Rohan Captain

Short and to the point. Here is another Rohan Captain I completed over the weekend. That's four minis in a week. I was stoked. All NMM.

Up next is a Mordor troll, and no I still haven't finished the Rivendell knight yet. But I will be seeing an early showing of Battle of Five Armies tomorrow!!!!

Black Numenorean, Mirkwood Elf, and a Travelling Dwarf

It was a busy week for brush work. I had three models I was excited to paint all at the same time. Finishing touches were applied to the dwarf this morning.

First up is the last of the three Black Numenorean poses. I love these things. I stuck with the black and red robes and also went with another lava base to tie all three of them together. maybe they deserve there own group photo. I think I'll wait until I get the mounted poses finished as well.

Up next is a Mirkwood bowman from the last Hobbit release. I resorted to the internets to find concept are to paint this guy. i wasn't overly moved by the GW paint job. I think it came out alright. He cant wait to shoot some orcs in the face!

And at last the Shadow and Flame Travelling Dwarf. This was a test sculpt I was given to try my hand at. The pony being attached to a base of sorts makes the underside tricky to get to. I would suggest removing the metal base from the pony when you receive all 14 of yours. That's right, the upper half is separate in case you had, oh I dont know, say 13 other dwarves you wanted riding a pony. I chose to paint the body separate then attach it. Next time I would probably paint it fully assembled. The gap is practically non existent between the two halves. However, if you wanted to green stuff  the join before painting, the entire torso is readily accessible with a paint brush when attached. You wont have any issues. This is a very neat miniature. With all the bags, and the amount of cloth, you can do alot to vary the look of your dwarves just using alternate color schemes there in addition to changing horse colors, and beard colors. And I am sure if you ask, a weapon swap or two would be an easy thing to accomplish. 

Another Fell Warg and Rohan Captain

Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving, if you celebrate that kind of thing. I sure did, a bunch. A midst all the eating, hunting, and eating, and then some more eating I was able to finish these two models today before returning to the grind tomorrow. First up is another furred up Fell Warg from Shadow and Flame. As with the first, the putty work is seamless, and it takes a whole lot of scrutiny find where GW ends and Dave's work begins. Another first class job. So if your Wargs seem a bit cold this winter drop S&F a line and get those doggies some fur coats.

Next up is the rare Rohan captain. This one is kind of a goofy story, and if you don't want to hear it you can stop reading now. So this guy was part of a huge Rohan army box set that came out when Games Workshop was promoting War of the Ring. In most situations, there was one or two new models, and 5 zillion other minis that were already readily available and in most cases, I already owned. After some time, the new model became available on its own. So, being all smart and grown up and all, I decided to be patient and get this guy when he was released separately. But that never happened did it GW? Did it?  Instead I had to troll eBay until I could find one for an arm and a leg. Then, miraculously I recently stumbled in to two more for a steal. Now that I have three I finally got the courage to paint it, so here he is:

As always these were tremendous fun to paint. Dave's work is just incredible and the Rohan sculpt is top notch. I continue to procrastinate on the Rivendell Knight. I have primed the third Black Numenorean, as well as a test cast of Shadow and Flames' Travelling Dwarf. I fear they will happen before the knight, but who knows.

Fell Wargs with Fur from Shadow and Flame

Man, two days off did me some good. I managed to finish this guy in a day. This is a Fell Warg from The Hobbit range with additional fur added by Dave over at Shadow and Flame. Personally I never had a problem with the more fur-less models that GW did, but I have never been known to pass up a Shadow and Flame edition  mini, so here is one of six in total. I cant stress enough how excellent the putty work is. It is absolutely seamless with the existing fur. Top shelf work as always.

I went with a grey color for this one. I have a few shades of brown and wanted to break the pack up a bit. I am pleased with the way it turned out.

Only five more to go!

Warg Rider

Did it! Managed to get this guy finished today as well. Dead rider at the base is from the Mumak kit. I painted that warg months ago. Just now got around to painting the rider.

Citadel Guard NMM

So we are having some gas-burning fireplaces installed. My wife told me Tuesday and Wednesday, so I took those days off from work. Turns out they will be here Wednesday and Thursday. Gives me the day to paint. Which is fine considering it is only 14 degrees out.

So here we go. A Citadel Guard completely NMM. I feel like he came out better than the last NMM WOMT I did (see below). The freehand on the back was tons of fun. It looks crooked, but if you look at the cloak the cloak is actually at an angle.

So I finally got the Rivendell Knight primed,and I am about halfway through the warg rider. May actually finish him and get him posted too. Wouldn't that be something!

Rohan Conversion inspired by John Howe

My posts have been too few and far between but oh well. I got so many hobbies all fighting for what little spare time I have. Luckily they are all here to stay. My three favorite past times are hunting and fishing, music, and painting miniatures and I have been busy at all three. Here is a look at my latest project.

