Dol Guldur Diorama - finished!

This week was slow again - the real life seems to take over these last few ones... But at least I managed to work on Galadriel, Lady of Light.

Pict 429: Dol Guldur Diorama

Pict 430: Galadriel, Lady of Light

Pict 431: Galadriel, Lady of Light

I find her to be the weakest of the scuplts from the Vanquishers of the Necromancer set and thus postponed her from week to week. On top of that I had my difficulties with the dress - for one thing it's not all to clear what is flash or residue of the casting process, for anonther I was not to fond of the swamp-like design of the scene in the movie. I finally decided to go for a more colourful aproach with blue and green layers to her clothes. It's inspired by the colours in the scene but not as dark.

Pict 432: Dol Guldur Diorama

Pict 433: Dol Guldur Diorama

As you can see in the first picture, with Galadriel finished, I completed another of my new years pledges: The Dol Guldur Dioama. I'm quite happy to have it done and it will shurely stay on my shelf of the forseeable future. To stay within the scene of the movie, I had Radagast on his sleigh prepared and partly painted for some time. But after painting the Necromancer, I will have to paint the Dol Guldur Nazgul as well. But that will have to wait a bit - at least coming week I will probably wont have any time to paint.

Malbeth the Seer and Arvedui, Last King of Arnor

This week I can only show two completed miniatures but with those I finished I managed to paint all the Arnor models I own currently.

Pict 424: Malbeth the Seer and King Arvedui

Pict 425: Arvedui, Last King of Arnor

Pict 426: Arvedui, Last King of Arnor

First up is Arvedui. I really like the Arthurian feel this miniature has with the beard and the bowl cut hair. I chose the colours to match my Arnor Warriors. For a short time he looked a bit like Santa Claus but I hope that impression is gone after I painted the fur trimmings a dark grey.

Pict 427: Malbeth the Seer

Pict 428: Malbeth the Seer

And here is Malbeth the Seer - at first I wanted to paint the robes a dark red (seems to be one of my favourite colours) but that would have made him to similar to Elrond. But I do have to say the miniature would also make for a good Círdan, since the GW Círdan has no beard.

Other than those two I didn't have to much time this week, but I managed to play around with green and brown putty. I look forward to doing some sculpting in the coming weeks even if it only is to fill in some gaps.

Mean Mind Flayers and Happy Hobbits, and another Dark Lord

I managed to get along with last weeks pojects rather quickly so that I had time to sneak in a little bit more progress.

Pict 417: Hobbit Archers

First up are the colourfull Hobbit Archers. The basic colours were almost done when I showed them last week, and after I completed that stage, they had a wash of Agrax Earthshade all over them. Once the wash dried, the highlights went really fast, since the Hobbits are rather small miniatures. Since I completed all the miniatures for the Arnor Battle Company, I went ahead and varnished them all. I usually skip this step, since I don't play that much. But even with the little handling they had to endure, I had to patch them up.

Pict 418: Illithid

Pict 419: Illithid

And here are the finished Illithid from last week. That Mage is somewhat tricky to photograph, but I hope this one is a bit better than the previous. Other than that I'm happy with how they turned out - I can't wait the get them to feed on some hero brains.

Pict 420: Sauron, the Necromancer of Dol Guldur

Pict 421: Sauron, the Necromancer of Dol Guldur

After finishing all of these miniatures, I highlighted Sauron the Necormancer of Dol Guldur. The black cloth / smoke looks fine enough - had I been braver, I had tried to do a blend from yellow to red to black starting at the armour. Like this he was ready faster to chill the souls of some enemy warriors. The base fits in with my other Dol Guldur miniatures even if it looks a bit blad.

Pict 422: Malbeth and Arvedui (WIP)

Lastly here are some work in progress pictures of the projects I'll be working on next. The conclusion of the Arnor warband are these two heroes - Malbeth the Seer and the last king Arvedui. I'm considering to expand the company into an army but for now these should be enough.

Pict 423: Gnoll Warrior (WIP)

And here is what will be the conclusion to the Illithid Raiding Party: a lowly Gnoll Warrior. As last week, I hope to get on with these projects early next week, so I can work one some more things.

