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Brutal looking guy there.

My one suggestion is that the hand gets a little lost in the flame. At first glance I thought it was just smoke coming off the stump.

That's fair. The trouble, I guess, with having a Lich's hand coming out of a Dragonborn arm is it can be a little harder to recognise, so I can see how it blends into the flame a little.

More stuff! As mentioned, I've been chipping away on the LotR stuff, so today's main event is the Mordor Troll.



Painted this guy ahead of schedule to use in my D&D game last week, where he lasted all of 1 round against our Paladin/Fighter's insane rolls. 3 hours of painting, 3 minutes of on-table lifespan. Seems like a fair trade for the ability to put the fear of god into the players by putting this beast down without warning... Pretty pleased with the look overall, really wanted to make the armour look properly beaten and mucky, and I think I've managed that.

Up next, a small group of Rohirrim. Decided not to batch paint so these were all done one at a time, took a while and while they're not spectacular, they're certainly coming out better than my LotR troops of yesteryear (my process back then, as long-time followers of my work will know, was basically base colours and a ridiculously heavy black wash... ).



That's all for now! Ta for looking, more soon. Any thoughts welcome!

Trollface.

He looks great. Sorry he got slapped so badly on his first outing.

That troll looks amazing! I've got one of those myself that I need to paint eventually. Your gritty style suits Mordor stuff well, I think.

Lovely Job on the lotr stuff Para

Ta for the kind words, folks!

More LotR today, this time a couple of minis that I decided to combine into a (very) simple vignette scene, as they don't necessarily fit the armies I'm currently building. One of my favourite scenes in the movies is a little moment during Return of the King where an almost shell-shocked Pippin answers Gandalf's call to fight and joins him on the walls of Minas Tirith, his fear evident but his bravery equally so. He slays a number of Orcs and proves himself, even saving Gandalf from an errant blow at one point. As the wizard himself remarks, in this moment Pippin proves himself as worthy of the armour he wears as any other soldier in Gondor's proud history.

So on discovering that I had both the necessary minis in my 'stripped to be redone' pile, in a very simplistic way I set about capturing this moment. While obviously there's no wider diorama for context, I actually think it's come together quite nicely. I deliberately put them on just about the smallest base that would take both models, to emphasise how throughout this scene Pippin is never more than a few steps from his mentor and friend, and how Gandalf for his part makes a special effort to protect the hobbit amidst the chaos of battle. It's almost claustrophobic in that way, I think it's easy enough to imagine foes bearing down just 'off screen' from where the base ends. The poses too help with this, Gandalf's very open and dramatic, Pippin's more closed and almost timid.

But that's enough rambling words, here's the finished piece:


That's all for now, up next will probably be my next painting challenge entry. Going to try something a little different stylistically this month, we'll see if it works next time! In the mean time, ta for looking, any thoughts welcome!

The fool of a Took does finally make good. Great scene and lovely little figures.

Your work as usual is brilliant and really top tire.

I can't help wish that Gandalf's figure was a little taller. I know that it is not your doing or even possible to achieve, just wish he was a bit taller.

Cheers guys!

I think that they convey exactly the spirit that you intended. Excellent work!

Looks awesome Para

Ta folks.

Couple of Marines today, first I've done in a while actually. I always wanted to paint some of the metal Sternguard, but never got around to it before they went OOP. The other week, though, I managed to find a few at decent prices on ebay.

First up, a bolter Vet in the colours of the Blood Ravens, a Chapter who, despite never having played much Dawn of War, I've always had a soft spot for. I really enjoy the palette of muted red armour and off-white accents, which I find a bit easier to bend to my style compared to, say, the brighter red of the Blood Angels.



Next up, a Sergeant in the Imperial Fists colours.


One of these will be my entry into the challenge this month, at the minute the Fist is in there but I'm considering swapping him out for the BR, I just think it's a little neater. Any thoughts on that?

That's all for now, ta for looking!

LOTR minis suit your style better than I would have guessed, they look awesome!

That BR is great, but I'd have to vote for the Fist. Overall just more dynamic, and that face is incredibly well done.

