Scenery: Arcane Ruins and a start on the Garden of Morr

These past weeks I took my resolutions to heart and painted more scenery pieces: the Arcane Ruins I had started and the statue from the Garden of Morr kit. Other than that, I also painted two more Highelves and a few more bits.

Pict 981: Korhil and Chracian Noble

Pict 982: Arcane Ruins

Pict 983: Arcane Ruins

First up, here are the Arcane Ruins I showed in my last post. It was great fun to put the different colours onto the stone but the piece really came to life with the different flocks.

Pict 984: Garden of Morr Statue

Since the Arcane Ruins were so much fun and a great success, I also painted this Statue from the Garden of Morr / Sigmarite Mausoleum kit. I added a base and some more flagstones made from plastic card to blend it in some more with the other terrain pieces. I also scraped of the sculpted on foliage and flowers. They are neat details but they don't fit the other flocks I put on.

Pict 985: Arcanite Markers

Another small project were these Crystalfield bases made by Tabletop Art. I had them in mind to use as objective markers for ArcWorlde when I read the rulebook. Oftentimes in this narrative system you will find yourself fighting over scraps of Arcanite, a magical crystal and these bases fit the bill perfectly.

Pict 986: Korhil and Chracian Noble

Pict 987: Korhil and Chracian Noble

Pict 988: Korhil and Chracian Noble

And here are two more High Elves. Korhil Lionmane, Captain of the White Lions and a fitting Noble from Chrace armed with and axe, a shield and a lion pelt. These white lion pelts troubled me - at first I tried to shade them with Seraphim Sepia but that made them look to dirty even when highlighted. Now they simply use a mix of Steel Legion Drab and Screaming Skull without any washes. And one more thing might be the Noble's shield - I want to put on some heraldry or an elven rune but for now I was not able to decide on any device.

Pict 989: Unithorn and Garden of Morr (WIP)

With the Arcane Ruins and the Statue, I almost made good on one of my New Years resolutions. I prepared the first of the Garden of Morr mausoleums, once again adding a base. And to the left here stands another ArcWorlde miniature: the Unithorn, a bigger summoned monster of the Wild Elves line.

Testing Colours for ArcWorlde Wild Elves

This first week of the year I still had a bit more time to paint and got started on my resolutions with a set of Arcane Ruins. I also tried out the colours for my Wild Elves and their summoned creatures.

Pict 976: Wild Elven Warrior, Woodfiend and Lichenhawk

Pict 977: ArcWorlde Wild Elven Warrior with Bow

I really had great fun choosing the colours and painting this model. At first I tried a lighter skintone but the went for a darker grey anyways. The red war paint is a bit held back because I was afraid to ruin the model and I did not want to go over all of my nicely painted skin. But other models from the line, especially commanders and mages will propably be covered in more warpaint. After painting I also wrote up my recipe so that I wont forget how I did the model.

Pict 978: Woodfiend and Lichenhawk

The Woodfiend was the first of the summoned units I painted and it was surprisingly easy to paint. I had not experimented with a glow from the deeper parts of a miniature before. Glazing different reds went pretty well however! The Lichenhawk was done following the same steps and I'm looking forward to replicating the scheme on the bigger monsters as well.

Pict 979: Arcane Ruins

I also painted this part of a set of Arcane Ruins. I like the beige sandstone but I could have gone a little lighter with the streaking of the washes. When painting the main part of the ruins, I might just try and only tint the colour of the stone instead. I bought the set of scenery years ago and it sat primed on my shelf for almost as long. So painting this is a big win! And again, I made a note of my recipe for this ruin - I will use a similar way to paint other GW terrain as well and who knows when I will get to that...

Pict 980: Arcane Ruins (WIP)

Speaking of Arcane Ruins, here is a WIP of the rest of the set. As for now it has pretty much only had a few layers of Steel Legion Drab. This took quite some time considering the size of the kit. The next step will be drybrushing several additional layers but after that, it will be sone quite soon!

The Butterfly's Tally 2020

As is customary, in this first post of the year, I take a look back at what I did last year and make resolutions for the new one.

Pict 971: Uruk-Hai Army

Hobby Tally 2020

If you want to have a look at the tallies of the past: The Tally 2017, The Tally 2018, The Tally 2019

And these were my resolutions for 2020:

• Paint all of my Infinity models
• Paint the Uruk-Hai army to a playable level of 600 points
• Paint 25 miniatures for D&D, concentrating on the Critical Role miniatures
• And of course paint more models than buying them...

Pict 972: Sekban Naval Unit

Quite obviously I did not manage to paint all of my Infinity miniatures. In fact I bought some more and only painted the five Sekban in June. Since I played almost no games of Infinity, I lacked the motivation to do more, even with the release of a new edition of the game.

Pict 973: Uruk-Hai Army

Pict 974: Lutz and Friends

The Uruk-Hai however are quite a different story! The same week I finished the Sekban, I also put the finishing touches on a phalanx of Uruk-Hai Warriors. But the stand out for this project will have to be my conversion of Mauhur. All in all, I painted about 1850 points. Great sucess!

Pict 975: D&D Miniatures

Almost all of my miniatures could be used in D&D, but some of them are specifically to play RPGs. I'll have to add in the Shadow Deep miniatures as well as Valten and Bertrand's Bowmen of Bergerac to reach the 25 I wanted to do. But I will still count this resolution a sucess even if I did not paint that many CR miniatures. My highlight here has to be the Hill Giant - I'd venture to say he's my best painted miniature, barring maybe the Unicorn from the end of 2019.