My buddy Slam Duncan down at Legions Games  was kind enough to loan me a book of John Howe artwork. In it was this beautiful piece of work that just screamed Rohan too me.

After seeing this it was just a matter of a quick chat with Dave over at Shadow and Flame to see what he could do. As you are all aware Dave is a magician with the putty. He cut up a Rohan outrider and in my opinion just nailed it. Even threw in a gripping beast shield to account for the size of the larger shield. Here is the end result and I can only say that I hope the brush work did it justice.

As always he was great fun to paint and the conversion was of the highest standard. Freehand horse on the cloak and shield and some freehand on the bracers as well. The one behind the shield was tons of fun and then I remembered it would be covered by the shield. Oh well.  I actually commissioned three of these because (1) I am crazy, (2) I wanted to paint a shield that tied it in nicely with Rohan, and (3) me and a certain marsh spectre buried under a pile of commissions are going to paint one at the same time and attempt John Howe's design on the shield.

He is leaning a bit on the base, but I am too lazy to take new pics after fixing it. Oh and speaking of the base I went with more brownish red rocks on this one as opposed to the grey I normally do. I think it plays but who knows.

Lets see what else? I have a warg on a finished base that has been waiting on a rider for months. I have started him and...well yeah I started him. I have a finished Rivendell Knight horse that I think predates the warg. Finally got around to greenstuffing gaps on the knight but he doesn't have a lick of paint on him. Finally, I am working on another model that is all NMM and with a good amount of freehand. Its been fun and has been taking most of my time.

Lets see, I have the rest of the week, then this weekend is opening day of rifle season and my ass will be firmly planted in the woods. Then its back home Sunday evening to catch King Buffalo and watch them burn the venue to the ground. Always a great show. I have a couple days off next week while we have some fireplaces installed so hopefully I can get some serious paining done then. 

Black Numenorean 2 and Smaug

Wow, long time since I made a post. I finished this guy quite some time ago and I just now got round to uploading the pictures. Another Black Numenorean. I am really liking this dark red with black hood color scheme i have going on here.

I like how the lava is turning out but I have been looking into some other ways of doing it. I have about 15 more of these guys, 8 of the metal riders, and the 5 more of the plastic so maybe I can experiment on lava bases.

Its Halloween time so I have been working on my second haunted house. Been pretty fun. Also have a Shadow and Flame conversion that is 2/3 finished that I am incredibly excited about, and an orc and a rivendell knight that have been sitting there pissed that they haven't seen a drop of paint while they sit on finished steeds. Oh well, such is the way of it.

Oh, and I got this. I am positively stoked to be in possession of such a huge and detailed mini ( if it can be called a mini). Note the cavalry model for scale. Smaug the Magnificent indeed.

Rohan Banner 2.0

Man, its been too long since my last post. Lots of fishing, hunting, and concerts of late. Anyway, I was at the local hobby store Legions Games a while back and they had the metal Rohan banners pack and I wanted another crack at the model so I picked it up. I spent more time on the banner and with some freehand on the clothes and banner along, and again everything is NMM on this guy. Let me know what you think!

Warrior of Minas Tirith-NMM

This is my first large-scale attempt at NMM and I am rather pleased with the outcome. There isn't a drop of metallic paint on this mini! Although it took forever to paint it was tons of fun and I don't know that I will ever go back to painting them with metallics. I also added a few free hands to the shield and the sword scabbard.

 Here is a close-up of the base. A bit of freehand on it as well.

1st Annual Fellowship of the Miniatures Painting Challenge

Get involved! Get out the brushes and the paint and make and participate in a fun painting challenge:

1st Annual Fellowship of the Miniatures Painting Challenge

Not Dark But Beautiful

Been a while since I put brush to miniature, but I found some time this week to paint Galadriel. I was inspired by a miniature I found on CMON. This has to been one of the most beautiful sculpts I have ever painted. There are a couple hard to reach spots but in the end the sculpt lends itself to the paintbrush like few others. This is my first attempt at a major blending of colors from very different parts of the spectrum. I also returned to the world of NMM for the breast plate, and OSL for the base. I thoroughly enjoyed painting this model.

Black Numenorean

Wow, I am on a roll now. Just finished this today, in under 24 hours. That's got to be a record for me. What a great model to paint too! Absolutely fantastic. I have the set in Finecast but I think I will be on the hunt for them in metal (this happened to be a metal one I came by). For those of you that are interested in the details, you will see I totally knocked off the base of similar miniature, a conversion and paint job by Shadow and Flame, although you will need to find your way through The Dead Marshes to find the miniature in question.

 I have added him to my CMON gallery, click HERE to cast a vote. I would greatly appreciate it!

