The Rangers of the North are ready for War

These past two weeks I managed to finish the last few miniatures I needed for the armies I'm going to bring to the national Middle-earth SBG championship this coming weekend. I also painted some more miniatures for the Hassassin Sectorial of my Haqqislam army.

Pict 717: Rangers of the North Army

Pict 718: Hunter Orc Army

Here are the two armies I decided upon for this coming weekend: the Dúnedain led by Aragorn and Halbarad, both on horseback, Halbarad with the Banner of Arwen Evenstar. I really like how they all look together as a group an look forward to getting to shoot some evil-doers.
The evil army again is a variation on the hunter orc theme - Bolg, Fimbul, Yazneg and Narzug leading a host of two attack orcs on foot. Only thing I'm missing is a banner and maybe a hornblower. I missed the latter during a game trying them out against Mirkwoodelves lead by Thranduil, who made them all terrifying. The orcs have such a low morale that I wasn't able to charge into batte and had to get picked apart one by one...

Pict 719: Halbarad (Banner, Horse)

Pict 720: Halbarad (Banner, Horse)

This guy really came together nicely. The banner looks very much imposing (I don't quite kow how he can manage to stay atop his horse with any wind, but never mind that). And with him done I now have paited all the miniatures I own for the Rangers of the North armylist and I look forward to using him in some games!

Pict 721: Arnor Bannerbearer and Captain

Pict 722: Arnor Bannerbearer and Captain

Whilst paiting Halbarad on foot, I also managed to finish these two models that were missing for my Arnor force. Since I primarily built them for Battle Companies it's not really a force, but nevertheless these two will now bolster my ranks. I had started to paint them when I painted the Rangers of the North but didn't finish them until now. It's always a good feeling to

Pict 723: Hassassin Fiday, Hassassin Muyib

And here are some more Hassassin miniatures – I decided upon this sectorial for the secod escalation league I'm part of. I somehow managed to win both of my first games and now find myself on top of the table. That pits me against the two best players in the league and I'm sure after that I'll find myself back at the lower end of the table again. The Muyib with Spitfire already did some amazing work while the Fiday pretty much only let herself shot in the back by Senor Massacre who had picked up a Multi Sniper from a panoply.

Pict 724: Ghulam Infantry (WIP)

Lastly a quick WIP of some more Haqqislam miniatures. The Ghulam with Panzerfaust will likely be used as a Daylami with the same loadout to destroy some high armoured targets. The other Ghulam will be a gift to my friend who is organising the league as a birthday present – he wanted to get some linetroops of every army to use as impersonation markers with his aliens and that to me sounded like a great idea!

Finally back in Middle-earth. Painting Rangers

This week I found my way back into Middle-earth with some Rangers of the North that I want to play in a big tournament next month.

Pict 711: Rangers of the North

Pict 712: Rangers of the North

I very much like these miniatures from late in the Lord of the Rings era of the game. But mostly I really enjoyed converting them. Since last I showed them, they sat accusingly on my desk, demanding attention. But since I was distacted by Haqqislam miniatures, they had to wait. In all ernest though, my painting queue is highly influenced by the games I play and now that my dryspell with the Middle-earth SBG is broken, I'm back to painting for it again.

Pict 713: Halbarad on Horse (Conversion)

As I said at the top, I want to play my Rangers in an upcoming tournament and to boost their effectiveness, I want to field Halbarad with the Banner of Arwen Evenstar on horseback. GW never released that particular model, so I had to go chop one up in the name of sience! He's pretty much only stuck together right now and I will have to fill in the gaps with green stuff as the next step.

Pict 714: Halbarad with Banner (WIP)

  And since I'll want a model without the horse in case he looses it, I started painting one. The basecolours are down now and he's waiting for the washes and highlights. I mostly refenced the other Halbarad I already painted but they have somewhat differing armour so that I had to improvise a bit. He seems to have stolen his breastplate from the elves of Lorien but I didn't want him in shiny golden armour and went with lether instead.

Pict 715: Victor

Pict 716: Victor

And lastly, of course, I have one more D&D miniature. This time it's Victor, the somewhat insane blackpowder merchant from campaign one of Critical Role.

Umber Hulk Smash!

Well, this week I finished the experiment on what happens when a gorilla and a beetle really like each other: You get an Umber Hulk. And after that I got to do something for Middle-earth as well.

Pict 683: Umber Hulk

Pict 684: Umber Hulk

Pict 685: Umber Hulk

I started painting this Umber Hulk back in January and it really good to have him finished. He sat there sulking on my desk to whole time and finally I took heart and finished him. I had two things that were bugging me about him: I didn't blend the base and I felt like the armourplates looked like one big jumble without differentiation. The first problem was easily fixed with simply a new layer but the armour plates were more difficult. In the end I went with a slightly more pinkish tone on the parts that seemed more exposed and with the bright orange eyes, I think the creature came together all right.

