Elven Heroes of Rivendell and Lothlórien

I am continuing to whittle down my Lord of the Rings 'pile of shame'. All of these figures were based and primed years ago, and then languished on the work bench. I haven't done any elves so far in this current painting spell, so I thought some elven heroes should be next. The six I completed are Gil-galad, Elrond, Elladan, Elrohir, Haldir, and a Galadhrim standard bearer. All of these are Games Workshop casting from at least ten year ago, and most have been replaced with new sculpts.

 

 

All of these were painted using water-based acrylics, mostly Vallejo, plus some ink washes of dark brown and reddish brown. The elven armour was initially painted with bronze and then highlighted with gold. In the case of Haldir and the standard bearer, their armour was given a wash of reddish brown prior to the gold. That was followed with further highlighting with a silver-gold mix. Otherwise the method for painting was to lay on a dark colour first, and building up ever lighter layers on the raised areas. 

 

Gil-galad and Elrond

 

Gil-galad was the high king of the Elves and the mightiest warrior of his Age, his bravery and leadership inspiring his followers to carry out great deeds in battle. At the height of the War of the Last Alliance, Gil-galad confronted Sauron, throwing himself into combat with the Dark Lord for the freedom of Middle-earth. Though Gil-galad would never see the Dark Lord finally defeated, for he perished at the hands of Sauron upon the slopes of Orodruin, his name lived on in songs and legends - even those sung by Sam during the closing of the Third Age.

 

A mighty and renowned warrior, Elrond has been at the forefront of many great battles. He fought against Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance and bore witness to the Dark Lord's downfall. It was he who tried to convince Isildur to destroy the Ring for good, an act that would have saved much suffering in the Third Age. Blessed with the gift of foresight, Elrond is able to provide great wisdom for his allies.

 

Elladan and Elrohir

 

The twin sons of Elrond and Celebrian, Elladan and Elrohir are every bit as skilled in combat as their father. The twins often rode alongside Aragorn in his youth, forging a strong bond with the future king through their battles with the Haradrim and the Orcs. Whilst most Elves played little part in the War of the Ring, Elladan and Elrohir joined Aragorn as he ventured into the paths of the Dead and even followed him to the Pelennor and the Black Gate. Together, the brothers are a deadly foe, fighting with a whirl of flashing steel and the precision of the Elven lords of old.

 

Haldir and Galadhrim Standard Bearer

 

One of the most trusted captains and skilled archers of Lothlórien, Haldir is tasked with defending the woodland borders. It was Haldir that led the Galadhrim to Helm's Deep to honour the alliance that once stood between Men and Elves, a noble act, but one that would ultimately claim his life. His sacrifice was not in vain however, as the forces that were brought to the Hornburg no doubt provided incalculable aid in the defense of the great fortress.

 

The Golden Wood is defended first and foremost by the warriors of the Galadhrim, steadfast soldiers who have honed their skills in combat across many wars throughout the ages. Like all Elves, the Galadhrim are skilled with blade, spear and bow. Tasked with the protection of Lothlórien, these warriors shall give their lives in its defence, for should it fall, Middle-earth shall surely follow. The combat bonus of the banner allows the player to re-roll one of the dice rolled to determine who wins the fight.

 

While I already have some High Elves painted, Haldir and the standard bearer are the first Galadhrim figures I have painted. I liked the paint scheme used for these figures on the Games Workshop website, and tried my best to replicate it. I am pretty happy with the results. I have some unopened blisters of older metal Galadhrim warriors in my 'pile of shame', but I think it's time to do some companies of Mordor Orcs next.

 

Thanks for reading.

Wrapping up the Painting Challenge

The Painting Challenge has been over for nearly a month now and I'm trying to get back into the brush-swinging habit - this should be made somewhat easier by the return of winter to the Prairies but I'm having to work at it... anyway I thought I'd try to get myself back into the spirit by posting some of my last Challenge models here as well. Away we go...

From the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Blog:

Having completed the Chambers of Challenge and offered tribute at the Altar of the Snowlord, all that remains is to post the last few models completed before the end of the Challenge. First up is this Hobgoblin Chieftain on Dire Wolf, from Games Workshop's old Warhammer Fantasy Battles range.

