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Another unit completed for the Gondor army as part of the Jan-June painting challenge. I'm finding these guys pretty tedious at this point, so I'll certainly be doing something to mix it all up a bit for the July-December challenge.



These guys are another unit that had models shuffled around when KoW went to a second edition. I only noticed the other day when playing SAGA that a unit of spearmen had a couple of holes in their front rank, just waiting for a command pair. So I pulled out an appropriate pair of models and got them painted up pretty quickly.



And the rear view. Shading these banners so they look decent is never fun. I find it amusing that the needs of wargaming result in the Captains of Gondor having armour with more bling than Faramir did in the films. Then again, the other option is either to not have them stand out at all, or have them all standing on big piles of rubble.



Result: Another completed unit of Minas Tirith/Gondor/Kingdoms of Men Spearmen. I should have something more interesting for the next update!

Love the freehand on these guys. The banner is awesome! You must have a pretty large force of Gondor by now. Would be great to see an army shot

That banner is sweet.

How many men of Gondor do you have now?

I now have 192 painted and finished, including war machine crew, plus three finished war machines.

I've got another 12 on my desk (Osgilliath Veterans) plus 12 Cavalry, Denethor, Armoured Boromir foot and Mounted, a second Trebuchet, and 12 Tower Guard Archers.

Then it's back into the boxes of them. I'll get an army shot done soon. I just want to get a few more of the almost-done models finished first...

gorgeous work Az. That is one hell of a lot of figs there. Love to see the war machines too

So about a company's worth so far lol. Holy gak on a stick that's a lot of Gondor troops.

I take it you play War of the Ring then?

I've got the rulebook but have never played it. The Gondor drive is to finish all of the Gondor models that I own and have a finished, finished army. Not just being able to field a fully-painted force, but having every (Gondor) model I've accumulated painted and table-ready. This will include a few units from the Feifdoms, as well as a sub-force from Dol Amroth, and a small force from Arnor (or wearing traditional Arnorian outfits as a tribute to their sister kingdom, depending on the context of a given game.)

One of my small-scale scenic updates today - some things that have been in my "quick and easy to-do" pile for an embarrassingly long time - years in fact.



First up we have the Siege Ladders that came with Citadel's Lord of the Rings Uruk-Hai Siege Troops set. I've never actually purchased one of these sets off the shelf, but I've picked up a fair few random bits of it from eBay and other secondhand sources over the years in excess of a full box. Simple as they are, they've long been in my "yeah, I should knock those out" pile, but as they're pretty unimportant unless you happen to be playing a siege scenario, they're pretty easy to forget about as well.



This grave has been in my collection for more than 20 years now, acquired with some random bunch of things from somewhere, probably from Dave M. Until last year it had the same rough brown basecoat over the "dirt" and black over the headstone and other bits. I'm not who the manufacturer is? Ral Partha or RAFM or Grenadier? Something like that, no doubt, and probably part of a set, long broken up.



Last year I finally glued it down to a Renedra cavalry base and added some PVA around the edges, but it got put away when I cleared the decks for the December Paint Challenge. The other day, while looking for simple undead things to complete I spied it in one of my tubs of half-painted models from the clear-up, and grabbed it out, and then gave it the little bit of work it needed for completion. I chose to paint the bits with a subtle nod to the undead army I've been painting. Metal and rust and brass and verdigris and reddish browns.

Nice

Cool grave. Potentially a great objective marker.

EDC

Cool grave marker and if you don't know who made it then claiming as a scratch build and no one will know

How's your dad doing?

Absolutely love the grave. Something really special about that piece.

Thanks guys. I was thinking this morning about just how easy it would be to scratchbuild more of these, or use things like the Renedra plastic gravestone sprue or those 4Ground MDF headstones and add a mound and decorations from the many plastic kits we have access to. Which I might do when I get around to working on the Garden of Morr and related kits down the line.

Theo - he went home yesterday. More tests and such to come as the cause of his issues is still inconclusive, but he's feeling a lot better and has some medication for the pain he's still got. So more waiting, really. But at least he'll be a lot more comfortable at home.

Another one of the Dungeons and Dragons Boardgame models today. The "Howling Hag" from the Castle Ravenloft boxed boardgame was probably my least favourite model to paint from the entire set, which is why she's taken this long to complete. At first she looked an easy model, and I attempted to knock it out quickly, but the soft detail and general ...I dunno, unlikability? of the model led it to sit in half-painted limbo for literally years, including one (failed) attempt to try and get it out and just get it done.



