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Nice Raven Guard scouts there Para. Good work. Loving the Easterlings as well

I have missed out on so much stuff! I have always loved the Criid crew, and in Malifaux terms it is one of the cheapest out there and one of the few with single piece (Witchling Stalkers) plastics. Great job on them...think I need more Guild.

Your marines look like a sizeable force already, some nice conversions in there too.

As for the SW stuff you are making them look great for what they are, Boba Fett is suitably bad ass

Cheers guys!

@Thraxas: you always need more Guild! Especially with the new Lucius crew out now, although I seem to recall you already have that?

Lucius? Not yet although it is a very nice crew. I think the Missus has some Neverborn ready for my birthday next week though and she got me Bete Noire for Christmas. I have seen a lot of the SW stuff about, I think you are right about the RRP though just a bit too much for what it is.

Para your work rate and quality are great. I hope to be even half as productive as you are this year.

Been a while since I've commented on your blog Para. Raven Guard look great but I gotta say the Stars Wars stuff takes the prize. Very cool.

Thanks chaps!

Time for some pics. This time, more LotR, in form of the White Council. These are actually the old minis, but painted as they appear in The Battle of the Five Armies (in which their scene is surely a contender for the best in all 6 films).

First off, Saruman The Wise, probably my favourite character in the books and films.




Next, Elrond of Rivendell.





Galadriel, Lady of Light, and claimant of the single most awesome moment in BotFA




And last but not least, Gandalf the Grey:




And the Avengers Assembled:


That's all for today!

Always liked that Gandalf model. Quite liking the Saruman and Elrond ones too though. Think the faces on Saruman and Gandalf come out quite nicely.

I like them all, elf king the least just due to sculpting, but they're all neat models and well done.

Thanks guys.

GD: What is it you don't like about the sculpt? I find the head is a bit large and not as good a likeness as some of the others (compared to Saruman and Gandalf especially).

I don't like the face as much, the sword looks like it's halfway between a cleaver and a katana (they don't look like that on purpose do they?) and he seems a bit short of the leg.

It's not bad, certainly no worse than some of the stuff reaper puts out, but doesn't seem as good as the other sculpts you've painted alongside him.

I see what you mean. The sword is a bit odd from a real-world perspective but is 'true' to the elven weapon design in LotR, which are katana-style but with thicker blades and longer handles. As for height, it may be a trick of the pose/angle, the as his waistline is a bit above the sword handle, but I can see what you're looking at.

Incidentally, he was one of the earliest LotR minis sculpted, I think.

The sword looks like a Nagamaki which is essentially a katana with a. Longer handle.

More updateness!

Warning: The post below contains minor spoilers from the 3rd Hobbit film. Nothing that isn't in the trailers, though.


Firstly, some Spectral Nazgul, in the form they take to fight The White Council at Dol Guldur. Now, GW aren't likely to do these as models, but it turns out they already have, sort of... Digging through a box of pre-Warhammer Citadel metals, I came across a bunch of minis that do the job admirably. The paintjob is simple, just a black base and green-blue drybrush, but it works.











Rather an eclecting bunch, but the Wraiths as they appear in the film are quite varied as well, so I'm not overly bothered. For a bunch of minis that took only an hour to paint up, I'm happy.

Next are the rest of my first pledge for the January challlenge, the second rank of Easterlings, pikemen with a banner.





The lighting has messed up the golds on these, they're not that bad in real life, but I think I may need to hit them with another wash, especailly on the shields. Still, they pass the 3-foot test.

And finally, another repurposed old mini. Dain Ironfoot, the angriest Dwarf in Middle Earth, coming to Thorin's aid with 500 armed Dwarves and Moderate Bad Language. GW haven't made a mini for him, and doubtless this one is cheaper anyway (it cost 2 pence, for the base )





That's all for today. Thanks for looking.

Is it bad I really like the Elrond though? I want one now, if I can get a head swap for it.

I don't know if it is the lighting as you said but, I like the subdued gold. It came out well the scheme.

Oh, I do like Elrond myself despite the flaws, in terms of detailing he's a very nice model (and he was, I believe, the first model I attempted highlighting on many years ago, before the repaint). It's just his huge head I fine a little offputting, but in truth a hell of a lot of the early LotR metals were more towards the 'heroic' end of the spectrum compared to the plastics and later ones.

