How do you paint dry elephant skin on a miniature?

Build the skin texture with long, straight, smooth strokes of light grey, layered over the darker skin. Then drybrush with light grey to catch the raised detail and add a dusty finish. Keep the darker colour visible between the pale marks so the texture remains clear.

How do you paint ivory tusks?

Start with a light cream such as Ushabti Bone, then add long, thin, parallel strokes of a rich dark brown such as Rhinox Hide. Stipple with off white and dark brown to vary the surface. Leave some cream visible between the darker lines and small stippled marks.

How do you highlight the war elephant's cloth canopy?

Pick out the raised details with a lighter version of the canopy colour. Repeat with progressively lighter colours and thinner strokes, leaving part of each earlier highlight visible. Concentrate the palest colour along the edge. The video shows the brush contacting and following the outer canopy rim.

What colours are used for the decking and ropes?

The decking recipe uses a dark brown base, a brown wash and a lighter cream brown drybrush. The ropes use a strong cream such as Zandri Dust, a sepia wash and a light cream such as Wraithbone. The named colours are examples supplied with the painting recipe.

Does the video show how the elephant's base was built?

The video shows the completed base with basing bits, tufts and texture paste, together with the painted elephant and crew. The base construction was not filmed in this session. This article explains the seven painting steps and uses the finished base as a gallery example.

Painting tutorials Models

Painting the Kabiliat Aljanubi War Elephant, step by step

Paint dry elephant skin with layered grey strokes, build ivory texture on the tusks and highlight the cloth canopy. Follow seven steps for this 10mm Wakes Emporium war elephant, with our painting video, close-up stills and the decking and rope recipes.

By Scale Command

10 November 2026Updated 11 November 20265 min read10mm

Paint a war elephant: the finished 10mm Kabiliat Aljanubi War Elephant with its red canopy, ivory tusks and complete base

The Kabiliat Aljanubi War Elephant has broad areas of skin beside fine ropes, curved tusks and a cloth canopy. This 10mm painting guide uses a different brush mark for each surface: long grey strokes for dry skin, fine brown lines and stippling for ivory, and narrow highlights along the canopy edges.

Follow the seven steps from our painting video below. The close-ups come from the same painting session, so you can stop at a step and compare the brushwork with the finished model.

Watch the painting video

The video opens and closes on the finished elephant, with the arrows visible along its side. Pause the step captions whenever you need the recipe.

Model: Kabiliat Aljanubi War Elephant
Maker: Wakes Emporium
Scale: 10mm
Focus: Skin, tusks, canopy, decking and ropes

Colours and brushes

Colours in the recipe

Layered light greys for the skin texture and drybrush.
A light cream for the tusks, such as Ushabti Bone.
A rich dark brown for the tusk lines, such as Rhinox Hide.
Off white and dark brown for stippling the ivory.
The canopy's base colour and progressively lighter versions for the raised edges.
Dark brown, a brown wash and a lighter cream brown for the decking.
A strong cream such as Zandri Dust, a sepia wash and a light cream such as Wraithbone for the ropes.

The named colours are examples from the painting recipe, rather than a confirmed list of the pots used on camera. They are from the Citadel Colour range; you can use similar colours from your own paints.

Brushes for these techniques

A pointed brush suits the long skin strokes, tusk lines, ropes and canopy edges. Use a drybrush for the dusty skin finish and a brush tip for the stippling.

This guide covers the surface textures and details shown in the painting video. The finished model below is a reference for how those marks look together.

Paint the war elephant in seven steps

Step 1: Freehand the skin texture

Build the dry skin texture with long, straight, smooth strokes of light grey. Layer the strokes rather than covering the skin with one flat light colour. The darker areas between them give the pale lines something to stand against.

Use the close-up of the upright foreleg as a guide to the individual marks. Work across the larger skin areas a stroke at a time, keeping the lines clear enough to read beside the sculpted wrinkles.

Step 1: long light grey strokes build up the skin texture. Still from the painting footage.
Step 2: Drybrush the details

Drybrush with a light grey to give the skin a dusty, more natural finish. Keep the elephant supported while you work so the brush can move across the raised detail without the model rocking around.

Use this pass to catch the sculpted texture around the freehand lines. Keep enough of the darker skin visible between the lighter marks for the two layers of texture to remain distinct.

Step 2: light grey drybrushing adds the dusty finish over the skin detail.
Step 3: Paint the tusks

Start from a light cream, such as Ushabti Bone. Paint long, thin, parallel strokes over it with a rich dark brown, such as Rhinox Hide. Leave cream visible between the lines so the tusk keeps its pale ivory colour.

