Dashing thorugh the snow... - That's the Iron Hills' Return

This first week of the year was already a quite productive one. Not only did I manage to finish my Iron Hills army, but I also played a bunch of Battle Companies games.

Pict 328: Iron Hills Chariot

Pict 329: Iron Hills Chariot

Pict 330: Iron Hills Chariot

 First up is the Iron Hills Chariot, giving this post its fitting title. I really didn't want to highlight up those goats (so many layers on small bits of fur...), but I had this particular headline in my head everytime I looked at the Chariot and tought about putting the snow on the base and I wanted to get it done for this winter. Other than the goats, I only had to finish up the crew and put the miniature together. I love the miniature but I don't think I'll paint another one anytime soon.

Pict 331: Iron Hills Warriors (Crossbows)

Pict 332: Iron Hills Warriors (Crossbows)

These other Iron Hills Dwarfs also took up space on my desk and with them finished, I completed every model I currently own for the army. I'm pretty happy with how the force stands right now, but I'm sure I'll add to it in time. There are still a few warriors I'll have to get to play at least some of the scenarios in the There And Back Again book and maybe, just maybe, I'll get a blister of warriors with mattocks to play them as a Battle Company.

Pict 333: Dayael, Noldor Captain

Pict 334: Dayael, Noldor Captain

Speaking of Battle Companies - This miniature here will be Dayael, the leader of my current Rivendell force. This iteration is only the third one, since with the first two both of my sargents managed to get themselves killed in the first few games. As it stands now the company managed to acually win a game and I hope to go forward with them and convert some more miniatures. The model itself is a pretty simple conversion I stole from the very first rulebook that came with the Fellowship starter set and features a bannerbearer's head on Elrond.

Pict 335: Naal, Noldor Captain (WIP)

To this end: here is the next conversion I bashed together using a butchered Glorfindel as a base and adding a Captains head, the weapons of normal warriors and a quiver from the Rivendell Knight kit. I hope to finish him tomorrow and get to work on some other porject. I haven't forgotten about the Tyranids just yet and I do want to get to work on a battle company from Arnor. Then again there is my Dol Guldur company.

The Dark Lord repainted

The past two weeks were mostly spent painting the Iron Hills Chariot, but I also made some time to repaint Sauron, the fallen Elendil and Isildur. Once I had started on painting black, I wanted to keep the train going and painted a Witchking.

Pict 233: The Dark Lord and friend

Pict 234: Sauron

Pict 235: Sauron

I painted Sauron sometime during the last two years, but I had planned to use him and the fallen Númenoreans in a diorama and thus had put them on a large base. Now that I want to use Sauron in scenarios and maybe in games, I ripped him from the old base, stripped the paint of him and started anew.

Pict 236: Elendil, Isildur

 Elendil and Isildur got the same treatment as Sauron and will now be used as objective markers. Some of the new scenarios for the Hobbit SBG will require six markers, so I will have to be creative. Maybe I'll chop up a Gil-Galad and some orcs?

Pict 237: The Witchking

Pict 238: The Witchking

This particular Witchking of Angmar comes from the Final Fate of the Witchking Diorama and in my opinion it's the best footmodel for the Witchking Games Workshop ever produced. I really like the pose with sword and flail in hand. I decided against using the dioramabase (similar reasoning as with Sauron) and put him on a normal GW base. At first I had him on a usual 25mm one, but since the miniature has slightly bigger than the other LotR miniatures, it didn't look quite right. Thus I went with 32mm base that matches his bulk in the end.

Pict 239: Iron Hills Chariot (WIP)

Lastly here's a WIP picture of the Iron Hills Chariot so far. The base is almost finished, it's only missing the snow. That will have to wait until the Chariot is mounted on the base. The Iron Hills Captain that's going to be the driver is done, but the rest of the crew is still mainly basecoated in Boltgun Metal. The work on the Chariot itself is also far along with the washes and the first highlights done. The main thing missing are the goats. Those I am dreading a little since I really didn't want to paint more goats after I had finished the goatriders.

Dáin has sent for help - and a Chariot and Dwarves with Crossbows answer the call

So this week was another quite productive one. Besides some more stuff for the next DnD adventure, I finished miniatrues for Warhammer 40k and the Middle Earth SBG. And as you read in the title, I put together a chariot and some Crossbow wielding Dwarves for my Iron Hills Army.

Pict 226:  Iron Hills Chariot (WIP)

Pict 227: Iron Hills Dwarves with Crossbows (WIP)

First up I have to show the new Dwarves. The Chariot is a dream of a model - it looks amazing and goes together quite nicely; only the goat's horns don't connect that good and there was a gap to fill on all of the goat's brows. Even though I usually don't like to do so, I kept the Chariot in subassemblies to be able to get to all the surfaces. I'm going to use the Captain as the driver and the normal dwarf driver will be used as additional Crew for the Ballista.
The Dwarves carrying crossbows are really great as well. I like the underslung design of the Crossbows and the size of the bolts alone should be enough to take out some Orcs.

Pict 228: Gargoyles

Pict 229: Gargoyles

Pict 230: Fell Wargs

Wednesday afternoon, a friend came over to paint and I used this time to finish up two Gargoyles for my DnD collection. Since they were finished ratehr fast, I also continued work on the Azog's Hunters Army with six Fell Wargs.

Pict 231: Tyranid Ravenors

Pict 232: Tyranid Ravenors

After the Wargs were done, I had a fit of nostagia and painted up two Tyranid Ravenors. The Tyranids were my first Warhammer 40k army and my colourscheme has changed quite a bit over the years, but I kept them in line with the Kraken Scheme the main part of my army is painted righ now. The scheme borrows heavily from the main scheme of the 3rd edtion Tyranid Codex but I use less red. Since I only have the two of them right now, I will have to use them as a unit under strength in 40k, but they will also serve as Ankhegs in DnD.