Saruman looks great, and yeah that fight scene was pretty cool with the 4 of them. I inda wish they would have shown something with Saruman going after Sauron. I guess thats when he turned.

Looking great as Always para
Keep up the great work!
Grtz
Mark

Yep nice work. The wraith dudes are simple yet effective, and everything else works well also.

 40kFSU wrote:
Saruman looks great, and yeah that fight scene was pretty cool with the 4 of them. I inda wish they would have shown something with Saruman going after Sauron. I guess thats when he turned.

It will probably be in the extended cut release to be honest. From the stuff I've read, Saruman sought to dissuade The White Council from attacking Dol Guldur in an effort to claim the One Ring for himself. Supposedly, this was when Gandalf's suspicions about Saruman started.

Yeah, Saruman was pretty keen on not attacking Sauron directly until he knew as much as he could about the Ring, that obsession was later what led to him seeking Sauron in the Palantir. The Palantir itself may well be in the extended cut, as one of the art books I have features a few pages on a vision Gandalf supposedly sees in it, of Smaug leading an army of Orcs and Trolls. The painting is pretty damn awesome, actually.

Anyway, ELVES!

First off, the bane of my early LotR-playing days, High Elf archers. One guy I used to play with would spam the hell out of these guys, and getting close to that was painful to say the least





Compared to the Easterlings, I'm much happier with how these golds came out. The secret? purple wash! I always figured that one was a bit of a myth, but no, it really does make gold metallics pop.

Next up, Arwen on horseback, carrying a wounded Frodo:






And Glorfindel. It's a shame the guy that defines the 'Badass Elf' genre in the books has a model that is actually pretty poor (in comparison). After the film-based models stopped the designs did seem to slip a bit, although there is a pretty awesome alternate sculpt I intend to get at some point. Anyway, here he is, in all his slightly-too-heroic-scaled glory:




And lastly, because I can't be accused of bias towards the point-ears, a Man of Gondor, standing in for Cirion of Amon Barad. This was actually an experiment in painting an 'Army of the Dead' mini to look, well, not dead, and I think it worked ok.




That's all for today, next will be some more Elves and maybe some Dwarves.

You are a machine!

Looking good, I like the archers especially.

man, I really need to branch out. I am a hopeless 40k addict. Your starting to inspire me to try something else. Your stuff looks great as always.

Cheers chaps.

 40kFSU wrote:
man, I really need to branch out. I am a hopeless 40k addict. Your starting to inspire me to try something else. Your stuff looks great as always.

Hah, nothing wrong with sticking to one system, it means you actually get projects/armies finished! But I do advise branching out if you see something that takes your fancy, the more variety the better I find. Painting a true-scale High Elf is completely different from a Heroic Scale Terminator, which is again different from 32mm Malifaux stuff. Of course, if you want any pointers on starting off in any of the systems I've dabbled in here then I'm sure I can help out.

Yeah sheesh... Para is kind of crazy

I'm just now working through my 12th model for the year =/

Doing 3 deadzone plague/mutant/zombies, almost done.

More stuff Hit mini Number 50 yesterday, which isn't bad. Part of me wants to go for 100 by the end of the month now, but we shall see what we shall see. Anyway, pics!

First off, the Iron Hills pikemen from Hobbit 3, converted from the plastic Hobbit 1 axemen. All weapons and shields are scratch built.







Quite happy with how this lot came out, they certainly look alright thrown in with everything else on the tabletop.

Next, the rest of the High Elf Warband I showed half of last time. 3 Swords, 3 Spears, one of the shields having been made with a press mould as I lost the original:



And finally, some Dwarf characters.

Thorin:


Balin:


Dwalin:


And Kili:


Of these, only the last is new, the other three were already painted and just got based (so don't count towards the total).

Next up will be some Gondor troops or Uruk-Hai, depending on the mood that strikes me. Thanks for looking!

I like Dwalin the most out of Thorin's Company. Think they captured Graham McTavish's facial features very well with that sculpt. Balin is pretty nicely done too

The Palantir Saruman has, was actually from Minas Morgul originally. Saruman found it in Dol Guldur. Still, not sure what he expected to happen when he picked it up lol

Crazy progress, but all looking great

50 models!!

They're so well done too! My favorites were the wraiths and the Arwen model.

Great work!

Thanks guys!