The Rangers of the North are ready for War

These past two weeks I managed to finish the last few miniatures I needed for the armies I'm going to bring to the national Middle-earth SBG championship this coming weekend. I also painted some more miniatures for the Hassassin Sectorial of my Haqqislam army.

Pict 717: Rangers of the North Army

Pict 718: Hunter Orc Army

Here are the two armies I decided upon for this coming weekend: the Dúnedain led by Aragorn and Halbarad, both on horseback, Halbarad with the Banner of Arwen Evenstar. I really like how they all look together as a group an look forward to getting to shoot some evil-doers.
The evil army again is a variation on the hunter orc theme - Bolg, Fimbul, Yazneg and Narzug leading a host of two attack orcs on foot. Only thing I'm missing is a banner and maybe a hornblower. I missed the latter during a game trying them out against Mirkwoodelves lead by Thranduil, who made them all terrifying. The orcs have such a low morale that I wasn't able to charge into batte and had to get picked apart one by one...

Pict 719: Halbarad (Banner, Horse)

Pict 720: Halbarad (Banner, Horse)

This guy really came together nicely. The banner looks very much imposing (I don't quite kow how he can manage to stay atop his horse with any wind, but never mind that). And with him done I now have paited all the miniatures I own for the Rangers of the North armylist and I look forward to using him in some games!

Pict 721: Arnor Bannerbearer and Captain

Pict 722: Arnor Bannerbearer and Captain

Whilst paiting Halbarad on foot, I also managed to finish these two models that were missing for my Arnor force. Since I primarily built them for Battle Companies it's not really a force, but nevertheless these two will now bolster my ranks. I had started to paint them when I painted the Rangers of the North but didn't finish them until now. It's always a good feeling to

Pict 723: Hassassin Fiday, Hassassin Muyib

And here are some more Hassassin miniatures – I decided upon this sectorial for the secod escalation league I'm part of. I somehow managed to win both of my first games and now find myself on top of the table. That pits me against the two best players in the league and I'm sure after that I'll find myself back at the lower end of the table again. The Muyib with Spitfire already did some amazing work while the Fiday pretty much only let herself shot in the back by Senor Massacre who had picked up a Multi Sniper from a panoply.

Pict 724: Ghulam Infantry (WIP)

Lastly a quick WIP of some more Haqqislam miniatures. The Ghulam with Panzerfaust will likely be used as a Daylami with the same loadout to destroy some high armoured targets. The other Ghulam will be a gift to my friend who is organising the league as a birthday present – he wanted to get some linetroops of every army to use as impersonation markers with his aliens and that to me sounded like a great idea!

Picking up a few Projects

This week I picked up a few projects I started this year and that still stood on my table. I finished the mounted Hunter Orcs, Alfrid and the Morannon Orc Captain and started to work on the Rangers of the North I primed this month.

Pict 548: Mounted Hunter Orcs

Pict 549: Mounted Hunter Orcs

I finally managed to paint all my Hunter Orcs. These ones and their mounts were rather quick to paint and I find myself wanting another box of them to round out the army. I'll see if can't find some the first week of the new year in one of the local stores.

Pict 550: Alfrid Lickspittle

Pict 551: Alfrid Lickspittle

Just like the Hunter Orcs, Alfrid was also only missing the highlights and thus was painted during one evening. I'm pretty happy how he turned out - The miniature really lends itself to do different things with all of the textures on the layers of cloth and leather. I'm only unhappy with the face - the eyes make him look sceptical...

Pict 552: Morannon Orc Captain

Pict 553: Morannon Orc Captain

Pict 554: Morannon Orc Captain

This one was a fun little minitature to paint. I really enjoyed doing the shading on the armour and of course the reds of the cloth. The severed head came out ok as well - it's gruesome enough but not to over the top.

Pict 555: Rangers of the North (WIP)

Lastly here's a picture of the next leg of my Rangers. I started doing the base colours and I hope to finish them this year so that I can add them to my tally. In the first post of the new year I'll add up all my painted models, take a look back and make some resolutions for 2019.

Again with the Orcses, eh Precios?

I did it! I managed to finish the remaining Hunter Orcs that I started in mid 2017 - so that's twelve more models added to the painting tally and a good step towards finishing my pledges from the the beginning of the year.

Pict 545: Hunter Orcs

Pict 546: Hunter Orcs

These Hunter Orcs now had to live in the plastic bag limbo of unfinished miniatures for far to long. To complete them I will only have to get a coat of varnish on these twentyfour of the last weeks. After that it's only the five Orcs riding Wargs to finish the Azog's Hunters I have around. To round out my Azog's Hunters I might get some more Hunter Orcs on Wargs and Wargs on their own but I'm very glad to close the chapter on the foot models!

Even more Orcs and some Converting for 30k

Sadly no progress with Alfrid but I managed to finish the six Hunter Orcs from last week. Other than that I went ahead with the rest of my Hunter Orcs on foot. I also managed to collect all the bits for a conversion I had in mind for some time.