Ironically, it's been the "Tale of Gamers Painting Challenge" that led me to fish the model out of one of the tubs it had been banished to in order to complete it. When I saw it, I thought "yeah, that's undead" and with April being a very difficult month for me to to various personal reasons, I felt that it might be a way to achieve my self-imposed monthly target on the undead side. After all, I painted two units from scratch last month... Initially, my thought was to potentially use her as a character of some kind, as it's essentially a boss character in the D&D boardgame, but the model just doesn't deserve to be a character in a wargame. Not with so many other, better models at my disposal.



As you can see, I've really just tried to get a "good enough" tabletop level on the model. Looking at it in these photos, I can see how I've completely skipped higher level highlights on the edges of the robes and clothing. But meh. I dislike this model with it's muddy, soft "detail" and so I'm calling it good enough. the reddish and black shawl is an attempt to add a little bit of colour to the model, and is also "good enough" should it ever be used as ...something in the KoW army. Perhaps she could be stuck in amongst the Zombies. It'd work well enough with that giant gob. Perhaps as an (extra?) Necromancer in Zombicide: Black Plague.



Next up, a model started back in the early 1990's, "finished" to a standard I was unhappy with for a long time, buried in a figure case, and recently exhumed and finished to what is again, a "good enough" tabletop standard. I've gone for what has become the more or less default "ethereal" paint style ever since the LotR Army of the Dead became a thing back in the early 2000's.

This guy is the "Haunter" from the 1992 board game, "Dark World". I managed to either save up my money or get gifted this HeroQuest-alike boardgame in my youth. It had to be awesome, right? Look at the cover art!



The miniatures had a definite Games Workshop stylistic thing happening there, which was very exciting back in '92. The Mummies and, well, one of the Skeletons I still have, painted and set up with the undead army. No idea what became of much of the rest of the set, including the large temple that came as scenery in the set, which I started converting way back decades ago but never finished. If I ever do find it, I'll finish it and show it here. Sadly, I never actually played the game. So, um.. yeah.


Dark World Haunter - Original "Official" paintjob (not my paint!)
The Haunter is a relatively simple figure. Even back in the day I didn't like the goofy face that they gave it, so I promptly threw it away, filled in the gap and left what I thought was a much more evil looking ringwraith-style empty hood.



My version of the Dark World "Haunter". The base made it a little awkward when renovating the old model recently but instead of cutting it off and mounting it on a normal GW style base, I just put the whole thing onto a Warmachine-style "rolled edge" base and built up around the rim with acrylic paste. Like the Howling Hag, I'm seeing this as more of a boardgame model, or perhaps role-playing or skirmish gaming than something that will go into a Kings of War army. In this case mostly because I have no idea what profile to use...



So these models might end up being April's Undead entry into the Tale of Gamers challenge unless I can finish off something else. I guess I still have a week, but I need a break from painting skeletons, so we'll see what transpires. In any case, I've got another couple of monsters for D&D/Pathfinder/WFRP/etc.

Look alright to me! Quirky models. Always a good thing.

I'm seriously tempted to dig out my set of DarkWorld minis and paint Korak the Kobran

I'm pretty sure I still have Korak, somewhere...



I needed to paint something different to plastic WoMT this month, so I looked through the Gondor figure box, and pulled out something both similar but different to the usual grind. My small collection of Osgiliath Veterans. Originally, when they were released, I didn't much like the models and got just a few to use as alternative sword captains, but more recently, I managed to pick up a few more so that I could make a small but functional unit.



I know they're pretty good in SBG when led by Faramir, but I don't want to purchase more of them, as they're not cheap in metal from GW or eBay - nor do I especially want to convert a bunch of the plastic WoMT into additional OVs. I figure this single unit will do me for general gaming, and if I ever need more to use in scenario, I can use regular WoMT as proxies.



