The Fellowship of the Ring – 20th Anniversary of the Movie

Today is the 20th anniversary of the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. To celebrate the occasion, I painted a new set of the four Hobbits: Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybock and Peregrin Took.

Pict 1107: Ambush at Amon Hen

Pict 1108: Frodo, Pippin, Merry, Sam

Pict 1109: Frodo, Pippin, Merry, Sam

These four Hobbits were great fun to paint – looking up screenshots of the film, looking at models I painted before and just getting to be in Middle-earth again. The models all come from the Breaking of the Fellowship set sculpted by Juan Diaz. They might get used in some scenarios (especially the Ambush at Amon Hen). But for now, they were a great little project to celebrate a hugly influential film!

Pict 1110: Jelson Darrock

Pict 1111: Jelson Darrock

I also got to the next Cursed City hero with the Witch Hunter Jelson Darrock. I feared differentiating the browns but I'm very happy with the way he turned out. I migh even be tempted to get some more of the modern Witch Hunters.

Pict 1112: Qulathis the Exile (WIP)

I also made some good progress with Qulathis the Exile and should be able to finish painting her soon. (Please don't mind the eyes – it's all part of the process!) I really would like to finish the Cursed City box before the end of the year. But to do that, I will have to focus on just those three missing heroes over the christmas holidays.

Rohan Reinforcements, Nazgûl and a Blue Angel

Pict 829: Rohan vs. Wraiths

Not to be overcome with Uruk-Hai, I painted some reinforcements for my Rohan army and put them to good use in a doubles tournament this past saturday. I also quickly whipped up a few wraiths from Mordor while I was in the Middle-earth mindset. I also put the finishing touches on Bertrand and Hugo that were almost finished during my last entry. To round out my painting, I then got onto a planetar for my D&D games.

Pict 830: Dernhelm and Merry (mounted)

Pict 831: Dernhelm (mounted)

Pict 832: Éowyn (Death of Gothmog)

I started painting the Rohan heroes of with Dernhelm since I needed her for the tournament. My doubles partner (you can see more of his over at SmallThingsModelling) could have lend me his version but nothing is better to motivate me to paint than a deadline such as a tournament. I then threw in the crawling Éowyn from the 'Death of Gothmog' diorama.

Pict 833: Théodred and Rohan Captain (mounted)

Pict 834: Théodred and Rohan Captain (on foot)

After they finished up rather nicely, I went into my drawer of primed Rohan miniatures and took out Théodred and the Captain. Up until now I never had a reason to paint them but the former got a cool new Legendary Legion in the 'War in Rohan' supplement and I might just use the Captain in an all-hero army. I'm still lacking a painted Gamling with the royal banner however so that model might jump the queue?

Pict 835: Riders of Rohan

Other than Dernhelm, the two riders had to be painted for the doubles tournament. While they are not my best paintjobs, I'm happy with how they look. There are now only four more Riders of Rohan primed and if I painted them, I would have 24 in total. That seems like a reasonable amount (there are quite a few more in my box of shame though...) and it might even be doable in the coming weeks?

Pict 836: The Shadowlord, the Knight of Umbar and Castellans of Dol Guldur

Pict 837: The Shadowlord, the Knight of Umbar and Castellans of Dol Guldur

The other list we were running at the doubles event called for a Castellan of Dol Guldur. I knew I had these two primed and ready to be painted but they were rather far down my queue. However since I had them on my mind from the list building process, I decided to slap some paint on them. Of course they are pretty much only metal and dark cloth so they painted up rather fast. Spurred on by the quick success, I also painted the two named Ringwraiths I sill had lying about: the Shadowlord and the Knight of Umbar.

Pict 838: The Bowmen of Bergerac - Bertrand le Brigand, Hugo le Petit and Gui le Gros

Pict 839: Bertrand le Brigand

Pict 840: Hugo le Petit

Bertrand and Hugo pretty much done with my last post. They had to sit idly on my desk though while I went on my Rohan and Morder painting spree. But after I had varnished everything above, I finished the two of them. Again: the models are really amazing, especially for their age (the first mention in a catalogue was from the 1997 Annual with a copyright from 1996, they had profiles in the 5th edition of WHFB). I suppose, they will only be used in D&D but if I ever get around to play Mordheim or Warhammer Fantasy Skirmish, they would be first in line!