Pict 540: Hunter Orcs

First up are the remaining six Hunter Orcs with the yellowish skin. Pretty much the same as last week - these don't have any aditional weapons, so no bows or quivers. Again, I tried for varied war paint but sooner or later I'll have to repeat the patterns.

Pict 541: Hunter Orcs (WIP)

And here is the rest of the Hunter Orcs on foot. I already did most of the work on the eyes do that the next step is the skin and then on to the highlights on the other surfaces.

Pict 542: Morannon Orc Captain (WIP)

I started this Morannon Orc Captain to get a bit of a break from the Orcs I'm painting right now. The over all darker colours are a bit of a respite. Usually I'm not to keen on miniatures carrying around heads but I'll see what I do with this one since I couldn't bring myself to cut it off.

Pict 543: Horus, Primarch of the Luna Wolves (Conversion)

Pict 544: Horus, Primarch of the Luna Wolves (Conversion)

And lastly here is the big guy himself - Horus, Primarch of the Luna Wolves and still untouched by chaos. I actually stipped the main body for some time now, but I knew I wanted him to use a Combibolter and a sword to show him at an early time of the crusade. The sword really had me thinking which bit to use and now that I bought a set of Legion Praetors pretty much for the swordhand up to the hilt, I finally had all the bits I needed and started to put him together. I might still go a little further on the right vambrace to make it even more similar to the original, but I'm pretty happy with the pose so far.

Hunter Orcs and Alfrid Lickspittle

Last Sunday I sadly didn't have anything to show, but this past week I got back into the swing of things and painted some Hunter Orcs as well as getting started on the coward Alfrid.

Pict 537: Hunter Orcs

Pict 538: Hunter Orcs

Somehow the end of the year is already looming and with that in mind I wanted to get some more work on the Hunter Orcs done since they were on my list of new year's resolutions. I'm happy enough with the highlighting so far - you could go even further but since I'll still have to do another 18 after these six, that's how far I'll go. I'm rater proud of the eyes and the different facepaint.

Pict 539: Alfrid Lickspittle (WIP)

I got this Warhammer World exclusive Alfrid Lickspittle through a competition that the guys over at the SBG fanzine ran - you had to count up all the instances that Alfrid hid himself in a picture in their fifth issue - and apparently I found the sneak most often!
The sculpt is great - so many different textures of cloth and of course so much character! I'm pretty happy with the layout of colours so far and I already started the highlighting. I'll have to do the face from scratch because right now Alfrid looks even creepier than I intend to!

More Gnolls and Revisiting my New Year's Resolutions

This week's progress consists of two more Gnoll Warriors. I started them when I did the one last week, but then they were not far enough along to warrant a picture. I kept the coulors pretty much the same as before but these miniatures by WizKids do stand out since they are bigger.

Pict 454: Gnoll Warriors

Besides that: With this week, half of the year is over I wanted to take the opportunity to check in on my New Year's resolutions. I know that I didn't get to all and I hope this post will maybe help me to priotise them. At the start of the year I wanted to get to a few of last year's projets: the Tyranids, the Iron Hills Dwarves and the Hunter Orcs.

Pict 455: Tyranids

Pict 456: Iron Hills Dwarves

Pict 457: Hunter Orcs (WIP)

I'll count the Tyranids and the Iron Hills as sucesses, but I'll still have to finish twentyfour Hunter Orcs on foot and five mounted on Fell Wargs. I also still have a whole bunch of Termagants in a box and I'd be happy to get to them in the second part of the year but I don't see them as a necessity.

Pict 458: White Council in Dol Goldur

Pict 459: The Fellowship in Balin's Tomb (WIP)

The dioramas however will have to be finished. The White Council in Dol Guldur was completed at the end of May but Balin's Tomb still looks way to pale. At least I finished Aragorn; but Boromir, Gimli, the Hobbits and the base itself are still left to do.

Pict 460: Hobbit Archers

Lastly I spoke of plans to put together a Battle Company of Hobbits. I'm not sure if I still want to do those now that I completed the Arnor company. I think an evil force might be more interesting... But I guess my fancy will take me to new and different projects anyway.

Hunter Orcs and Ghosty

This week I got a little time to get to some of the Hunter Orcs from last week. Other than that, I got started a Twilight Ringwraith to play as a Nazgûl of Dol Guldur.

Pict 438: Hunter Orcs

These Orcs are finished for now - the first twelve of thirty-six. I pretty happy with some of the war paint but I'm starting to run thin on ideas for new ones. Maybe I'll have to repeat designs in a different colour. Could be a way to tie the red of the banner back in. But I fear that it could be to flashy.

Pict 439: Twilight Ringwraith (WIP)

I had the Twilight Ringwraiths for some time now but painting them was always a bit daunting. I'm not quite sure about the colour choice. I'll see how it looks once I put down some washes.

