Something's breaking through the Trees!

I had this particular Dragon standing on the back of my desk for some years now and with the Carmine Dragon screaming to be painted, I decided I really should finish the green one first.

Pict 445: Breaking through the Trees

Pict 446: Forest Dragon

Pict 447: Forest Dragon

Pict 448: Forest Dragon

Pict 449: Forest Dragon (Head)

It wasn't that much work to get him finished, but I never got around to it. Since he's got very large flat areas he was one of the first miniatures I tried my hand at wet-blending. The result wasn't the greatest which discouraged me at the time. Now, more than four years later, I only had to higlight the greens and get to the details like the horns and teeth.I'm pretty happy with the result as it stands but of course the blends could be better in some places. Thankfully the Carmine Dragon has more sculpted detail so that the big surfaces are broken up and will be easier to paint.
The miniature will most likely see play as an Adult Green Dragon in D&D, but if I'm ever able to play a Storm of Magic game I'll be happy to field him. Originally I had planned to do a conversion of Naestra and Arahan to ride the beast but right now I like the classic model for them better.

Pict 450: Gnoll Warrior

Pict 451: Gnoll Warrior

Pict 452: Gnoll Warrior

Pict 453: Gnoll Warrior

The second figure I painted this week is this Gnoll Warrior. He's the last piece of my Illithid Raiding Party set. The cast is quite detailed but in some spaces I had to resculpt parts after the fragile pieces had come loose when washing the moldrelease of. I used the picture in the 5th edition Monster Manual as a guideline - it's virtually the same Gnoll - and I liked how they introduced the red cloth as a splash of colour. I then added some verdigris to the bronze in order to contrast the red.

Grimhammers and a Dragon

Whelp... Sometimes (read: pretty much always) getting back into the swingg of things for me equals getting distraced by new and exciting projects. On the downside, I didn't get that much painting done on the Nazgûl but on the upside I now have a painted Grimhammer Captain. Other than that I also did some building and finished filling in the gaps of my Carmine Dagon and built her a base.

Pict 440: Grimhammers vs. Gundabad

Pict 441: Grimhammer Captain

Pict 442: Grimhammer Captain

Pict 443: Grimhammer Captain

I'm pretty happy with this Captain - I highlighted the scales of his skirt individually and that shows in contrast to the drybrushed warriors. The tattoo on his head is a little crooked but I like it as a first attempt. I don't think he'll see that much playtime since the profile is not that strong and it has to compete with Young Balin and Young Dwalin - both better and more characterful options. But I might need him for scenarioplay and simply for completion's sake.

Pict 444: Carmine Dragon + Base (WIP)

And to show a bit of my building progress here is a picture of the Carmine Dragon. I went with a selfconstucted base of 100 x 100 mm. The figure itself has a sculped basepiece that is just a bit to big for the screaming bell base and I didn't want to cut anything of. I'm really looking forward to getting some paint on this dragon but I might have to finish some other projects on my table first to make some space.

Hunter Orcs and Ghosty

This week I got a little time to get to some of the Hunter Orcs from last week. Other than that, I got started a Twilight Ringwraith to play as a Nazgûl of Dol Guldur.

Pict 438: Hunter Orcs

These Orcs are finished for now - the first twelve of thirty-six. I pretty happy with some of the war paint but I'm starting to run thin on ideas for new ones. Maybe I'll have to repeat designs in a different colour. Could be a way to tie the red of the banner back in. But I fear that it could be to flashy.

Pict 439: Twilight Ringwraith (WIP)

I had the Twilight Ringwraiths for some time now but painting them was always a bit daunting. I'm not quite sure about the colour choice. I'll see how it looks once I put down some washes.

Getting back on the horse

I had a bit of a dry spell of painting since I had pretty little time to hobby. I missed last weeks posting because I hadn't done any painting nor modelling that week. But this week I tried to get back onto the hobby horse and started by finishing my conversion of Narzug mounted on a Fell Warg.

Pict 434: Narzug

Pict 435: Narzug (mounted)

Pict 436: Narzug (mounted)

I converted this Orc hero last year to be a part of an evil all-hero army but I didn't finish the painting before the tournament I built the list for. And as it so often is, after the event I just didn't get to him because I got distracted by new and shiny projects. Thus it feels even better to having finished Narzug.

