Painting Challenge XI Final Submissions

 The painting challenge ended a few weeks ago, but I wanted to post the final submissions on our Fawcett blog. I completed some more Alpha Legion and Minotaurs.

I managed to complete 732 points worth of stuff for a 46th placing (out of 84)! This is by far the largest amount of stuff I've painted in one of the Analogue Challenges. Considering that, I'm amazed at just how much stuff some of the participants were able to paint.

Gothmog and the Warg Riders

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge ends tomorrow at midnight, and while I am not an official participant, I have been acting as a 'running partner' for my fellow Conscripts who are in the challenge. Congratulations to all who were able to meet their personal goals. Over the winter, I was able to complete over 196 foot, 14 mounted, and 3 large 28mm scale Lord of the Rings miniatures. This cleared a backlog going back nearly a decade. I had started prepping a group of 34 Games Workshop Rangers of Middle Earth as my next project, but I didn't think I could get them finished in time. I decided to switch to the old metal version of Gothmog, both on foot and mounted, and a box of plastic Warg Riders.

 

Although there were only six mounted orcs, I always find doing random colours on a group of miniatures challenging. I much prefer soldiers or warriors in some kind of uniform. The wargs were the easiest part of the project since I painted them all the same, followed by the two Gothmog figures. At least they were alike in their paint scheme, but the hodgepodge of orc riders was giving me a headache trying not to paint them in a uniform pattern. 

The wargs come with a fur ridge that can be placed on their backs to fill in the gap where the rider would sit, so they can also be used as wild wargs without a rider depending on the scenario. All the miniatures were primed matt black using a rattle can and then painted with a variety of water-based acrylics with lots of drybrushing of highlights. Once painting was completed, they were all given a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade, followed by a light coat of Rust-oleum Matt Clear spray. Here is the final result.

Gothmog, Lieutenant of Minas Morgul, featured in the movie 'Return of the King', commanding the Mordor forces at the taking of Osgiliath, and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields

Warg Riders with Bow, Sword, and Spear. The Orcs of the Misty Mountains have some control over the wargs living there

'Wild' Wargs with the rider replaced with a fur ridge. In the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, attacks can hit either the rider or the mount. If a warg rider is killed, the warg has an attack ability that is independent of the rider.

Thanks for reading. Once again, congratulations to my fellow Conscripts participating in the Painting Challenge. The return of nice weather will probably draw me away from my painting desk, but I hope to keep whittling away at my collection of unpainted minis. Cheers.

Nazgûl! - Ringwraith on a Fel Beast

After the massive Uruk-hai project I needed a change of pace to something a bit quicker. Almost a decade ago I bought a used Games Workshop 'Ringwraith on a Fel Beast' off of eBay. It was very cheap as it had experienced some battle damage, and it needed some repair to get it 'shipshape and Bristol fashion' once again.

 

The first problem was the wonky base. It had a crack in the rim, and it wobbled a bit. I took some 3mm polystyrene card, cut a circle of the correct size, and glued the base to it. This made it sturdier, and solved the problem of the wobble.

 

The second problem was all the broken bits. The plastic wings no longer had the posts attached that originally fit into sockets in the metal torso. One was missing completely, while the other was stuck in the socket. Also the right wing had three of its 'spiky bits' broken off as well. The seller had sent all the broken pieces, but I didn't think glue would give a strong enough bond to hold them securely. And lastly, the ringwraith's sword was broken off. It was time to use my combination of floral wire and epoxy putty to replace the broken off pieces, including the posts that were on the wings. 

 

The final problem was the buildup of layers of glue where the wings fit on the torso. The previous owner had glued the wings in place multiple times, so it was no longer possible to produce a good bond. I scraped most of the old adhesives off with an X-Acto knife, then used a wire bristle brush to clean the metal torso further. Finally all the surfaces were cleaned with some isopropyl alcohol to dissolve away any remaining residue.

 

I used super glue to affix the neck to torso, and to attach the tip to the end of the tail. 5-minute epoxy was used to attach the wings to the torso to make sure there were no gaps as the surfaces were rather uneven. Once the epoxy had set, I used some more epoxy putty to smooth out the area around the joints. The final building phase was to do the ground work on the base. The figure is cast with a section of damaged wall that has a discarded Gondorian helmet beside it, so I went with that theme and did the base in same style as my Minas Tirith miniatures - paving cut from plastic card, bricks cut from sprue, and coarse sand for rubble. Everything was allowed to cure overnight.

 

The model was primed black using a rattle can, and then painted with Vallejo acrylic paints using a lot of drybrushing, especially on the wings of the fel beast. Here is the final result.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and healthy. Hopefully we will be able to gather around the gaming table soon.

