The Rangers of the North are ready for War

These past two weeks I managed to finish the last few miniatures I needed for the armies I'm going to bring to the national Middle-earth SBG championship this coming weekend. I also painted some more miniatures for the Hassassin Sectorial of my Haqqislam army.

Pict 717: Rangers of the North Army

Pict 718: Hunter Orc Army

Here are the two armies I decided upon for this coming weekend: the Dúnedain led by Aragorn and Halbarad, both on horseback, Halbarad with the Banner of Arwen Evenstar. I really like how they all look together as a group an look forward to getting to shoot some evil-doers.
The evil army again is a variation on the hunter orc theme - Bolg, Fimbul, Yazneg and Narzug leading a host of two attack orcs on foot. Only thing I'm missing is a banner and maybe a hornblower. I missed the latter during a game trying them out against Mirkwoodelves lead by Thranduil, who made them all terrifying. The orcs have such a low morale that I wasn't able to charge into batte and had to get picked apart one by one...

Pict 719: Halbarad (Banner, Horse)

Pict 720: Halbarad (Banner, Horse)

This guy really came together nicely. The banner looks very much imposing (I don't quite kow how he can manage to stay atop his horse with any wind, but never mind that). And with him done I now have paited all the miniatures I own for the Rangers of the North armylist and I look forward to using him in some games!

Pict 721: Arnor Bannerbearer and Captain

Pict 722: Arnor Bannerbearer and Captain

Whilst paiting Halbarad on foot, I also managed to finish these two models that were missing for my Arnor force. Since I primarily built them for Battle Companies it's not really a force, but nevertheless these two will now bolster my ranks. I had started to paint them when I painted the Rangers of the North but didn't finish them until now. It's always a good feeling to

Pict 723: Hassassin Fiday, Hassassin Muyib

And here are some more Hassassin miniatures – I decided upon this sectorial for the secod escalation league I'm part of. I somehow managed to win both of my first games and now find myself on top of the table. That pits me against the two best players in the league and I'm sure after that I'll find myself back at the lower end of the table again. The Muyib with Spitfire already did some amazing work while the Fiday pretty much only let herself shot in the back by Senor Massacre who had picked up a Multi Sniper from a panoply.

Pict 724: Ghulam Infantry (WIP)

Lastly a quick WIP of some more Haqqislam miniatures. The Ghulam with Panzerfaust will likely be used as a Daylami with the same loadout to destroy some high armoured targets. The other Ghulam will be a gift to my friend who is organising the league as a birthday present – he wanted to get some linetroops of every army to use as impersonation markers with his aliens and that to me sounded like a great idea!

Umber Hulk Smash!

Well, this week I finished the experiment on what happens when a gorilla and a beetle really like each other: You get an Umber Hulk. And after that I got to do something for Middle-earth as well.

Pict 683: Umber Hulk

Pict 684: Umber Hulk

Pict 685: Umber Hulk

I started painting this Umber Hulk back in January and it really good to have him finished. He sat there sulking on my desk to whole time and finally I took heart and finished him. I had two things that were bugging me about him: I didn't blend the base and I felt like the armourplates looked like one big jumble without differentiation. The first problem was easily fixed with simply a new layer but the armour plates were more difficult. In the end I went with a slightly more pinkish tone on the parts that seemed more exposed and with the bright orange eyes, I think the creature came together all right.

Pict 686: Arnor and Rangers (WIP)

And here are the rangers from last week with some paint added. The miniatures went right on top of my queue after converting them and I look forward to playing some more battle companies with them. To that end, I also pulled out the remainder of my Arnor and got them the same treatment as the Rangers of the North.

State of the Table: Many Metal Models

These last few weeks have been a bit slow paintingwise so that I can't show any finished miniatures. What I did instead was to put together the pieces for a few new projects that I want to tackle in the coming weeks.

Pict 547: New Projects

So as you can see, there is the first leg of my evil men army from Middle Earth: A host of Riders and Charioteers from Khand and a few easterling heroes. Other than that there are addtions to my Arnor, my Rangers of the North and some pieces for Rivendell.
The models are cleaned up and the basing is done. Right now I'm filling the smaller gaps with layers of Liquid Green Stuff and after that I'll get some putty to fill in the bigger ones. I hope to prime the models once the weather changes to a bit warmer and more arid, but sometimes you just have to wait a bit for the winter.

More Gnolls and Revisiting my New Year's Resolutions

This week's progress consists of two more Gnoll Warriors. I started them when I did the one last week, but then they were not far enough along to warrant a picture. I kept the coulors pretty much the same as before but these miniatures by WizKids do stand out since they are bigger.

Pict 454: Gnoll Warriors

Besides that: With this week, half of the year is over I wanted to take the opportunity to check in on my New Year's resolutions. I know that I didn't get to all and I hope this post will maybe help me to priotise them. At the start of the year I wanted to get to a few of last year's projets: the Tyranids, the Iron Hills Dwarves and the Hunter Orcs.

Pict 455: Tyranids

Pict 456: Iron Hills Dwarves

Pict 457: Hunter Orcs (WIP)

I'll count the Tyranids and the Iron Hills as sucesses, but I'll still have to finish twentyfour Hunter Orcs on foot and five mounted on Fell Wargs. I also still have a whole bunch of Termagants in a box and I'd be happy to get to them in the second part of the year but I don't see them as a necessity.

