The Fellowship of the Ring – 20th Anniversary of the Movie

Today is the 20th anniversary of the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. To celebrate the occasion, I painted a new set of the four Hobbits: Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybock and Peregrin Took.

Pict 1107: Ambush at Amon Hen

Pict 1108: Frodo, Pippin, Merry, Sam

Pict 1109: Frodo, Pippin, Merry, Sam

These four Hobbits were great fun to paint – looking up screenshots of the film, looking at models I painted before and just getting to be in Middle-earth again. The models all come from the Breaking of the Fellowship set sculpted by Juan Diaz. They might get used in some scenarios (especially the Ambush at Amon Hen). But for now, they were a great little project to celebrate a hugly influential film!

Pict 1110: Jelson Darrock

Pict 1111: Jelson Darrock

I also got to the next Cursed City hero with the Witch Hunter Jelson Darrock. I feared differentiating the browns but I'm very happy with the way he turned out. I migh even be tempted to get some more of the modern Witch Hunters.

Pict 1112: Qulathis the Exile (WIP)

I also made some good progress with Qulathis the Exile and should be able to finish painting her soon. (Please don't mind the eyes – it's all part of the process!) I really would like to finish the Cursed City box before the end of the year. But to do that, I will have to focus on just those three missing heroes over the christmas holidays.

Finishing the Swordmasters + Glaurio ven Alten III

These past two weeks, I made a successful dent into the unfinished project of the year. I finished the Swordmasters of Hoeth that I started back in April. Afterwards, I finished the other Blade character from the Cursed City Box, Glaurio ven Alten III.

Pict 1102: Swordmasters of Hoeth

Pict 1103: Swordmasters of Hoeth

Pict 1104: Swordmasters of Hoeth

These five Swordmasters are the remainder of a unit I had started in spring. Sometime during the summer I decided I only need to have each sculpt once and sold a few. I also was missing exactly one pose and only recently managed to pick it up. So it did make sense to let them lie for a bit and only now paint them (at least that's what I tell myself...). Anyways, the unit is now complete and I'm very happy with them!

Pict 1105: Glaurio ven Alten III

Pict 1106: Glaurio ven Alten III

Then here is Glaurio ven Alten III the next hero to reclaim the Cursed City from the evil Vampires. Really a lovely model – a bit fiddly to paint, but the result really speaks for itself. I'm particularly happy with the face! Up until now my plan to only paint the stuff I had already started worked out quite well. I can't wait to have the Cursed City box all painted up!

An Infinity Tournament, Gothmog and a Knight in Shining Armour

I used my hobby time these past two weeks mostly to paint more miniatures for an Infinity tournament. But I also did some more work to finish up projects instead of starting new ones.

Pict 1093: Dahshat Company on the Move

Pict 1094: Libertos, Hulan, Valerya Gromoz, Miranda Ashcroft, Dozer

I wanted to play these six miniatures in a tournament, so they were the first in line to get done. I had started them early enough but only finished them the evening before the event. Nevertheless I am pretty happy with the way they came out - the Liberto fish bois and other mercenaries fit right in.

Pict 1095: Brawlers

Pict 1096: Brawlers

After the tournament I still had these two unfinished Brawlers from a few weeks back. Since I was on a roll and the colours scheme fresh in my head, they were done in one evening. I look forward to using them in some Dahshat lists because I was relying on a Zuyong link team not only for the tournament itself but also in the test matches leading up to it.

Pict 1097: A Box Full of Projects

After finishing the Infinity models I took a hard look at my project box and decided that I should finish the miniatures I started this year instead of starting with new ones. The picture shows some of the things I want to get done by the end of the year: some Warhammer High Elves, ArcWorlde beasts and Wild Elves, Middle-earth Dwarves and Warg Riders, the Cursed City heroes and of course the remainder of the Garden of Morr.

Pict 1098: Gothmog, Lieutenant of Saruron

Pict 1099: Gothmog, Lieutenant of Saruron

A first step towards finishing models involved adding two more (which I did before resolving to not do that anymore...). To complete Gothmog riding his Warg, I also added in the two miniatures I have of him on foot. I followed my recipe from a while back – great to have these things written down! – and I find that it works very well. Now, if I did not have such high moral objections to Morannon Orcs, I might paint an army of them. For now, I'm happy to paint normal Orc warriors however.

Pict 1100: Emelda Braskov

Pict 1101: Emelda Braskov

Another project that desparately needs finishing is the Cursed City box. As you can see above, I'm only missing some of the heroes. They lay by the wayside because I find it difficult to decide on theit colours (How far do I stray from the box art?!) and because I finished playing through the campaign with the unpainted models.