Since these Veterans have been in the field for some time, I approached painting them in a slightly different way to how I typically paint WoMT, while keeping to a similar palette. Instead of starting with black and highlighting with AP Wolf Grey, which is a blue-grey; I started with VMC Dark Grey and added a small amount of AP uniform grey for the highlights, which is much more of a neutral grey. The leather straps were done in the usual WoMT way, but all of the extra cloth parts, such as cloaks, bedrolls, satchels and shoulder bags and extra belt pouch bags were painted in a mixture of colours taken from the palette that I used for my Rangers of Gondor, since those guys will at times be used for Faramir's rangers (along with those of Blackroot Vale and of course, the Grey Company!)



The metal of their armour was painted differently as well. I started with VGA 72.754 Gunmetal, highlighted with VMA 71.072 Gun and a very subtle highlight of Citadel Ironbreaker. After I completed my highlighting and shading of the entire model, I gave them a wash of 1:1:2 AP Dark Tone (black), AP Strong Tone (dark brown) and Windex as my thinning medium. This added a touch of grime to the models, to represent them having been out in the field for some time. The final touch (aside from flesh and hair) was a very subtle highlight of the wings embossed on the helm with Ironbreaker, to help reinforce the faces of the models as their focal point.



This shows the different tonal qualities of the various Gondor models. Dol Amroth (blue tint, brighter metal), Minas Tirith (black tint, mid-tone metal), Osgiliath Veterans (brown tint, darker metal), Ranger (natural tones)



It turned out that I only had 10 Osgiliath Veterans, so when I spent some time late last year trying to sort out my unpainted Gondor models, I decided to give them a couple of models to act as command, rather than buy more models. I threw a Gondor standard bearer and a spare Faramir into a baggie, and job done! I've got another of the same Faramir model, which I'd painted several years ago, after I'd started this blog but before I started really updating it with any frequency. He was of course painted to fit in as a commander of the Gondor army, and occasionally managed to take the field. It can be seen here. This time, I wanted the Faramir model to be very much part of the Veteran unit, and so he was painted with the same palette of greys, with just a touch of AP Wolf Grey mixed into the top highlights. I also added some gold trim on his armour and the white trim to his skirts to help distinguish him as the unit commander on the tabletop. While the Faramir is a nicely understated model, it's not really a stand-out model for someone as important as Faramir.



I found the Standard much more interesting as a model. Once again, greys are the base, and browns the additive colour rather than blue-grey. I added a bread bag from a Warlord German to his hip to help him fit in with the troops, and also took his metal head off and replaced it with a Warlord Roman Veteran head, to which I added a touch of bloodstain on his bandanna. I also painted him with blonde hair and attempted to create a stark, greasy look with a dark wash. (As we know, greasy, dirty blonde hair just ends up looking brown, but this is miniature painting.) And yeah, I know Osgiliath Veterans can't technically have a standard bearer, but he can easily be used as a Spearman, given the pointy end on that banner pole!



The "Kings of War" style unit photos this time show off one the different configurations that these guys can be set up in, in order to bring one type of weapon or another to the fore, should I decide to vary the unit profile. Just swap the spears or swords or bows to the front!

That's a pretty sweet unit. I like the subtle ways you are making all of these essentially identical twins units look different. Also, seeing them ranked up on the tray sort of resolves an issue I have with the way so many KoW players deal with MMC. I aim for 100% (10 for troops, 20 for regiments, etc.) but there are so many players showing off legions consisting of maybe ten models, with all sorts of terrain and crap covering the rest of the tray. Your units look like units, and I would much rather face them on the tabletop rather than a bunch of trees or wedding cake toppers.

Thanks! - The basing works for me since I get to use round 25mm bases - which I prefer aesthetically - and figures doing double-duty from other games, such as LotR, 40k, Confrontation, D&D, SAGA, etc can just be popped off and carry on just fine.

I've been moving some of my larger models like Chaos Champions towards the 32mm bases, since they "fit" the models much more nicely. I haven't worked out how to resolve that with the standard KoW regiment footprint yet. Though I figure I'll worry about it later.

Nice crop of stuff lately! That's a lot of gondorfolk done and to do.

You're really nailing these banners, mate. Good stuff! Quite liking the Osgiliath vets too! Look suitably battered and bloodied. Looking forward to the army shot!

I never get how you can crank out these units at such a fast rate and maintain your excellent quality, brilliant stuff Az. The bloodied banner bearer is especially evocative.

I agree with you about the aesthetic benefits of round bases, and although they caused some grumbling upon release the 32mm bases are extremely useful for all sorts of miniatures, not just Marines.

Awesome work, the pic showing your various Gondor styles is very cool.

