Finishing Barrow-Wights and Restarting Infinity

Five more models added to the tally this week: the Barrow-Wights and a remote for my Haqqislam.

Pict 529: Barrow-Wights

Pict 530: Barrow-Wights

I love putting in the splash of colour with the Hawk Turquois on the tarnished bronze and getting the white robes right was not that bad after all. I'm debating wether I should pick out the eyes in turqois as well - the glow might be nice, but I don't want them to be White Walkers. But for now they are ready to menace some hobbits!

Pict 531: Nasmat Remote (Doctor)

Pict 532: Nasmat Remote (Doctor)

And this cute little robot is the (re-)start of my Haqqislam army for Infinity. My friend over at Out of Curiosity intends to run an escalation league and has persuaded me to join in. Just at the right moment as well - I was thinking of selling them off to make some space! When I first painted them about seven years ago, I went for a colourscheme of earthy colours and reds but I pretty much only worked with a basecoat and a wash. Now that I stripped them all, I wanted to go for something similar but with more definition and this remote is what I came up with.

Quick Update: Nazgûl and Barrow-Wights

This week was another with not to much hobby time but I managed a bit of progress with the Nagûl and the Barrow-Wights.

Pict 528: Nazgûl and Barrow-Wights (WIP)

As you can see at least I got the first layer of black on the Nazgûl and the Barrow-Wights are awaiting their highlights after they have been washed. I also build a few miniatures, but they'll have to get some green stuff, before it's worth showing them of. We'll see what the next week brings...

I also played a few rounds of Battle Companies the saturday with the new rules - it was really fun to try out the Rangers and we are thinking about doing a hex-campaign. I'm looking forward to it and will repport on how it goes.

Théoden and Éomer, Defenders of Rohan

This week, I finished up the Rohan heroes, on foot I had started for that tournament a few weeks back - Théoden and Éomer, both from the Defenders of Rohan box are added to my tally. I then started work on a palette cleanser: black and white ghosties for the Lord of the Rings.

Pict 522: Théoden and Éomer on the Lookout

Pict 523: Théoden, Defender of Rohan

Pict 524: Théoden, Defender of Rohan

Pict 525: Éomer, Defender of Rohan

Pict 526: Éomer, Defender of Rohan

As you can see, the eyes turned out ok. I'm not a hundret percent on the eyebrowns but they will do. I like the more static poses - quite often you are on the lookout for dynamic scuplt and the result is (a bit overdramatised) a dwarf prancing on one foot, hacking at an unseen foe. Don't get me wrong those have a time and place as well. The Defenders of Rohan however manage a resting pose that still is interesting - for exemple the slight contraposto for Éomer and the asymmetrie of sword and helmet in Théodens hands. I might have to do the rest of the box, now that I started it...

Pict 527: Nazgûl and Barrow-Wights (WIP)

I have, however, started with something different first: the nine Nagûl on foot and four Barrow-Wights. I started with the metals (mainly Warplock Bronze and Leadbealcher) since they tend to be a bit messy when you drybrush the highlights and right now the different miniatures look rather similar. With the next step however they will go in opposite directions. The Nazgûl will get their black coats (I'm looking forward to blending in the greys) and the Wights will get the same treatment as the Twilight-Ringwraits did (I'm not looking forward to blending up to white...)

Limited Edition Vax'ildan

This week was another slow one. I pretty much only managed to finish the Vax'ildan miniature I started last week.

Pict 519: Vax'ildan (limited edition)

Pict 520: Vax'ildan (limited edition)

As I saif last week, I really like the scuplt. Painting the face really was a joy - the pronounced cheekbones made the eyes really easy. I also enjoyed putting in colours into the wings and the dark green for the Deathwalkers Ward and the Boots of Haste. The latter also got some silver filigree to denote them as a bit of a different item to the rest of the armour.

Pict 521: Uruk Hai Siege Ladders and Bombs

Since I've got scenery projects on my mind, I also painted a few bit I had laying around that fit. The Uruk Hai siege ladders will probably never really see use in an acutal siege game but they'll add plenty to my Goblintown and my Osgiliath terrain. And since it was such a quick paintjob, I also did the two Uruk bombs.

Building Osgiliath: Progress with the Putty

This week I was furthering my Osgiliath project, but I also got around to swing the paintbrush around a bit. Nothing completed but some progess nonetheless.

Pict 514: Osgiliath Ruins (WIP - Putty)

Pict 515: Osgiliath Ruins (WIP - Putty)

Here is a first look at what I want to achive with the putty on my ruins. I have gone over pretty much all of the seams and the bigger one on the edge of the building had some structure added to completely hide it. I'm not perfectly happy with how the flagstones on the upper floor came out, but I'll try and blend it in. It was my first time using Miliput and I have to say that I really like the rigid feel of it, now that it cured.