Pict 686: Arnor and Rangers (WIP)

And here are the rangers from last week with some paint added. The miniatures went right on top of my queue after converting them and I look forward to playing some more battle companies with them. To that end, I also pulled out the remainder of my Arnor and got them the same treatment as the Rangers of the North.

More Critical Role Miniatures and New Projects

These past two weeks were I didn't have that much time for the hobby. I however managed to paint two more miniatures from Steamforged Games' line of Critical Role miniatures. After that I started the work on some more stuff for my Haqqislam and while that was going on, my Made-To-Order models from the latest batch of Middle-earth miniatures arrived and I got to building.

Pict 679: Calianna, Kashaw

Pict 680: Calianna, Kashaw

Here are the two miniatures I finished: Calianna of whom I showed a work in progress in my last post and Kashaw, the next one down the line in my set of Critical Role miniatures. I liked putting in the pink bows in Calianna's hair to contrast the greens and browns of her clothing, but I'm not that happy with how her skin turned out. My Pallid Wych Flesh seems to have very big chunks of pigment in it so that the skin doesn't look as smooth as it could. With Kashaw, I liked the bronze armour - I find mixing different metallics together great fun to get a somewhat tarnished look.

Pict 681: Ragik, Muyib, Al Fasid, Djanbazan Hacker, Djanbazan, Hafza (WIP)

Here is the next leg in my Haqqislam journey. These six I wanted to paint because, I liked the models not since I'll be using them in an upcoming game. I managed to put down the basecolours and washes rather quickly and without getting overwhelmed by the sameness. I hope to finish them up during the next week and the getting on with other stuff again.

Pict 682: Rangers of the North (Conversion)

And lastly here are some Ranges of the North, that I ordered via GW's Made-To-Otder programm. I really like the opportunity to get some models I didn't get the first time they were around. And since I didn't pay an arm and a leg for them on eBay, I can justify to convert them a bit to make six unique poses. I especially like the fourth guy in the row - after removing the spear I gave him the sword of a Rohan Warrior while the left arm is a leftover from a Lindir-conversion.

Back to Infinity!

These past weeks, I got back into Infinity with a few games and a bit of painting. I also finished my Rangers.

Pict 568: Hassassin Áyyār, Hassassin Lasiq

Pict 569: Hassassin Áyyār, Hassassin Lasiq

I'm taking part in an Infinity Escalation League and last weekend we started with a few games of 100 points. I enjoyed having the small group and limited rules so that I'll be able to get to grips with the system step by step. Sadly I didn't finish painting my list, but the games really gave me the inspiration to get paint on the Haqqislam miniatures. With that I finished two Hassassins just this week and I think I should be able to paint enough for our next gameday.

Pict 570: Rangers of the North

Pict 571: Rangers of the North

And here are the Rangers of the North I started at the tailend of 2018. They are similar enough to the Dúnedain so that I already had my colour scheme down and could go right at it. I only had to finish the highlighting, so that I could finish them during the course of an evening.

Pict 572: Aragorn, Halbarad, Arathorn, Aragon

Pict 573: Aragorn, Halbarad, Arathorn, Aragon

And here are the heroes I painted to go with my Ranger force. Arathorn and Halbarad obviously fit the Ranger theme and will lead them when I'm not playing them as the Gray Company. I'm looking forward to trying this new legendary armylist out with my next few games of ME SBG, and with yesterday's pre-orders I will add to the force with the new Three Huntes.

Pict 574: Umber Hulk, Hassassin Ragik (WIP)

And here's something I'm working on right now: The next Hassassin and the first monster for D&D. the Ragik is already at tha stage of highlighting while the Umber Hulk just now got the basic colours.

Picking up a few Projects

This week I picked up a few projects I started this year and that still stood on my table. I finished the mounted Hunter Orcs, Alfrid and the Morannon Orc Captain and started to work on the Rangers of the North I primed this month.

Pict 548: Mounted Hunter Orcs

Pict 549: Mounted Hunter Orcs

I finally managed to paint all my Hunter Orcs. These ones and their mounts were rather quick to paint and I find myself wanting another box of them to round out the army. I'll see if can't find some the first week of the new year in one of the local stores.

Pict 550: Alfrid Lickspittle

Pict 551: Alfrid Lickspittle

Just like the Hunter Orcs, Alfrid was also only missing the highlights and thus was painted during one evening. I'm pretty happy how he turned out - The miniature really lends itself to do different things with all of the textures on the layers of cloth and leather. I'm only unhappy with the face - the eyes make him look sceptical...

