I am no man

But I'm not here to announce a sudden gender reassignment either.

I've been working on this a little bit over the last week. I've never made a box like this to display models on, and thus was completely unaware how difficult it would actually be to make a seamless cuboid. Black foamboard surrounded in 0.5mm Evergreen sheet styrene, and paper glued over the top to try to help hide the styrene-styrene joins and styrene-card joins. The... well what would they be called? ...plaques, I suppose, are made of balsa that I etched with a 2000mW handheld infrared laser pointer (I spent a lot of money earlier in the year buying up lasers right before NZ law changed to make them practically impossible to get), and surrounded in more styrene painted gold, and held in place by "nails" of brass rod. There are identical plaques on both sides. The problem with doing my own laser etching is that any variations in speed, or in distance to the laser, end up fairly obvious in the final product.

The balsa was stained with watered down Steel Legion Drab, followed by watered down Rhinox Hide, and then black to give a similar look to walnut wood (I've like the colouration of walnut ever since I got myself a one ring replica from Weta that came in a walnut box).

I've yet to progress beyond the base because the Witch-king's sword hand was missing (luckily the guy I bought these off found it, and at the same time I've bought a bunch of other stuff off him which should arrive later this week/early next).

Even though I've already glued the Fell Beast's head on, I might go back and repaint its skin because after applying a second black wash to it, it's looking a little shiny. I'm also tempted to add some Woodland Scenics Field Grass to that base to eventually hide Merry's jawline, because the sculpting of his jaw (and face in general) is a bit of a let down. More than anything, I think that will depend on how it goes painting him though.

I've never really bothered to paint my models to be weathered and dirty, mostly because I'm always concerned that I'll screw up a nice paintjob if I do. I think good weathering is quite difficult to achieve with paint, both in getting the right dusty colour, and in application so as to actually look like dust ingrained in fabric. These models deserve the extra effort.


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

Re-shoot

I ended up taking new pics of Galadriel after I did a little more to the metallics. I managed to get better lighting and saturation on these, which makes me very happy.

In place of a Dark Lord, you would have a Queen...

"...not dark, but beautiful..." etc. etc. and so on.

My entry for the One Ring August competition is finished. This was, without any doubt, the most confusing model I have ever tried to paint. Since the iconic look in the films was done mostly with intense lighting techniques, I began with no idea what colour her gown was supposed to be. This left several options to painting:
A) Paint her with grey/white cloth like it would have been in the films before they threw blue light at her.
B) Paint her with grey/white cloth, then throw OSL onto the model.
C) Paint her as if the gown was the blue/green/grey that it appeared after the lighting effects in the film.

I went with option C for the following reason:

For the most part, I exclusively use the layering technique when painting models, as I forever struggle to keep paint wet long enough to blend properly. However, on surfaces with a "high gradient" (ie. change in elevation on the model over a short distance), layering is very difficult, and on Galadriel, there is continuously high gradient across the vast majority of the surface of the model. Thus, C being the easiest of the three options, I chose it to allow me to focus on adaptation of my highlighting process, which ended up a funny combination of layering, edge highlighting, and letting natural light do its thing.

Another challenge was choosing the colours, and I spent several hours this morning figuring out what paints to use. Such an "unrealistic" colour scheme is just so alien to me.

I can't say I'm totally happy, but she'll do because I don't want to go back to her again.

The blueness in the second and third progress pictures is more accurate to the final product, and the background I was using messed that up a bit. Getting semi-decent pictures was tough because of all the shadows the model casts, so I won't be going and retaking them.

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

Fix ups are forever.

It's official, elveses for the August painting competition, and I will be doing wraith-Galadriel. I never know exactly what to call the model, but it's her 'What if I had the Ring" thing.

