A third Mordor Troll Chieftain

Over the last two weeks, I mainly worked on a Black Gate of Mordor army that I took to a tournament last weekend. I finished a third Mordor Troll Chieftain, a Orc Taskmaster and a Morannon Orc Banner bearer. Afterwards, I turned back to Legions Imperialis finishing my Mastodons and converting some more Predators.

Pict 1674: Black Gate Reinforcements

Pict 1675: Mordor Troll Chieftain

Pict 1676: Mordor Troll Chieftain

The lynchpin of my tournament army were three Mordor Troll Chieftains. This third one is not converted as opposed to the other two. Whily I simply repeated my colour scheme from a few years back, I'm really happy with the way this one came out. I added another layer of highlights to the armour, which doea help it look less bland and I'm tempted to do the same with the first two.
The trio was quite the menace once they got into close combat. But since I did not have to much practice with them beforehand, I made some errors placing them. They and the Morannon Orcs were often in each others way. Nevertheless, they were great fun to use!

Pict 1677: Morannon Orc Banner and Mordor Orc Taskmaster

The other two finished miniatures of this army are the Orc Taskmaster (Where there's a whip, there's a way!) and the Morannon Orc with Banner. While not that exciting, they both provide important buffs to army, even if I only ever profited from the Taskmasters ability once. But he did manage to kill a Mirkwood Elf by using his whip as a throwing weapon whilst charging, so I'm really quite happy with him!

Pict 1678: Morannon Orcs (WIP)

The Morannons themselves are not quite done, but I got them to a place where I could put them on the table and not feel bad about it. They have their base colours and a wash applied to them. And as you can see, I have already done their bases. The danger is that I'm now not incentivised to acutally finish them! I will try and finish the details and highlights on them in smaller batches in between other projects. If I can get that done until the end of the year, I'll be happy.

Pict 1679: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Mastodons

Pict 1680: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Mastodons

Pict 1681: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Mastodon Conversion

Switching back to Legions Imperialis, I finished up these two Mastodons. I'm really looking forward to using them in a game sometime soon. I only have four bases of Terminators to fill the converted one. So I might just use them to drive around Leviathans instead.

Pict 1682: Legions Imperialis Scimitar Jetbikes (WIP)

I also started to work on my Legions Imperialis Jetbikes to finally add some Vanguard choices to my painted pile. So far, they are still missing the metals to complete the base colours. I think they and the washes should go on rather fast. As I have leared by now, the highlighting will take a bit longer, but I hope to have them finished by mid-december to immediatly put them onto the battlefield!

Pict 1683: Legions Imperialis Predator Destructor Conversions

Lastly I also converted some more Predators for my Legions Imperialis collection. This time in the Destructor configuration with the additional pintle mounted Heavy Bolters. They should provide some good anti-infatry dakka. I used the bits I had left over from the other Predators, a set of Deimos pattern Rhinos and some plastic card. They are not perfect, for example I did not cover up the door details and simply glued the sponsons into side hulls. But once painted up, I'm sure they will look the part. The one pintle marine with the banner will be my Predator Commander and the HQ choice for my armoured company. I magnetised the cuppola to make transporting the miniature easier.

Legio Solaria Warlord Titan

These past two weeks, I completed the paintjob on the Legio Solaria Warlord. Afterwards, I also finished up a few more projects that had been lying around, some of them for quite some time.

Pict 1503: Legio Solaria Warlord supporting Blood Angels

Pict 1504: Legio Solaria Warlord Titan

Pict 1505: Legio Solaria Warlord Titan

Pict 1506: Legio Solaria Warlord Titan

Pict 1507: Legio Solaria Warlord Titan

Pict 1508: Legio Solaria Warlord Titan

Pict 1509: Legio Solaria Warlord Titan

Pict 1510: Legio Solaria Warlord Titan

That's my first finished Titan – ready to be used in games of Legions Imperialis. Such a great looking model! The little Marines on the base help to sell the scale even more. As you can see from the pictures, the arms are magnetised; the shoulder mounted guns are as well. I can see myself getting some of the more exotic arms made by ForgeWorld. I am also looking at adding in at least some Warhounds and Knights of House Procon Vi to get the collection ready for Adeptus Titanicus as well.

Pict 1511: Mordor Orcs and Warg Riders

Pict 1512: Mordor Orcs

Pict 1513: Warg Riders

With the new edition of the Middle-earth Strategy Battle game, I also finally finished the remaining four Warg Riders that have been in my box of current projects for over three years now. It feels great to have them finished now. I even got to play a game with them yesterday as part of the new Army of the White Hand. I also took this chance to finish some more Orc Warriors that I had laying around half-finished for a few months. These conversions of Orcs with both spears and shields might not see that much play, however, since the load out has been removed by the new edition.

