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Really love the Minotaurs you have done , that old captain with the bionic leg is one of my favorite old sculpts.

The archers are looking solid

EDC

Yeah, a nice little unit there, though I can see how painting them would become a chore, which is what the "Tale" is good for

The archers look nice. Is the sculpting on the segmented armor on their thighs as shallow as it looks?

I can sympathise with trying to knock out some uninspiring models. But your archers have come up really well.

I miss the look of many of the older marine characters. Some of them may not have aged well. But I feel some of the newer stuff has a mass produced soulless feel to them.

Yep - the "Tale" combined with being relatively simple to paint in terms of scheme so I can do much of the grunt work at work in lunch breaks means that at least I'm getting them done. Still a whole pile of Gondor plastic to wade through before I get to the more interesting metal models as a reward. Though there's more metal rangers amongst them there than I can safely call a "reward"...

The segmented armour is pretty shallow, but not awful. The White Tree of Gondor embossed on the plastic sword and spearmen's shields is incredibly shallow and painful, though. Much nicer to work with on the metals.

I'm working on a dozen Swordsmen as well. I've gotten the highlighting on their black clothing done on half of them (trying to finish 3 a day at work to my satisfaction) so I might get half the unit completed this weekend, but I doubt I'll force myself to get the others done before next weekend, so they'll go into an early finish for March's challenge, and then I'll get back to those bloody Gondor knights.

Looking through my metal marine characters, I think many if not most of them can still come up well with a "modern" paintjob, and avoiding things like that "flat metal cloak" backpack. You know the one!

I didn't get him or the flamer guy finished last weekend. Trying again this weekend!

Gondors from last page look good, keep on keepin on

And now, more Gondormans! Another unspectacular update today. I've finished the next Gondor unit for my Tale of Gamers challenge - my completed submission for March. A dozen WoMT swordsmen for LotR SBG, or a regiment of Kingdoms of Men "Shield Wall" in my Gondor/Minas Tirith army for Kings of War.



I started these last month, and it looked like they might have ended up as a "painting stretch goal" for February, but it didn't work out, as I do the tedious highlighting of their black robes at work. Well, I'm another dozen models closer to finishing this army. They look pretty damn boring taken as individuals, but they do look good en masse. I'm also working on some alternative unit trays. Probably lipless MDF cut to regiment size, possibly with a simple texture over the top (if I can find textured spray paint). Still unspectacular, but more uniform across the army.



I've put the Knights of Minas Tirith that I didn't manage to finish in January onto my painting desk now. I might get them done as a March stretch if I'm lucky! At work in the meantime I'm working on my Undead goal for March. As work through the stages, I'm also taking pics for a Skeleton painting tutorial in my "warm" style as requested by one of the readers on my wordpress, so that should go up shortly after I finish the first batch of Skellymans. I'll probably add it as a link here unless people want me to post the whole thing?

Instead of working on the Knights like I'm "supposed" to be, or the Undead for the challenge, or trying to finish off the first squad of Minotaurs, I got distracted again.

Working on some very simple conversions. for the Gondor army. Simply Warriors of Minas Tirith models with the heads sawn off and replaced by metal heads from eBob miniatures - "Alternative heads for Knights" - or to those in the know - Not-Swan Knight heads. I originally bought a bunch of them years ago with the intent to replace the rather un-LotR heads on my various metal Swan Knights of Dol Amroth - both on Foot and Mounted. The actual GW models have these huge helms that look much more like they'd fit properly on Warhammer High Elves. With the passing of several years, and the passing of metal models, I've decided to leave the metals be, and simply use the eBob heads on a variety of other models to "Dol Amroth" them up. I had a little accident when sawing one of the WoMT heads off and took his bow with it, and simply could not find it to repair. I found another guy to replace him, and took his head off and caught him up to the rest of the gang.

So after reorganising my KoW Gondor Archers from Regiments ("20" models - I use 12) to Troops ("10" models - I use 8) because there's not much point in Regiments of Archers as both have 10 attacks and only a difference in Nerve, it transpired that I needed only 4 more archers to make another unit of Troops. I found a painted pair that I must have been using as war machine crew before I finished painting the war machine crewmen, so I went looking for 2 more models. I found one, and it turns out that the model I used to replace the broken one was my only other spare one. Just fantastic, eh?

I did some more poking through my Gondor boxes and just found three more unclipped sprues. Or another 36 models. That gives me another 12 each of Archers, Swordsmen and Spearmen to paint, or another unit of each. I guess I can throw three archers into the spares box and finish that other unit now, unless I really want to have one regiment...