 Before I get anything more than an undercoat on her, however, I feel the need to deal to my latest batch of stripped and new models. It seems to be my curse that any second hand mounted heroes need a bit of fixing up. The way this is going, when I finally get hold of a warg attack Theoden, I'll probably have to sculpt an entire arm. In this batch, mounted Strider had a broken horse leg, hardly a complicated fix, and not worth photographing.

There was also mounted King Elessar, and Legolas. In this case, Legolas is a fourth-hand model. It originally belonged to my brother about seven years ago, then to me when he stopped collecting soon after. After that, I sold it to a mate, and now recently re-acquired it. Through this chain of ownership, I knew it had a miscast bow, where the top half was warped and shrunken. To this end, I removed the offending bow limb, and constructed a new one from two sheets of 0.5mm plastic glued together. I also had to fix up a hoof that I had mangled when I originally assembled the model for my brother.

Elessar was a little more complex to fix. I got the model through the interwebs, and all I knew was that it had been stripped of paint before I got it (evident by the discolouration of the metal). When it arrived with me, I found that I had been supplied with the sword arm of the foot version. I removed the lower hand on the sword, and drilled into the hand a couple of millimeters before gluing in some brass rod. Because I couldn't get a stable drilling surface directly beneath Anduril's blade, I had to cut the sword between the hand and crossguard, and move it around a bit. Some trimming was also necessary at the top of the arm to get it so sit right in the shoulder. The shoulder on the model now is formed by the underarm of the foot model. Finally, I sculpted the ornate shoulder armour on, and raised the cloak over top of the armour.

Because I had a little putty leftover after this, I decided to stick it on a base and replicate the rare invisible Frodo, essentially a base with sculpted footprints on it. A useless piece, but fun all the same.

When the putty sets, I'll get all the bases sanded and models undercoated. There's a total of eight mounted and twelve foot heroes to do in this batch. Afterwards, Galadriel will meet the brush.

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

Gandalf the White: A Photo Journey

So I've just finished painting Gandalf the White for the One Ring Painting Competition (July).

I began work with about 35 hours until the competition closed, and for the first part, I was a little out of it on painkillers (recent foot surgery, hence my sudden activity with models). It didn't help that sleep was required in the middle of it (I started at 12:21am July 31st NZT), nor that some new models arrived this afternoon. Nonetheless, it's now about 4am, August 1st NZT, and I finished about half an hour ago - only 7.5hrs to spare! I think next month I will actually start painting at the beginning on the month. It might be a smart move, but who knows? *cue cheeky grin*

Here are pictures as I worked  on each stage:

Unfortunately, my iPod washes out the photos a bit, and the prevalence of white on the model doesn't help. Still, it does take better pictures than anything else I have.

I really hate painting white - more so than elven cloaks even. A bugger, therefore, that I still have about 22 models to paint which are predominantly white. It takes so many layers to get it blended right, and I'm not sure if my hand is arthritic, or I have a repetitive strain injury, but either way, it's enough to make me want to complain about it. I nearly gave up half way through because of it. White models are thus definitely ones to spread over a week, or a whole month.

Next month's contest is looking like either Mordor or Elven themed, though Rohan may yet take the vote. I have models for all realms to do. Gamling on foot with the banner for Rohan; Thranduil, Gil-galad, or wraith-Galadriel for the Elves; or Sauron, Shelob, the Witch-king, or an Orc hero for Mordor are my picks to paint. Don't know which it will be yet, but it will be started once my hand stops hurting.


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

More Fixes, New Models

Yesterday heralded the arrival of some more models to my preparation table - Arwen (foot and mounted), a Mumak Mahud, Bilbo with Sting, Gollum with Fish, Shelob, and the Nazgul.

I was very surprised to see that Shelob, Arwen, and the Mahud were still in metal - I thought that the last of the metals had been phased out about a year ago. They were however in white packaging, which I believe means they won't be around for much longer. Perhaps not surprising because they're older models that presumable don't sell well, but I noted that Gollum and Bilbo (both post-AUJ models) were also in plain white.