Anyway, here is the finished Emelda Braskov. She was a perfect example of the difficulties I just described. I wanted to go for very bright colours to make her a beacon in the darkness of Ulfenkarn, but I dreaded painting more white. So to get out of this impasse, I went with colours closer to the box art and now I'm pretty happy with her!

The Dead are rising

These past two weeks, I took a bit of a breather from Infinity and painted some more Undead from the Mortal Realms as well as Wraiths from Middle-earth.

Pict 1083: Kritza raising Minions

Pict 1084: C18 Wight

Pict 1085: C18 Wight

Continuing on from the Oldhammer Vampire I painted a few weeks back, I also had this Wight from the same time period. I painted him to match my Cursed City skeletons – maybe he will see play as one of the Ulfenwatch?

Pict 1086: Kritza the Rat Prince

Pict 1087: Kritza the Rat Prince

Pict 1088: Sepulchral Guard Petitioners

Pict 1089: Sepulchral Guard Petitioners

Because the Wight painted up so quickly I also dove into my pile of shame / pile of possibility and came out with the three Petitioners from the Sepulchral Guard set as well as Kritza. The skeletons once more match the Ulfenwatch and are really nice modern miniatures. I do look forward to painting the remaining four from the set! Kritza was converted a little bit: I removed the rat tails trailing from his coat – they were a little to on the nose for me and I do like him better as an aristocrat at first blush. He then also got a simple 32mm base instead of the oval one he came with and I am really happy with the paintjob!

Pict 1090: The Dwimmerlaik and the Witch-king

Pict 1091: The Dwimmerlaik and the Witch-king

Back to Middle-earth! With GW releasing a new Witch-king I thought I should paint up the one I currently own to distract me from the new "shiny". I knew I also had a Dwimmerlaik named Nazgûl in the drawer and painted him at the same time. Now, Nazgûl in and of themselves look not that impressive, but they got the gears turning about other Mordor models I might want to paint...

Pict 1092: Warg Riders (WIP)

After finishing the Nazgûl, I started to work on some Warg Riders including heroes. When the metal Warg Riders were available last year, I snached up two blisters and converted three of them to have some more varied poses. For now, the Wargs themselves are pretty much done and I hope to finish up the Orcs quickly and to get them on a game table soon!

Authorized Bounty Hunting

Three more models finished for my Dahshat Mercenaries and six more on the go! I'm really picking up steam with this new sectorial by playing games and planning ahead for a team tournament.

Pict 1078: Authorized Bounty Hunting

Pict 1079: Authorized Bounty Hunters and Zuyong Invincible

Pict 1080: Authorized Bounty Hunters and Zuyong Invincible

These Bounty Hunter miniatures are really great and full of character. I was however cursing myself for wanting to make them stand out from the rest of my army by giving them white armour. I sill find it a cool look, but I doubt I will want to paint any more of them.

The Zuyong pretty much just adheres to my usual colour scheme. I really like him as a part of my staple link team and he has been in all of my lists so far. I'm happy to have him painted!

Pict 1081: Herbie is looking out for you!

Speaking of games: I did play a few round but only remembered to snap pictures of one. Nevertheless, putting the painted models on a cool game board really elevates them. Herbie is a real champ and great fun to play!

Pict 1082: Dahshat Company (WIP)

I also put down the basic colours on some more Dahshat mercenaries. Here are two Liberto fish boys, a skull-faced Húláng, a skull-masked Dozer as well as Miranda Ashcroft (with the sword) and Valerya Gromoz.

More Dahshat and Dwarves

A quick update once again since I was mostly in 'build mode' rather than 'paint mode'. But I did get some basecolours onto more Dahshat mercenaries and some Middle-earth dwarves.

Pict 1076: Dahshat Mercenaries (WIP)

These two Authorized Bounty Hunters, two Brawlers and Zuyong Invincible are ready for the clean up stage and their highlights. I managed to get one game in with them and of course they did not perform how I wanted them to. I blame the unfinished paintjob (not at all my lacking tactical prowess).

Pict 1077: Iron Hills Dwarves (WIP)

After redoing the bases of my Erebor dwarves, I had the itch to paint the rest of my Middle-earth dwarves. Some, like the last remaining Iron Hills dwarves have waited for paint for some time but there are a few new additions with Dáin, King under the Mountain and Thorin III Stonehelm. As you can see, these miniatures were just started and I'm still figuring out the colours, especially on the very detailed hair and beards.

Dahshat Company, a Disaster and a very old Vampire

These past weeks I mainly painted some more Infinity miniatures for my Dahshat mercenaries. Seems I'm back on the Corvus Belli train! I also painted an Oldhammer Vampire matching my Cursed City undead.

