Painting commission animals

After the trolls and ogres, I decided on a final commission this year, and got these cutesy animals. I decided on experimenting. Some of them are Reaper minis, links included.

Riding horses

Of unknown provenance. 

Basecoat the black horse Black Legion.

Then coat the body Drakenhof Nightshade. It darkens it down, but the blue is not visible.

Highlight the body and hair with a 1:1 mix of Black and Cold Grey.

Basecoat the grey horse 2:1 diluted Black Legion. On the socks and face, feather out the ends.

Paint the hair Black Legion. Paint the face and socks Nuln Oil.

Stipple some dots on the neck and the back leg using Grey Seer, then highlight the muscles Cold Grey. The two colors barely differ, I should try some other shades next time. Highlight the face and socks Ghost Grey.

Paint the leather and metals.

For the saddlecloth, I decided on experimenting.

Basecoat the blue cloth Ultramarines Blue. Shade Coelia Greenshade.

Highlight with a 1:1 mix of Ultramarine Blue and Off White.

Coat the white cloth Pylar Glacier over white.

Highlight white.

Wolves

These Reaper wolves got the regular brown furred wolf treatment. Wet blend Gryph Charger Grey and Black Templar for the rock.

Bear

Of unknown provenance. Painted as a Kodiak bear.

Donkey

Inspired by my previous donkey paintjob, although the lack of fur texture on this Reaper donkey made it more of a challenge. Start with Garaghak's Sewer on the upper half.

Paint the hair Black Templar, then overall drybrush Stonewall Grey. At this point I realized the donkey isn't fur textured and it looks awful.

But nothing an overall coat of Ratling Grime can't fix! Includes the underside for that dirty brown look.

Finally paint the leathers (Light leather, Dark leather) and metals.

Stag

This, but the Bones version. I looked for photos of stags, and it turns out they're a dirty reddish brown. So the first layer is a diluted Gore Grunta Fur.

I painted the antlers Ratling Grime, then Nuln Oil across everything. Suitably dirty with reddish brows accents.

To darken the underside, I applied diluted Black Legion on the legs up to around half the thighs, and the belly, then feathered out. To lighten the back, I did a fine drybrush of Beasty Brown. Also drybrush the antlers Bonewhite.

Finally, bathe the model in Agrax Earthshade. This should darken down everything by a notch, and turn the body brown-ish instead of black-ish. Same with antlers. Paint the eyes, nose and hooves Black Legion.

Giant rats

Of unknown provenance. Start by painting the fur Ratling Grime.

I drybrushed them Stonewall Grey for some highlights along the back, but they got too bluey. Nuln Oil helped bring it back down.

Paint the nose and tail Volupus Pink, and the legs and ears Guilliman Flesh. Way too cheery and bright. Bathe in Agrax Earthshade! This includes the teeth. Afterwards, I painted the eyes Grey Seer, then Blood Angels Red.

These are the only models with a cast base, so I did cobblestones.

Finished!