Finecast being finecast, and finecast not working so well in older metal molds, I checked the Nazgul first. Shock of all shocks was the anticlimax when eight out of the nine were miscasts. Problems included holes in the back of hoods; bubbles in armoured hands/feet, bubbles along arms; missing swords, sword hilts, and parts of blades.

I took photos and have since contacted and heard back from GW customer services. They're going to send me a box that will be checked before posting, and have also given me a gift voucher of $150 (the Nazgul set was $146). I love GW CS, they're really good about dealing with issues like this. It's the second time I've had miscasts, the first being an Amdur nearly two years ago.

The one good Nazgul:

So with a fix up of the Nazgul being almost entirely out of the question (it might be that I could cover them in flames and send them running from Amon Sul), I've since been working on other fixes and assemblies.

First up was Shelob. I could have complained about that model too as it came with two rear-right legs, but I decided I could fix it. To do so, I cut the offending appendage into 4 sections, and pinned it back together in a way that looked more like a left leg.

After Shelob, seeing as I had the putty out, I fixed up Boromir from a few days ago. I think he turned out pretty OK, given that it was done with the end of a compass (the best tool I have).

I also did a bit of work on Gollum, because I noticed that he was supposed to join to his coracle by a tiny surface area, so I decided to pin him into it, even though the pin will be visible at the end. It shouldn't be noticeable though.

Paints and Sauron should be arriving within the week. I'm a little concerned that the Nazgul will herald their master in the matter of casting, but that can be sorted if necessary.

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

My Collection

-----WARNING: BORING POST INTENDED FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO KNOW THE SPECIFICS OF WHAT I'VE GOT-----

So basically what I'm doing is collecting one of every pose of everything that appeared in the films (with a few notable exceptions - Faramir, Dork-Captain of Ithilien; Master of Laketown (possibly)' the pre-Hobbit versions of Radagast, Thranduil, and the Necromancer; and something else that I can't remember at the moment.

Just the top section of the list (named/important characters), there's 149 models. The way it works is that anything that appeared in the films is a priority for me, both heroes and basic troops. We never saw Citadel Guards in the films, so I'll not get those models. I hit a bit of a grey area with getting all the captains/bannermen of each race because there's a lot of them. Really, I only need a few models a representatives of each race, so one or two command models would be nice, preferrably nicer ones (so not the Minas Tirith captain standing on the orc...

Models that I have so far (including stuff that's in the mail at the moment):

