Swordmasters, an Ent and two young Dragons

These past two weeks, I finished up the first batch of Swordmasters and got started on the next one. But I also made a short trip to Middle-earth to paint up an Ent and another foray into ArcWorlde to paint two Forest Dragon Juveniles. Quite productive!

Pict 1010: Swordmasters of Hoeth

Pict 1011: Swordmasters of Hoeth

Pict 1012: Swordmasters of Hoeth

Pict 1013: Swordmasters of Hoeth

Finally here is my first batch of Swordmasters of Hoeth. It took me some time to finish them with all those litte details. But it was mostly that I painted the areas in the wrong order and having to go over work that was already done... But now that they are done, they look great as a group. I'm really enjoying myself with the High Elves, painting this group of elites and not worrying about playability just yet.

Pict 1014: Swordmasters of Hoeth (WIP)

And here is the rest of my Swordmasters – eight more including the champion and the banner bearer, bringing my total up to 19. An odd number but it leaves room for the one pose I'm currently still missing. I hope I can finish these a bit faster with the lessons learned on the first batch.

Pict 1015: Ent

This guys was a fast and unexpected project. The guy from Battle Streams in Middle-earth had a special for Ents on friday evening and I decided to get this metal Ent out and slap some paint on him. He went faster than I expected and I'm very happy with the different tones in the bark. He's another great sculpt by Trish Carden and very similar to the Warhammer Woodelf metal Treeman - I think, the latter might get pushed up the queue!

Pict 1016: Barrels (Tabletop Art)

In between projects I also painted these four barrels made by Tabletop Art. Really nice quality resin sculpts and they will serve as a bit more scatter terrain around the Forge.

Pict 1017: Forest Dragon Juveniles

Pict 1018: Forest Dragon Juveniles

And lastly here are the two Forest Dragon Juveniles that I mentioned in the beginning. The dragons of ArcWorlde are characterized by their lack of wings and I had good fun looking at different species of real world skinks and lizards for reference. I am quite happy with the scheme I came up with but I can't say how I will implement the scheme with the big Forest Dragon. Maybe they will change a bit, when aging? They propably do!

Mordheim: Elf Mage

These past two weeks saw me finishing up the highlights on the Mordheim Elf Mage for my Highelf Army as well as building the miniatures for a new project: Halflings, Wild Elves and Monsters from ArcWorlde.

Pict 966: Mordheim Elf Mage

Pict 967: Mordheim Elf Mage

I took my time with this model to really paint it up to a high standart for me and do it justice. The sculpt is from 2004 and really holds up well - you'd expect nothing less from a Juan Diaz scuplt. With the staff and the right hand outstreched, he looks like he can hold his own on the road (and also a bit like a Jedi...). As planned, the colours are similar to my Shadow Warriors, but I added more red to the lining of the cloak to tie him in with the rest of my High Elves.

Pict 968: ArcWorlde Forest Dragon

Pict 969: Wild Elven Warrior with Bow

Pict 970: Mjowls

I also got myself a nice little package from Warploque Miniatures, a small business around Alex Huntley, who designs the miniatures as well as the rule to use them with: ArcWorlde - The Narrative Fantasy Battle Game. I fell in love with the style of the miniatures, which are all hand-scuplted. You can really feel the human touch they have! Stand outs have to be the big Forest Dragon, the creepy and lanky Wild Elves and of course the Mjowls – relatives of gryphons but put together from owls and cats; amazingly cute!

Something's breaking through the Trees!

I had this particular Dragon standing on the back of my desk for some years now and with the Carmine Dragon screaming to be painted, I decided I really should finish the green one first.

Pict 445: Breaking through the Trees

Pict 446: Forest Dragon

Pict 447: Forest Dragon

Pict 448: Forest Dragon

Pict 449: Forest Dragon (Head)

It wasn't that much work to get him finished, but I never got around to it. Since he's got very large flat areas he was one of the first miniatures I tried my hand at wet-blending. The result wasn't the greatest which discouraged me at the time. Now, more than four years later, I only had to higlight the greens and get to the details like the horns and teeth.I'm pretty happy with the result as it stands but of course the blends could be better in some places. Thankfully the Carmine Dragon has more sculpted detail so that the big surfaces are broken up and will be easier to paint.
The miniature will most likely see play as an Adult Green Dragon in D&D, but if I'm ever able to play a Storm of Magic game I'll be happy to field him. Originally I had planned to do a conversion of Naestra and Arahan to ride the beast but right now I like the classic model for them better.

Pict 450: Gnoll Warrior

Pict 451: Gnoll Warrior

Pict 452: Gnoll Warrior

Pict 453: Gnoll Warrior

The second figure I painted this week is this Gnoll Warrior. He's the last piece of my Illithid Raiding Party set. The cast is quite detailed but in some spaces I had to resculpt parts after the fragile pieces had come loose when washing the moldrelease of. I used the picture in the 5th edition Monster Manual as a guideline - it's virtually the same Gnoll - and I liked how they introduced the red cloth as a splash of colour. I then added some verdigris to the bronze in order to contrast the red.