And lastly, as you can see with a look at the Tally to the left, I once again failed to buy less miniatures than paint them. I did however sell quite a few as well and thus improved my ratio of painted to unpainted miniatures nontheless. And 283 painted models in total is also quite an impressive number!

Last year, I also decided to swich my postings to every other week. This shedule worked better with my life outside the hobby and I pretty much kept all of the dates. I count this as a sucess as well and will stick to this shedule in 2021.

Hobby resolutions for 2021

Seeing as I could not quite keep my resolutions this past year, I think I may have been overzealous especially with the goal to paint all of my Infinity miniatures. So for 2021, I will try and keep it simple: As per usual I want to paint more miniatures than buying new ones. Other than that I will only add one more goal. I want to paint a 4x4 gaming board and at least 4 pieces of terrain to play smaller skirmish games on.

Mordheim: Elf Mage

These past two weeks saw me finishing up the highlights on the Mordheim Elf Mage for my Highelf Army as well as building the miniatures for a new project: Halflings, Wild Elves and Monsters from ArcWorlde.

Pict 966: Mordheim Elf Mage

Pict 967: Mordheim Elf Mage

I took my time with this model to really paint it up to a high standart for me and do it justice. The sculpt is from 2004 and really holds up well - you'd expect nothing less from a Juan Diaz scuplt. With the staff and the right hand outstreched, he looks like he can hold his own on the road (and also a bit like a Jedi...). As planned, the colours are similar to my Shadow Warriors, but I added more red to the lining of the cloak to tie him in with the rest of my High Elves.

Pict 968: ArcWorlde Forest Dragon

Pict 969: Wild Elven Warrior with Bow

Pict 970: Mjowls

I also got myself a nice little package from Warploque Miniatures, a small business around Alex Huntley, who designs the miniatures as well as the rule to use them with: ArcWorlde - The Narrative Fantasy Battle Game. I fell in love with the style of the miniatures, which are all hand-scuplted. You can really feel the human touch they have! Stand outs have to be the big Forest Dragon, the creepy and lanky Wild Elves and of course the Mjowls – relatives of gryphons but put together from owls and cats; amazingly cute!

Valten, Chosen of Sigmar

I spent these past two week finishing the highlights on Valten, the Chosen of Sigmar. Other than that I also converted some metal Warg riders for my Mordor army and built a few other models.

Pict 961: Valten, Chosen of Sigmar

Pict 962: Valten, Chosen of Sigmar

As I said in my last post, Valten clearly is the He-Man of the Warhammer World, screaming "I have the power" and letting Sigmar's might flow through him. I really enjoyed painting him - he has a great balance of flatter areas and mor detailed ones. The Beastman on the base doesn't really make that much sense, being cut in half right through the torso and the smith's apron is seemingly not fastened in the back...

Pict 963: Warg Rider (Conversion)

Pict 964: Warg Rider (Conversion)

Pict 965: Warg Rider (Conversion)

And here are my metal Warg riders - the three on the right are unaltered and the three others are converted. I hacked them up not only to get more poses out of them, it also is not that sensible to have so many of them armed with bows. Cutting of these arms and quivers was a bit cumbersome but I like how they came out. So much that I considered getting more of them, but for now I was able to resist.

WHFB: Alith Anar and Shadow Warrios

This week I finished highlighting the Shadow Warrios and Alith Anar for my growing collection of painted Warhammer High Elves.

Pict 956: Alith Anar and Shadow Warriors

Pict 957: Alith Anar

Alith Anar was painted right alongside the remaining Shadow Warriors but of course his armour has a lot more bling to it. With the teal arnoud the runes on the sword I introduced a new colour into the scheme. I think I like it so that similar runes will also be this colour from now on.

Pict 958: Shadow Warriors

Pict 959: Shadow Warriors

I really like how these Shadow Warrios came out. I would have been cool to have five unique sculpts in the 7th edition box, but they look great as a unit nonetheless. I might buy a unit of the 6th edition sculpts as well. But that will have to wait until next year - for now I will have to look towards my numbers and paint a few more models to and not buy more...

Pict 960: Mordheim Elf Mage (WIP)

After finishing the highlighting on the Shadow Warriors, I started with the base colours on the Mordheim Elf Mage. He will wear similar colours to these stealthy warriors as I imagine him to be self reliant on the road as well.

Middle-earth: Shelob and the Betrayer

Only three models finished this time around. Reinforcements for my Mordor army: Shelob and another named, the Betrayer.

Pict 950: Shelob

Pict 951: Shelob

Pict 952: Shelob

Shelob is such a lovely model! She looks great rearing up and ready to strike. When I painted the underbelly I pretty much went over everything I had done the last time I showed her as a WIP, but I'm pretty happy with the blend from black over grey to Rakarth Flesh. For the markings on the abdomen I decided to try stipping. The red dots may be to big to count as such but I'm very happy with the grey highlights and transition to the underbelly.

Pict 953: The Betrayer

Pict 954: The Betrayer

And here is another Ringwratih; he's named The Betrayer by GW and fits with the look of the Haradrim. I decided, however, to paint him in line with the other Nazgûl and keep to black robes and simple steel armour. I really like the horse mid stride and with the flowing saddle cloth.

Pict 955: Valten, Chosen of Sigmar (WIP)

I also started to paint a one-off figure: Valten, Chosen of Sigmar, who is clearly Warhammer's He-Man! I question his choice to stand on a beastman's head like this. I'd probably trip on the horn with the next step...