Azog the Defiler and Lackey

This week I finished up Azog on foot and Azog mounted on the White Warg, that I started last week. Other than that I started painting Yazneg, Azog's Lieutenant in the first of the Hobbit filmes.

Pict 187: Azog foot and mounted

Pict 188: Azog mounted

Pict 189: Azog mounted

Pict 190: Azog mounted

First up I present to you Azog mounted on the White Warg. Emphasis on white! Man I had to struggle to achive a whiteish tone that I was happy with for the warg. With other wargs and other colourations you can easily drybrush the thing and call it a day, but with white you have to be a little mor selective. The furcoat as it stands is not my best work and given enough time, I might produce something more realistic, but im all right with the way it stand now - he's ready to hit the tabletop, and that's what I want him for.

Pict 191: Azog on foot

Pict 192: Azog on foot

Pict 193: Azog on foot

Next up is the Defiler on foot giving me a chance to talk a little about painting the skin. I wanted the scars to stand out and thus washed with Reikland Fleshshade over a Rakarth Flesh base. After that I layered some more Rakath Flesh, Pallid Wych Flesh and Ulthuan Grey on the highest elevations such as the brow and the nose. I'm pleased with how the miniature looks from an arm's lengh but up close you tend to pick up the wierder, darker tones the Shade has left in some places. But nonetheless I'm pleased with the different whites I achived on the warg and Azog himself, resulting in a nice contrast.

Pict 194: Yazneg (WIP)

And lastly here's the work in progess for this week: Yazneg. Nothing to fancy yet - only the basecoats and washes. Befor I can continue on him I'll have to refresh my browntones since as of today my Rhinox Hide, Rakarth Flesh and Tallar Sand are all empty.

Thorin and Azog - Mortal Enemies

This week I continued the work on the Hunter Orc heroes but I got a little bit distracted with a certain young Dwarf prince.

Pict 182: Azog (WIP), Young Thorin

Pict 183: Young Thorin Oakenshield

Pict 184: Young Thorin Oakenshield

First up is said Dwarf Prince, the young Thorin Oakenshield. I don't think the sculpt is as great as the young Balin and young Dwalin, but it's still great. Since I took a bit of  a pause from painting at the beginning of the week I had some difficulties with his face - I'm still not quite satisfied with the eyes but I wont do them a fourth time. The comanding pose is a litte awkward, because usually you'd expect the miniature facing the enemy, but this Thorin doesn't even have to. The profile is vey similar to the other Thorins - obviously he can't take Orcrist but the ability to raise the strength of nearby Dwarves may change a combat phase. Especially when paired with Iron Hills Dwarves who will all go to strengh 5.

Pict 185: Azog (WIP)

Pict 186: Azog (WIP)

Once I finished Thorin, I had to get started on his foil - Azog the Defiler. I really like the miniature and think even tough it's made from finecast it still holds it's own against the ForgeWorld characters. Nevertheless I can't wait, what they have in store for us with the armoured version and the signal tower. Right now Azog is still quite WIP - the basecolours and the washes are on; next is the highlighting. I really want to do right by the sculpt - all those little details like the lines on the skin just wait to be picked out.

Next week I'll try to work on some more of the Hunter Orc herose to get them out of the way and start batchpainting the troops. But since I pre-ordered the new edition of 40k I might veer of the path...

Hunter Orc Heroes for the Hobbit SBG

This week I started work on my Hunter Orc Army for the Hobbit SBG. Since I finished the Iron Hills Dwarves I figured I could allow me to get started on this new project.

Pict 174: Hunter Orc Heroes

Pict 175: Narzug

Pict 176: Narzug

I started with Narzug, because I wanted to see how the whiteish war paint would look on him. I feared it would look to much like a Isengard Uruk-Hai, but with the stripes down his torso, I think it look all right. The bases are themed after Dol Guldur, because I really love scene in wich the White Council attacks Sauron and the Ringwraiths and I once I get them I want them to be able to mix and match with Azog's Hunters and Azog's Legion.

