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!

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!

ArcWorlde Halflings and WHFB Swordmasters

I spent these past two weeks finishing my Halfling band for ArWorlde and started to paint some elite troops for my High Elves with a regiment of Swordmasters of Hoeth.

Pict 1003: ArcWorlde Halflings

Pict 1004: Knight of the Ram, Halfling Militia and Monster Hunter

Pict 1005: Knight of the Ram, Halfling Militia and Monster Hunter

So, here is the rest of the Militia the Halfling Starter Set. They were painted as a group with only the highlighting left to do after my last post. The two additions are the Monster Hunter raising her fist and the amazing Knight of the Ram. The latter is a bit of an older sculpt, with all other models being new for the second edition of the game. But the Knight still fits right in – one the strenghts of Alex's scuplting.

Pict 1006: Swordmaster of Hoeth

After finishing the Halflings, I changed gears and went ahead on some metal Swordmasters of Hoeth. This guy was painted as a single model to work out how I would apply my Eataine scheme onto them. Since the model has only a few different areas to it, this went rather fast. Thus I could get a good start on a group of ten of them by painting for a short time during last week's evenings:

Pict 1007: Swordmasters of Hoeth (WIP)

Beasts of the Forest

These past two week, I painted two big beasts for my ArcWorlde Wild Elves and started to work on a Lion Chariot.

Pict 990: Briar Elk and Unithorn

Pict 991: Unithorn

The Unithorn was the first of these bigger summoned creatures I painted. I like how it came out but in hindsight I could have chosen some other colours for the mane. The hair brings in a different texture and it would have been nice to bring that out. But I also don't quite know what colours I could have chosen to fit in with the simple red and black scheme...

Pict 992: Briar Elk

This Briar Elk is even bigger than the Unithorn but it painted up even faster since now I have the colours down pretty comfortably. I went a little lighter on the bones that I did with the Woodfiend and the Lichenhawk but I like how it draws the eye to head of the monsters.

Pict 993: Wild Elven Centaur (WIP)

At the same time I was putting the basecolours on the Elk, I also did the same ones on this Wild Elven Centaur. It's a cool concept – instead of riding any mount, you simply summon the lower part and thus still have both arms free to do stuff such as shoot you bow! The details and highlights on the elven part of the model are left to do but this should be done rather quickly.

Pict 994: White Lion (WIP)

Pict 995: White Lion Chariot (WIP)

The other big model I'm working on right now is this Lion Chariot for my High Elves. After figuring out what to do with the lion cloaks, I wanted to see how this would look on a full sized lions. I'm quite happy with how the cat looks but working on all the other parts of the chariot will probably take some more time.

Scenery: Arcane Ruins and a start on the Garden of Morr

These past weeks I took my resolutions to heart and painted more scenery pieces: the Arcane Ruins I had started and the statue from the Garden of Morr kit. Other than that, I also painted two more Highelves and a few more bits.

Pict 981: Korhil and Chracian Noble

Pict 982: Arcane Ruins

Pict 983: Arcane Ruins

First up, here are the Arcane Ruins I showed in my last post. It was great fun to put the different colours onto the stone but the piece really came to life with the different flocks.

Pict 984: Garden of Morr Statue

Since the Arcane Ruins were so much fun and a great success, I also painted this Statue from the Garden of Morr / Sigmarite Mausoleum kit. I added a base and some more flagstones made from plastic card to blend it in some more with the other terrain pieces. I also scraped of the sculpted on foliage and flowers. They are neat details but they don't fit the other flocks I put on.

Pict 985: Arcanite Markers

Another small project were these Crystalfield bases made by Tabletop Art. I had them in mind to use as objective markers for ArcWorlde when I read the rulebook. Oftentimes in this narrative system you will find yourself fighting over scraps of Arcanite, a magical crystal and these bases fit the bill perfectly.

Pict 986: Korhil and Chracian Noble

Pict 987: Korhil and Chracian Noble

Pict 988: Korhil and Chracian Noble

And here are two more High Elves. Korhil Lionmane, Captain of the White Lions and a fitting Noble from Chrace armed with and axe, a shield and a lion pelt. These white lion pelts troubled me - at first I tried to shade them with Seraphim Sepia but that made them look to dirty even when highlighted. Now they simply use a mix of Steel Legion Drab and Screaming Skull without any washes. And one more thing might be the Noble's shield - I want to put on some heraldry or an elven rune but for now I was not able to decide on any device.

Pict 989: Unithorn and Garden of Morr (WIP)

With the Arcane Ruins and the Statue, I almost made good on one of my New Years resolutions. I prepared the first of the Garden of Morr mausoleums, once again adding a base. And to the left here stands another ArcWorlde miniature: the Unithorn, a bigger summoned monster of the Wild Elves line.