Pict 841: Planetar (WIP)

Speaking of D&D: I have some of the bigger models that are primed and ready to go sitting on my desk at all times. (Amongst them a Beholder, a Carmine Dragon as well as two Balrogs.) They always accuse me of not getting a move on and painting them... Last week I finally gave in to their cries and started to work on this planetar made by Gale Force Nine for the D&D Collector's Series. I have to say that the older models of the product line were a bit better: The detail on the planetar's greaves and braces was slightly washed out and I had to resculpt some of the feathers where a big moldline was running right through them. Nonetheless the model looks quite cool and I look forward to finishing it next week.

RPG Miniatures and a few Rohan additions

This week I have to show some more models that I painted for the Middle-earth tournament. Since they were painted after I wrote last weeks post but before the weekend, I had some more time this week to get to some RPG miniatures.

Pict 653: The Necromancer and Twilight Ringwraiths in the Mists

But first, I also had the chance to play with some dry ice and take nice pictures of my miniatures in order to make a new header for this very blog. I pretty happy with the mood they evoke and you can see the result above.

Pict 654: Rath Modar

Pict 655: Rath Modar

On wednesday I got the chance to play in a Westmarches campaign unsing the Pathfinder rules with cap at sixth level. I really love the miniature and thus couldn't bring myself to try and do some OSL. I think it wouldn't really work anyways because the robes are mostly red themselves. I experimented with the shadows however and didn't use to many washes but mixed in some green in with the orange to enhance the orange with the complementary colour.

Pict 656: Rohan Royal Guard

Pict 657: Rohan Royal Guard

Pict 658: Riders of Rohan Dismounts

Pict 659: Riders of Rohan Dismounts

These here are the last few additions I wanted to get to for my Rohan army. They consist of the Royal Guard on foot I used for Déorwine on foot, five more dismounts for my Riders of Rohan. They were done quite fast and I think I could do better, but they will do.

Pict 660: Meriadoc Brandybock, Knight of the Mark (Death of the Witchking)

661: Meriadoc Brandybock, Knight of the Mark (Death of the Witchking)

Pict 662: Death of the Witchking

While I had the paints out, I also did Merry from the Fall of the Witchking diorama. He is quite cool, but since Dernhelm carries Merry with Shield as a passenger he didn't quite fit and I used an older model. I also took a photo of the diorama put together to show how they look right now - I might have to build a base for the three of them to really make it come together.

Pict 663: Naergoth Bladelord and Kiri (WIP)

Lastly here are two more works in progress that I want to use with RPGs. The one on the left is Naergoth Bladelord, coming from the same boxset as Rath Modar and himself a cultists of Tiamat. The one on the right is the sweet little Tengu-child Kiri from Critical Role made by Steam Forged Games. The skin colour for Naergoth might be a bit odd for now, but I hope it will turn out well with the highlights.

My Haqqislam Army and a few Characters from Middle-earth

These past weeks I finished my Haqqislam Army (fullfilling my first new year's resolution) as well as some more Characters from Middle-earth.

Pict 600: Haqqislam Army

Fist up is a picture of all the models I have for my Haqqislam right now. I only had the three Ghulams finished last week and those three alone didn't seem the warrant a blogpost. Since then I also got around to the Najjarun Engineer with his little Nasmat Remote, a Djanbazan Sniper and a Jannisary and Asawira for some more heavy hitting power.

Pict 601: Ghulam Infantry

Pict 602: Ghulam Infantry

Pict 603: Asawira, Jannisary, Najjarun, Nasmat and Djanbazan

Pict 604: Asawira, Jannisary, Najjarun, Nasmat and Djanbazan

With all of those finished, I fullfillied the first of my new year's resolutions - but I'm pretty sure this was only wave one for the Haqqislam since I'm still part of an escalation league and Corvus Belli really produces some amazing miniatures.