Follow the length of the tusk with the strokes. The contrast between the cream ground and the narrow brown marks creates the first layer of the ivory texture.

Step 3: long brown lines over a cream ground begin the ivory effect.
Step 4: Stipple with off white and dark brown

Add stippled marks with off white and dark brown. Touch the brush tip to the surface in small dabs rather than dragging another long line. These light and dark marks break up the more regular strokes from Step 3.

Keep both colours visible against the cream. The combination of linear marks and stippling gives the ivory a more varied surface.

Step 4: the textured ivory, with the brush lifted away. Use off white and dark brown for the stippling recipe.
Step 5: Edge highlight the canopy

Once the cloth canopy has its base colour, pick out the raised details with a lighter colour. Repeat with progressively lighter colours, making each new stroke thinner than the one beneath it.

Keep the strongest light colour along the edge, with the broader earlier highlight still showing beside it. This is the soft, light-through-cloth effect described in the painting recipe. The close-up in the video shows the brush meeting the outer canopy rim and following its curve before lifting away.

Step 5: the brush meets the canopy's outer rim. The video keeps the following detail shot under the same step.
Step 6: Basecoat the decking

Use a dark brown to basecoat the wooden decking. Follow it with a brown wash, then drybrush with a lighter cream brown colour.

The dark base, wash and pale drybrush separate the timber from the red cloth and grey skin around it. The video shows the brushwork on the decking; the wash and later drybrush are part of the written recipe and are not shown as separate stages.

Step 6: dark brown starts the decking recipe, followed by a brown wash and cream brown drybrush.
Step 7: Paint the ropes

Pick out the hemp rope coils with a strong cream colour, such as Zandri Dust. Wash with sepia, then drybrush with a light cream colour, such as Wraithbone.

Keep the cream on the coils so the rope remains distinct from the timber beneath it. The written recipe includes the wash and final drybrush even though the short video concentrates on the brush picking out the rope detail.

Step 7: cream rope coils stand out against the darker wooden supports.

Quick paint recipe

Kabiliat Aljanubi War Elephant

10mm painting reference

Skin: Layer long light grey strokes, then drybrush light grey.
Ivory: Light cream; thin dark brown parallel strokes; off white and dark brown stippling.
Canopy: Base colour; progressively lighter, thinner edge highlights.
Decking: Dark brown; brown wash; light cream brown drybrush.
Ropes: Strong cream; sepia wash; light cream drybrush.

The finished elephant and base

The finished model brings the painted elephant together with its crew, basing bits, tufts and texture paste. The crew are kept separate during painting, with the video showing the last crew member being placed down before the finished-model turn.

The base is shown as a completed result. Its construction was not filmed in this session. For a separate guide to ground texture and tufts, see how to base miniatures.

Finished Kabiliat Aljanubi War Elephant with red canopy, ivory tusks, arrows along its side, crew and a textured grassy base — The finished painted example, using the selected product image. The skin strokes, ivory texture and canopy edges remain visible together.

Another angle of the finished war elephant and its base from the closing turntable footage — A second view from the finished-model turntable footage.

Paint your own Kabiliat Aljanubi War Elephant Find the Wakes Emporium model used in this guide.

View the war elephant

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Questions and answers

How do you paint dry elephant skin on a miniature?: Build the skin texture with long, straight, smooth strokes of light grey, layered over the darker skin. Then drybrush with light grey to catch the raised detail and add a dusty finish. Keep the darker colour visible between the pale marks so the texture remains clear.
How do you paint ivory tusks?: Start with a light cream such as Ushabti Bone, then add long, thin, parallel strokes of a rich dark brown such as Rhinox Hide. Stipple with off white and dark brown to vary the surface. Leave some cream visible between the darker lines and small stippled marks.
How do you highlight the war elephant's cloth canopy?: Pick out the raised details with a lighter version of the canopy colour. Repeat with progressively lighter colours and thinner strokes, leaving part of each earlier highlight visible. Concentrate the palest colour along the edge. The video shows the brush contacting and following the outer canopy rim.
What colours are used for the decking and ropes?: The decking recipe uses a dark brown base, a brown wash and a lighter cream brown drybrush. The ropes use a strong cream such as Zandri Dust, a sepia wash and a light cream such as Wraithbone. The named colours are examples supplied with the painting recipe.
Does the video show how the elephant's base was built?: The video shows the completed base with basing bits, tufts and texture paste, together with the painted elephant and crew. The base construction was not filmed in this session. This article explains the seven painting steps and uses the finished base as a gallery example.