember that the Rohirrim mainly used grey horses but a quick search on the internet didn't deliver any proof. If you want grey horses, then just give them grey horses

Basically go for a three tone paint job - dark basecoat, mid-tone and light highlights.

For grey horses: basecoat with a very dark grey mixture (50-50 grey with black), then paint the mid-tone (essentially the grey you mixed to create the basecoat) over the whole horse except for recesses. If you're not sure where the recesses are, use a wash on the horse after applying the basecoat, that should give you a stronger contrast. One the mid-tone has dried, use the highlighting colour (a lighter grey) to pick out the muscles and the highest parts of the horse. Alternatively, you could drybrush the highlight colour on too, that might work. Replace the grey with brown/light brown for other colour variations

Hope that helps!

Monotone_Matt · **Posted:** Sat Jan 26, 2013 4:16 pm

Found this for you, I used this when I started off painting cavalry... the original site doesn't seem to be working so you might have to log on with a google account!

Edit: If that doesn't work, I've copy-pasted the most important part:

Basecoat the horse with an "appropriate colour", possibly give it a
wash of ink and highlight it with "yet more appropriate colours".
Quite vague instructions, huh? Well, the colours of the horses vary a
lot while the riders have more or less similar outfits. Some colour
schemes you might want to use are (note that all inks should be
thinned):

Bestial Brown - Vermin Brown - Snakebite Leather (the GW guide).
Scorched Brown - Black Ink - Scorched Brown for very dark brown
horses. Substitute Codex Grey for dark grey horses. You may also
leave it as it is after the ink wash as in the picture above.
Chaos Black - Scorched Brown - Bestial Brown for dark brown horses.
Chaos Black - Scorched Brown - Dark Flesh for dark reddish brown
horses. See picture below.
Scorched Brown - Dark Flesh - Vermin Brown for brown horses.
Scorched Brown - Bestial Brown - Snakebite Leather also makes
brown horses.
Bubonic Brown - Bleached Bone - Bleached Bone/Skull White mix for
light brown horses.

Thermo · **Posted:** Sat Jan 26, 2013 4:54 pm

Great guides and tips as always Matt! I'll let you know how I get on... I'll have to put little credits on the bottoms of the bases of my models, "with thanks to..."

Rognarr · **Posted:** Tue Feb 26, 2013 3:43 pm

Hey Thermo, you had any success with the research concerning grey horses? You maybe even found the page in the book?

Thermo · **Posted:** Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:48 am

Rognarr wrote:

Hey Thermo, you had any success with the research concerning grey horses? You maybe even found the page in the book?

Not yet buddy but will keep looking!

Thermo · **Posted:** Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:45 am

Rognarr wrote:

Hey Thermo, you had any success with the research concerning grey horses? You maybe even found the page in the book?

Reading it from my kindle so unsure of page number but found first reference to grey horses when the three hunters meet Eomer and company when tracking the Uruk- hai.

"Their horses were of great stature, strong and clean limbed; their grey coats glistened, their long tails flowed in the wind, their manes were braided on their proud necks."

Angularity · **Joined:** Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:56 am **Posts:** 157

Living near to the home of English horseracing as I do, I have recently been lectured about how there is no such thing as a white horse, only 'grey'. No such thing as a brown horse, only 'chestnut' or 'bay'. No such thing as a black horse, only 'dark bay'. Horsey people can be very odd, but I've assumed that Tolkien lived in an age when everyone knew what colour horses were, and so I've painted most of my Rohan horses white.

Thermo · **Posted:** Tue Mar 26, 2013 4:06 pm

Indeedy, most of mine will be grey or white, with the odd bay or chestnut to break things up. No black though, they are rare in Rohan as orcs were sent to steal them for Mordor...

Rognarr · **Posted:** Tue Mar 26, 2013 7:44 pm

Great find Thermo!
Damn.. that means I'll have to paint most of my new horsies grey as I so far mostly used different shades of brown and only very few grey (Eomer) or white (Gandalf, Theoden, Erkenbrand) horses...
Then again I'm pretty sure it doesnt hurt to have some variations in colour..
Would look pretty boring if all were grey I guess ^^

Azog · **Posted:** Tue Mar 26, 2013 8:07 pm

Many years ago I found some horse articles on the Internet and saved them for future use.

http://www.azog.co.uk/oldazog/ORImages/Horses.htm

The PDf below is an article from a painting site called Ellsweb.com now long gone

Quote:

This article is based on a painting guide we found whilst surfing about the internet, and we though it was so good we’d make sure everyone saw it. It’s one of many painting and modelling articles on Elliott’s site (http://www.ellsweb.com), which is well worth a visit next time you’re on-line.

To demonstrate the results of these instructions we got our own
Mr Roach to wield his brushes and give us an example of each, painted as per the instructions. Anyway, without further ado, over to Elliott:

http://www.azog.co.uk/oldazog/ORImages/horses.pdf

Here are some horses that I painted up using some of the techniques from the articles.

I found that inks really helped with some of these.

Thermo · **Posted:** Wed Mar 27, 2013 12:23 pm

Rognarr wrote:

Great find Thermo!
Damn.. that means I'll have to paint most of my new horsies grey as I so far mostly used different shades of brown and only very few grey (Eomer) or white (Gandalf, Theoden, Erkenbrand) horses...
Then again I'm pretty sure it doesnt hurt to have some variations in colour..
Would look pretty boring if all were grey I guess ^^

Exactamundo! Variation wins all day long but I'm with you, will be throwing in more grey and white now I've read that! I knew I'd heard it somewhere!

Good horse articles Azog, thanks mate!

Delirivm · **Posted:** Thu Mar 28, 2013 1:54 pm

I've painted most of my horses in different shades of brown six years ago.
I think I've now got 13 brownish horses and 5 grey/white/black horses.
Bright side: I've still got 18 unpainted horses! ^^
It's nice to not only get advice on how to paint them (technique) but to also get advice on which colours would suit them the best.

Rohirrim Horses

Who is online