Pict 605: Gimli, Legolas, Merry, Pippin, Éowyn

Pict 606: Gimli, Legolas, Merry, Pippin, Éowyn

And here are the heroes from Middle-earth. I was inspired to complete the old Three Hunters set with Legolas and Gimli, the both of them mounted on Arod as well as the Merry and Pippin on the run from Grishnak when I read the Two Towers in the past weeks. With my Haqqislam hype I neglected Middle-eath a bit as far as painting goes and I am now onto the Return of the King with my reading. Luckily Éowyn also has some scenes here, so that I had a good reason to paint this version of her (I doubt I'll ever play with this miniature since the armour is pretty much a must).

Balin's Tomb Diorama - finished!

So I finally managed to finish the Battle Games in Middle Earth Diorama for the original Fellowship miniatures.

Pict 483: The Chamber of Mazarbul

Pict 484: Balin's Tomb Diorama

Pict 485: Balin's Tomb Diorama

Pict 486: Balin's Tomb Diorama

Pict 487: Ori, the Book of Mazarbul and Balin's Tomb

I had this diorama for quite some time now and I already started to paint it for almost as long. Now that I had gotten around to the Fellowship miniatures the diorama base jumped right ahead to the front of my paint queue. One of the challanges was the GW logo in the back. It is scuplted roughly like the current one but to get all the colours and lines right I had to have one ready to compare. It was a strange experience - that logo is one I looked at almost every single day for years, but I never even noticed the strange font. It's rather whimsical with round 'e' and the 'm' and 'w' with their swelling lines. My paintjob of the logo is not perfect but it'll have to do.

Pict 488: Termagants

After finishing something for the ME SBG I wanted to get back to 40k and finished these five snap-fit Termagants. As always I'm really happy how the carapace looks once the second set of red stripes are on. Now there are only 30 more to go!

Pict 489: Termagants (WIP)

And here is a quick WIP of my progess with the rest of the Tyranid project. I started with the black parts on these nine Termagants and added a few washes and spot colours. The black always takes the longest so that I had to break the pile of Gants up into smaller groupings.

Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin (and a Bloodhawk)

This week saw the completion of the four Hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. I also painted one more miniature from the Diablo II line.

Pict 467: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin

Pict 468: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin

The Halflings were a quick paint since the colors were already decided upon and I only had to do the highlights. As ever the faces proved to be difficult and the impending end of my usual detail brush's  life, didn't help that either. I like them a litte more colourful than my usual Hobbits esspecially Pippin since he's from a rich family and sould be able to afford the red dye for his cloak. Having one colour for each also makes it easier to distinguish them during play.

Pict 469: Bloodhawk (Diablo II)

Pict 470: Bloodhawk (Diablo II)

I also went ahead and painted this Bloodhawk. He's a neat little miniature with his devil-face instead of a bird's beak and I'm pretty happy whith the reds on his wings. Other than that I didn't have to much time, so that other projects that came along are not even ready for WIP pictures.

More D&D Monsters and Adventurous Hobbits

Riding the wave of D&D miniatures, I finished some more monsters for my menagerie: one Diablo II Goat Demon and two Displacer Beasts by WizKids. I also got started on the four Hobbits in Balin's tomb.

Pict 461: D&D Monsters

Pict 462: Goat Demon

Pict 463: Goat Demon

Pict 464: Goat Demon

I wanted this Goat Demon to be different from the Beastmen I have and thus opted for black fur. I'm rather happy with the contrast between these dark areas and the lighter skin. The demon is part of the same set of Diablo II monsters as the skeleton I painted in march. The complete set consists of only four more, so maybe I'll try and complete it within the next few weeks?

Pict 465: Displacer Beast

These two were rather quick to paint since the main area is simply black, highlighted with a very dark blue-gray. The casts themselves are ok, but you could improve them by smoothing out the seams where different parst meet - and you do have to clean up quite a few moldlines. But they are alright as gaming pieces and with the paint and bases, they are ready for some action.

Pict 466: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin (WIP)

Lastly I made a start on the Hobbits from the original fellowship for the Balin's tomb display. I have put down the main colours and washes and after they have dried, I hope to get some highlights and details on them today as well.