Pict 458: White Council in Dol Goldur

Pict 459: The Fellowship in Balin's Tomb (WIP)

The dioramas however will have to be finished. The White Council in Dol Guldur was completed at the end of May but Balin's Tomb still looks way to pale. At least I finished Aragorn; but Boromir, Gimli, the Hobbits and the base itself are still left to do.

Pict 460: Hobbit Archers

Lastly I spoke of plans to put together a Battle Company of Hobbits. I'm not sure if I still want to do those now that I completed the Arnor company. I think an evil force might be more interesting... But I guess my fancy will take me to new and different projects anyway.

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.

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.

The current Projects

This week was rather crowded so that I had virtually no time to paint. But to show even the little bit of progress I managed, I took a photo of my painting table.

Pict 400: The State of my Painting Table

As you can see, there are several projects I'm working on right now. The Dúnedain look the same as you last saw them, the Skin Wolves should be done quickly since I decided on a polarwolf as the refence and Sauron the Necromancer is mostly wispy smoke and cloth. In the background are  (among other things) parts of the Fellowship of the Ring, another Théoden and a Duergar as well as my seasonal watercup.
Hopefully (and presumably) the coming weeks will be better for my hobby.

Heroes, Dúnedain and Scenery

Lately the Arnor Battle Company is really the main project and I managed to make a good start on the Dúnedain. I also completed two more heroes of Middle Earth, but the main part of my hobby time this week was spent building miniatures from Gale Force 9's line of Dungeons and Dragons miniatures.

Pict 381: Elrond and Aragorn

Pict 382: Elrond, Lord of Rivendell

Pict 383: Elrond, Lord of Rivendell

First up, I painted the next Elrond. This Lord of Rivendell's likeness to Hugo Weaving is not quite as good as the armoured one I paintet last week, but I very much enjoyed the robes of this particular miniature. There is now not that much infantry left for me to paint for the Noldorim army. After that I will have to bite the bullet and get on with the horses of the Rivendell Knights.

Pict 384: Aragorn (Fellowship)

Pict 385: Aragorn (Fellowship)

To start painting some other colours than the ones I use with the Noldorim and the Arnor Warriors I painted this Aragorn. I really like the poses of the first Fellowship box set and they are part of my new year's resolutions as I wanted to finish the Balin's Tomb diorama.

Pict 386: Witchfate Tor, Tower of Sorcery

Pict 387: Witchfate Tor, Tower of Sorcery

Pict 388: Witchfate Tor, Tower of Sorcery

Pict 389: Witchfate Tor, Tower of Sorcery

I also painted up this first storey of a Witchfate Tor. I had this piece of scenery in a half-painted state for about four to five years now and I decided to finish it. I want to use it in a D&D game and hope this will be an incentive to get to the other layers of the tower. But I also want to paint up some more monsters and villans for the next sessions...

Pict 390: Dúnedain (WIP)

These Dúnedain will be the Rangers of my Arnor force and I hope to finish them up fast during the coming week. I made good progress and they have now had their base colours and washed put on them. As you can see, I have one of all of the six poses GW and I converted the others to have some more unique ones.

More from the Eriador Alliance of Arnor and Noldor

This week was rather productive and I managed to finish the Arnor Warriors as well as some more Highelves.

Pict 375: The Eriador Alliance

Pict 376: Arnor Warriors

I'm rather happy to have these Arnor Warriors finished and off my desk after they stood ther for about two weeks. Now that they are done, I'll have to get to some Rangers and Hobbit Archers to round out the rest of the company.

Pict 377: Elrond, Gil-Galad, Glorfindel

Pict 378: Elrond, Gil-Galad, Glorfindel

After I painted the Highelf Captain last week, I had a taste for more of them and started work on more heroes. I really like this particular sculpt for Elrond  - the face is a great rendition of Hugo Weaving. Gil-Galad is nice as well but Glorfindel's face was somewhat difficult to do... It always looked like he had a mustache - and that's clearly nothing a great elven hero has.

Pict 379: Elladan, Elrohir

Now that I painted Elrond a few times, I also had to finish his two sons. I got the miniatures just last year from a friend and thus the didn't even wait that long for the paintjob. The poses are a little strange but they are good enough. I haven't used them befor in the game and only played them once or twice but they seem really good on paper. They are not quite finished though as they are missing the leaves I usually put on the bases as well as the victory lap around the rim of the base.

Pict 380: Highelf Warriors

I painted these two Noldor Warriors during the same stretch, I painted Elrond's twins (as you can see by the state of the base). They both use the banner bearer as a base and both are coverted is simple ways. I turned the banner, because it seemed weird, flowing over his head. That might be the years of looking at Warhammer Fantasy banners that conditioned me to always have the banner point behind the miniature? The other one will be part of my battle company as a normal warrior for now - I used part of a plastic Elvenblade to equip him with one and scraped the bottom end of the bannerpole away to make it work. I really like the resulting pose and think about getting mre of them to repeat the conversion.