Middle-earth tournament prep: Beechbone and Rohan

While I did not finish to much – pretty much only Beechbone for my Ents – but I there is some good progress with more Middle-earth miniatures as well as some Heresy Blood Angels!

Pict 1631: Beechbone

Pict 1632: Beechbone

Pict 1633: Beechbone

When Beechbone here was announced, I was happy to add him to my Fangorn collection. The sculpt has some really nice details such as the face and the nest with two little birds on his head. The leaves are still a bit to cookie-cutter for my liking, but they look better than the ones on Birchseed. I will play the three hero Ents as well as Merry and Pippin in a small tournament next weekend.

Pict 1634: Rohan Royal Guard, Gimli, Theodon, Rohan Banner (WIP)

Staying in Middle-earth, the weekend after next, there will be a Doubles tournament. My team mate Small Things Modelling and I decided to bring the Defenders of Helm's Deep, since the army would allow us to split the force thematically and have a little mini game with Legolas and Gimli counting kills. It has been quite some time since I played Rohan at an event – in fact most of my Warriors were painted for a similar Doubles event with the same team mate almost 8 years ago! Since then I'd like to think that my painting has improved somewhat and I'd like to try and go over the warriors once more.

Before that, however, there a two more Rohan Royal Guard on foot that I have to paint for the army and I'd like to take the opportunity to also do a third one as well as new paintjobs for the most important units of the army: Théoden, Gimli and the Banner bearer. These will be the priority. Any more highlights on the Warriors would be the icing on the cake!

Pict 1635: Blood Angels Assault Marines and Despoilers (WIP)

The first units I built to bring my Blood Angels into the third edition of the Horus Heresy are these five Despoilers and five more Assault Marines. The former are all equiped with the basic boltpistol and chainsword since my unit already has two heavy chainswords and two poweraxes that now share the same one-in-four slot. They are once again painted as Inductii – I'm looking forward to getting rules for them as well. For now, they will be a squad full squad of twenty normal Despoilers. The Assault Marines also bring up my squad to the full twenty. The base colours, decals and oil wash are down, so only the highlights to do on these!

Pict 1636: Blood Angels Librarian and Vigilator (WIP)

Anytime I add a small squad to my Blood Angels is another opportunity to also add to their Officer cadre. This time around I started to work on a Librarian I had converted from an Ahriman earlier in the year as well as the Forge World Vigilator. Both of them should come in handy when list building in the new edition. They are at the same stage like the troops, but I'd like to give them a bit more attention and details.

Erebor Dwarves, Moria Goblins, Laser Rapiers

After a lot of time spent with Heresy miniatures, the next few events I plan to go to will take place in Middle-earth once again. To that end, I painted up some more Erebor Dwarf warriors and a Captain to round out that part of my collection. I also started another army that should play the part of the dwarves' enemies in the form of a whole bunch of Moria Goblins including a big Dragon! I did also finish the two Laser Rapier Destroyers for my Heresy Blood Angels.

Pict 1624: Erebor Dwarves issuing from their mountain holds

Pict 1625: Erebor Dwarf Warriors and Erebor Captain

I played a game with these guys lead by Thrór and Thráin at the start of July and started to paint the twelve Erebor Warriors and the Captain pretty much immediately after. I painted them in the same colours that I used a few years back, when I played an alliance themed after the Battle of Azanulbizar using both Erebor and Iron Hills dwarves. With the red coats and the snow bases, they do look a bit like a collection of Santas. But I'm quite happy with them as a quick little project to finish up my Erebor Dwarves.

Pict 1626: Moria Goblins (WIP)

I built a whole lot of metal Moria Goblins to get this army started. The first two test models are pretty simple with the base colours slapped on and an oil wash applied. I really like the effect so far. I don't think they need much more highlighting. I would like to give them big cave dweller eyes, but they could also work just with the oil wash leaning more towards the grim dark painting style.

Pict 1627: Magma Dragon (WIP)

The Dragon I will want to play with my Moria Goblins is this huge Magma Dragon that ForgeWorld produced for Warhammer Fantasy a while back. I just about managed to get him on the required 130mm base with some parts overhanging. I got the Dragon second hand and spent some time rebuilding it and filling in the gaps with putty. I then put on a light coat of white primer. I'm not quite sure about the colour scheme I'm going for quite yet. But the miniature itself looks like a great canvas with lots of nice texture to play around!

Pict 1628: Beechbone (WIP)

The next project in Middle-earth, however, will be the new Beechbone to add to my my Fangorn army. I might take the Ents to an upcoming tournament. That might just be the motivation to get him done in a timely manner.

Pict 1629: Blood Angels Rapier Laser Destroyers

Pict 1630: Blood Angels Rapier Laser Destroyers

Lastly, with the new edition of Heresy, of course I'm also thinking about the 31st millenium. I finished these Rapiers – while I started them in the previous edition, they do look like a good way to deal with AV 14 vehicles in 3.0. I also picked up a third set second hand to complete the unit. It still has to be stripped of its current colours and I plan to convert the two crew members a bit. However, before that I want to try and get at least one game in with the new rules!