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.

Picking up a few things throughout Middle-earth

I used the past two weeks to pick up a few projects and finishing others with a focus on Middle-earth. I managed to paint Eorl and a few Warriors for my Rohan army, the Moria Goblins of a few weeks back as well as some more heroes. I also painted two more models for D&D and started on a few more.

Pict 859: Rohan vs. Moria

Pict 860: Grôblog and Armoured Moria Goblins

Pict 861: Grôblog and Armoured Moria Goblins

First up are the armoured Moria Goblins. I really like the models - the mail coifs are an element that didn't extend towards the plastic goblins and makes these stand out.
With Grôblog, the guy with the tactical dwarven ruin, I particularly enjoyed painting the flowing cloak. But as is tradition with finecast, before priming I had to carve out the detail on the pillar because it was to washed out. I was very pleased however how the whole batch turned out and what was at first meant to be a small group to be played as hobgoblins in D&D might now get turned into an army? I already stripped the paint of about 70 plastic goblins, so that might be a reality...

Pict 862: Eorl, Warriors of Rohan with Horn and Banner

Pict 863: Eorl, Warriors of Rohan with Horn and Banner

After having painted Eorl on foot, of course I had to paint him on horseback as well. Intrestingly GW painted their version with a brown horse while Felaróf is clearly described as white. So that's what I went with. I also painted two more warriors - a bannerbearer and a hornblower. The banner will surely see play while the horn is a bit on the expensive site pointswise.

Pict 864: Gildor Inglorion, Gandalf the White, Aragorn

Pict 865: Gildor Inglorion, Gandalf the White, Aragorn

I then pulled out some more Middle-earth heroes from various armies and simply painted what took my fancy. The three poses of Aragorn were painted at the same time and now put me at nine painted Aragorns - only five more left to go and I painted all of the official poses that GW put out!
Of Gandalf I also showed a WIP. I'm not perfectly happy with the eyes, they are sculpted to be rather small on the model and now he looks a bit surprised. But after several tries, that what I ended up with. Gildor Inglrion was painted with the scenarios of the Fellowship Journeybook in mind. The colourscheme combines elements of my Highelf and Woodelf miniatures, since he's able to include the latter in his warband.

Pict 866: Dragonborn Rogue, Halfling Ranger

Pict 867: Dragonborn Rogue, Halfling Ranger

And to make a few steps outside the Legendarium, I finished up this Dragonborn Rogue and afterwards painted this Halfling Ranger. Once again, the miniatures are made by Darksword and a joy to paint!

Pict 868: Morgul Stalker (WIP)

And lastly here is a WIP of some Morgul Stalkers that I just started. The miniatures are a bit comical but I like the design choice to have spiky hoods and gauntlets. The faces with the big teeth just scream for a skull-motive face paint. I'll see what I can do!

Building an Uruk-Hai Army like it's 2001

These past two weeks again were spent painting (among other things) Uruk Scouts. With this last batch, I'm ready to call the scout army done for the moment. I then went on to paint up a few more Rohan heroes.

Pict 853: Uruk-Hai Scout Army 2020

Pict 854: Uruk-Hai Scouts and Ballista Loader

I really like how this army looks once put together like this. I painted three more bowmen to bring my total up to twelve and another twelve Scouts with shields for a total of nineteen. I will have to add in one box of the plastic Scouts at some point but for now I'm happy to have painted a bunch on models from almost 20 years ago. I think that the next step will be Mordor Orcs from that time to be able to mix them in for some spear supports.
Whilst acquiring the Scouts, I also got a second Ballista loader and proceeded to paint him alongside the Scouts. He might simply get used as a pikeman once the opportunity arises.