Pict 1066: Dahshat Heavies

Pict 1067: Jannisary, Djanbazans and Zuyong Invincible

Pict 1068: Jannisary, Djanbazans and Zuyong Invincible

For the first time in forever, I was over at a friend's for a painting session. Since we both play Haqqislam, I started to work on these four infantry models and finished them over the last few evenings.

Pict 1069 - The Rui Shi Disaster

Pict 1070: Rui Shi

Pict 1071: Rui Shi

When I went to varnish these Infinity miniatures last week, disaster stuck when the Rui Shi took a dive down two flights of stairs and shattered into several pieces. After collecting most of the pieces I was quite disheartened especially since I already hated putting it together the first time. Well, now the remote is back together with only little battle damage and only one piece has gone missing.

Pict 1072: "Your wife has such a beautiful neck..." - Graf Orlok

Pict 1073: C18 Vampire Attacking

This lovely miniature is a Vampire from Citadel's 'C18 Night Horrors' Series, released in December 1986. Of course I watched the silent film Nosferatu in preparation and then painted him up rather quickly. I really enjoy his expressive face!

Pict 1074: Erebor Dwarves

I also updated the bases of my Erebor Dwarves to match them to my Iron Hills army. This way I can ally them thogether for a Battle of Azanulbizar theme. Whilst cleaning up the paintjob around the feet, I also took the opportunity to repaint the named heroes' faces. Lastly I also decided to paint up a separate base for my Iron Hills Chariot Captain to stand on, for any time I would ever need three Captains.

Pict 1075: Garden of Morr (WIP)

And here is an update on the rest of my Garden of Morr set. I managed to remove most of the sculpted roses from the all the walls and fences. The stonework has a basecolour and is ready for drybrushing. The detailwork will probably take longer than I expect, but I hope the work will pay of.

Warhammer Quest Cursed City: Finishing the Baddies

Today is going to be a bit of a bigger update summing up what I got done over the summer. The focus is still on finishing up the miniatures from Warhammer Quest: Cursed City – I completed the roster of villains and am in the process of painting the heroes.

Pict 1054: Battle in the Cursed City

Pict 1055: Gorslav the Gravekeeper and Torgilius the Chamberlain

Pict 1056: Gorslav the Gravekeeper and Torgilius the Chamberlain

First up, here is the evil monk Gorslav. In the end I went with the dark robes because they looked allright once I highlighted them. Once again a very menacing model, really fitting into the grimdark/horror setting of Cursed City. His ability to bury the heroes alive is very evocative and frightening!
Torgilius, however, is probably the one model I like the least from the whole set. He a simple Necromancer and I'm not to happy with my colour choice. He might even look better in the photo?

Pict 1057: Vyrkos Blood-born

Pict 1058: Vyrkos Blood-born

Next up are the feral Vyrkos Blood-born. Once again amazing models and I appreciate them even more after finishing them. I went with a very bright skintone similar to how they are shown on the boxart. I do like the effect and decided to use this scheme going forward with the rest of my Vampires. I might even have to go over my older Vampires to bring them into line.

Pict 1059: Radukar the Wolf and Korsagi Nightguard

Pict 1060: Radukar the Wolf and Korsagi Nightguard

And onto the Big Bad of the Campaign: Radukar the Wolf and his bodyguard of undead Ogres, the Korsagi Nightguard. Radukar seems a bit small in comparison, but I do like his stance with one fist forward and his vicious sword ready to strike. The Nightguard were a joy to paint and look really great in their red coats.

Pict 1061: Additional Objective Markers and Gravestones

After finishing up the baddies, I took a bit of a pause from painting and to get back into it, I did these five simple models here: two additional Gravestones and three more Objective Markers to bring a bit more variety into my games. All in all quite simple, mainly converted from leftover parts of the old Citadel Woods, the Garden of Morr and the Cursed City Zombies themselves.

Pict 1062: Cleona Zeitengale and Octren Glimscry

Pict 1063: Cleona Zeitengale and Octren Glimscry

So now, I've only got the heroes of the game left to paint and I already started with the two Loremasters: Cleona Zeitengale and Octren Glimscry. The main hurdle for the heroes seems to be deciding on a colour scheme. After I get the base colours down and a wash on the model, they go very quick. Octren was the easier one of the two since I decided to go with very bright blue robes for Cleona that took some work. I also converted her a bit by removing her headdress and the streamers on her back - now she still looks fantastical to me but no longer that over-the-top.

Pict 1064: Lù Duan

Pict 1065: Lù Duan

And lastly onto something completley different: I recently got to play in an Infinity tournament (my first one of N4) and I needed this Lù Duan for my list. I hadn't painted any Infinity models since the Sekban from over a year ago and I have to say it was a blast – a simple and quick colour scheme and a great joy to see the Agrellan Earth do pretty much all the basing on itself.