Pict 177: Fimbul

Pict 178: Fimbul

Pict 179: Fimbul on Fell Warg

Pict 180: Fimbul on Fell Warg

Pict 181: Fimbul on Fell Warg

The other Orc I painted this week is Fimbul. I really enjoyed painting the bone-like harness and his blade. The skin is lighter to the one I painted on Narzug - I mixed Steel Legion Drab into the Doombull Brown I used on Narzug. I really like painting the Heroes of a force because I can take my time mixing different tones. Depending on the time I have for normal Hunter Orcs, I might do so with them too, but usually the army has to be done for a specific date like a tournament...

Next will be the remaining Hunter Orc heroes Yazneg, Bolg and of course Azog. But we'll see what distracts me during the coming week.

600+ Points of Iron Hills Dwarfes all done!

This week, I wanted to focus on finishing some projects instead of starting a bunch of new ones like I did last week. To this end I finished my Iron Hills Dwarves for the Middle Earth SBG.

Pict 169: Iron Hills Banner Bearer

Pict 170: Iron Hills Banner Bearer

Pict 171: Iron Hills Banner Bearer

First up is the Iron Hills Banner Bearer. I doubt that he will see many battles, but it's a really nice model and it came with the Captain, a miniature I wanted to have. I had a little bit of a struggle again with the old Citadel gold paints - I'm thinking of getting the newer ones in hopes of a better mixture of pigment and medium. Other that that he painted up just like the rest of them.

Pict 172: Iron Hills Goat Rider Dismounts

Next up are the remaining dismounts for the Goat Rides. With these done I finally painted all of the Iron Hills Dwarves I currently own. With the Chariot up for sale and the  Dwaves with crossbows anounced at Warhammer Fest, I'm pretty sure that the army as it stands now will grow.

Pict 173: Iron Hills Army (600+ Points)

Lastly here is a picture of the Iron Hills Army so far. When adding up, the army clockes in at around 600 points - excluding the banner bearer for now because he doesn't really fit into the warbands. In tournament settings the effectivity highly depends on scenarios played, since it is really immobile. The main focus is the Ballista and it will mainly stay as far back as it can to get as many rounds of shooting as possible. The really mobile part of the force, the Goat Riders and Dáin, also have to stay back to protect the Ballista since they will die rather fast as a vanguard.
With this as a base I see several ways to develop the force. I might add that chariot and some more Goat Riders (maybe even the characters on goats?) and thus get a more mobile force. I could also go down the infantry road and just get more Dwarves - ideally with sword and shield or with crossbows. More Captains might be
We'll see what ForgeWorld releases and what I fancy then. First in line though might be the new 40k starter box

Itsy Bitsy (Phase) Spider

I started this week's paiting of with the last Goat Rider and then I focused (again) on more DnD monsters. Other than that I painted one more Schicksalspfade miniature and started work on so many projects that I had to take a step back, pack a few things back into their respective boxes and focus.

Pict 160: Phase Spider

Pict 161: Phase Spider

Pict 162: Phase Spider

Pict 163: Phase Spider

Pict 164: Bugbear

Pict 165: Bugbear

First are the mentioned monsters. The four pictures of the spiders show two Phase Sipders made by WizKids in their Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures line. As with the other miniatures from that line I painted during the last weeks there were some mold lines, but they were not that bad this time around - only the legs had to be scraped. Since the two spiders had the same pose, I cut one from the stoneslab they are sitting on and got her a nice log to drag around. The bugbear painted up rather nicely. I really enjoy the details in the face and am looking forward to painting the other bugbear (it's already in my table...).

Pict 166: Knight from Weiden

Pict 167: Knight from Weiden

Next up is the Schicksalspfade miniature I painted this week. The fully armoured Knight ment a lot of metals and thus he painted up rather quickly (no skin to paint!). I do look forward to getting to play the game sometime - I ordered some more miniatures to complete two warbands of six models and have four mercenaries to change up the lists a bit.