To be fair, I think a lot of where my style ended up came out of LotR, which I was painting stuff for long before 40k or Warhammer. To me, those movies remain the pinnacle of taking a fantastical setting and portraying it in a way that's totally believable, so my focus on grit, texture, narrative and realism probably comes at least in some regard for my love of that. I guess it's come full circle now I'm back painting LotR these days!

A little more LotR today, my entry for last month's Challenge which will be up for voting soon. I actually spent most of April painting up the boardgame pieces from Gotham City Chronicles, so this was a bit of a last-minute entry, but actually one I'm rather pleased with.

After painting the two plastic Theoden minis from the starter set earlier in the year, I fancied going back to the original metal version and I think it's probably my favourite of the three from a paintjob perspective. Things like the scaled armour and the sword are certainly less sharp on the metal, but I think this face is probably the most characterful and I just love the pose. I went a bit brighter on this version with the red and green, which I think does a lot to make the mini more interesting.



And while I'm here, I'm going to be utterly shameless and do a little plug for my other blog, where I write about storytelling in D&D/RPGs in general. There's not a ton on there yet, but more coming in future so if that's your sort of thing, maybe give it a look.
https://roleforinitiativehome.wordpress.com

That aside, I'm hopefully have some more pics to show off soon (for some reason, I'm having a nightmare photographing the Batman stuff), until then thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!

I don't think you've gone too far on the colours - pitch perfect, if you ask me, mate.
Loved your Mordor troll, btw.

Cheers Graven. I must admit I enjoyed working with the brighter colours, and over a white rather than black primer.

It's something I've been doing on the Batman minis recently and I think I'm getting the hang of it, my old BMG minis look like grey blobs compared to the more colourful, comicy Gotham City Chronicles stuff and I'm pretty pleased about that. Maybe not enough to switch over full time, but it's a nice skill to be picking up, gives me some more options when it comes to making certain minis stand out a bit.

Speaking of Batman, you got any plans to paint up the new BMG starter you reviewed the other week? I'd love to see those minis painted up, they look really cool.

I have so, so, so much BMG to paint it's a crying shame. But I do have a plan, actually: I'm going to start on Bane stuff, as I've never tackled much for the Big Fella except the old Arkham one.

Well if you ever need a hand... I know the feeling though... I've committed to painting up all of GCC, which is 180-odd minis even without whatever's going to turn up in the Season 2 KS next month. Playing BMG again has been good motivation though, I'd forgotten how fun it was, and adding a bit of RPG-esque flair with narrative asymmetric win conditions and playing 'in character' has improved it no end.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with Bane and co.

Paradigm wrote:Well if you ever need a hand...

Don't freaking tempt me. I have literally every Harry Potter miniature primed but otherwise unpainted...

Theoden looks fantastic, the color choices really make for a great looking mini.

Theoden looks great!

Ta chaps!

Continuing my theme of experimenting with some brighter colours, I picked up an Empire general at a local toy store yesterday (must be old stock, he was at the back of a shelf under 2 basing kits and a template set!) and applied the techniques I used on Theoden to something perhaps a bit better suited to the cleaner, brighter look. I've always liked the Empire aesthetic, and this mini was great fun to paint.



Thanks for reading, any thoughts welcome!

That cloak is lovely, excellent hues!

Very nice mix of colours, well played sir.

Ta chaps.

Back to 40k, or rather, 30k, today, with a conversion/repaint of my old Betrayal At Calth Chaplain. He was originally done up as a Raven Guard Vigilator, but after a weapon swap and reprime, I set about re-imagining him as Sons of Horus Captain. I've always loved the SoH colour scheme and painting that sort of teal/cyan tone in general, and I've recently been trying to refine a method for a strong purple, so it was a good scheme to practice both of those on.

Tried to be a little more precise with the weathering than usual, though he's still plenty mucky and dinged up as, well, the Horus Heresy didn't fight itself! And also because there was a bloody great glue mark from the original conversion that needed covering over, and a spot of battle damage is always good for that sort of thing!


That's all for now! Any thoughts welcome, cheers for looking!

That's awesome. The purple looks almost electric against the weathered armor.

Very good, the bottom of the cloak especially.

Cheers guys!

The Captain is such a boss, great work dude. I love the General's cloak too!