Pict 1514: Zone Mortalis Reactor Tile

Pict 1515: Zone Mortalis Reactor Tile

Pict 1516: Zone Mortalis Reactor Tile

Pict 1517: Zone Mortalis Reactor Tile

Lastly, I also put the finishing touches on this Zone Mortalis tile, I had started sometime during the summer. I'm quite happy with the result! After the oilwash, I only picked out a few more details and then added the grey weathering powder that I use for my 30k/40k minatures.

With these ones finished, I have managed to hit my goal of painting 100 miniatures this year – just in time for the look back I will do at the start of January!

Great Fangorn Forest to high Orthanc hill, shall come against him

Six more miniatures finished to show this time around: I painted up Quickbeam the Ent for a tournament coming up in April and then put the finishing touches on a squad of Infinity minatures I had laying around from last year.

Pict 1426: Quickbeam the Ent

Pict 1427: Quickbeam

Pict 1428: Quickbeam

First up is Quickbeam, one of the newer models available for the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game. I am really happy with the different tones I managed to put on him to change up the somewhat monotonous brown you often see on Ents. The 3d sculpted texture was a bit bland for my taste, but once the green flock was on he really came together.

Pict 1429: Ghulam Infantry, Kaplans, Al'Hawwa

These Infinity miniatures were another project that got left behind last year. After watching the new Dune movie I got the itch to finish them. They were only missing the faces and some highlights and the finishing touches were done over a few weekday evenings. I'm pretty happy with them and there are a few more miniatures in my collection that would fit this Kaplan / Qapu Khalqi theme. But I fear, they will be postponed until I manage to get a game in.

Pict 1430: Treebeard (WIP)

For now, there are some more Middle-earth figures to do for an upcoming tournament in April. One of them is this treebeard here. Since Quickbeam went pretty quickly, I hope to finish Treebeard soon as well. Of course he's carrying Merry and Pippin who will need some more attention, but I'm looking forward to it!

Pict 1431: Neferata on foot (Conversion)

Pict 1432: Neferata on foot (Conversion)

Lastly, whilst I had some green stuff mixed up to fill the gaps on Treebeard, I also finished this conversion of Neferata on foot. Since last I showed her, I filled the gaps between the two kits I used and resculpted parts of the skirt that were damaged during the construction. Hardest was to figure out how to connect the long and flowing sleeves to the back of her dress (the mounted version hides this with her throne). I'm pretty happy with the result and look forward to painting her!

Blood Angel Mortalis Destroyers and Aster Crohne

During these past two weeks I managed to finish up all the Blood Angels for my tournament list, that is the ten Destroyers and their Rhino. I also put the finishing touches on my rendition of Aster Crohne. I then converted more Blood Angels heroes and started on some more Undead miniatures.

Pict 1383: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers and Rhino

Pict 1384: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers and Aster Crohne

First up, here are the ten Mortalis Destroyers as well as Aster Crohne. I really like how they came out! The Destroyers use a bit of a darker red. Combined with the black panels, this really makes the gold and green details stand out! Aster Crohne is also very nice. I pushed the contrast on the gold this time around and I have to say it does pop more than with my ususal recipe. I might have to get myself some Destroyers to swap out the special weapons for flamers since Crohne gives them a boost...

Pict 1385: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour

Pict 1386: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour

I'm also very happy with the way this Rhino came out. As with Crohne, I pushed the contrast on the gold. Other than that the big panes were quite fun to weather. It has been quite a long time since I last painted a vehicle and I could see myself doing more of them. Besides the Dreadnought Drop Pod I have still on my table there are also two more for Infantry.
Anyways, this meant I managed to paint every model I neede for the tournament, only to get sick a few days out preventing me from going. Next time it is then...

Pict 1387: Blood Angels Librarian Conversion, Raldoron and Vigilator (WIP)

After finishing everything I needed for the tournament, I went back into build mode and did these three heroes for my Blood Angels. The Vigilator is pretty much stock with only a little bit of green stuff to elevate the helmet a bit. Same goes for Raldoron – here, I removed the sculted blood from the blade and of course I also gave him a helmet. I realised that the Blood Angels Preator in power armour uses a helmet that is based of an illustration of Raldoron and so I had to behead my painted Praetor... He'll be getting a new head as well. The Librarian is based on the model for Ahzek Ahriman, I still had from my Betrayal at Calth box. I used plastic Mk IV head and torso and removed a lot of the sculpted detail. I really like the clean look I've achieved and very much look forward to paiting these three!