Pict 855: Mauhur (Conversion)

To upgrade the Scouts to marauders, I had to get myself a Mauhur. There once was a metal miniature for him but nowadays he's only availiable in Finecast. Since the rest of the army is metal that surely was not an option so I had to go about converting one. Mauhur is pretty much only a Scout with two swords and a cape and thus it was easy enough: The main body is just one of the runing Scouts, the right hand was missing in this case, so that Lurtz had to donate one. The right arm and shoulder are from another Lurtz, this time the one just holding his bow. And lasty the sword in the left hand comes from Uglúk. I'm pretty happy with how he turned out and of course I like him better than the original model now!

Pict 856: Haleth, Aldor, Eorl

Pict 857: Haleth, Aldor, Eorl

To have some more opponents for my Uruks I then swiched over to more Rohan heroes. First up were Aldor and Haleth - two of the newer models made by ForgeWorld. They painted up reasanobly quickly since they are pretty much Rohan Warriors with a little extra. I guess they will really shine in a Defense of Helm's Deep army and I just might have to write up a list to try them out.
I also wanted to try out the new Helm Hammerhand profile and because my ForgeWorld order had not yet arrived I decided to prox him with a different legenday king of Rohan: Eorl, the guy who started the whole thing. It's a good thing that I did because I don't think I'd paint him anytime soon otherwise. The pose is quite nice but the face seems to be a victim of casting issues rather often. It went ok, but I had to guess where the eyes on the model were rathern than having them modeled on there. Next up will have to be the Eorl mounted and of course Helm himself!

Pict 858: Gandalf the White (WIP)

And lastly here's a WIP. I never acually painted any Gandalf the White miniatures. When I started playing he was simply to expensive (it's got nothing to do with me being unable to use magic effectively!). But now that I'm spending some more time in Rohan, he jumped to the top of the queue. I went for a grey cloak to mimic the scene of him coming into the hall of Meduseld but not wuite having revealed himself.

D&D Hill Giant, Planetar and more Uruk Scouts

These past two weeks I painted more Uruk Scouts and then went onto paint some Moria Goblins. I struck some motivation issues with batch painting them however and thus distracted myself by painting some monsters for D&D.

Pict 842: Hill Giant Smash!

Pict 843: Hill Giant

Pict 844: Hill Giant

Pict 845: Hill Giant

Pict 846: Hill Giant

Pict 847: Hill Giant

Man, this was just the best distraction. It didn't really take to long since it's pretty much just fur, some leather bits and a whole lot of skin. I'm really in love with the miniature - the face is amazing, the different textures are a joy to paint. The pose is a bit exaggerated but I like it. As with the unicorn I painted at the tailend of last year, I went for minimal use of washes. Instead I drybrushed the boulder, the hair and the fur and layered the skin with translucent paint.

Pict 848: Uruk-Hai Scouts, Uglúk, Captain

The Uruks this time around are mainly Scouts - seven with shield, three with bow and the two carrying Merry respectively Pippin. I also painted Uglúk holding an orc head and his twin brother, an unnamed Captain. Lastly there is a single warrior with a crossbow. I'll have to get some more of those to play the Assault on Helm's Deep Legendary Legion, but for now, I'm staying on track with the scouts.

Pict 849: Planetar

After painting the Uruks, I finished up the Planetar, I showed last week. As I said, the pose is quite cool but I'm not that happy with the detail on the wings. I tried drybrushing and it looks all right, but compared to the Hill Giant there is a remarkable difference in quality.

Pict 850: Grôblog and Moria Goblins (WIP)

These Moria Goblins again are very nice miniatures and hold up despite being from the first batch of Lord of the Rings miniatures from 2001. Grôblog, the goblin chieftain on the pillar with the cloak is from some later time and only was released in Finecast. It took me quite some time to go through the basecolours but I finnaly managed to get to the wash stage. I hope to finish them next, but since I let myself be distraced by D&D miniatures, I might do some more of them...

Pict 851: Watcher in the Water's Tentacles

While I was on a stroll in Moria, I fished out these tentacles, I had started a long time ago. They were released by GW to play a scenario with the Fellowship of the Ring against the Watcher in the Water on the western door to Moria. Now that they are painted, I'll have to play that scenario sometime!