Now do I paint up these newbies as more Dol Amroth troops, or more Minas Tirith troops? I've got a unit or so worth of Arnor figures - which, yes, would be anachronistic outside of scenarios, but they can work for another fiefdom in Third Age games - should I paint a unit or three (ie, one of each WoMT type) in the green livery of Arnor? And does anyone know a cheap/easy source of "turbaned"/wrapped helms similar to the GW ones?

I love how you can just be rooting through your sprues and find 36 miniatures! I think they would look great in a green livery, and it might be a welcome change from the Dol Amroth and Minas Tirith that you have been painting recently. I can offer no real help on the wrapped helms...but congratulations on 50 pages of excellent blogging.

Thank you! I didn't realise I'd hit 50 pages. As for the sprues, my collection is a bit like that, which can be both a blessing and a curse. I'm so so looking forward to finishing off all my various Gondor models so I never have to think about them again or buy another one - even if they're cheap.

Well, never think about them aside from playing games with them.

I personally found the Gondor models a right chore back with the release of whichever game box they came with...probably a good 12+ years ago now? So I feel your pain, and I was taking a lot less care and attention with them than you do.

It is good that they are a solid basis for a sizeable KOW army though...with your massive Fantasy collection you must have a massive amount of points for KOW spread across numerous armies.

Beautiful greens there Az - really sublime treatment esp on that lead fella's shield. Subtle and smooth - perfect

Those aren't my Arnor guys - those are the GW example ones from their webpage!

The Gondor knights are looking great.

EDC

ooops!

Your Gondor guys are looking great Azazelx, keep up the great work.

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Now do I paint up these newbies as more Dol Amroth troops, or more Minas Tirith troops? I've got a unit or so worth of Arnor figures - which, yes, would be anachronistic outside of scenarios, but they can work for another fiefdom in Third Age games - should I paint a unit or three (ie, one of each WoMT type) in the green livery of Arnor? And does anyone know a cheap/easy source of "turbaned"/wrapped helms similar to the GW ones?

I mentioned these guys a couple of weeks ago when I started working on them. Simple conversions on the Warriors of Minas Tirith models to Dol Amroth.



I'd originally planned (years ago) to file off the white trees on the plastic WoMT breastplates and shields. I've decided to leave the breastplates be, as Dol Amroth is of course a Fiefdom of Gondor, so I'll leave them on the breastplates but remove them from shields when I get to the swordsmen. Unlike the single units of troops and hero from Lossarnach and (yet to be painted) Lamedon, the Dol Amroth contingent will number a reasonable number of units. At least one each of Archers, Shield Wall, Spearmen plus Swan Knights mounted and on foot, plus of course Prince Imrahil. I may expand it further using more eBob heads on Perry Miniatures Foot Knight bodies, but I'll worry about that once I've got all the official models painted. In fact, I'm using the first batch of heads I ordered from eBob, and having placed another order (literally 5 years to the day later) on Feb 5th this year, for 6 more sets of heads, a trio of spiders and the lovely "Lady Greensleeves" sculpt. I thought it reasonable on March 6th to send a followup email since I've not had anything arrive nor had I heard anything since placing my order. Usually stuff takes 1-2 weeks to arrive from the UK, with 3 weeks being for outlier cases. So I sent him an email...

I received the two word reply to my query on 8th March. "sent today". So a month and three days after payment I had to prompt him to send my stuff. He even quoted the "your payment has been received" email from PayPal that reminds him to send product within 7 days. I guess caveat emptor applies here, and that's the kind of gakky service we can expect from eBob. I decided to order a few more head sprues from him and make sure they get posted before I publish this post. So I ordered a few more head sprues and followed up by immediately emailing him to say I expected that they'd be sent out a lot quicker than a month. He sent them the following day. I guess the lesson there is if you choose to order anything from him, email him within a few days to ensure that your stuff actually gets sent.



The paint scheme is the usual base metal - Army Painter Silver(?) (it's an unlabelled metal paint from the first KoW KS), highlighted with VMA Steel. I then vary the usual by washing with a 1:1 mix of AP Dark Tone and Blue Tone wash to give a subtle Blue Steel look.



P3 Cygnar Blue Highlight as the base for the cloth parts, highlighted with P3 Arcane Blue and shaded with a wash of VMC Dark Prussian Blue (I think - the label is unmarked). Leather straps and Boots - and Leggings are painted as a dyed blue, so VMC Dark Prussian Blue with a touch of old-Citadel Ultramarine Blue for highlight, and slightly-thinned AP Dark Tone wash. And yes, I've written down all the paints here so I can easily replicate the scheme with later units. A lot of people paint their Dol Amroth models with white cloth and blue accents. I may do so for the SkoDA and other nobles, but for the common troops of Dol Amroth, I wanted their livery to be Blue with white accents, and the dark, almost black blue to tie in more strongly with their brethren from Minas Tirith as well as the blue to keep them close to their own noble-born elites. The swan crests on their helms were painted in VMA Steel and washed with thinned down AP Blue wash.