Thanks guys - the two keys to my output this year has been a combination of forcing myself to get stuff completed via the painting challenge and doing some of the really tedious stuff at work. The two units of Gondor Cavalry that I can't seem to get finished would have been long done by now if they were small and sturdy enough to take to work - but a double-no on that front. And now, this week's stuff!



In much the same way as I've grown sick of painting plastic Gondor dudes over the past few months, I've grown equally sick of painting Skeletons. As the time counted down for April, I happened to spot a pair of Zombies sitting randomly amongst the painted undead out in the War room. I'd painted the pair one weekend last year after seeing them randomly sitting on my painting desk, partly-done. So with absolutely no randomness this time, I grabbed out a couple of Mantic's Zombie (and one Ghoul) sprues, clipped a few off, cleaned up the bits, and then assembled them, attempting to build as many unique figures as possible while bringing the total to 12. Not all that easy, as the Mantic Zombie sprue is pretty limited. The parts from the ghouls aren't a terribly hard kitbash, but I did find that the kits weren't designed with inter-compatibility in mind when they were originally tooled and sculpted. Mantic weren't all that forward-thinking at the time, I guess.



Now, we all know that a mere dozen Zombies isn't all that many, even when reprsenting "20" on a regmient base. I reckon I'll slowly build up a tarpit unit of Zombies, a dozen at a time over the course of whenever I feel like painting more zombies. I know I could churn out a ton of decent looking ones very quickly via "the dip", but somehow I managed to really quite enjoy painting that first pair last year, so I decided to paint them via brush instead.



Having said all of that, the Army Painter Washes did most of the heavy lifting. After basecoating the flesh in various mixtures of Vallejo Model Air: Sand, Aged White, Duck Egg Green and AP Camo Green and VGC Off White for flavour. Then AP Purple Wash, Green Wash and some Lahmian Medium. For the rags I continued with the "army palette" of dirty dark grey to stand in for black, rather than a more realistic various shades of brown. Once again, I mixed up some greys, this time adding Sand for the hightlight mix colour, so as to avoid a monochomatic grey. Dark Tone AP wash to finish off.



Next up was painting in the exposed bone and various bits of exposed muscle and offal, then lightening or blackening the edges of some of the torn flesh as I felt appropriate. Did the "lunch" portions of those who have been dismembered by the zombies in slightly "fresher" skin tones, and then did a little work picking out teeth and eyes and hair. I added a bit of bruised skin via additional brown-purple washes on many of the models, though it's a bit hard to see in these particular images.



Finally, I matt varnished them, and once dry, went in for a bit of fun with the Blood Effect paint. In this case, Citadel's Blood for the Blood God. I think the most surprising thing about these guys was just how easy and more importantly - fun they were to do. So much that I'm tempted to start another unit of 12, which I'll them be able to combine with these guys into a horde.



Here's the traditional regiment shots. Another use for these models is to use them for Zombicide Black Plague. I'm tempted, but the fingers on them are pretty fine and fragile. When I was clipping and assembling them I've already managed to break a few off - so I just painted the stumps bloody - fits zombies, anyway - but with the amount of rough handling the Zombicide models get, it might not be such a good idea to use these guys in the game...



Yep, this unit was very much an enjoyable time.

Nice work on the zombies, gotta love that 2 part torso and legs, great idea!

EDC

I second the love for the legs and the torso. geat way to bulk out a unit!

very subtle work on the osgiliath vets btw

Mantic zombies/ghouls are a blast to paint. I really like the variety of skin tones. It seems like a lot of work, but the result was worth it.

Lovely job on the zombies Azazel Excellent stuff!

I still have about 40 Mantic plastic sci-fi zombies to assemble *sigh*

The zombies are looking really good .

Thanks again for setting up the challenge, I wouldn't have nearly as many models painted without it going on. I can challenge myself all day, but having a group of people there to also see focused on a goal helps to motivate us.

I'd love a job where I could paint at work, what is it that you do again? I already know i'm not in the field I should be, but it might give me an idea over here.

Really cool zombies. I am feeling vaguely inspired to strip my 80s metal zombies and re-do in this style. After I've painted all the grey plastic that is still in boxes...

12 is a good number for Dragon Rampant gaming, incidentally. You could potentially make 2 Ravening Horde units, even (since they're only 6 strength points each).