Getting back on the horse

I had a bit of a dry spell of painting since I had pretty little time to hobby. I missed last weeks posting because I hadn't done any painting nor modelling that week. But this week I tried to get back onto the hobby horse and started by finishing my conversion of Narzug mounted on a Fell Warg.

Pict 434: Narzug

Pict 435: Narzug (mounted)

Pict 436: Narzug (mounted)

I converted this Orc hero last year to be a part of an evil all-hero army but I didn't finish the painting before the tournament I built the list for. And as it so often is, after the event I just didn't get to him because I got distracted by new and shiny projects. Thus it feels even better to having finished Narzug.

Pict 437: Hunter Orcs (WIP)

After getting to Narzug, I got a taste for Hunter Orcs. I have some thirty Orcs lying about that up until now had a similar fate to Narzug. I'm not taking on all of them at once but have limited myself to a first batch of twelve. Right now I have painted in the eyes and I have started on the highlighting. I'll try and give them all differing warpaint - let's see how that goes...

One lonely Pyrovore..

So this week's progress was rather slow, but I finished two more miniatures and got to work on some more.

Pict 346: Pyrovore

Pict 347: Pyrovore

Pict 348: Pyrovore

First up is one of the two Pyrovores I had already shown a few weeks back. In contrast to my usual Kraken scheme, I used a bright green glaze to denote it's toxicity. I liked working with the glaze as opposed to a wash and I'm looking forward to doing it again with the second one.

Pict 349: Azog's Hunters Objective Marker

The second thing I finished is this objective marker for my Hunter Orc army / battle company. Just like the Rivendell Knight last week, I wand to use him for those heroes that roll the "Lost in Battle" result on the injury table. I acually got to use him in battle today - but fortunately I lent him to my opponent and got to play the Rivendell company. Another funny thing about this miniature is that this marks the first Hunter Orc I finished - the dead one...

Pict 350: Tyranids (WIP)

Lastly here is a WIP shot os some more Tyranids. I hope to finish Old One Eye soon - there is only one more layer of highlight on the carapace to do and after that I'll get to the Hive Tyrants carapace. But I'm sure I'll get distraced by some other project that's sitting on the desk right now...

The Butterfly's Tally 2017

This post will be a longer one than the usual sunday's post as I'll be looking at not only what I got done this week but the entire year

Pict 318: Board of Miniatures

Pict 319: Board of Miniatures

As you can see with a glance at the tags on the right side of this text, 2017 was rather producitve. The focus of my painting was with the Middle Earth SBG, painting an army of Iron Hills Dwarves, one of Rivendell and getting a good start with the Hunter Orcs. Other than those, I also painted a few more Heroes and a host of Rohan Warriors.

Pict 320: Board of Miniatures

But I didn't paint stuff for the SBG alone - I also (re)painted some of my Asrai. But I added way more to that list early on in the year by having bought a lot of earlier edition Woodelves.
As you can see in the first picture of this post, the fantasy department of my miniatures grew with a few miniatures intended for D&D. Sadly I did't get to use them all, but it's nice to have them when preparing the adventures.

Pict 321: Zoanthropes

Pict 322: Zoanthropes

Pict 323: Tyrant Guard

Pict 324: Tyrant Guard

Pict 325: Sporemines

I also made progress with my Warhammer 40k backlog (especially with the Tyranid painting spree of the last few weeks). But I also painted a Chaplain Dreadnought for my Flesh Tearers and a whole army of Death Guard. As you can see, this week I added two Zoanthropes, a Tyrant Guard and some Sporemines and with that my total tally of painted miniatures is 317. I'm happy with that number even tough it's not quite a mini a day. But it is a new record for me!
Comparing this tally to 2016's - the ratio of painted miniatures to the ones I bought is better, but I didn't manage to paint more than buying. That means I'll have to do better next year - one resolution sorted! Other than that, I want to try and reduce the backlog of miniatures not only by painting them but also by selling projects that will never get done. I hope to be able to take inventory during the first week of the year, but we'll see how much time I'll have.

Pict 326: Tyranids (WIP)

Pict 327: The White Council at Dol Guldur (WIP)

These work in progress pictures will be the first things I'll paint in 2018: I do want to get some more Tyranids done to advance this project a bit. After that I do want to mop up some of this years projects, namely the Iron Hills Dwarfes (with the chariot and the crossbows) and the Hunter Orcs (including Hunter Orcs, Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs and the Keeper of the Dungeons). Staying in Middle Earth I want to finish up the Balin's Tomb diorama of the Fellowship and a diorama of the White Council in Dol Guldur. And since GW released the Battle Companies book for the Middle Earth SBG I'm planning a Shire force as well - this will be a colourfull and well converted band to take on the challanges of The Quest to Fornost. Once the evil campaign is published in White Dwarf, I'll have to take another look at the evil companies and get to work on one of those as well.