You can see just how well the eBob heads fit onto the plastic WoMT models.

So these eight make a small unit for SBG, that can simply use the WoMT profiles, and in KoW they make for a troop of Archers, again using the KoM profiles. I'll use different statlines for some other Dol Amroth troops, but not these guys.

Lovely job on your Dol Amroth guys here, Azazel. It's nice that the Gondor lads equip their archers with actual armour, rather than crappy rags that sort of unit usually ends up with lol.

I'll have to try that dark tone and blue tone wash as I love the finish you achieved.

Love the cloth on these Az, cracking stuff. It is a shame that you have to prompt ebob to send out your goods, it sounds like he is just forgetful rather than anything untoward.

Cannot wait to see what is up next.

That's a nice unit of archers. The head swap works remarkably well-- did you have to sculpt the hair, or were you just really careful when you cut off their original heads?

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Lovely job on your Dol Amroth guys here, Azazel. It's nice that the Gondor lads equip their archers with actual armour, rather than crappy rags that sort of unit usually ends up with lol.

Yeah, GW didn't vary at all from the Weta designs for these guys. I can't even recall if I saw any archers in the film, but I guess it fit their game rules and it works for me.

 Theophony wrote:
I'll have to try that dark tone and blue tone wash as I love the finish you achieved.

Thanks! After I did it, I noticed that GW did a similar thing with their Deathwatch models - though they obviously went to town while I simply washed the models. If you look at their left arms and shoulderpads and power fists and such, you can see a "brown tone" and a "blue tone" to the metal they used. Funny thing is you really don't notice it until you put it next to another "shade" of metal.

 Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
Love the cloth on these Az, cracking stuff. It is a shame that you have to prompt ebob to send out your goods, it sounds like he is just forgetful rather than anything untoward.
Cannot wait to see what is up next.

I'm not sure. I hope it's just forgetful. I had a bloke on my Wordpress tell me about his mate who had to get his credit card company to sort a refund. As for what's next...

 JoshInJapan wrote:
That's a nice unit of archers. The head swap works remarkably well-- did you have to sculpt the hair, or were you just really careful when you cut off their original heads?

Thanks Josh. I was careful when sawing the heads off, and then it turned out I needed to carefully clip the necks off the eBob heads. Result - original hair with no putty needed! They really fit that well.



Coming up soon:

Here's what will probably be my next Gondor unit(s) - I'm managing to avoid completing those two cavalry units like a real champion!



I cleaned these guys up and then sprayed them yesterday, just did the brown on the bases now (for some reason PVA & sand sticks much more effectively to painted plastic). So sick of painting WoMT plastics, so I dug out my unit of 10 Osgilliath Veterans, with an armoured Faramir and a standard bearer. Jeweler's sawed the head off the standard bearer and replaced it with a bandaged head from Warlord's Roman Veterans sprue. Still need to rough him and the Faramir model up a bit more before I spray them. There's also 2 plastic WoMT archers which it turns out will complete another troop for KoW (and the paint challenge) after my reorganisation from regiments to troops.



I've got 10 skellys with not too much more left to do to complete 2 units of Skeleton Spearmen. They should be done by this coming weekend. You can kind of see the musicians behind the goblins. Though I'm starting to get a bit sick of painting Gondor and Skeletons so I felt like a palette cleanser tonight. I have some lids on the edge of my painting desk with figures that I didn't put away when I cleared the desk at the end of 2015. I grabbed these goblin netters and clubbers and decided to do their nets, which (I think) was what put me off, since their robes and skin are all pretty much done (flames notwithstanding). I might be able to get them done this wekeend as well? (the two with flocked bases are already finished, not sure if they've been shown - I have them with the others for colour reference). In the background are a few Vikings I'm slowly working on and some more Minotaurs Space Marines. And 8 Skaven Plague Censer bearers that I just stripped, rebased and sprayed. Need to work out a scheme for them as well.

Good stuff, the headswaps and brighter scheme really sell them as Dol Amroth troops.

There are plenty of Minas Tirith archers in the movie, at both Osgiliath and MT itself. Once the Orcs get inside the latter, you don't see much of them though (to be fair, they all had swords, probably just pulled those out and got to work).

Those goblin netters bring me back. Great work so far, plus the volume you get done.

Yeah, it's been awhile since I've watched RotK. I remember lots of WoMT, but not what they were doing exactly. Goblin netters might (hopefully) be done this weekend. Quite a lot to try and finish this weekend actually. I've got 7 Skellies almost done, and another three to follow, plus the 6 gobboes and then I'm onto the Minotaurs and Skaven.

