Monday 31 December 2012

Coming in 2013


Legolas and Gimli:



King Thranduil:


The White Council:




Elladan and Elrohir:


Goldberry:







Models of 2012 - a Gallery


A gallery of the models that I have painted in 2012 - all seven of them!






Amdur, Lord of Blades:
Amdur was a lot of fun to paint. I had been eyeing him up just as a nice Easterling commander model, just because I love his pose. I painted him of the One Ring painting competition sometime between March and May, and was really pleased with how he turned out, with the armour and freehand being my favourite parts to do. The symbols on his loincloth are just some random Japanese Hiragana, so they don't actually say or mean anything. You can see I started off a bit shaky with them, but got better towards the bottom of the cloth.

                            

 
Boromir, Captain of the White Tower:
I had this model sitting around for ages and ages. Originally I had converted him, giving him a spear from a Warrior of Minas Tirith and a paper banner, but then I stripped him down. As at this stage he had no sword, I stole one from another Warrior of Minas Tirith, and the patch up job doesn't look too bad. His face is one of the best faces I've painted to date, and I even did the eyes rather well (although they don't show up particularly well in the photo) - I even put a bit of Ardcoat onto them so his eyes are shining with pride after retaking Osgiliath (his base is supposed to be either in an old park or on the outskirts of the city).

 

Dragon Knight: I did this guy after being spurred on by my success with Amdur, and even went and brought three boxes of plastic Kataphrakts, a War Priest (on foot and mounted) and a mounted Dragon Knight with the intention of having a whole force painted up like this. I still might get onto that one day, but I'm enjoying just painting models up for display now.

 


Dying Boromir: 
This was the first model I painted in 2012. Some things weren't particularly well thought out on him, like the gold on his sleeves being painted straight over the red (so the gold doesn't show up as much as I'd like it to). I was really aiming for realism with him, so I made the skin tones a little lighter than I otherwise would have representing the state of shock he would be in after taking that many arrows to the chest and simultaneously ceasing to be an adventurer with the rest of the Fellowship.


Elrond, Master of Rivendell: 
I actually have two of this model, one that I got when it was released, and another from an auction I won containing a bunch of Elf Heroes. I painted this one up as a test piece originally and so the robe lacks some of the contrast I would normally put into it. In a few years I want to go and paint up my other one to compare the change in my abilities over time.


Gandalf the Grey: 
Up until the release of the new White Council, this was one of my favourite Gandalf models. Actually, I like them all (except the Mines of Moria plastic one), and I have also got him from the Fellowship box set and Orthanc set too. I painted him quite dark to emphasise his mysteriousness, but I probably wouldn't do that on my other ones.








Gollum: 
This is my most favourite of the three current Gollum models, it just fits his sneaky nature perfectly. I had quite a big gap between painting between the Dragon Knight and Gollum (think about eight months) so Gollum being such a simple model was a great way to get back into it.  Iwas very meticulous about recording the paints and ratios I used on him, and I will be about each model I do from now on, because it's a very handy reference to have. I also have the Gollum eating a fish, which I'm considering doing as a diorama piece, but I may also treat it like my second Elrond and guage my improvement with it.



Until next time, may the wind beneath your wings bear you to where the sun sails and the moon walks!



Friday 28 December 2012

Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.

Never a truer word has been spoken. I certainly qualify as foul, but there is one who watches, and waits. Whether directed by Sauron's will,or just by chance, its many writhing tentacles beset the Fellowship at the West Gates of Moria, uprooting the ancient holly trees like they were twigs and barring the doors shut. The Watcher in the Water.

Where it came from, nobody knows, save that it can overland to the lake formed by a dammed stream in Hollin. I like to think it dragged itself out the West Gate after the lake formed, the idea of it squeezing it's slimy form through the ancient city up from whatever dark pool it spawned it just fascinates me, drawn like all evil things to the call of The Ring, and I like to think that maybe Gollum knew of its existence, maybe even tried to catch it once before realising his mistake and using the precious to escape.


The kit itself being in Finecast doesn't really bother me. There's been enough improvement in the cast quality over the past... however long it has been, to give me a bit of confidence in the stuff. I was more worried about the mold lines than bubbles when I opened up the box. The textured skin and odd curvatures made it very hard to get rid of the lines completely. On the textured undersides of the tentacles I gave up entirely - there it just no way to remove them without taking all the sculpted ribbing away too. Fortunately the lines weren't very noticeable there.

The kit comes in 19 components - the monsters back, its belly and tail, the head, six legs, eight tentacles, and two rocks with dwarf bodies on them for the base. I had initially hoped these rocks weren't going to be important because they lack the natural rocklike texture I'd have liked, but they are necessary because of the holes for pinning the feet to (well, actually just foot 1 and foot 5, but they're guides for the rest.