The first army I ever painted for WHFB was a classic "big hat" Chaos Dwarf force, which still maintains pride of place in my cabinets. An important part of the army was a large contingent of Hobgoblin Wolf Riders, which engaged in some "creative reimagining" of battle reports we posted on our blog.

In sniffing around for something to paint at the last minute, I noticed that I had this model that had been waiting for paint for nigh-on 15 years or more. So I got at it!

Makes me want to get the Chaos Dwarfs out again for some old-school WHFB! Barks - take note - I counted 15 SKULLS on this model alone! Must be some kinda record...?

Next up is the King of the Dead to accompany my recently-painted Warriors of the Dead. The King is a metal model which arrived yesterday from an eBay transaction. It was new in the blister, having originally accompanied an issue of the Eaglemoss "LotR" collector's magazine.

As before - simplicity itself to paint. White spray and Biel-Tan Green wash. That's it!

Lastly, another postal arrival from yesterday - a very cool "Death Worm" from Otherworld Miniatures (currently on sale at their site for 4 quid!!)

This monster is a sorcerous construct and not, strictly speaking, undead - at least according to its entry in the Fiend Folio under "Necrophidius". Conscript Brian H. instantly recognized it when I showed it off on our Zoom call last night and directed me to the FF entry. Good knowledge Brian! 

It was obviously another super-easy model to paint and brings the total skull-count for this post to 16 SKULLS. WOW!

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I also posted a wrap-up of my Challenge models on the Challenge blog:

Assembled production

Well, here we are at the end of the Challenge. I'd set myself a modest goal of 500 points which I ended up more than doubling. Still, it wasn't *quite* enough to get me into the top 25 - my good friend Greg pipped me by a mere 6 points! In any event, here's the breakdown of my Challenge production:

• 28mm foot: 75
• 28mm mounted: 3
• 28mm large figures/monsters: 5
• 28mm artillery pieces: 1
• 28mm tanks: 1
• 28mm landing craft: 1
• 28mm furniture/terrain: 12
• 20mm foot: 2
• 20mm cars: 1
• 20mm tanks: 1
• 15mm tanks: 3
• 10mm Titans: 1

self-portrait

I just want to end this post by again thanking Mr. Curt and all of his Minions for running the Challenge for all of us, and also to Lady Sarah and the Minions' other halves for their forbearance and tolerance of the time Curt and the Minions spend on it. Thanks also to my fellow Challengers for the kind words you posted about my work.

See you at the bar...!

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So that's it... I promise I'm going to try to get some models painted... I have an idea what I'm going to do (and I've even finished the conversions and gotten them primed) and I promise you it will be like nothing you've ever seen on the blog...!

Arch-Kavalos Zandtos - Ossiarch Bonereapers

 Every army needs a leader and for the Ossiarch Bonereapers I painted up one of the named characters: Arch-Kavalos Zandtos!

I got this for my birthday last year from my wife. The box allows you to build either the named character or the generic leader. I liked the look of the one above despite it being the less stable of the two builds. There's not much supporting this model and I can see that transporting it would be a challenge, but the looks cool factor once again won out.
 

The model was a actually a bit of a challenge to paint. The design theme for the army includes these spirit sculls that make up the "guts" of the models. These are then surrounded by pieces of bone to make a construct. The model really maximizes this by having the bone pieces attach over top of the skulls. The only way to paint the skulls was to paint all the pieces separately and then assemble it when the painting was far enough along. This then made assembly a real pain.

I'm not sure this inner skull design feature is really worth it in the end. most of the skulls get covered up by the rest of the model and it seem like a lot of work for little pay off. A similar effect could have probably been accomplished if the model was designed with fewer components. This just seemed to be needlessly complicated. Someone just starting out in the hobby would have been lost on this model and making the mistake of assembling first, then painting would have probably seen this model hurled across the room! 

I'm trying to churn this army out quickly, so I'm using contrast paints for the bone. This has been faster compared to how I would normally paint them and the bonereapers lend themselves well to contrast paints.

The bone piece here is a separate component that fits over top the skulls. It would have been more forgiving and easier to paint as a single piece.

Thanks for visiting.

