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.

Legions of Isengard

These past two weeks, I spent some more time with the Legions of Isengard and built and painted a batch of Uruk-Hai Warriors.

Pict 893: Armoured Uruk-Hai

Pict 894: Uruk-Hai Captains (Conversions)

First up are the two commanders I put together to lead the warriors into battle against the Rohirrim. They are both converted – the armoured one is a simple headswap of the Uruk-Captain I painted I february with the Battle Games in Middle-earth conversion sprue supplying the helmeted head. The scout captain is a bit more involved and combines parts from both a cut up Uglúk and a cut up Lurtz that were left over after my Mauhur conversion. Even the head is Uglúk’s – I clipped it of and thought about using an imprint of the official scout captain’s helmet. But after removing most of the hair I liked the remaining top knot and put the head back on resculpting the leather around the shoulders and the back of the head.

Pict 895: Uruk-Hai Captains (Conversions)

Now since the captains wont win Saruman the keys to Edoras alone, I also needed some more warriors. And in fact I managed to paint up twenty Uruk warriors with shields in only one week! That’s not only great news for Saruman but also for my tally that now is back into the green numbers!

Pict 896: Uruk-Hai Warriors

As a big group, the models really hold up quite well considering they are from 18 years ago and some of the first plastics of the range and the individual poses are great for basic warriors. They had some very obtrusive moldlines however and getting the whole posse ready for priming took about a week’s worth of hobby time.

Pict 897: Uruk-Hai Warriors (WIP)

And because painting 22 Uruks at the same time, didn’t break my spirit, here are another 37 Warriors, this time armed with pikes. For now, they are still a bit shiny with only the #metal# applied, but they already make for an imposing phalanx.

The Uruks really are not painted to the highest standard I could achieve. But they do look great as a group and they are predominantly meant to be played with. After finishing the warriors with pikes, I’ll have to get myself a batch of crossbow wielding ones as well. With them, I pretty much have everything, I need to assault Helm’s Deep!

Pict 898: Otherworld Packbearer

And to get a bit of respite from Uruk-Hai, lastly here is the finished Packbearer by Otherworld Miniatures. Once again a beautifully characterful miniature that will be used in D&D or even Rangers of Shadowdeep.

Eclectic Painting for Dungeons and Dragons

So another quick post today showing what I painted when I needed a break from the Blacksmith Forge from last week. I focused on painting an eclectic bunch of miniatures mainly for Dungeons and Dragons, but I may use them with other systems such as Rangers of Shadowdeep as well.

Pict 891: Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures

Pict 892: Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures

First up I want to talk about two models on the right made by Otherworld Miniatures. They really have some amazingly characterful faces and were a joy to paint up. That Rat-chatcher has such a grat face while the Were-tiger simply has an amazing pose.
The guy secend from the left is another Critical Role miniature - the Gentleman. I debated whether to put a gloss varnish on his skin since he's supposed to be a Water Genasi. In the end I didn't because I could not imagine it turning out great.
And the last guy in the group is a Dwarf Fighter made by WizKids. I already painted the first iteration from that set pretty much two years ago to the day! This one is slightly converted - I added spikes to make him into a Battlerager - basicly a dwarf barbarian weaponising their armour.

Pict 893: Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures (WIP)

And here is what got started during the same time: Two more Reptus Skullbreakers by Reaper Miniatures to be played as Dragonborn. A Packbearer by Otherworld - again I love the face! And the last CR miniature from the Steamforged Games Vault - Caduceus Clay. This last one is not to far along since the colourscheme is quite different to what I usually paint.

The Blacksmith's Forge

Just a quick, but picture heavy, additional post today: I managed to complete the Blacksmith Forge by Tabletop World.

Pict 878: Scene at the Blacksmith's

As per usual, I put a few models on the house so that one can imagine how big it is. Next up are two walk arounds from different angles.