After cleaning off the components I gave it a dry fitting. Boiled water, left for seven minutes was hot enough to soften the larger components and remove or minimise most of the gaps to a satisfactory level. Rubber bands to hold the back and belly together, and iced water to harden it all once the gaps were gone. Simple enough procedure. This video (though not the same model) gives a good guide for this process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voN192SLE3Y&feature=youtu.be

A 6/10 for the actual casting of the model - the alignment of the two halves of the mold really needs to be checked at GW, and the issues from things like that have been bothering me on too many models.


When it comes to assembling models, I consider myself to be quite experienced - more or less a given fact after 8 years collecting - so I was rather shocked that I found the Watcher as difficult to assemble as I did. Some parts were easy enough - gluing the back to the belly and the head onto them - but the spider legs and tentacles were straight out of a nightmare. They're fiddly enough parts at the best of times with their thinness and length, but I couldn't be at all sure that I had un-warped them properly. I stuck on the legs before the tentacles, and when I did so, I found that they raised the back end of the beast about one and a half centimeters off the base, which would have been fine if I had planned to put the creature under a whole lot of model water. It bugged me so much that I put the whole assembly (minus the tentacles) back into hot water and forced it into the shape I wanted. Now some of the legs are warped back to how they were when I opened the box, but at least it's all sitting right.

The instructions say that you can attach the tentacles to any of the slots on the face. A nice idea, for sure, but in practice some tentacles fit with some slots better than others, and even then some of the gaps are quite large, given their inaccessible nature.

Some more WIP shots:




The model also barely fits onto the base, so you really need to have the rocks as far forward as possible to maximise the available base space behind them.

A few more dabs of liquid greenstuff and I'll be ready to paint it. Over the last decade I've seen a lot of people wanting elven cavalry. I've always wanted the Watcher more, and I can't wait to paint him. Not sure if he'll jump the line ahead of Legolas, Gimli and the Council though.

Until next time, may the wind beneath your wings bear you to where the sun sails and the moon walks! 

Thursday 27 December 2012

Elvses and Hobbitses, preciousss, Dwarvses too. Gollum, gollum...

So since my last posting I've done very little but roll my eyes at that typical sight - me, doing nothing.
Until now.

The White Council is underway now, their faces painted so they can attend their secret meetings without masks on. No pictures yet, as I'll cover them in a future post.

I've also now taken photos of Elrond and Gollum. I really need to work on my photography skills and experiment with lighting - too much, like direct sunlight, and the pictures look like they do here, all washed out with no depth (or too much contrast). I also need to consider the backgrounds more carefully as the white cardboard used below is hardly helping. I'll experiment, and in a few days I'll try to do a gallery post of all the models that I've seen through from start to finish in 2012, not many, but enough for a good length posting.

Elrond, Master of Rivendell:

For his robes, I was aiming to replicate something along the lines of what we saw at the Council of Elrond in FoTR.


My Preciousssss, Gollum.


Again, apologies for the photos.

Also, a peek at Legolas and Gimli. I have three of each on foot, but I'm just working on my favourive two poses for now. I'm not actually sure which set this Gimli is from. At first I thought it was Ambush at Amon Hen, but now I know it isn't.




Until next time, may the wind beneath your wings bear you to where the sun sails and the moon walks!




Sunday 23 December 2012

Hobby Madness from a Headcase

The old blog is dead. Long live the blog!

And it'll no doubt disappear into the dark depth of the internets never again to be seen. That's why I made this one to post my irregular painting activity, which with university looming on the horizon like the darkness sent by Sauron preceding the siege of Minas Tirith, will likely become more and more irregular.

I'm actually right now in the middle of selling off a lot of my collection - miniatures painted and unpainted alike that have not seen the light of day since I packed them into boxes and abandoned them to the nether realm of under-bed. Provided they all go for the asking price, the auctions I've got up should bring in around $1000, so I might be able to afford one or two Hobbit sets with that money. What is to become of my WH40K models remains to be seen

But worry not, for I'm not offing the whole collection, and I'm keeping enough models for my regular 500pt games, and enough for some armies to hit 1000pts without too bit a stretch, not that I ever play games that large. I'm also keeping the models I intend to paint for display - my metal Galadhrim (which I have about 40 of), and a lot of heroes. The display models fill up almost and entire army figure case, and they are the ones that I'll be taking away to uni with me to work on when I can't afford other models.

The nice thing about them is that they're a great weekend job. Across two days I can usually take a model on a 25mm base from assembly to complete at a high standard, or even two hobbit sized models. Most recently I put the finishing touches on an Elrond, Master of Rivendell model that I started in about March, and started and finished a Gollum model. Pictures will be appearing soon. Right now I'm working through Legolas and Gimli mounted of Arod, as well as their foot counterparts (Legolas (Three Hunters pose), and Gimli (Amon Hen)), but with todays arrival of the new White Council box, I'll be lucky to finish them. The new Galadriel is such a stunning model, and frankly, to leave her unpainted for any length of time is a crime. At least I have time on my hands... for a while.

Until next time, may the wind beneath your wings bear you to where the sun sails and the moon walks!