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!

WHFB: Alith Anar and Shadow Warrios

This week I finished highlighting the Shadow Warrios and Alith Anar for my growing collection of painted Warhammer High Elves.

Pict 956: Alith Anar and Shadow Warriors

Pict 957: Alith Anar

Alith Anar was painted right alongside the remaining Shadow Warriors but of course his armour has a lot more bling to it. With the teal arnoud the runes on the sword I introduced a new colour into the scheme. I think I like it so that similar runes will also be this colour from now on.

Pict 958: Shadow Warriors

Pict 959: Shadow Warriors

I really like how these Shadow Warrios came out. I would have been cool to have five unique sculpts in the 7th edition box, but they look great as a unit nonetheless. I might buy a unit of the 6th edition sculpts as well. But that will have to wait until next year - for now I will have to look towards my numbers and paint a few more models to and not buy more...

Pict 960: Mordheim Elf Mage (WIP)

After finishing the highlighting on the Shadow Warriors, I started with the base colours on the Mordheim Elf Mage. He will wear similar colours to these stealthy warriors as I imagine him to be self reliant on the road as well.

MESBG: The Dark Marshall and WHFB: Shadow Warriors

 Just a quick post today - hobby time is somewhat at a premium these days. But I still managed to paint up another named Nazûl. This time the Dark Marshall. Other than that I did a bit more work on the High Elf Shadow Warriors, finishing one and starting on the base coats of the rest of the group.

Pict 924: The Dark Marshal

Pict 925: The Dark Marshal

Pict 926: The Dark Marshal

As you can see, he's very similar to the other Ringwraiths I already painted. They are all basically a humanoid form in a dark shroud with varying degrees of armour. I was happy to snatch this model up in metal to match my other wraiths that are also all in metal and not in Finecast.

I also decided to try out a differnt basing scheme for my Mordor army. It irks me that I can't use my Mordor Orcs with my Isengard army and so I'm considering to change up the bases on my Mordor. The grass is not quite the same - Rohan grass being a bit to lush for my Mordor taste. But this should my not as noticable.

Pict 927: Shadow Warrior

Here is the first of the Shadow Warriors finished. I quite like how he came out even if it's only the orange tabbard connecting him to the scheme of the wider army. The Shadow Warriors should be able to set themselves apart a bit.

Pict 928: Alith Anar and Shadow Warriors (WIP)

Lastly a quick WIP: the rest of the Shadow Warriors from the 7th edition box and of course Alith Anar to lead them into battle. Always great to have an infantry model shooting arrows using the bolt thrower mechanics in game.

Ten Years After: The Island of Blood

As I said in my last post, I wanted to participate in the Skaven and High Elves Painting Challenge and with a bit more time during this week's evenings I not only managed to finish Prince Althran but also my conversion of the Island of Blood mage as well as some other bits and bobs.

Pict 917: High Elf Heros in Lustria

Pict 918: Prince Althran on foot

Pict 917: High Elf Mage (Conversion)

I had quite a bit of fun painting these two and I'm looking forward to painting some more High Elves! Finishing Prince Althran did not take very long and I can see myself repeating the colours not only on heroes but also warriors. First I had to try and make the white work on a bigger surface - the converted Island of Blood mage seemed like a good enough test model. It was less masochistic than expected. I did the highlights on the white as the very last thing on the model and thus could smooth out any spots where I had not been quite as neat as I wanted.

Pict 920: Shadow Warrior (WIP)

I also started on a Shadow Warrior to implement the colours on a warrior instead of a hero. I don't plan on having a real army of high elves so I should be able to take my time and only paint the models I want to a high level.

Pict 921: Bandobras Tuk, Fredegar Bolger and Hobbit Militia

After so much time in the Old World, I wanted to get back to my usual Middle-earth. And what better way to do that then painting a bunch of Hobbits. I had a version of Bandobras on foot for quite a while but never got around to the Bulllroarer on horseback. With him, I also pulled out the remainder of the hobbit militia I had in a box and of course Fatty Bolger, with no weapon other than is girth.

Pict 922: Uruk-Hai Warrior and Raven

My friend over at smallthingsmodelling also donated a crossbow to the Isengard cause as well as a raven. The former was promtly used to convert a second Uruk-hai Warrior. And the latter might get used as an animal compaintion in Rangers of Shadow Deep.

Pict 923: Adult Red Dragon Base (WIP)

Lastly, I also did a bit more work on the Adult Red Dragon's base. With the gold on the coins, the next step will be  a lot of tidying up of the ground... After that: Only the gemstones and some other small details left now. The big problem will be the Dragon's paws - I haven't quite decided on how I'll paint the big scales and the claws...