Pict 879: Blacksmith Forge

Pict 880: Blacksmith Forge

Pict 881: Blacksmith Forge

Pict 882: Blacksmith Forge

Pict 883: Blacksmith Forge

Pict 884: Blacksmith Forge

Pict 885: Blacksmith Forge

Pict 886: Blacksmith Forge

I started with the wood on the roof which went pretty fast. The stonework however took longer. Combine that with the timbers that needed some more exact basecoating to not get too much dark brown on the stones and the lower storey took quite a bit longer... Once the stones and wood was done, the details went on quickly again. This model also marks the first time for me to use flock for the moss texture and I very much like the look of it!

Pict 887: Blacksmith Forge Inside

Pict 888: Blacksmith Forge Inside

Pict 889: Blacksmith House Inside

Pict 890: Roof Inside

And lastly here are a few pictures of details - this kit is really quite detailed. Every surface from stone to wood to metals etc. is textured and takes a drybrush really nicely. As I said last week, there is also a paining recipe to remind myself of how I painted this model in the future. There are also a few additional pictures and a picture of my reference - part of some medieval city walls near to where I live.

Now I only will have to paint up an adequate table to put this forge on...

Myah! (Painting Skeletons)

Well, that was unexpected - I didn't think that I would paint up a batch of old Warhammer skeletons, but here they are! But I also finished up the Morgul Stalkers, a few more Rohan models including Helm Hammerhand and Captain Avantika from Critical Role. After that I started on a bigger scenery project with the blacksmith forge made by Tabletop World and a converted Vampire to fit in with the skeletons.

Pict 869: Skeletons (Detail)

Pict 870: Skeletons

Man, these are some classic miniatures! And I know it's a sacrilege to put them on round bases instead of square ones. I love how chunky they are, but the best thing the Champion who's clearly superior because of the fancy hat! I tried to match my scheme from about three years ago, but I didn't write down the recipe then and the new ones came out a bit lighter. I remedied my mistake this time around and posted the recipe here on the blog. It's really quite simple and the batch didn't take that long.
The eagle-eyed will have noticed that one of these skeletons is not like the others: I also found a single Mantic skelly clawing it's way out of the dirt in my bitsbox and while I was at it, painted it to. I love how it's giving the thumbs up with the right hand but it's quite a bit flimsier than the others.

Pict 871: Morgul Stalkers

After all these creepy undeads, I went right along and finished the creepy orcs from the last post. The Morgul Stalkers came out quite nice and I look forward to seeing them alongside other Mordor Orcs.

Pict 872: Helm Hammerhand and Helmingas Command

Pict 873: Helm Hammerhand and Helmingas Command

I wanted to play Helm in a tournament that had to be postponed. While that's sad, at least I had a bit more time to paint him up. He has several different layers of armour and cloth and I enjoyed taking my time with him. Originally I wanted to give him a white or at least bright cloak to hint at his role of defending the Hornburg against Dunlendings duing the long winter. But simply didn't like the look and wanted to tie him in with the rest of my Rohan a bit more.

The command group of a bannerbearer and the hornblower were painted alongside Helm. While quite a bit older than the model of Helm, they do fit together nicely with the scale mail armour. I'm even tempted to get myself another of the Helmingas command pack to convert the banner and horn onto a horse...

Pict 874: Captain Avantika

Not forgetting to paint more D&D miniatures, I also got around to painting Captain Avantika from Critical Role. In my new years resolutions I wanted to focus on Critical Role miniatures, since up until now, I only painted one mini from the Kickstarter. But for now it's one more from SFG's Vault. At first I was unsure about the colour scheme, but she came out ok if a bit colourful.

Pict 875: Vampire Conversion (WIP)

I had this conversion in my head for a few years now. I had bought some Vargheist wing bits to convert myself some Tyranid Shrikes and apart from the bigger ones there was this small pair. And since I was able to pick up the Vampire lady at the start of january, I finally had all the pieces. It took me a while to decide on the colours, but now that the basecolours are down I hope to finish painting her in the next days.

Pict 876: Tabletop World Blacksmith Forge Bits

Pict 877: Tabletop World Blacksmith Forge (WIP)

And lastly here's a WIP of the next big project. I got myself the beatiful blacksmith forge made by Tabletop World and started with the smaller loose bits and bobs like the anvil and the bellows. I also started to work on the roof, but there is still quite a bit of work to do. And I documented how I painted the different details and how I plan on painting the rest of the model.