"Build Me An Army Worthy Of Mordor." - Fighting Uruk-hai

"Build me an army worthy of Mordor"

My last blog post has been almost three weeks ago. Since then I have been working on a Lord of the Rings mega-project consisting of over 100 Isengard Uruk-hai. Some of the figures I purchased new. Half of these I had already based and primed years ago, while the other half were still in their blister packs. The majority were used figures I bought off of eBay from multiple sellers. A few of these were individual figures such as an Uruk-hai Captain, but a lot were a mixed bag of the Games Workshop boxes of plastic Uruk-hai Warriors and Siege Troops with many missing figures. I like to think of them as the survivors of some hard campaigning. All of these required some cleaning up of mold lines, while a lot needed the removal of some of the ground work where it partially covered the feet of the miniatures. A smaller number were going to require some repair to replace missing pikes, swords or shields. Here was my starting point.

In total I had 3 Captains, 1 Standard Bearer, 11 Berserkers, 18 Siege Troops, 40 Warriors with Sword and Shield, 30 Warriors with Pike, 7 Ladders, and 2 Demolition Charges. I originally had 2 Lurtz figures on the workbench, but put them aside until I start working on my box of plastic Uruk-hai Scouts.

Twelve of the swords had cracks near the hilt where they had been bent but not broken off. These were repaired by the application of some super glue into the crack which made it as strong as new. Three of the sword were missing completely. I replaced these with some hammered floral wire. I also used floral wire to replace the missing part of three pikes that had broken off near the warrior's hand. One warrior was not only missing his pike, but also his right hand and left forearm. These are cast as a single piece and designed to be glued in place. I made a 'right hand' and 'left forearm' from fine wire wrapped around the heavier floral wire of the pike. I drilled out holes in the miniature, glued the fine wires into place, and covered them with epoxy putty. The last repair involved fabricated two missing shields from an old plastic gift card, bending them to shape, and gluing them on. 

 

Once everything was cleaned up, and all the repairs were done, all the figures that were not already primed were sprayed matt black using a rattle can. I originally thought I would then paint them all the way through with each colour, but after doing all the skin areas (Vallejo Cavalry Brown) and all the loincloths (Vallejo Leather Brown), I found while doing the gunmetal on the armour that it was getting to be a bit mind numbing. From that point on, I worked on them by subunit, such as a company of 10 pike, 10 sword and shield, and 1 captain. I also arranged the miniatures within each subunit by pose, so that I would not miss painting a strap, or a piece of armour. 

When all the painting was complete, all the miniatures were given a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade. This darkened all the colours, and gave some definition to the muscles on all the arms, legs, and torsos. It also gave the armour a bit of a grotty look. While I like what it did in these areas, I didn't like the shiny finish that it left on the figures. After doing all the ground work, all the figures were sprayed with a light coat of Rust-Oleum Clear Matt. This took off the worst of the shine, and it also helped to seal the ground work. Here is the final product outside the walls of Helm's Deep.

 

 

Here are close-ups of the individual sub units starting with Uruk-hai Siege Troops with Ladders.

Uruk-hai Siege Troops with Demolition Charges and Berserkers with Torches.

Uruk-hai Berserkers. Five of these are metal miniatures, while the four running berserkers with the two-handed sword resting on their shoulder were converted from the plastic figure running with a torch that comes with the Uruk-hai Siege Troops box. Just to mix things up a bit, I gave the one in the center a severed head to hold. This was done by converting a head taken from a Bandai 1/48 scale tank crewman.

A group of ten Uruk-hai with sword and shield. Some of these had already undergone some repair before I bought them where their sword arm had been replace by one taken from an unidentified metal figure. These got a little treatment from the metal file to take off any detail on the vambrace so that it would look closer to the armour worn by the rest of the Uruk-hai.

 A group of six Uruk-hai armed with crossbows.

And finally three units of 10 pike, 10 sword and shield, 1 captain, and for one of the companies, a standard. All of these were marked with the 'White Hand of Saruman', some on their shield, some on their helmets or armour.

I am really happy with the final results. The first five days were spent sorting, cleaning, repairing, assembling, and priming. Then 10 days of painting, followed by a day each for the Quickshade, the ground work, and the matt coat. The total came to 109 figures, plus the ladders and demolition charges. Now to march to Helm's Deep.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and healthy until we can meet again across the workgames table.

The gate and walls in the background is a three-piece resin set of Helm's Deep Fortress from Games Workshop. Its footprint measures approximately 60cm x 23 cm. Alas, it is now OOP, but occasionally available in the aftermarket. I have no idea what the current asking price is, but I would be curious to know if anyone has that information.

Painting Challenge Super Post!

 I haven't posted here in a while due to the analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I kept meaning to copy my posts from there to this blog, but I kept putting it off until there were too many entries to get through. I decided to create one super post with all my entries to this date, plus a bonus entry that doesn't qualify for the challenge because they were partially painted before it began.

I also slowly completed a tactical squad for my delayed, but not forgotten 9th edition Minotaurs project