Do you mean painting the actual face, or adding detail to it like teeth, eyes, mustache, etc...
If you mean the actual face, try watered down flesh in layers. If you mean all the other details then I can't really help you, because I don't really paint that stuff...

I just paint the colors of the eyes, rather than try to put the whites in as well. I find that putting the whites in makes everyone look a bit like Gollum; and at distances where people look as small as minis, I can't really see the whites anyway.

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I always paint the face with dwarf flesh, then wash it with either gryphin sypia or devlin mud. and finally highlight of elf flesh

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Some gw links:

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2570007_PaintingFacesMasterclass.pdf
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m820035a_Painting_Faces_Redux.pdf

Feathering ([url]http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1273-feathering[/url)] is also a method but I haven't try it yet

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I am terrible with painting faces so I just stick to flesh color, facial hair color, a slightly darker flesh color shade for the eye sockets and any other facial recesses then sepia wash on the whole face. I am content with my simple method. I did read somewhere that for plastic figures, some people poke a hole in the eye using a needle to add more dept before painting. Good luck.

Jscottbowman has a very good guide over on his blog: http://scottswargaming.blogspot.com/p/how-i-paint-figures.html

It's very good, but quite time-consuming, so I only do it with heroes.

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The trick to painting faces is to look at real faces of people (not that I recommend staring at people in public - watch a movie instead) . Look at how the light falls on the forehead, cheekbones and nose and the different colours of the skin. Maybe find a image from the lotr movies of the model you are painting and try to recreate the appearance. The technique of putting paint onto the model will come with experience and practice but if you experiment with colours and light you can still paint interesting looking models.

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All good suggestions. Just remember to treat the face like any other "fabric" on the mini. And that LoTR models are smaller than the standard GW models. So looking at tutorials they'll have to be slightly scaled down in your head. Sometimes steps have to be ignored or altered.

-Block in the skin in the basecoat/skintone of your desire
-Do a midtone highlight
-Do a hightone highlight

Some take the basecoat and mix a lighter color in to get the transitions as opposed to actually getting a new paint. As in: Dwarf basecoat, Bronze midlayer, Elf final layer, most will take the Dwarf flesh and mix in bleach bone to get the transition of the paint to their desire. Depending on what you are after you might even add a dark color to the basecoat (Choas Black and Dwarf) and then use the original basecoat (Dwarf flesh) as your midtone/layer and then add in Bleach Bone to the original basecoat (Dwarf flesh) as a final highlight.

As to the eyes. I've noticed that most GW LoTR models have noticeable protruding eyelids, gives them a squinting look, that will catch the brush before the brush can contact the iris of the eye. Resulting in the "Gollum" look. What I suggest is take a .005Micron pen and do a dark slash and leave it at that. Or use a 5/0 or a 00 (depending on the brand) brush and do the same with black paint. If you have your heart set on making eyes, then do a slash in ...white...(you'd have to use a brush) and then for the pupil do a vertical slash from eyebrow to lower eyelid...then repaint the face/skin where the vertical slash is. A trick to doing the eyes is to do one side that is easiest/comfortable for you (depending on which is your dominate hand) and then flip and rotate the model to do the opposite eye. The model will be "upside-down." Then take a water down purple wash and lightly apply it to the lower part of the lower eyelid and streak it to and down 1/2 the nose. Gives it a warm shade and bolsters the eyes.

Lastly 2 things...most mini's are observed from a arms length away. If it looks good viewed from your outstretched arm, kudo's!! and lastly: practice-practice-practice. Use a mini that you can practice on constantly (practice-strip-rinse-repeat-) and it'll become 2nd-nature. I have a Rohirrim model that I don't even prime...I just base and go from there.

Hope that helps at least a little -

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Hmmm, do eyes maketh the miniature ??

I have tried a number of times to paint eyes and it never looks quite right, reason being is that a scaled down pupil/iris is virtually invisible on a 28mm mini, so I just give the face a basecoat, dark wash, highlight chin, forehead, cheeks and leave the eyes as dark recesses, looks fine to me and certainly at 3 feet.

oh and not forgetting that for those of us trying to paint 100s/1000s minis there is a time factor here !!!