How I paint - Kurnothi of the Wild Hunt - Wood Elves

I am a big fan of Aelves in Warhammer Underworlds. I also like to paint with a classic palette of colours for each race. The Kurnothi of Skaeth's Wild Hunt are by all accounts Wood Elves. If you are familiar with the lore of the World-That-Was, you may know that the Wood Elves would go to the Oak of Ages and bring forth Orion and his Wild Hunt. Orion was the embodiment of the elven hunter god, Kurnous, in Athel Loren. He was depicted as a giant of an elf with the legs and antlers of a great stag. Very much the original of the Kurnothi in my mind, and maybe a larger future release.

I wanted my Kurnothi to be painted in the olive greens and chestnut browns of the Wood Elves from the World-That-Was. Additionally, I have been experimenting with Contrast paints, particularly as washes over a base colour. So, this is my scheme. I must say when I painted these miniatures nearly a year ago, I did a lot of research on the internet and borrowed/stole ideas from all over the place. I did not note where I got the ideas from so, I cannot give anyone credit in a reference. For this, I am sorry.

 

How to paint Morgwaeth's Blade Coven - Daughters of Khaine

How to paint Skaeth's Wild Hunt - Wood Elves

How to paint Myari's Purifiers - Lumineth

Paints required: 

• Wraithbone spray
• Lahmian Medium
• Cadian Fleshtone
• Contrast Medium
• Gulliman Flesh
• Ushabti Bone
• Zamesi Desert
• Skeleton Horde
• Doombull Brown
• Gore-Grunta Fur
• Castellan Green
• Athonian Camoshade
• Skrag Brown
• Deathclaw Brown
• Wyldwood
• Deathworld Forest
• Loren Forest
• Straken Green
• Elysian Green
• Ogryn Camo
• XV-88
• Screaming Bell
• Reikland Fleshshade
• Abaddon Black
• Agrax Earthshae
• Tau Light Ochre
• Ungor Flesh
• Leadbelcher
• Rakarth Flesh
• Seraphim Sepia
• Coelia Greenshade
• Corax White
• Stormhost Silver
• Cassandora Yellow
• Hashut Copper
• Sycorax Bronze
• Skavenblight Dinge
• Dawnstone
• Black Templar
• White Scar (I prefer Army Painter Matt White now)
• Alaitoc Guard Blue
• Nuln Oil
• Screaming Skull

I began by sub assembling the miniature in three parts, the base, the quiver and the elf.

The elf and the quiver were both undercoated with Wraithbone spray. The base I undercoated with Chaos Black spray. I did this because I like the bases of my miniatures to be quite dark but I wanted the colours to be vibrant on the aelf. The quiver was left off the aelf's back so that I could reach more of the detail on the miniature.

A little tip. I put a small piece of blue tac in the hole on the back of the aelf to stop the spray entering this space. These push fit miniature are so well made that even a layer of spray stops the miniature joining together properly. I use blue tac because it is easily removed with another larger piece of blue tac.  Blue tac can also be used to cover the peg on the quiver. 

I began painting the miniature with the flesh. For me aelves should have pale flesh, but Wood Aelves are wilder and so I wanted a little more warmth in their flesh tone than I used for my Lumineth. I gave the flesh a basecoat with a 1:1 mix of Cadian Fleshtone and Lahmian Medium. This mix does not give a solid colour but serves as under-paint for the next step.

The flesh was then painted with a 1:1 mix of Gulliman Flesh and Contrast Medium. This serves as wash and enhances the colour from the previous step.

The flesh was then highlighted with Ushabti Bone thinned with Lahmian Medium. I prefer to thin my paints with Lahmian Medium as it does not change the properties of the paint as water can sometimes do. Occasionally I have notice that Ushabti Bone can become a little chalky with too much water. 

The hair was given a basecoat of Zamesi Desert.

The hair was then shaded with a a 1:1 mix of Skeleton Horde and Contrast Medium. With Contrast paints make sure you use Constrast Medium to thin them down, and not water.

The hair was then highlighted with a 1:1 mix of Zamesi Desert and Ushabti Bone. I painted the individual hairs, as I think this looks neater but you could carefully drybrush the highlight. Additional Ushabti Bone could be added to the mix for a further highlight towards the tips of the hair.

The legs were given a basecoat of Doombull Brown. This is a layer paint and so did not cover well. The purpose of this paint was to give an under-paint for the next step. I want this paint to be the nice rich red-brown of the fur of Red Deer.

The legs were then painted with Gore-Grunta Fur. Due to the previous step, this Constrast paint gives a deep chestnut colour.

The padded armour was given a basecoat with Castellan Green. This was then followed with a wash of Athonian Camoshade.

When the legs were dry, I began by highlighting them with Skrag Brown. I did not want to over do this highlight as I was trying to keep the deep chestnut Brown from the previous step. As such, I kept the highlights to the definition in the lower leg and the individual locks of fur on the the thighs. Smaller highlights were then applied in a similar way with Deathclaw Brown. I was careful not to completely obscure the Skrag Brown highlights.

The tail was painted ina similar way to the legs. First of all it was base coated with Doombull Brown. To give it a different, darker tone to the legs, I then painted it with Wyldwood.

