Picking up a few things throughout Middle-earth

I used the past two weeks to pick up a few projects and finishing others with a focus on Middle-earth. I managed to paint Eorl and a few Warriors for my Rohan army, the Moria Goblins of a few weeks back as well as some more heroes. I also painted two more models for D&D and started on a few more.

Pict 859: Rohan vs. Moria

Pict 860: Grôblog and Armoured Moria Goblins

Pict 861: Grôblog and Armoured Moria Goblins

First up are the armoured Moria Goblins. I really like the models - the mail coifs are an element that didn't extend towards the plastic goblins and makes these stand out.
With Grôblog, the guy with the tactical dwarven ruin, I particularly enjoyed painting the flowing cloak. But as is tradition with finecast, before priming I had to carve out the detail on the pillar because it was to washed out. I was very pleased however how the whole batch turned out and what was at first meant to be a small group to be played as hobgoblins in D&D might now get turned into an army? I already stripped the paint of about 70 plastic goblins, so that might be a reality...

Pict 862: Eorl, Warriors of Rohan with Horn and Banner

Pict 863: Eorl, Warriors of Rohan with Horn and Banner

After having painted Eorl on foot, of course I had to paint him on horseback as well. Intrestingly GW painted their version with a brown horse while Felaróf is clearly described as white. So that's what I went with. I also painted two more warriors - a bannerbearer and a hornblower. The banner will surely see play while the horn is a bit on the expensive site pointswise.

Pict 864: Gildor Inglorion, Gandalf the White, Aragorn

Pict 865: Gildor Inglorion, Gandalf the White, Aragorn

I then pulled out some more Middle-earth heroes from various armies and simply painted what took my fancy. The three poses of Aragorn were painted at the same time and now put me at nine painted Aragorns - only five more left to go and I painted all of the official poses that GW put out!
Of Gandalf I also showed a WIP. I'm not perfectly happy with the eyes, they are sculpted to be rather small on the model and now he looks a bit surprised. But after several tries, that what I ended up with. Gildor Inglrion was painted with the scenarios of the Fellowship Journeybook in mind. The colourscheme combines elements of my Highelf and Woodelf miniatures, since he's able to include the latter in his warband.

Pict 866: Dragonborn Rogue, Halfling Ranger

Pict 867: Dragonborn Rogue, Halfling Ranger

And to make a few steps outside the Legendarium, I finished up this Dragonborn Rogue and afterwards painted this Halfling Ranger. Once again, the miniatures are made by Darksword and a joy to paint!

Pict 868: Morgul Stalker (WIP)

And lastly here is a WIP of some Morgul Stalkers that I just started. The miniatures are a bit comical but I like the design choice to have spiky hoods and gauntlets. The faces with the big teeth just scream for a skull-motive face paint. I'll see what I can do!

Building an Uruk-Hai Army like it's 2001

These past two weeks again were spent painting (among other things) Uruk Scouts. With this last batch, I'm ready to call the scout army done for the moment. I then went on to paint up a few more Rohan heroes.

Pict 853: Uruk-Hai Scout Army 2020

Pict 854: Uruk-Hai Scouts and Ballista Loader

I really like how this army looks once put together like this. I painted three more bowmen to bring my total up to twelve and another twelve Scouts with shields for a total of nineteen. I will have to add in one box of the plastic Scouts at some point but for now I'm happy to have painted a bunch on models from almost 20 years ago. I think that the next step will be Mordor Orcs from that time to be able to mix them in for some spear supports.
Whilst acquiring the Scouts, I also got a second Ballista loader and proceeded to paint him alongside the Scouts. He might simply get used as a pikeman once the opportunity arises.

Pict 855: Mauhur (Conversion)

To upgrade the Scouts to marauders, I had to get myself a Mauhur. There once was a metal miniature for him but nowadays he's only availiable in Finecast. Since the rest of the army is metal that surely was not an option so I had to go about converting one. Mauhur is pretty much only a Scout with two swords and a cape and thus it was easy enough: The main body is just one of the runing Scouts, the right hand was missing in this case, so that Lurtz had to donate one. The right arm and shoulder are from another Lurtz, this time the one just holding his bow. And lasty the sword in the left hand comes from Uglúk. I'm pretty happy with how he turned out and of course I like him better than the original model now!