Pict 437: Hunter Orcs (WIP)

After getting to Narzug, I got a taste for Hunter Orcs. I have some thirty Orcs lying about that up until now had a similar fate to Narzug. I'm not taking on all of them at once but have limited myself to a first batch of twelve. Right now I have painted in the eyes and I have started on the highlighting. I'll try and give them all differing warpaint - let's see how that goes...

Dol Guldur Diorama - finished!

This week was slow again - the real life seems to take over these last few ones... But at least I managed to work on Galadriel, Lady of Light.

Pict 429: Dol Guldur Diorama

Pict 430: Galadriel, Lady of Light

Pict 431: Galadriel, Lady of Light

I find her to be the weakest of the scuplts from the Vanquishers of the Necromancer set and thus postponed her from week to week. On top of that I had my difficulties with the dress - for one thing it's not all to clear what is flash or residue of the casting process, for anonther I was not to fond of the swamp-like design of the scene in the movie. I finally decided to go for a more colourful aproach with blue and green layers to her clothes. It's inspired by the colours in the scene but not as dark.

Pict 432: Dol Guldur Diorama

Pict 433: Dol Guldur Diorama

As you can see in the first picture, with Galadriel finished, I completed another of my new years pledges: The Dol Guldur Dioama. I'm quite happy to have it done and it will shurely stay on my shelf of the forseeable future. To stay within the scene of the movie, I had Radagast on his sleigh prepared and partly painted for some time. But after painting the Necromancer, I will have to paint the Dol Guldur Nazgul as well. But that will have to wait a bit - at least coming week I will probably wont have any time to paint.

Malbeth the Seer and Arvedui, Last King of Arnor

This week I can only show two completed miniatures but with those I finished I managed to paint all the Arnor models I own currently.

Pict 424: Malbeth the Seer and King Arvedui

Pict 425: Arvedui, Last King of Arnor

Pict 426: Arvedui, Last King of Arnor

First up is Arvedui. I really like the Arthurian feel this miniature has with the beard and the bowl cut hair. I chose the colours to match my Arnor Warriors. For a short time he looked a bit like Santa Claus but I hope that impression is gone after I painted the fur trimmings a dark grey.

Pict 427: Malbeth the Seer

Pict 428: Malbeth the Seer

And here is Malbeth the Seer - at first I wanted to paint the robes a dark red (seems to be one of my favourite colours) but that would have made him to similar to Elrond. But I do have to say the miniature would also make for a good Círdan, since the GW Círdan has no beard.

Other than those two I didn't have to much time this week, but I managed to play around with green and brown putty. I look forward to doing some sculpting in the coming weeks even if it only is to fill in some gaps.

Mean Mind Flayers and Happy Hobbits, and another Dark Lord

I managed to get along with last weeks pojects rather quickly so that I had time to sneak in a little bit more progress.

Pict 417: Hobbit Archers

First up are the colourfull Hobbit Archers. The basic colours were almost done when I showed them last week, and after I completed that stage, they had a wash of Agrax Earthshade all over them. Once the wash dried, the highlights went really fast, since the Hobbits are rather small miniatures. Since I completed all the miniatures for the Arnor Battle Company, I went ahead and varnished them all. I usually skip this step, since I don't play that much. But even with the little handling they had to endure, I had to patch them up.

Pict 418: Illithid

Pict 419: Illithid

And here are the finished Illithid from last week. That Mage is somewhat tricky to photograph, but I hope this one is a bit better than the previous. Other than that I'm happy with how they turned out - I can't wait the get them to feed on some hero brains.

Pict 420: Sauron, the Necromancer of Dol Guldur

Pict 421: Sauron, the Necromancer of Dol Guldur

After finishing all of these miniatures, I highlighted Sauron the Necormancer of Dol Guldur. The black cloth / smoke looks fine enough - had I been braver, I had tried to do a blend from yellow to red to black starting at the armour. Like this he was ready faster to chill the souls of some enemy warriors. The base fits in with my other Dol Guldur miniatures even if it looks a bit blad.

Pict 422: Malbeth and Arvedui (WIP)

Lastly here are some work in progress pictures of the projects I'll be working on next. The conclusion of the Arnor warband are these two heroes - Malbeth the Seer and the last king Arvedui. I'm considering to expand the company into an army but for now these should be enough.

Pict 423: Gnoll Warrior (WIP)

And here is what will be the conclusion to the Illithid Raiding Party: a lowly Gnoll Warrior. As last week, I hope to get on with these projects early next week, so I can work one some more things.