Pict 1388: Warhammer Vampires through the Ages

Lastly I also played a short introductory session of Cursed City on Halloween which reminded me of all those beautiful miniatures I want to paint for my Undead collection. I got the project box out and selected a few miniatures to paint up next. They come from various eras – the Vampires and the Werefox are from the Night Horrors line from the late 80s/early 90s; the metal Neferata and her cat Bastet are from the 6th edition Vampires whilst the plastic Necromancer is a modern sculpt from the 8th edition. Ever since the plastic Neferata was released during the End Times, I wanted to convert her on foot. I've had the bits, including a scond hand Yvraine, for quite some time now and after fiddling with the Librian, I also started outlining this conversion – the next step will be the green stuffing and some minor details.

DreadTober: The Castra Ferrum finished

This week I got around to do quite a bit of glazing and detailwork to finish both the Castra Ferrum Dreadnought and the remaining eight Despoilers. Not much more got done though, so again, a rather quick update.

Pict 1376: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1377: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1378: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1379: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1380: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

Pict 1381: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought

I love the look of the Castra Ferrum. The silhouette really is iconic and this one really was a joy to paint. After last week there was not that much more to do but to glaze some highlights onto the red and of course apply chipping. As a last touch I added the date in roman numerals to the back to commemorate that this particular Dreadnought was painted during DreadTober this year.

Pict 1382: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers

I also finished these eight Inductii Despoilers. They are the remaining bodies to fill out my squad of 15 close combat Marines. I do like how they came out, but I am ready to paint something other than Blood Angels. But there are still ten Destroyers and their Rhino to do. And of course I still want to get to that Dreadnought Drop Pod - at least building it should be doable.

Blood Angels Depoilers and Plasma on the Castra Ferrum

Another quick update this week, as I did not have that much time to paint. I did, however, finish the first half of my Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers and got some more work done on the DreadTober Castra Ferrum Dreadnought.

Pict 1373: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers

Pict 1374: Blood Angels Consul

This is the first half of my Inductii Despoilers and the matching Consul. Highlighting the red armour with glazes does take a while, but I'm pretty happy with the results! I hope the finish the other eight during the next week, so I can get ahead with my other October projects.

Pict 1375: Blood Angels Mk IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnought (WIP)

Speaking of, here's what I managed to do on my Castra Ferrum Dreadnought. I pretty much only worked on the lenses and the plasma coils of the gun arm. Whilst I have these colours on my wet pallet I will do the lenses on the Destroyers and the Rhino next. After I'll be onto highlighting the other parts on the Dreadnought!

Finishing six Xiphons and a first DreadTober Update

This week, I finished the six Aeronautica Xiphons to make a start on my Legiones Imperialis collection. I'm also making pretty good time with my DreadTober Castra Ferrum and am concurrenty batch painting several Marines in sevor armour. The Dreadnought Drop Pod is also coming together, but will take some more work.

Pict 1365: Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons

Pict 1366: Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons

Pict 1367: Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons

First up though, to get back into the finer highlighting, I finished up these six Xiphons I started a few weeks back. They are my first foray into the 8mm scale. Since I used pretty much my usual Blood Angels recipe, it really did not feel that different and I quite enjoyed it. While I could use them in games of Aeronautica Imperialis, I am really looking forward to Legiones Imperialis and plan to get into the game using the same Siege of Terra themed Blood Angels and allies fitting into that era. While not that much, these six planes are somewhat of a head start.

Pict 1368: Blood Angels MK IV Castra Ferrum Dreadnougth (WIP)

The Boxnought I'm painting for DreadTober is really starting to look like something: After last week's update, I added a bunch of decals and then putting an oil wash over the whole model. After a layer of matt varnish, the dreadnought is now ready for highlights and further weathering.

Pict 1369: Dreadnought Drop Pod (WIP)

The Drop Pod is also shaping up. However, SincaiN reported in the comments of last week's post, that he had used magnets on the doors. After looking up the relevant posts on his blog, I saw that he had not used them to hold the doors closed like I wanted to do, but used them to replace the hinges. Since my solution of using putty to rebuild the hinge has not worked out the best (the hinge is already breaking again), I will replicate his solution.

Pict 1370: Blood Angels Inductii Despoilers and Consul (WIP)

Here's a quick shot of some of my Inductii Despoilers. Not the whole batch, but they are all pretty much at the same stage. I have gone through quite a lot of highlighting on the details. What's left to do is to put highlights and weathering such as scratches onto the black and the red areas. I'm slowly getting there, but painting them in a batch of sixteen marines is quite a lot of them at once; I might reduce that down for those last stages to a more manageble number.

Pict 1371: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers and Aster Crohne (WIP)

Pict 1372: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour (WIP)

Lastly here is the current state of the Destroyers and their Rhino. In comparison to last week, I put on the black panels and then they had the decals and oils done alongside the Dreadnought. Since the Blood Angels decal sheet does not come with classic Destroyer markings, I used some from the World Eaters sheet. Since they are only the outlines and not solid, they don't show up that well on the black shoulder pads and I might add the colour in myself.