Pict 856: Haleth, Aldor, Eorl

Pict 857: Haleth, Aldor, Eorl

To have some more opponents for my Uruks I then swiched over to more Rohan heroes. First up were Aldor and Haleth - two of the newer models made by ForgeWorld. They painted up reasanobly quickly since they are pretty much Rohan Warriors with a little extra. I guess they will really shine in a Defense of Helm's Deep army and I just might have to write up a list to try them out.
I also wanted to try out the new Helm Hammerhand profile and because my ForgeWorld order had not yet arrived I decided to prox him with a different legenday king of Rohan: Eorl, the guy who started the whole thing. It's a good thing that I did because I don't think I'd paint him anytime soon otherwise. The pose is quite nice but the face seems to be a victim of casting issues rather often. It went ok, but I had to guess where the eyes on the model were rathern than having them modeled on there. Next up will have to be the Eorl mounted and of course Helm himself!

Pict 858: Gandalf the White (WIP)

And lastly here's a WIP. I never acually painted any Gandalf the White miniatures. When I started playing he was simply to expensive (it's got nothing to do with me being unable to use magic effectively!). But now that I'm spending some more time in Rohan, he jumped to the top of the queue. I went for a grey cloak to mimic the scene of him coming into the hall of Meduseld but not wuite having revealed himself.

D&D Hill Giant, Planetar and more Uruk Scouts

These past two weeks I painted more Uruk Scouts and then went onto paint some Moria Goblins. I struck some motivation issues with batch painting them however and thus distracted myself by painting some monsters for D&D.

Pict 842: Hill Giant Smash!

Pict 843: Hill Giant

Pict 844: Hill Giant

Pict 845: Hill Giant

Pict 846: Hill Giant

Pict 847: Hill Giant

Man, this was just the best distraction. It didn't really take to long since it's pretty much just fur, some leather bits and a whole lot of skin. I'm really in love with the miniature - the face is amazing, the different textures are a joy to paint. The pose is a bit exaggerated but I like it. As with the unicorn I painted at the tailend of last year, I went for minimal use of washes. Instead I drybrushed the boulder, the hair and the fur and layered the skin with translucent paint.

Pict 848: Uruk-Hai Scouts, Uglúk, Captain

The Uruks this time around are mainly Scouts - seven with shield, three with bow and the two carrying Merry respectively Pippin. I also painted Uglúk holding an orc head and his twin brother, an unnamed Captain. Lastly there is a single warrior with a crossbow. I'll have to get some more of those to play the Assault on Helm's Deep Legendary Legion, but for now, I'm staying on track with the scouts.

Pict 849: Planetar

After painting the Uruks, I finished up the Planetar, I showed last week. As I said, the pose is quite cool but I'm not that happy with the detail on the wings. I tried drybrushing and it looks all right, but compared to the Hill Giant there is a remarkable difference in quality.

Pict 850: Grôblog and Moria Goblins (WIP)

These Moria Goblins again are very nice miniatures and hold up despite being from the first batch of Lord of the Rings miniatures from 2001. Grôblog, the goblin chieftain on the pillar with the cloak is from some later time and only was released in Finecast. It took me quite some time to go through the basecolours but I finnaly managed to get to the wash stage. I hope to finish them next, but since I let myself be distraced by D&D miniatures, I might do some more of them...

Pict 851: Watcher in the Water's Tentacles

While I was on a stroll in Moria, I fished out these tentacles, I had started a long time ago. They were released by GW to play a scenario with the Fellowship of the Ring against the Watcher in the Water on the western door to Moria. Now that they are painted, I'll have to play that scenario sometime!

Pict 852: Dragonborn Rogue (WIP)

And lastly here is a WIP of the next D&D hero. As always, I very much enjoy Darksword's miniatures and this Dragonborn Rogue is no exception. Right now I don't have any plans to play this miniature but as with the Hill Giant I simply wanted to paint a cool miniature to distract myself from batchpainting...