Pict 516: Goblintown Plattform (WIP)

I also mashed together the leftovers wooden floors from the Osgiliath ruins. I cut into the flat edges, put the three pieces together and glued on some remaining stilts from the Goblintown set. Once the plattform has been sprayed I will start to paint it and the walkways.

Pict 517: Defenders of Rohan - Théoden and Éomer (WIP)

Here are some miniatures I'm working on at the moment. They were started along with the mounted versions last week, but I didn't even have the time to get the basic colours down. They now had their first layers and the washes done. As you can see the eyes are in that comicly clownlike stage when I haven't cleaned them up around them with the skin colour.

Pict 518: Vax'ildan - Limited Edition (WIP)

And since I'm a butterfly I couldn't just stay with these projects and thus started work on this Vax'ildan by Steamforged Games. Since I backed their Critical Role Kickstarted but since we will have to wait a little longer I also got this limited Vax'ildan. The sculpt and casting are great, I only had to clean up little bits. I followed the scheme they put out on their website - the washes are down and like with Théoden and Éomer only the highlights are waiting to be done.

Arise, arise Riders of Théoden!

Putting the Osgiliath scenery on hold for a week, I painted up some Riders of Rohan as well as Théoden and Éomer in their Pelennor garb.

Pict 504: Rohirrim

Pict 505: Théoden (Pelennor)

Pict 506: Théoden (Pelennor)

Pict 507: Théoden (Pelennor)

Pict 508: Éomer, Knight of the Pelennor

Pict 509: Éomer, Knight of the Pelennor

With the new rules Théoden seems to be a must-take in any Rohan army so that I had to paint this mounted version of the King of Rohan. Since the Éomer, Knight of the Pelennor miniature is rather similar, I painted them in tandem. I really like the two sculpts - the only complaint I have is that Éomer does not have his sword Gúthwinë with the signature curved horseheads as the crossguard. Fortunately I had a spare and quickly replaced it.

Pict 510: Riders of Rohan

Pict 511: Riders of Rohan

And here are a few more warriors - I started two of the normal riders and the banner bearer back in 2015 so that I only had to finish up the eyes and the highlights. It went rather quickly considering I had put it off for over three years...

Pict 512: Rohan Army (555 points)

After painting these riders, I dusted off my Rohan army to patch them up a bit and give them all good coat of matte varnish. I used a contigent of normal Riders and Royal Guard led by the newly painted Théoden, Éomer as well as Éowyn as my army for a tournament on Saturday.

Pict 513: Weta Sideshow Collectibles Legolas Bust

The Riders perfomed very well - even though I lost the first battle (against Morannon Orcs and the Witchking - points for style!), I absolutely destroyed my second opponent (Morannon Orcs again with Gorbag, Shagrat and a Great Beast of Gororoth) and managed to eek out a small vicotry against the last (he played Isengard with some Berserkers, Lurtz and Vraskû with a contingent of crossbows). With that I made second place which is nice; but more importantely, I was voted the fairest player and awarded with this very nice Legolas bust by Weta. All in all an amazing day!

Building Osgiliath: More Ruins Built

Continuing with last week's big project, I built the rest of the Osgiliath ruins and some Goblintown bits since I was already doing scenery.

Pict 498: Ruins of Osgiliath (WIP)

Pict 499: Ruins of Osgiliath (WIP)

 As you can see, I got to some more construction work. The next step will be to fill in all the gaps with putty. I started the process after taking these pictures, but it'll take some more time - especially with the Warhammer scenery.

Pict 500: Ruins of Osgiliath, former Witchfate Tor (WIP)

Pict 501: Ruins of Osgiliath, former Witchfate Tor (WIP)

Pict 502: Ruins of Osgiliath, former Witchfate Tor (before/after)

And here is what I was able to do with the top layer of the Witchfate Tor. I like the arches, as they are an element prevalant with Númenorean architecture. First I removed spikes and pinnacles of the top. I then broke through the wall where I wanted the gateways to be. For two of the four wall sections, I only took out the middle wall. The two others will lose all of their walls so that only the arcades will remain - right now they are still good to illustrate the state before my saw got to them. Lastly there were still a whole bunch of skulls and shields that I didn't want want on my Osgiliath ruins. Some of them I could just scrape of, but the others' remains will have to be puttied over.

Pict 503: Goblintown Walkways (WIP)

I also built the last remaining Goblintown walkways I had laying about. I still have more of the posts, so maybe I'll cobble together even more, once I get the board out. They should be a rather fast paintjob with lots of drybrushing after the black basecoat.