The Ulfenwatch shambling along

These past two weeks I painted the Ulfenwatch including Watchmaster Halgrim, I had started as well as a bit more scenery from the Garden of Morr kit.

Pict 1033: Watchmaster Halgrim and the Ulfenwatch

Pict 1034: Watchmaster Halgrim and Ulfenwatch Skeletons

Pict 1035: Watchmaster Halgrim and Ulfenwatch Skeletons

In the end, these skeletons painted up quite nicely. With all of the corrosion, they are quite colourful – more than I'd usually paint. But I really enjoyed seeing them come together. I do like the faded red cloth and will probably use it as a main colour going forwards with the Cursed City box.

Pict 1036: Garden of Morr Mausoleum

I also painted up the last Mausoleum from the Garden of Morr. The base was already done and I did take a little more time building because I removed all the roses. I even got myself some protective gloves sice I had cut my fingers on this project so many times...

The two pieces of Wall painted up pretty quickly as well. With them beeing higher they are great to block line of sight as well as providing obstacles. And they will look good in the background of future scenic photo shots!

Pict 1038: Ruins of Osgiliath (Fornost)

While I was at it with the scenery, I also tried out my recipe for a piece of the Osgiliath Ruins set. I really enjoy how it ties in with the rest of my terrain! So my planned Osgiliath board will migrate further north and become part of the ruins of Arnor, maybe Fornost?

Looking at Walls

Man, I can't believe it's already been four weeks since my last post – how time flies! Anyways - here is an update of what I got done in the meantime: I finished more parts of the Garden of Morr and while I was at it also painted a set of walls and fences. Slowly but surely my collection of terrain is shaping up to something! Besides that building the rest of the Cursed City box took an astonishing amount of time. Of course I converted a few things, but still...

Pict 1026: Garden of Morr

Pict 1027: Garden of Morr Mausoleum

Pict 1028: Garden of Morr Bases

The next few pieces of my Garden of Morr set: a mausoelum and the base for another one. After that I'm only missing the wall sections. These might take a litte bit more time however, because I will want to remove all the scuplted roses like a lunatic.

Pict 1029: Walls and Fences

I'm quite happy with the colours and the process on my terrain and thus painting up this set of Warhammer Fantasy Walls and Fences went pretty quickly. Not to much sculpted pieces of foliage to remove as well. Putting on the different bits of greenery did propable take as much time as the painting.

Pict 1030: Gorslav, Kitty, Togilius and Emelda Braskov (Conversions)

Here are the first few models I converted from the Cursed City box. Emelda on the right is a simple repose while the others are a bit more involved. Torgilius needed decluttering and had to leave most of his pets at home and got a simple cloak instead. I like how this leaves him pretty much a creepy old man with his pet fox.

The box comes with two zombie cats and of course that's a great frame to make a living cat! The head is a bit big but I'm pretty happy with my sculpting nonetheless. Can't wait to get some paint on it!

Gorslav the Gravekeeper seemed a bit to much like he came right out of a videogame (propably a Souls game). His mask might be cool and creepy to some but for me it triggered the goofy meter. So I used the head of the Zombie he has on his base and got him a fresh new hairdo in the form of a tonsure. I really like the look of him as a evil monk! "Something happened to Brother Gorslav – he just seems a shadow of his cheery former self..." That's a short story just waiting to be put on paper!

Pict 1031: Deadwalker Zombies (Conversions)

I also found the Zombies to be too cluttered. Getting them to a more agreeable point took a bit more work removing the gravestones and all of the vines. I then resculpted their backs and used pieces of greenstuff to show the ends of the stakes. Somehow I can accept these as part of the precautions one might put in place to make sure granny will not come back as a vampire. Seems sensible to me!

Pict 1032: Númenorean Bannerbearer and Captain

While I was in build mode, I also quickly threw together these two Númenorean Warriors. The guy with the sword is a conversion straight out of the first Lord of the Rings rulebook that came with the Fellowship box set in 2001. The sword as well as the banner are looted from a mounted Boromir and the rest of the model will also be put to good use once I get to it.

This Corrosion

The only model I finished the past two weeks was the first mausoleoum from the Garden of Morr kit. But I also started to paint more of the same graveyard as well as more little critters from the ArcWorlde Bestiary. Oh, and then there was this boxed game where you fight undead? Propably should build and paint some of those too!