Goblins in Moria

With this project I was again back to a collection of secondhand plastic figures purchased off of eBay, along with some new metal character figures, as well as some metal goblin warriors and archers that are long out of production. In total I had 12 goblins with sword and shield, 12 goblins with bow, 12 goblins with spear, 3 goblin captains, a goblin shaman, a goblin drum with two drummers, and Durbûrz, Goblin King of Moria. 

 

All the plastic minis were in good shape, so no repairs needed to be done. After cleaning up any mold lines, the metal minis were glued to their bases using epoxy. Then a few 'boulders' (actually small pebbles) were glued  to some of the bases using epoxy again, followed by a layer of fine sand that was glued to the bases with PVA. Once everything was dry, all the figures were primed matte black using a rattle can.

 

All the 'rank and file' goblins were painted in an assembly line fashion starting with the skin colour, and working outward from there. The character figures got a similar treatment, but I also painted on yellow eyes with a black slit pupil, as well as any special colours such as the skulls on the shaman, or the bone 'drumsticks' on the goblin drummers. Water based acrylics were used throughout, mostly Vallejo paints. Once completed, everything got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade, which has become my 'go to' medium for mass armies. When the Quick Shade was thoroughly dry, I painted the bases starting with dark brown, followed by dry brushing on a lighter shade of brown. The 'rocks' were then painted with a medium grey. Finally some small patches of flocking were added in a random pattern to all bases to match the ground work on some goblins that I had done in the past. Here is the final result.

Beneath the peaks of The Misty Mountains lie many Goblin kingdoms. The greatest of these is undoubtedly that of the former Dwarf stronghold of Moria, ruled over by the tyrannical Durbûrz. The largest and most brutal Goblin in Moria, Durbûrz has risen up the ranks before becoming king, and any who have dared to challenge his rule have been swiftly and callously dispatched. Durbûrz rules Moria with an iron fist and instills great fear in those who follow him. [below left]

 

Quite where the Moria Goblin Shamans received their knowledge of dark magics is unknown, although it is likely they learned it in the dark corners of the mountains away from prying eyes. Possessing a crude and brutish form of magic, these shamans are capable of whipping their followers into a bloodthirsty frenzy, enabling them to suffer grievous wounds yet still carry on the fight. [below right]

 

The sound of Goblin Drums heralds only doom and death to those unfortunate to hear it. To the monotonous beat of the crudely fashioned drums the Moria Goblins scurry into battle, driven forth by the constant rhythm. Whilst the sound of bone upon taut skin spurs the vile Goblins forward, the deathly sound strikes fear into the hearts of all of those that know the peril that they now face.

 

Whether it was through a vicious cunning or just out of brutality, Goblin Captains are those that have risen through the ranks to lead Goblin warbands. Although they lack the martial prowess of other races, these Goblin Captains ae not to be taken lightly, and they are certainly fierce enough to give even skilled warriors pause for thought - if only for a moment. (The figure on the right with the spear is actually one of the metal Moria Armoured Goblin Warriors that are now out of production. I had an extra goblin spearman, and I needed another goblin captain, so he got a promotion.)

 

Here are the rest of the four metal Moria Armoured Goblin Warriors that went out of production when Games Workshop introduced their box of plastic Moria Goblins.

 

I also had four metal Moria Armoured Goblin Bowmen that are also out of production. Along with the metal Goblin Warriors, they add some nice variety to the swarm of small, mean-spirited creatures that live a troglodyte existence in the numerous delvings beneath the Misty Mountains.

 

That completes all my Moria Goblins that were in my 'In' Basket, although I still have two cave trolls to paint, one metal and one plastic. With the re-conquest of Moria campaign that I am working on, I may also have to get myself a Balrog.

 

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and healthy.

 

Rangers of Middle Earth

Unlike the majority of my recent Lord of the Rings projects that were secondhand minis bought off of eBay and refurbished, this one involved all new figures. The 'Damrod' figure was purchased new, but I had already based and primed years ago. The rest were from an unopened box of Games Workshop plastic Rangers of Middle Earth, and three blisters of now out of production metal figures that were marketed as 'Faramir's Rangers'.