Pict 552: Morannon Orc Captain

Pict 553: Morannon Orc Captain

Pict 554: Morannon Orc Captain

This one was a fun little minitature to paint. I really enjoyed doing the shading on the armour and of course the reds of the cloth. The severed head came out ok as well - it's gruesome enough but not to over the top.

Pict 555: Rangers of the North (WIP)

Lastly here's a picture of the next leg of my Rangers. I started doing the base colours and I hope to finish them this year so that I can add them to my tally. In the first post of the new year I'll add up all my painted models, take a look back and make some resolutions for 2019.

State of the Table: Many Metal Models

These last few weeks have been a bit slow paintingwise so that I can't show any finished miniatures. What I did instead was to put together the pieces for a few new projects that I want to tackle in the coming weeks.

Pict 547: New Projects

So as you can see, there is the first leg of my evil men army from Middle Earth: A host of Riders and Charioteers from Khand and a few easterling heroes. Other than that there are addtions to my Arnor, my Rangers of the North and some pieces for Rivendell.
The models are cleaned up and the basing is done. Right now I'm filling the smaller gaps with layers of Liquid Green Stuff and after that I'll get some putty to fill in the bigger ones. I hope to prime the models once the weather changes to a bit warmer and more arid, but sometimes you just have to wait a bit for the winter.

Dúnedain Rangers and a Duergar Warrior

I finally finished the Dúnedain that had been taking up space on my desk for some time this week. After I was done with them, I also got to the Duergar Warrior I had started the week prior.

Pict 410: Dúnedain

Pict 411: Dúnedain

Pict 412: Dúnadan

Frist up, here are the northern Dúnedain; I picked out my favourite pose that I like to call the Hipster because of the beard and the topknot. I'm really happy to be done with these miniatures. Don't get me wrong - the sculpts are amazing and I liked converting them, but they cost me a lot of motivation since they took so long to finish.
I really look forward to play with them since they will fill multiple roles: They will be used as Dúnedain in an Arnor army or in Scenarios as well as normal Rangers of the North in my Arnor Battle Company. I also hope to use them as brigands or similar evil doers in D&D.

Pict 413: Duergar Warrior

Pict 414: Duergar Warrior

Speaking of D&D - as I said earlier, I also finished the Duergar Warrior. The highlighting here also went rather fast and I'm happy with how he turned out. Next up for this ongoing project of painting my D&D backlog will probably be the two Mindflayers of the set.

The current Projects

This week was rather crowded so that I had virtually no time to paint. But to show even the little bit of progress I managed, I took a photo of my painting table.

Pict 400: The State of my Painting Table

As you can see, there are several projects I'm working on right now. The Dúnedain look the same as you last saw them, the Skin Wolves should be done quickly since I decided on a polarwolf as the refence and Sauron the Necromancer is mostly wispy smoke and cloth. In the background are  (among other things) parts of the Fellowship of the Ring, another Théoden and a Duergar as well as my seasonal watercup.
Hopefully (and presumably) the coming weeks will be better for my hobby.

Heroes, Dúnedain and Scenery

Lately the Arnor Battle Company is really the main project and I managed to make a good start on the Dúnedain. I also completed two more heroes of Middle Earth, but the main part of my hobby time this week was spent building miniatures from Gale Force 9's line of Dungeons and Dragons miniatures.

Pict 381: Elrond and Aragorn

Pict 382: Elrond, Lord of Rivendell

Pict 383: Elrond, Lord of Rivendell

First up, I painted the next Elrond. This Lord of Rivendell's likeness to Hugo Weaving is not quite as good as the armoured one I paintet last week, but I very much enjoyed the robes of this particular miniature. There is now not that much infantry left for me to paint for the Noldorim army. After that I will have to bite the bullet and get on with the horses of the Rivendell Knights.

Pict 384: Aragorn (Fellowship)

Pict 385: Aragorn (Fellowship)

To start painting some other colours than the ones I use with the Noldorim and the Arnor Warriors I painted this Aragorn. I really like the poses of the first Fellowship box set and they are part of my new year's resolutions as I wanted to finish the Balin's Tomb diorama.

Pict 386: Witchfate Tor, Tower of Sorcery

Pict 387: Witchfate Tor, Tower of Sorcery

Pict 388: Witchfate Tor, Tower of Sorcery

Pict 389: Witchfate Tor, Tower of Sorcery

I also painted up this first storey of a Witchfate Tor. I had this piece of scenery in a half-painted state for about four to five years now and I decided to finish it. I want to use it in a D&D game and hope this will be an incentive to get to the other layers of the tower. But I also want to paint up some more monsters and villans for the next sessions...

Pict 390: Dúnedain (WIP)

These Dúnedain will be the Rangers of my Arnor force and I hope to finish them up fast during the coming week. I made good progress and they have now had their base colours and washed put on them. As you can see, I have one of all of the six poses GW and I converted the others to have some more unique ones.