Pict 1019: Garden of Morr Mausoleum

Pict 1020: Garden of Morr Mausoleum

Pict 1021:Garden of Morr Mausoleum

Pict 1022: Garden of Morr Mausoleum

I very much enjoyed the corrosion effects on this mausoleum. The verdigris works better on the more structured surfaces such as the grave slab than on the roofs. I will still do some experimenting on these larger, flat areas, maybe adding in some more green or going for more streakes and less splotches on the next one. But I am very happy with the rusted iron bars!
I also got some diffently coloured flock for the moss and will add this to my other scenery to make it look a bit more visually interesting and alive.

Pict 1023: Garden of Morr Mausoleum (WIP)

And here then are the next steps in painting the Garden of Morr. The piece with the larger exposed grave also holds a mausoleum but I have not built that quite yes as I want to get rid of all the modeled roses. That's what's keeping me from getting to the walls as well, but for now I think the small buildings will look great together anyways.

Pict 1024: Mjowls and Faery Dragon (WIP)

These cute litte beasties then are the Mjowls and the Faery Dragon from ArcWorlde. They are quite far along with basecoats and washes done and I should finish them within a few day. If only no other projects jumps the queue...

Pict 1025: Ulfenwatch (WIP)

And lastly here is a foray into the Cursed City: a bunch of skeletons. Had to get my head around building these models, these modern plastic kits by GW really are engineering marvels and I'm currently more used to building metal models or about 20 year old plastics! Paintswise I'm going with something similar to the boxart but I'm already looking forward to rust them after they had their washes!

Swordmasters, an Ent and two young Dragons

These past two weeks, I finished up the first batch of Swordmasters and got started on the next one. But I also made a short trip to Middle-earth to paint up an Ent and another foray into ArcWorlde to paint two Forest Dragon Juveniles. Quite productive!

Pict 1010: Swordmasters of Hoeth

Pict 1011: Swordmasters of Hoeth

Pict 1012: Swordmasters of Hoeth

Pict 1013: Swordmasters of Hoeth

Finally here is my first batch of Swordmasters of Hoeth. It took me some time to finish them with all those litte details. But it was mostly that I painted the areas in the wrong order and having to go over work that was already done... But now that they are done, they look great as a group. I'm really enjoying myself with the High Elves, painting this group of elites and not worrying about playability just yet.

Pict 1014: Swordmasters of Hoeth (WIP)

And here is the rest of my Swordmasters – eight more including the champion and the banner bearer, bringing my total up to 19. An odd number but it leaves room for the one pose I'm currently still missing. I hope I can finish these a bit faster with the lessons learned on the first batch.

Pict 1015: Ent

This guys was a fast and unexpected project. The guy from Battle Streams in Middle-earth had a special for Ents on friday evening and I decided to get this metal Ent out and slap some paint on him. He went faster than I expected and I'm very happy with the different tones in the bark. He's another great sculpt by Trish Carden and very similar to the Warhammer Woodelf metal Treeman - I think, the latter might get pushed up the queue!

Pict 1016: Barrels (Tabletop Art)

In between projects I also painted these four barrels made by Tabletop Art. Really nice quality resin sculpts and they will serve as a bit more scatter terrain around the Forge.

Pict 1017: Forest Dragon Juveniles

Pict 1018: Forest Dragon Juveniles

And lastly here are the two Forest Dragon Juveniles that I mentioned in the beginning. The dragons of ArcWorlde are characterized by their lack of wings and I had good fun looking at different species of real world skinks and lizards for reference. I am quite happy with the scheme I came up with but I can't say how I will implement the scheme with the big Forest Dragon. Maybe they will change a bit, when aging? They propably do!

A Start to a new gaming board

These past weeks, I only finished painting one tile of my Realm of Battle board and prepared some models for priming – so only a quick update today.

Pict 1008: Realm of Battle Tile

Finally I got a real start on the gaming board I want to do this year. Here is a first tile of my Realm of Battle board. I struggled a bit with the greenery - at first it looked to regular with every patch pretty much the same size. But after realizing this, I went back and connected a few and added some smaller ones, so that now I'm pretty happy with the result! The grass matches the other scenery I did in January so everything should look cohesive when its all done, I hope.