Pict 852: Dragonborn Rogue (WIP)

And lastly here is a WIP of the next D&D hero. As always, I very much enjoy Darksword's miniatures and this Dragonborn Rogue is no exception. Right now I don't have any plans to play this miniature but as with the Hill Giant I simply wanted to paint a cool miniature to distract myself from batchpainting...

Rohan Reinforcements, Nazgûl and a Blue Angel

Pict 829: Rohan vs. Wraiths

Not to be overcome with Uruk-Hai, I painted some reinforcements for my Rohan army and put them to good use in a doubles tournament this past saturday. I also quickly whipped up a few wraiths from Mordor while I was in the Middle-earth mindset. I also put the finishing touches on Bertrand and Hugo that were almost finished during my last entry. To round out my painting, I then got onto a planetar for my D&D games.

Pict 830: Dernhelm and Merry (mounted)

Pict 831: Dernhelm (mounted)

Pict 832: Éowyn (Death of Gothmog)

I started painting the Rohan heroes of with Dernhelm since I needed her for the tournament. My doubles partner (you can see more of his over at SmallThingsModelling) could have lend me his version but nothing is better to motivate me to paint than a deadline such as a tournament. I then threw in the crawling Éowyn from the 'Death of Gothmog' diorama.

Pict 833: Théodred and Rohan Captain (mounted)

Pict 834: Théodred and Rohan Captain (on foot)

After they finished up rather nicely, I went into my drawer of primed Rohan miniatures and took out Théodred and the Captain. Up until now I never had a reason to paint them but the former got a cool new Legendary Legion in the 'War in Rohan' supplement and I might just use the Captain in an all-hero army. I'm still lacking a painted Gamling with the royal banner however so that model might jump the queue?

Pict 835: Riders of Rohan

Other than Dernhelm, the two riders had to be painted for the doubles tournament. While they are not my best paintjobs, I'm happy with how they look. There are now only four more Riders of Rohan primed and if I painted them, I would have 24 in total. That seems like a reasonable amount (there are quite a few more in my box of shame though...) and it might even be doable in the coming weeks?

Pict 836: The Shadowlord, the Knight of Umbar and Castellans of Dol Guldur

Pict 837: The Shadowlord, the Knight of Umbar and Castellans of Dol Guldur

The other list we were running at the doubles event called for a Castellan of Dol Guldur. I knew I had these two primed and ready to be painted but they were rather far down my queue. However since I had them on my mind from the list building process, I decided to slap some paint on them. Of course they are pretty much only metal and dark cloth so they painted up rather fast. Spurred on by the quick success, I also painted the two named Ringwraiths I sill had lying about: the Shadowlord and the Knight of Umbar.

Pict 838: The Bowmen of Bergerac - Bertrand le Brigand, Hugo le Petit and Gui le Gros

Pict 839: Bertrand le Brigand

Pict 840: Hugo le Petit

Bertrand and Hugo pretty much done with my last post. They had to sit idly on my desk though while I went on my Rohan and Morder painting spree. But after I had varnished everything above, I finished the two of them. Again: the models are really amazing, especially for their age (the first mention in a catalogue was from the 1997 Annual with a copyright from 1996, they had profiles in the 5th edition of WHFB). I suppose, they will only be used in D&D but if I ever get around to play Mordheim or Warhammer Fantasy Skirmish, they would be first in line!

Pict 841: Planetar (WIP)

Speaking of D&D: I have some of the bigger models that are primed and ready to go sitting on my desk at all times. (Amongst them a Beholder, a Carmine Dragon as well as two Balrogs.) They always accuse me of not getting a move on and painting them... Last week I finally gave in to their cries and started to work on this planetar made by Gale Force Nine for the D&D Collector's Series. I have to say that the older models of the product line were a bit better: The detail on the planetar's greaves and braces was slightly washed out and I had to resculpt some of the feathers where a big moldline was running right through them. Nonetheless the model looks quite cool and I look forward to finishing it next week.