 

The plastic figures were fairly clean with only a few having flash or mold lines that needed to be filed off. The box comes with a total of 24 rangers divided into 8 firing bows, 8 wielding swords, and 8 carrying spears, although those not firing bows have a bow slung across their backs. The nine metal figures were fairly equally divided into the four sculpts that were done back in the day, two standing and two kneeling, with each of those either wearing a hood and mask, or not. The plastic figures required minimal assembly. One pose comes with a spear and hand as a separated piece, but the rest have no separate parts. All were glued to their bases using either plastic model glue or epoxy as appropriate. Then a layer of fine sand was glued to the bases with PVA. Once everything was dry, all the figures were primed matte black using a rattle can. 

Looking at stills from the movies for inspiration, I found the colours worn by the Ithilien Rangers had considerable variety, but consisted mostly of dark greys, greens, and browns. Rather than trying to make things completely random, I decided on four different colour schemes, but mixed up the poses so that no two figures that had the same pose were painted exactly the same. The only unique figure was Damrod, which I painted using the images from the Games Workshop website as a guide.

 

All were painted using water-based acrylics, mostly Vallejo, followed by a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. Once the Quick Shade was dry, I painted the sand on the base dark brown, dry brushed with a lighter shade of brown, and then added the flocking, shrubs, and tufts of grass. The last step was to spray them with Rust-Oleum flat clear to take off the shine left by the coat of Quick Shade. Here is the final result.

Here is a close-up of the four different sculpts done of  the metal "Faramir's Rangers" to show the four different paint schemes used to paint all the rangers.

 

Having spent many years fighting Sauron's minions alongside Faramir with the wilds of Ithilien, Damrod is an experienced Ranger in his own right. As Sauron's armies advance, Damrod takes up his sword and bow in defence of Gondor as the forces of Mordor invade the ruined city of Osgiliath, in a futile attempt to drive them back.

 

I am currently on the hunt of minis of Madril, and Faramir as a ranger, to added some more Ranger heroes/captains to the force. Most of the online webstores don't seem to have them in stock anymore, despite them still being listed on the GW website.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe and healthy.

Ossiarch Bonereapers

Age of Sigmar has not caught on with the Conscripts. The psychological trauma inflicted on the other members by the destruction of the Old World is incredibly raw and it may take decades of psycho-therapy to overcome. Rumors of a return of the Old World have not helped and may have postponed true healing indefinitely. In fairness, I was fairly late to Warhammer Fantasy Battles and only got into it during 7th edition. I also had the misfortune of playing Bretonnians, which meant I only knew failure on the battlefield. The army was also never again given an update in future editions and contributed to what was a truly lackluster gaming experience. Don't get me wrong, the destruction of the old world was shocking and I found the first edition of AoS less than inspiring. However, things have progressed a bit and the model line has some of the best minis I've ever seen (and some truly bizarre ones like flying sharks!). They also gave up on the 4 page rules skirmish game idea and are going for large scale battles (although still less complex than Fantasy). I've thought about collecting an AoS army for a while, but wasn't sure which one to start. When GW released the Ossiarch Bonereapers, I knew I wanted to collect them. I love the idea of undead constructs imbued with souls of long dead warriors and the notion of them forgoing the destruction of a mortal settlement in order to extort the populace out of their very bones, is entertaining.

For my birthday and Christmas last year, my wife and daughter got me an assortment of models from the bonereaper line. I wasn't able to assemble them in time for the challenge, but with that over I've finally been able to get a few units assembled and painted. First up are a unit of Mortek Guard. These are the front line troops and make up the bulk of the army. This group of 20 is armed with swords, but they also have the option to be armed with spears. I painted the bone using GW's contrast paints and I'm pretty happy with the results. For their armour, I went with a bronze age colour scheme to make them appear ancient and from another era. The spirits imbued within are a collection of warriors from across time, blended together to make the ultimate soldier.

The army relies on it's named characters for powerful magic, but they do have a few basic mage units to help buff the army. The first of these I painted is the Soulmason. He rides around in a giant walking chair! In the fluff, all the constructs have souls, including the chair! Failure in battle is rewarded with being transferred into the body of a lesser construct, such as a mount, walking chair or maybe even a bidet! Anything you can build out of bone I guess.

Progress to going well with these guys and I'm hoping to complete a few more units this month. Perhaps some day in 2022 I can put on a game of AoS with these guys for the group. GW even makes AoS rules for Bretonnia, allowing them to get demolished in another fantasy game setting!

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.