In the meantime, since I'm pretty tired from work, I've just been doing the simplest of things of an evening. So the last couple of days has seen some of the monkey work on my Osgilliath Veterans!



Sorry the pic is garbage - the lighting for my desk works well for actual painting, but is awful for snapping WIP photos. Sand glued down, 2 layers of drybrushing (1 to go, later) and now 2 layers of metal drybrushing - VGA Gunmetal followed by VMA Gun. Next plans are for one more highlight, and then a 50-50 thinned wash of Dark Tone and Soft Tone to give these guy's armour a subtle "brown" tone, since they're beaten up and have been in the field, so it will represent a layer of grime that's attached to the oil on their armour. Though the film look is much darker than the typical painted look for Gondorian Warriors (including mine)

I haven't been posting much lately. Notsomuch from lack of painting or lack of wanting to - I just haven't had any new content for awhile. I'm working on a bunch of skeletons for KoW and I've been finishing them, but it's been quite the slog. I'm also working on those Gondor guys, Minotaurs Space Marines - even some Skaven who I finished stripping the other week. But nothing ready to show.

So I'm revisiting a model from the deep past. This guy is the original Terminator Space Marine Captain from the original Terminator Squad boxed set. This one was painted for a relative in the early 1990's and eventually found its way back to me about a decade ago.



Clearly, it was painted during that transition period between Rogue Trader and 2nd edition's styles. I can tell by my overly-colourful paint scheme (too much bright blue and yellow) combined with the use of personal heraldry on his shoulder pad. So most likely around '93-'94. The only thing that's been done to him since I got him back was a rebasing to my own style as opposed to the green flock that he originally had.



Personal Heraldry on show. The BA symbol is a decal. The rest is freehand. I believe that there was a full article with B&W illustrations on Marine Personal Heraldry, but I may be misremembering. Either way, the 'eavy Metal page shown below was a huge influence and remains in the back of my mind even today when painting Marine heroes.



White Dwarf 123: 'eavy Metal - Space Marine Heraldry.
On "Character". I know the popular thing to say about old, oldhammer and metal models is that they have "character" that new models somehow lack. I do think the old models often have "character" but to imply that newer models somehow lack character across the board is just silly. Now to say that some of the newer models lack a je ne sais quoi is fine and accurate - things like the IoB skaven troopers and Poison Wind Mortars are sloppy sculpts, but it doesn't mean that everything does - The IoB skaven hero is actually quite nice. This model is a nice one, but it is dated and very static compared to the newer sculpts. I still like it, but I'm as aware as anyone else that the rose-tinted glasses are in effect when dealing with many of the miniatures from my youth. Having said that, I still love metal models and that won't be changing anytime soon, however nice the newest plastics are (I can love both!)



Auxiliary Grenade Launcher for the win! Now, putting together a Blood Angels army has been on my list of Armies to Put Together for quite a few years, and I've been gathering the kits to do so for years on and off - as well as buying the odd pre-owned collection to use as well (Hi Damo!) I'd certainly like to use this guy when I do get to properly building my BAs. So that leaves me with a few questions to ponder - what to change and what to leave the same?



Now, I'm ashamed to admit that a few years ago, I stripped a whole lot of my original metal beakies in order to have them fresh for my Rogue Trader Crimson Fists project (that I still haven't started). I didn't even photograph them. I had several models in particular where I'd managed to paint the finely detailed Rogue Trader-era captain markings, sergeant and veteran sergeant insignia onto their shoulder pads, as well as weapon designations. I later picked up an unpainted copy of the "captain" model from ebay for about ten bucks, rendering the regret in stripping him to even harsher levels. Because of this, I'm hesitant to feth with my old models too much. But I do like to tone things down that are too garish - as I've shown with my Beastmen and other Realm of Chaos-era models.



So the elements I'm considering changing:
* Rebase to a 40mm round.
* Repaint most/all of the blue. (Not on the shoulder) Mostly to black or brass/bronze, depending on the location (not to Khorne levels!)
* Repaint the AGL entirely.
* Repaint the cables from a fleshy colour to a dark metallic colour.
* Tone down the yellow on the chest eagle.
* Tone down the yellow on the bolter - or repaint to a black casing.
* Brighten the "bone" colour on the Crux Terminatus & touch up the Captain flash on his shoulder.
* General neatening up, but not changing the red or the black. (Or his head).

Any thoughts or feedback?

I think a thoughtful touch-up is going to make him look great - I reckon your list of jobs is spot on, though personally I would leave him on his 25mm base for nostalgic reasons

It would be great to see you tackle a whole BA army, I look forward to that. I think your plan seems great, the only thing I can think of is to either change the hair colour or to differentiate it more from the rest of the yellow on the miniature.

It is amazing the difference that the bigger bases make on Marines. My Iron Warriors just look odd to me now on 25mm bases.