Pict 168: Iron Hills Goat Riders

And lastly here is the group shot of the Goat Riders I promised last week. Now that they are done the only Iron Hills Dwarfs missing right now are the dismounts and the banner bearer and they are coming along nicely! With the amazing chariot up for preorder this week the list of dwarfs that want to get painted might expand in the near future...

Focusing on Schicksalspfade but the Goats are not forgotten

So last week I didn't post an update since nothing really was done. Fortunately this week I got back into the swing of things and managed to paint quite a bit for the game Schicksalspfade. Other than that I finished three goats and with that only one Goatrider is missing the goat.

Pict 154: Garethian Explorer

Pict 155: Nostrian Mercenary

First up are the two heroes I painted or Schicksalspfade. The first one is an explorer from the realm of Gareth, the second a mercenary from the small kingdom of Nostria. I might still change a little bit with the explorer because right now there is almost no blue (the faction's colour) on him. Btu this way he looks good on any DnD table too. The mercenary was a joy to paint - her face really came out great!

Pict 156: Schicksalspfade Doors

Pict 157: Schicksalspfade Objective Markers

Secondly here are some more pieces for Schicksalspfade. The first picture are the doors that I showed some time ago as WIPs - they are now done, waiting to spruce up some dungeons. The objective markers are really nice as well. They are a bit more varied than I normally have them with Warhammer or the Hobbit SBG. The only nuissance was the gold colour on the coins. I hadn't used it in a while and thus the pigment and the medium had separated quite well...

Pict 158: Iron Hills Goat Rider

Pict 159: Iron Hills Goat Rider

And here is one of the finished Goatriders. Nothing really more to say on them - they are still amazing miniatures and I very much look forward to finishing the army. As soon as the army is complete I will make some nice pictures of the army but before that I will show the Goat Riders once they are all completet.

Finally: I bought a Behir do counter all the planned dragons in DnD. But since it is not yet fully assembled I wont show it just yet.

A Dwarf, Monsters, Animals and Schicksalspfade

This week was quite sucessfull with over ten miniatures painted or repainted. The main focus was the session of DnD I hosted on the saturday.

Pict 148: Male Dwarf Fighter (Barbarian)

Pict 149: Male Dwarf Fighter (Barbarian)

First up is a miniatrue for one of the heroes. One of my friends decided he wanted to play a dwarf barbarian and so I was on the lookout for a fitting miniature (Gimli as a stand-in is cool but not quite the same...). I imideatly liked the dwarven fighter by WizKids and with the agressive pose and the fur on his back he would be make for a nice barbarian. The moldlines were not as bad on this miniature as on some others in the WizKids unpainted line. The highlights on the blue cloth seem a bit harsh on the picture - in person they are more suttle.

Pict 150: Grells (Ral Partha) and Batswarm (Armalion)

Pict 151: Blood Hawk, Frog, Badger, Fox and Bat

Next up are some monsters and some animals I painted for the game. The monsters (two Grells by Ral Partha and a Batswam by Armalion) have not yet been pittet against the heroes. And the animals (a Blood Hawk from a Woodelf, a frog from the 5th edition Morgiana and the badger, fox and bat from WizKids) were also not needed, because the druid of the party is still learning the ropes and not quite ready to transform. Nonetheless now there are more options! The batswarm is mounted on a 40mm base, so that I can use him with my Moria Goblins in games of Middle Earth SBG.

Pict 152: Schicksalspfade Heroes

Pict 153: Schicksalspfade Heroes

And lastly I present you with four heroes for the game Schicksalspfade. I use them as heroes in the DnD game since I painted them some time ago when Schicksalspfade was released. I decided to rework them - new resinbase, eyes and better shading - now that they are in use. Getting the miniatures of their original bases was quite hard with the ones that have robes to the ground, beacuse the miniatures have a large bit of metal to keep them upright without pinning. I bought pretty much all of the rules availiable for Schicksalspfade and I hope to use the miniatures for their intended game once the opportunity strikes!