The Illithid! (and a few Hobbits, all WIP)

This week was slower than the last one again and I didn't finish any miniatures. Instead of completing projects, I started new ones again.

Pict 415: Illithid (WIP)

These two creepy tentacle-humanoids will add to my D&D monsters once they are done. Right now however, I'm not to keen on the skin-mantle the Alhoon (Mind Flayer Spellcaster) has and I might change it to tattered pieces of cloth instead. Since I haven't yet put on washes, this should be a quick fix.

Pict 416: Hobbit Archers (WIP)

The second project are these Hobbit Archers. I'm painting them mainly for my Arnor Battle Company since they are on the reinforcement table and I only had one painted so far. They don't count against the bow limit so that you will get more of them once this limit is reached and you roll another Ranger. I really like the these sculpts with the unique little details and look forward to finishing them. Right now they have almost all of the basic colours on them - let's see how long it will take me to finish them.

Dúnedain Rangers and a Duergar Warrior

I finally finished the Dúnedain that had been taking up space on my desk for some time this week. After I was done with them, I also got to the Duergar Warrior I had started the week prior.

Pict 410: Dúnedain

Pict 411: Dúnedain

Pict 412: Dúnadan

Frist up, here are the northern Dúnedain; I picked out my favourite pose that I like to call the Hipster because of the beard and the topknot. I'm really happy to be done with these miniatures. Don't get me wrong - the sculpts are amazing and I liked converting them, but they cost me a lot of motivation since they took so long to finish.
I really look forward to play with them since they will fill multiple roles: They will be used as Dúnedain in an Arnor army or in Scenarios as well as normal Rangers of the North in my Arnor Battle Company. I also hope to use them as brigands or similar evil doers in D&D.

Pict 413: Duergar Warrior

Pict 414: Duergar Warrior

Speaking of D&D - as I said earlier, I also finished the Duergar Warrior. The highlighting here also went rather fast and I'm happy with how he turned out. Next up for this ongoing project of painting my D&D backlog will probably be the two Mindflayers of the set.

Iron Hills Dwarves with Mattocks

This week I had a little more time to paint and promptly got started on the Iron Hills Dwarves, I built the week prior.

Pict 405: Iron Hills Dwarves

Pict 406: Iron Hills Dwarf Warriors with Mattocks

These warriors were surprisingly easy to paint this time around. When I was painting the warriors carrying crossbows I tried to finish the chariot at the same time and painted myself into a metaphorical corner. With these I really enjoyed the differing poses and thus finished them quickly.

Pict 407: Iron Hills Dwarves Command with Mattocks

Pict 408: Iron Hills Dwarves Command with Mattocks

The Captain and Banner Bearer are amazing models as well - I am tempted to get the same Captain again to convert him into a hero for my battle company, but for now these will do fine. The Banner is complexer than the first one I painted. The prominent designs form not only a mountain but also a band that I interpreted as the ground and thus painted green resulting in a fetching contrast with the complementary red that I used as the main colour.

Pict 409: Duergar Warrior (WIP)

I got a little bit of work in with the Dúnedain, but not enough to warrent a new picture of them. Instead I'm showing my progress with the next D&D miniature. This Duergar is part of the same set as the Intellect Devourer so that I painted the base in matching colours. For now the base-colours and washes are down and I hope to finish this guy early in the coming week.

Early Plastic Genestealers

Since I showed you what was on my painting table last week, I had to start aomething different instead of finishing one of the older projects. So here are some more Tyranids that I was able to finish so that my table wont become even more cluttered.

Pict 401: Genestealers

Pict 402: Genestealer

Pict 403: Genestealer

I showed these 'Stealers when I finished up the other batch of Tyranids. Since then they were stripped of their original colours and repainted. I like the aesthetic with more of the open flesh areas reminiscent of the Alien Xenomorph. They painted up rather fast and I'm happy they did, because I kinda lost some of my hobby mojo seeing these Dúnedain skulking around my table and never getting finished.

Pict 404: New Projects

Other than this painting, I also had time to build and prep a few more miniatures - some more Tyranids, a bit for my Warhammer Woodelfs and some ForgeWorld kits. I had to get some Iron Hills Dwarves with Matoocks so that I'll be able to play the Battle Company without using Grimhammers as stand-ins.