Veterans of Osgiliath

Seems to be a fitting group of miniatures this close to Memorial Day. I had alot of fun painting these guys, especially freehanding in dents in the armor. Love these models. The bases are resin "Ancient Ruins" from the company Basicks. They are great. Very nice for these models.

Warrior of Rohan

Been a while since my last post. Here is my warrior of Rohan. I completed this for the April painting challenge over at the One-Ring. I was fortunate enough to tie for first place along with a very nice Bolg sculpt.

A few slight modifications to this one. I switched out the short recurve bow in favor of a warrior of Minas Tirith long bow. An idea I got from Bizzarwarstar.You can check out his Rohan conversions HERE. Great stuff. I also cut a shield in half, filed down the cloak and greenstuffed in the seam and a belt. A few little freehand designs and it was finished.

Needless to say I love painting Rohan!

Rohan and Isengard again

A quick update. I finally got a few things cleared off the table. A RoR repaint, a new RoR, and another Uruk Banner.

More for the Forces of Isengard

Some more Uruk's. Dave over at Shadow and Flame is doing an Ugluk conversion for me. Figured I had better get the original painted up.

Uruk Hai and Back Logs

Been busy working on a paper I was asked to write on black shales. Thanks to that deadline I haven't done much in the way of painting for a while. However, I made good progress on the paper yesterday and after a discussion with myself, me and myself agreed that I could take a break and photograph the the Uruk banner bearer I finished, oh.... maybe a couple weeks ago. Maybe not that long. Anyway here he is. I love these guys and I may pull out a few more banners to do. Plus, as if four aren't enough, I have Dave over at Shadow and Flame making me another. hahaha.  Without further ado, here he is (as always you can find this and more Isengard minions on the Isengard page):

Speaking of banners and more S&F conversions, I have been reading about back logs lately. Specifically, Garfy's post over on ToP. Got me thinking about my back log of miniatures. I figured I would pull out all the boxes, and with a bit of luck get them all put back after a photo. Here it is in all its splendor. The backlog comprises 99% GW material and as far as I know I have everything ever released. Occasionally one or two pop up that I don't have, but that is why on the 8th day your God created eBay. There is also some Ebob, Thomarillion, Knight Models, and of course MBM/S&F.

Well that was a nice little break, now to go back 390 million years to the Devonian and the Marcellus Shale, and write about pyrite spheres that are only five microns in diameter. Hopefully this back log will be one mini shorter in a couple weeks. At which point it will go from looking like the picture above, to looking like this:

Did you see the change? Dont worry, neither did I.

Later

Bard, Uruks, and Rohan

Haven't had much time for taking pictures so here are the last few things I have been working on

Bard the Bowman

Uruk-Hai Captain

Rohan Warrior

 

I put this up on CMON. I would greatly appreciate a vote and you can cast one by clicking HERE. 

Rohan Banner Bearer Mounted

Finished another banner. Managed to squeeze in a bit of freehand on it to match the foot model. Took a play from DomyHill  on One Ring and painted some red flowers onto the foliage. Doesn't show up to well in the photos but looks great in person. So thanks to DH for that!

A Hobbit/LotR SBG Unboxing Bard the Bowman

Another Rohan Banner Bearer

I am finding that Rohan is my favorite thing to paint. Here is another banner bearer I finished last night. Wish the pictures were more true to the actual color, but this will have to do. I put up both the light and the dark photos, not sure which is best. I am leaning towards the light.

 

 

I decided to put this guy up on CMON. You can vote on him HERE

Unboxing my Shadow & Flame Tree Giants!

Uruk-Hai Berserkers

Had to stay home from work today since I was sick. Got to feeling a bit better and I was able to finish off these Berserkers. Very fun to paint!

 

 

 

 

 

Shadow and Flame Announcement

Mounted Rohan Royal Guard #2

Completed my second Mounted Rohan Royal Guard with banner. Again, the excellent putty work on the banner was done by Dave of MBM/Shadow and Flame (check out their work HERE ).

I uploaded this mini to Cool Mini Or Not and I would greatly appreciate your vote. Click HERE to register a vote.

As always thanks for looking!

Now, what to do next!

The Mighty Balrog

About time eh? Here are the multi-angle shots of him. Many thanks to Kev at The Dead Marshes/Shadow and Flame for his endless advice on getting the paint-work right.

 

 

The Balrog is now up on CMON. Please vote if you have a spare second HERE

 

Thanks so much!

Mounted Rohan Royal Guard

Finally took some post-worthy pictures. Got on eBay and bought a couple of the mounted Rohan Royal Guard with the extra long spear. Dave over at Shadow and Flame/Majestic Bear Miniatures sculpted me up a couple banners for them. Here is the first of the two.

I was very happy with how the banner turned out as its been a while since I did that much freehand.

He is up on CMON so please, if you have a second throw a vote at it HERE