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.

The Poxwalkers done and finally some more DnD

With the Poxwalkers and more done, this week was quite good for the tally. Besides the progress with the Death Guard I finished up some Dungeons and Dragons miniatures for a game on friday.

Pict 218: Poxwalkers

First up are the remaining 18 Poxwalkers from the Dark Imperium box, halve of which are converted for mor variety. I went for bright colours with the oranges, greens and blues. Other than that the main work was done with different washes.

Pict: 219 Bugbear

Pict 220: Bugbear

Pict 221: Hellhounds

Pict 222: Hellhound

Next up are three more miniatures for DnD. The bugbear stood on my paintingtable for months only waiting for the final highlights. Thus he finished up pretty fast and I was then able to get to work on two Hellhounds. They come in a clear plastic, but I decided to just spray them white and then lay down progressivly darker tones from yellow to dark red.

Pict 223: Foetid Bloat-Drone (WIP)

Pict 224: Foetid Bloat-Drone(WIP)

Pict 225: Death Guard (WIP)

Lastly here are some miniatures I worked on during this last week. The Bloat-Drone is really getting there - only the highlights are missing. The Lord of Contagion and the Plaguecaster have their basecoats (almost) done and are awaiting the washes, while the Plaguemarines are only now getting the first layer of white armour.

With 21 miniatures added to the tally of painted models, I already painted more miniatures than I painted in 2015, so there's a first goal achived. I didn't finish up the Hunter Orcs in time for the tournament last weekend, but they performed well nonetheless. Right now they are rowed up on my table again...

Washes are drying on the Hunter Orcs; The Noxious Blightbringer is done

Just as you can read in the title, I got quite a bit of work done on the Hunter Orcs and I managed to finish the Blighbringer for my Death Guard.

Pict 215: Noxious Blightbringer

Pict 216: Noxious Blightbringer

As I suspected last week there was not to much to be done with the Noxious Blightbringer. I decided to try and weather the bronze with Hawk Turquoise for some verdigris which I quite like. Other than that I tried and mix the Blood for the Bloodgod and the Nugle's Rot on his tunic to get some really disguting effect. I do like it but I think, I will have to work on the blood effects to make them even better.

Pict 217: Hunter Orcs (WIP)

And here is anonther picuture of the Hunter Orcs. They are still not done, but they are getting there - the base colours are down and the washes are drying as I write. I hope to finish them until friday, but they should aready meet the requirements of the tournament.
Other than that I also continued with the Poxwalkers, but not so mutch as to warrant a picture. It's hard to paint two "hordes" but since the Walkers and the Orcs are very different it's not to bad.

Noxious Blightbringer WIP

So just a really quick update from me this week. I worked on the Hunter Orcs and started with the rest of the Poxwalkers. And then I had to get started with the Death Guard for real and got some paint on one of their characters.

Pict 213: Noxious Blightbringer (WIP)

Pict 214: Noxious Blightbringer (WIP)

And here he is! My version of a blightbringer without the incensors. I tried and get mutch work done with washes - the armour is Seraphim Sepia over Pallid Wych Flesh - and went for a Pre-Heresy insprired scheme. Tried to get some contrast with the Nurgling and the Plasmapistol. Up until now it's about an hours work - I'm curious how long it will take to highlight and weather him!

Rick and Morty Poxwalkers and progress with the Hunter Orcs

Time is quite short and thus the progress is quite slow. I have been chiping away at Hunter Orcs and primed the Death Guard. But see for yourself:

Pict 210: Poxwalker Rick & Morty

Pict 211: Poxwalker Rick & Morty

The only thing to get done are my version of Poxwalker Rick and Morty. Once they sat primed on my desk I couldn't help myself and had to get started on them. The skin was mainly achieved with washes. The rest of the models I got to use more technical paints than ever on a project before. The rust is a mix of Typhus Corrosion and a bight Blazing Orange, the puss is Nurgle's Rot and Blood for the Bloodgod makes for amazing splatter.
The bases are still drying - I will put on some dead grass and puddles of Nurgle's Rot and hope the contrast from base to mini is good. I might have to put on a wash of Nuln Oil first to darken it down.

Pict 212: Hunter Orc (WIP)

There was some progress with the Hunter Orcs. Right now the basecoats are almost done and after that they will all be getting a wash of Agrax Earthshade. I want to play them in the German LotR / Hobbit Championship at the end of the month and the tournament has a police to only allow painted miniatures - all unpainted ones will be removed and you have to play with the resulting disadvantage. Once the washes are down I should get away with how they look, but of course it would be nicer if they were all done in time.

And that's that - a bit of a shorter one than ususal but soon there'll be more free time again.

The Death Guard beginn their march (and a bucketload of Hunter Orcs)

This week I swapped the paintbrush for clippers and hobbyknives and built quite a bit: I started out with 24 Hunter Orcs, that were all converted, so that I now have 36 somewhat individual poses. After that I had to get started with the Death Guard from the Dark Imperium box. And after starting out with converting, I had to do a little bit of customization here as well.

Pict 204: Death Guard

First up are my Death Guard miniatures. I really love what GW put out here! The sculpts are amazing and rather easy to put together. I'm really looking forward to paiting them - they will be next after the Hunter Orcs in the painting queue. Only problem is: I still haven't quite decided on a colourscheme. I am partial to a somewhat Pre-Heresy scheme, but I want it to be a scheme that paints fast... What I know is that they will be heavily weathered - and I can't wait to test out some new techniques.

Pict 205: Lord of Contagion

Pict 206: Noxious Blightbringer, Malignant Plaguecaster

Pict 207: Poxwalkers

Pict 208: Poxwalker Rick & Morty

And here are some of the conversions I did for the Death Guard. The Lord of Contagion changed his amazing axe to a scythe - if he was part of the Deathshroud, he should retain his powerscythe. I used a bit from an old ForgeWorld flying Hive Tyrant - it's already nicely banged up!
The miniature of the Noxious Blightbringer I found overburdened and thus I decluttered him by cutting of all the incensors. Similarly I did'nt like the magic fume of the Malignant Plaguecaster - thus I scraped that of and got him a nice hand of a Space Marine Biker.
The poxwalkers I changed up a litte to get rid of the doubled miniatures. And as many others, I had to convert a Rick and matching Morty...

Pict 209: Hunter Orcs (WIP)

Lastly here is a picture of the Hunter Orcs I'm currently sitting on. After these 36 Orcs, I hope I will have all of the Hunter Orcs I need - I'm sure there will be some Warg riders but that's future talk. Right now it's this moutain... Right now I'm still optimistic but they will be quite the task! I have now worked two evenings on them and still I'm not done with the basic colours...