Middle-earth tournament prep: Beechbone and Rohan

While I did not finish to much – pretty much only Beechbone for my Ents – but I there is some good progress with more Middle-earth miniatures as well as some Heresy Blood Angels!

Pict 1631: Beechbone

Pict 1632: Beechbone

Pict 1633: Beechbone

When Beechbone here was announced, I was happy to add him to my Fangorn collection. The sculpt has some really nice details such as the face and the nest with two little birds on his head. The leaves are still a bit to cookie-cutter for my liking, but they look better than the ones on Birchseed. I will play the three hero Ents as well as Merry and Pippin in a small tournament next weekend.

Pict 1634: Rohan Royal Guard, Gimli, Theodon, Rohan Banner (WIP)

Staying in Middle-earth, the weekend after next, there will be a Doubles tournament. My team mate Small Things Modelling and I decided to bring the Defenders of Helm's Deep, since the army would allow us to split the force thematically and have a little mini game with Legolas and Gimli counting kills. It has been quite some time since I played Rohan at an event – in fact most of my Warriors were painted for a similar Doubles event with the same team mate almost 8 years ago! Since then I'd like to think that my painting has improved somewhat and I'd like to try and go over the warriors once more.

Before that, however, there a two more Rohan Royal Guard on foot that I have to paint for the army and I'd like to take the opportunity to also do a third one as well as new paintjobs for the most important units of the army: Théoden, Gimli and the Banner bearer. These will be the priority. Any more highlights on the Warriors would be the icing on the cake!

Pict 1635: Blood Angels Assault Marines and Despoilers (WIP)

The first units I built to bring my Blood Angels into the third edition of the Horus Heresy are these five Despoilers and five more Assault Marines. The former are all equiped with the basic boltpistol and chainsword since my unit already has two heavy chainswords and two poweraxes that now share the same one-in-four slot. They are once again painted as Inductii – I'm looking forward to getting rules for them as well. For now, they will be a squad full squad of twenty normal Despoilers. The Assault Marines also bring up my squad to the full twenty. The base colours, decals and oil wash are down, so only the highlights to do on these!

Pict 1636: Blood Angels Librarian and Vigilator (WIP)

Anytime I add a small squad to my Blood Angels is another opportunity to also add to their Officer cadre. This time around I started to work on a Librarian I had converted from an Ahriman earlier in the year as well as the Forge World Vigilator. Both of them should come in handy when list building in the new edition. They are at the same stage like the troops, but I'd like to give them a bit more attention and details.

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.

A few Grey Wizards and progress on the Uruk-hai Pikemen

I spent these past two weeks mainly on the remaining Uruk-hai Warriors but I managed to sneak some Gandalf miniatures in to save my sanity!

Pict 899: A Gaggle of Gandalfs

Pict 900: Gandalf

Pict 901: Gandalf

First up are the only models I actually finished: The four Gandalfs I still had lying around – and in one fell swoop I doubled the different Gandalf miniatures I painted. I very much enjoyed layering the different greys and give the miniature likenesses of Ian McKellen a good try. Mostly this went well but especially the sculpt on the right with the hat posed some difficulties. And of course there is that plastic Gandalf from the Mines of Moria starter box - pretty much the worst sculpt of Gandalf GW produced. Luckily, I painted him now with the other three so that I actually did it.

Pict 902: Uruk-hai Warriors (WIP)

And here is my progress with the Uruk-hai. I finished the base colours and put down the washes but the punted the issue of starting the highlights. I now will have to break the group up into smaller, more managable chunks because otherwise I'll never get them done.

The last member of the Fellowship of the Ring

Only a quick update today since I did not have to much time to paint this week. But I managed to paint the last missing member of the Fellowship of the Ring.

Pict 664: Bill the Pony

At least since I painted the Balin's tomb Diorama last year, I had a version of almost all of the heroes of the Fellowship. But the one miniature I was missing from the list was the humble Bill the Pony. I painted him less with the Middle-earth SBG in mind however but as a beast of burden for my Pathfinder character (he's so weak!).

Pict 665: Kiri (Critical Role)

After that I also finished up Kiri the Tengu from Critical Role. She reallly has huge eyes and I had to look at a few birdeyes before I knew what I wanted to do with them. I'm happy with they turned out but the big pupils are of a bit more comical style than I usually paint.

"If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself into the Fire of Doom."

This week I returned to Middle Earth to paint two characterful versions of Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee each: Both in Orc Armour and the two of them at Sammath Naur, seemingly ready to get rid of the one ring once and for all.

Pict 607: Sammath Naur, the Cracks of Doom

Pict 608: Frodo and Sam (Mount Doom)

Pict 609: Frodo and Sam (Mount Doom)

I really enjoyed painting these - the dishevelled look about them, the expressions - all in all really great miniatures and quite a quick paintjob too! Gollum from the first picture was already done for quite some time and I love that the set is now complete and can go onto my shelf.

Pict 610: Frodo and Sam (Orc Armour)

Pict 611: Frodo and Sam (Orc Armour)

I had this version of Frodo with the basecolours almost done lying about for nigh on two years now. But as with the other pieces of the last weeks, inspiration struck while reading and I quickly painted both Frodo and Sam. I'm done now with the Return of the King and I'm looking forward to see what the appendices are going to inspire me to do.

Pict 612: Mordor Orc (WIP)

After finishing the Hobbits in Orc Armour, I wrote down the recipe and got to work on these Mordor Orcs. I don't really have any ambitions to play a Mordor Army any time soon, but now that the opportunity presented itself, I wanted to use the practice I got with the Hobbits. Obviously the Orcs are a bit different that Frodo and Sam but I got through the basecolours and the washes pretty quickly nonetheless.

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.

Minsc, the beloved Ranger and his fearless companion Boo!

At long last I had some time to relax while painting. I got to some inividual miniatures such as the amazing Minsc and Boo as well as Boromir and Gimli - the remainder of the fellowship. After that I started a big project I'll try and finish over my summer vacation.

Pict 475: Minsc & Boo

Pict 476: Minsc & Boo

Pict 477: Minsc & Boo

 As soon as I saw that Gale Force Nine would release a miniature for Minsc and Boo, I wanted to get and paint it. They are some of the best companios not only in the Baldur's Gate series but in any videogame and recently had a run in the D&D comics as well. I went with the aesthetic of the comics and I'm pretty happy with the different purples on them.

"Go for the eyes, Boo!"

Pict 478: Boromir

Pict 479: Boromir

Pict 480: Gimli

Pict 481: Gimli

And here are two more heroes. This time it's more for the Middle Earth SBG. With Boromir and Gimli done, I'll have to get to the diorama base soon. They were quite pleasing to paint - the sculpts from 17 years ago do show some age, but still hold up nicely. Strangely enough I had already painted at least one of each of the Fellowship but  Boromir, so that I had the pleasure to collect source material (i.e. watch the Fellowship movie) to get a feel for the colours.

Pict 482: Gants and Gaunts (WIP)

And lastly here is the start of my next big project. The last remnats of grey Tyranids will have to succumb to my brush this summer. Right now all the skin parts are mostly done with serveral layers of drybrushing to get my usual effect. Next up will be carapace and claws - the black always takes to longest, so I'll break up the 35 critters into smaller chunks as to not wear me out.

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.