Gandalf the Grey (current single, The White Council, Escape from Goblin Town, Gandalf and Bilbo, Gandalf on Cart, Orthanc, Rivendell, Fellowship, Khazad-dum, Breaking of the Fellowship)
Gandalf the White (BGiME, standing on rock, Minas Tirith mounted, Helms Deep mounted)
Saruman the White (The White Council, Orthanc, Palantir, Scouring of the Shire, Mounted)
Galadriel (The White Council, Protectress of Lorien, Galadriel and Celeborn)
Elrond (Last Alliance, Master of Rivendell, The White Council)
Frodo (with Arwen, Fellowship, Breaking of the Fellowship, Captured by Gondor, Osgiliath, Shelob, Orc Armour, Mt Doom, Scouring of the Shire)
Sam (Fellowship, Breaking of the Fellowship, Captured by Gondor, Shelob, Orc Armour, Mt Doom, Scouring of the Shire)
Bilbo (Escape from Goblin Town, Bilbo with Sting, Gandalf and Bilbo, LoTR)
Gollum (Gollum with Fish, Gollum on Rock, Captured by Gondor, Mt Doom)
Legolas (current single, Fellowship, Amon Hen, Breaking of the Fellowship, The Three Hunters, Defenders of Rohan, Legolas and Gimli mtd, Helm's Deep, Heroes of the West)
Thranduil (King of Mirkwood)
Tauriel
Gimli (Fellowship, Breaking of the Fellowship, Three Hunters, Helm's Deep, On Uruk-hai, Legolas and Gimli mtd)
Thorin and Co. (Escape from Goblin Town)
Thrain (the Broken)
Aragorn (Weathertop, Fellowship, Breaking of the Fellowship, Three Hunters, Defenders of Rohan, Helm's Deep, King ft)
Faramir (Captured by Gondor, Heroes of the West, on foot with sword raised)
Elendil (on foot, Sauron)
Isildur (ft and mtd, Sauron)
Denethor
Boromir (Captain of the White Tower ft and mtd, Banner on foot, Fellowship ft and mtd, Breaking of the Fellowship, Dying)
Bard
Girion
Theoden (foot with shield, original armoured mounted, Defenders of Rohan)
Eomer (Defenders of Rohan)
Eowyn (Helm's Deep, Fall of the Witch-king)
Gamling (ft and mtd, Defenders of Rohan)
Hama (Defenders of Rohan)
Palantir (Orthanc)
Azog (ft and mtd)
Lurtz (Lurtz an Grishnakh)
Ugluk (Ugluk and Vrasku)
Grishnakh (Lurtz and Grishnakh)
Shagrat (original)
Gothmog (original ft and mtd)
Merry (Fellowship, Breaking of the Fellowship, Heroes of the West, Scouring of the Shire)
Pippin (Fellowship, Breaking of the Fellowship, Heroes of the West, Scouring of the Shire)
Haldir (unarmoured w/ sword, unarmoured w/ bow, Helm's Deep)
Gil-galad
Radagast (Escape from Goblin Town, Radagast on Sleigh)
The Witch-king (Twilight holding out hand, Weathertop, Fall of the Witch-king, Minas Tirith)
Alfrid
Grima Wormtongue (Saruman and Grima, Scouring of the Shire)
The Mouth of Sauron (ft and mtd)
8 unique Ringwraiths (The Nazgul)
The Watcher in the Water
Arwen (ft two handed sword and mtd, with Frodo)
Shelob
Sauron
Grinnah the Goblin (Escape from Goblin Town)
The Goblin King (Escape from Goblin Town)
Balrog (Plastic)

Gothmog's Lieutenant
King of Men 4
Army of the Dead (all plastic poses, metal except stabbing with sword pose)
Dead Marsh Spectres (all)
Cave Troll with Chain
Moria Goblin Captains (sword and bow)
Mordor Uruk-hai (1, 2, 3 from original blister)
Morannon Orcs (all plastic poses)
Mordor Orcs (all plastic poses)
Morannon Orc Captain 2
Orc Taskmaster and Drummer
Fighting Uruk-hai (all plastic poses)
Uruk-hai Crossbowmen (all poses)
Uruk-hai Banner Bearer 2
Warg Riders (all plastic poses)
Goblin Town Captain (Escape from Goblin Town)
Goblin Scribe (Escape from Goblin Town)
Goblin Town Goblins (all poses)
Rohan Royal Guard on foot (1, 2, 3)
Warrior of Numenor 9Warriors of the Last Alliance 1, 2, 3, 4)
Gondor Ranger (Captured by Gondor 1, 2, 4)
Guard of the Fountain Court (1, 2)
Warriors of Minas Tirith (all poses)
Warrior of Minas Tirith Banner Bearer (1, 2, Gondor Commanders)
Minas Tirith Captain (Gondor Commanders)
Rangers of Middle Earth (all poses)
Haldir's Elves with Bows (1, 2, 3)
Haldir's Elves with Swords (1, 2, 3)
Haldir's Elf Banner Bearer (Heroes of Helm's Deep)
Elf Captain 1 (Haldir's Elves Command)
High Elf Warrior (1, 2, 3, 4 Warriors of the Last Alliance)
High Elf Spearmen (1, 2, 3, 4)
High Elf Banner Bearer (Elf Command)
High Elf Captain (Elf Command)