The coat tails of the armour were base coated with Deathworld Forest. Like the tail and the legs, I add variety to the miniature by changing the shades of greens and browns rather than adding a completely new colour.

The hair of the tail was highlighted first with Skrag Brown and then with Deathclaw Brown. You could drybruah these colours onto the tail hair, but I think it looks a lot better if you paint each hair individually. The whole hair was highlighted with Skrag Brown. Deathclaw Brown was applied more towards the ends of the hairs.

The padded green armour was highlighted first with Loren Green and then with Straken Green. I add a small amount of water to each paint to make them flow more easily. I found the Straken Green was a little light for more liking so, I gave the padded armour glaze with a 1:1 mix of Lahmian Medium and Athonian Camoshade. I often like to give sections of a miniature a glaze wash as it helps to 'knock back' and also blend the highlights together.

The coat tails of the miniature were washed with Athonian Camoshade before being highlighted first with Elysian Green and then with Ogryn Camo.

I wanted the leather armour on the miniature to be a light brown (if you remember back many, many years, I was after Snakebite leather).  The leather vambraces and straps were painted with XV-88.

Earlier, I stated I wanted my aelf painted in greens and browns, I also wanted the metallics on the miniature to match these colours. I did not want to use gold on the miniature. I like gold on more civilised aelves. I chose to use a bronze instead of gold, to provide a red-brown metal. The Wild Hunt emblem on the miniatures chest was basecoated with Screaming Bell and then carefully washed with Reikland Fleshshade.

The hooves of the miniature were painted Abaddon Black.

 

The leather was washed with Agrax Earthshade, I took care to make sure this wash did not pool. When the wash had full dried, I began highlighting the leather, first with Tau Light Ochre and then with Ungor Flesh. I mixed both of these highlight paints with Lahmian Medium to thin them down. I did this for two reasons: one to make them flow more easily and two to prevent the highlights appearing too stark. The lacing on the leather was picked out with Ushabti Bone.

The metal trim to the padded armour was then painted with Leadbelcher (although recently I have discovered Iron Hands Steel, a lighter shade of silver, I might use this in future for any more wood elves).

The AoS faction card for these miniatures gives them the keyword Sylvaneth. Ylthari's Guardians are my favourite Underworlds warband, even though they have not stood the test of time. I mention this because I wanted a way to tie this warband to my Guardians. I decided to paint the wooden weapons of the Wild Hunt in the same way I paint the flesh of my Sylvaneth.

The bow was given a basecoat with Rakarth Flesh. This was then washed with Seraphim Sepia.

I have already stated that I wanted the metal on the miniature to fit with my green and brown colour scheme. The bronze is the red-browns, so the Leadbelcher, was given a wash with Coelia Greenshade, to give it a green tinge.

The bow was highlighted with Ushabti Bone.

The 'silver' metal was highlighted with Stormhost Silver.

In keeping with the feral nature of these aelves and the idea they come from the Realm of Beasts, I wanted their gems to be made of amber. The jewels and gemstones on the miniature were painted with Corax White. These were then given a wash with Cassandora Yellow. When this was dry, they were given a second wash with Seraphim Sepia.

The bronze chest emblem was highlighted with Hashut Copper and then with Sycorax Bronze.

The gems were highlighted with Screaming Skull. Remember, when highlighting gems, the highlight goes at the bottom of the gem. A spot of White Scar can be added to the top of the gem to indicate the reflection of light.

The hooves were highlighted with Skavenblight Dinge and then with Dawnstone. These highlights were applied by painting vertical lines from the bottom of the hoof towards the fur. The Skavenblight Dinge was applied to the bottom two-thirds of the hoof. The Dawnstone was applied to bottom third.

The eyes of the miniature were painted with Black Templar. The eyes were then painted in with White Scar (although I now use Army Painter Matt White, as it is a much smoother paint), taking care to leave some of the black surrounding each eye. The iris of each eye was then painting in with a dot of Alaitoc Guard Blue.

The beads in the miniatures hair were based with Castellan Green, before being highlighted with Loren Green and then Straken Green.

The main body of the miniature is now complete. I then moved onto the quiver. 

I began by painting the metal edging of the quiver, with the bronze 'recipes used earlier.  I based the bronze with Screaming Bell before washing it with Reikland Fleshwash. The bronze was then highlighted with Hashut Copper and the Sycorax Bronze.

The gem stones do the padding  were also painted using the 'recipes' described earlier.

Finally, the arrows fletchings were painted Corax White. The fletchings were then washed with Nuln Oil before being highlighted with White Scar. The arrow shafts were painted with Seraphim Sepia (it the Nuln Oil spills onto the shafts tidy them up with Rakarth Flesh before you apply the Seraphim Sepia). 

To finish, base the miniature as desired and attach the quiver. I have found it really helps to clip off a little bit of the peg.

I really enjoyed painting these miniatures and I am hoping with the release of Age of Sigmar 3.0 that they may make the Kurnothi into a fully playable faction. Until then I may just have to get some Wood Aelves for the Cities of Sigmar.

Let me know your thoughts below in the comments section. Happy hobbying.