Pict 1009: Elendil mounted (Conversion)

Other than that I prepared a few more models for priming. Among these is this conversion of Elendil, High King of the Dúnedain mounted on a horse. I cut an Elendil on foot in half and made sure to also remove the wing shaped tassets protecting his thighs. I then stuck this back onto a mounted Aragorn, Elessar and resculpted the piece of cloth under the tassets and connected the two pieces of cloak.

ArcWorlde Halflings and WHFB Swordmasters

I spent these past two weeks finishing my Halfling band for ArWorlde and started to paint some elite troops for my High Elves with a regiment of Swordmasters of Hoeth.

Pict 1003: ArcWorlde Halflings

Pict 1004: Knight of the Ram, Halfling Militia and Monster Hunter

Pict 1005: Knight of the Ram, Halfling Militia and Monster Hunter

So, here is the rest of the Militia the Halfling Starter Set. They were painted as a group with only the highlighting left to do after my last post. The two additions are the Monster Hunter raising her fist and the amazing Knight of the Ram. The latter is a bit of an older sculpt, with all other models being new for the second edition of the game. But the Knight still fits right in – one the strenghts of Alex's scuplting.

Pict 1006: Swordmaster of Hoeth

After finishing the Halflings, I changed gears and went ahead on some metal Swordmasters of Hoeth. This guy was painted as a single model to work out how I would apply my Eataine scheme onto them. Since the model has only a few different areas to it, this went rather fast. Thus I could get a good start on a group of ten of them by painting for a short time during last week's evenings:

Pict 1007: Swordmasters of Hoeth (WIP)

ArcWorlde: Wild Elves and Halfling Testing Colours

These past two weeks I spent pretty much only on ArcWorlde miniatures. At first I finished up the Wild Elven Centaur and an Ascendant to finish up the Elves I own right now. And after that I also got started on to the Halflings of Hobbleshire and decided on a colour scheme.

Pict 996: Wild Elves vs. Halflings of Hobbleshire

Pict 997: Wild Elven Centaur and Ascendant

Pict 998: Wild Elven Centaur and Ascendant

This Centaur was quite far along when I last showed her. Finishing up the skin colours and details on the upper body went pretty quickly and since I was on a roll, I also painted the Wild Elven Ascendant. With him, the war paint provided a bit of a conundrum, because of the different angles his legs have, but I think it looks cool the way I managed it. With these two done, I painted all the Wild Elf miniatures, I own right now. So now it's on to some adversaries and then of course some games as well!

Pict 999: Halfling Sheriff

As the Sheriff of my merry band on Halflings, this guy simply had to be painted first. He also provided a good opportunity to test the colour scheme and get to paint some different surfaces. For the colours themselves, I did something I never thought I would and looked at some historical reference!

Halfling Historical Reference – Leo Ignaz von Stadlinger: Geschichte des württembergischen Kriegswesens (History of Württemberg Military), K. Hofdruckerei zu Guttenberg Stuttgart, 1856

I have this theory, that the part of the world I'm living in (and it's inhabitants!) have some striking parallels with Tolkiens Shire and this has become somewhat of a running gag. With my Middle-earth Hobbits already painted to match the movie aesthetic, I took this band of ArcWorlde Halflings as an opportunity to try and replicate some of the local coat of arms. Thankfully the internet knows everything and a bit of googeling produced these coloured plates of uniforms from the Kingdom of Württemberg. Now obviously I could not reproduce any one uniform accurately on the miniature, but they severd as references. For example I never would have thought to go for white pants and gloves, but here we are!

Pict 1000: Troll Hound and Halfling Militia

Pict 1001: Troll Hound and Halfling Militia

Since the colours came out pretty much like I wanted them, I also painted the first Halfling Milita and the Troll Hound from the starter set. Again, these scuplts are very characterful and the big surfaces are very fun to paint. The best detail here have to be the flapping ears of the Troll Hound - very dynamic!

Pict 1002: Halfling Militia (WIP)

And here is the rest of the Militia: one more with a torch and two each with crossbow and shield/handweapon. For now, they are basecoated and had some washes, so that finishing them should not take to much time. After that I still have two more Halflings and the it's onto the beastiary.