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Those gondor knights look pretty sweet, although I can see how hard it would be to paint all that black/silver/white over and over again. Props to you for persevering.

Where are those harpies from? They don't look like either Mantic or GW to my eye.

It looks like it's going to be on-again-off-again rainy until Tuesday, so I'll do some rustoleum testing then. Theo- did it stay tacky on the Dungeon Saga figures, or the scenery, or both? I know the figures are a type of pvc, but they're a bit harder.

Semi-related, I've used (non-rustoleum) spray primer on my Zombicide figures with no issue, and they're quite a soft PVC as well. I won't be "testing" any of those, though - since they're not exactly spare and don't come with sprue, etc.

Harpies are from Wargames Foundry


I've been guiding her to give them more unnatural colours than the browns and normal skintones that WGF have used, though.

I'll try to try and push myself through at least the first 3/6 of those Gondor knights today. I know I'll be happy when they're done. Just getting there is the problem. I've got another set of six of them to do for February as well...

Harpies look cool. Well painted.

Oh, those aren't mine. Those are Foundry's promo figures. Ours will be quite different.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I started these last night. Well, sorta. I cleaned them up around midnight and sprayed them black. I started with two of the old 2nd Edition Boxed set marines, but couldn't find the bolter for one of them so put him aside instead of basing or spraying him. This morning, I found that the bolter for the guy I didhave - the bolter I cleaned up last night - has gone missing overnight. feth that's annoying!



So anyway. Here's 3/4 of the figures I started with. I might see if I can get the second lost bolter guy to the point where he's almost finished, excepting the bolter (and any decals - not wasting those on a model that's missing a weapon!) Maybe even bring his mate up to the same point close to completion and then set them aside until I can find or scrounge up a pair of 2e starter set bolters. feth! Very annoying! I mean, I could mod up a more modern set of hands and bolter, but I like the idea of having a couple of pretty much original 2e models in the back of the unit with their original parts.

Oh yeah, they're going to be Minotaurs Space Sarines. I've liked them for years and have wanted to try out the silver-and-glaze method that worked so effectively over on Sasa0mg's sadly-deserted Minotaurs P&M blog. it seemed relatively quick and easy - and more importantly looked/looks great. These two/three/four? are the test models for the techniques. Black spray, coat of White Knight Squirts Silver, then a zenithal-style highlight of British Paints Silver since it's a bit brighter, then Seraphim Sepia wash. Here they are with one layer. Another layer, then I touch up the armour, and think about things like very subtle verdigris, where I'll add some red, and which markings and where.

The plan is (was) to see if I could paint them quickly and use something fun (these) as the motivation to get those Knights done. Now with 2 of the marines in a situation where they won't be able to get finished, though....

Still haven't done anything on those damned Knights. Motivation still very low.

So I've dug out the stuff that I'm going to try and get done at minimum for the Gondor component of the 6-month paint challenge. If I can get more done, then great! But you know. Minimum. Maybe getting them all out will help the motivation. Because of the 25mm bases, I at least need to use fewer models than the "official" for KoW regiments. Once these are done I still have tons of metals, but hopefully they'll be a little more fun. The plastics at least, are simple enough that I can do the majority of the work at work during my short lunch breaks.


This is almost all of them, with the exception of the second unit of 6 Knights that are in the cabinet behind the table. My pin vice bits arrived at the end of last week, so I can repair their broken lances now.


A KoW troop of Archers.


A regiment of Spearmen. I'll be using the eBob heads in the little baggie to change them to swan helms for them to represent some Dol Amroth foot troops. I'll also have to file the white trees off their shields, though I'll probably freehand the replacement heraldry - it'll be easier then trying to achieve sculpted details.


A regiment of Swordsmen. They'll be getting the same Dol Amroth treatment as the Spears. At their side is a hero model I need to finish who also - Forlong the Fat. He's another model that I've been stuck on for about a year.


Lastly, those fething knights.

Tomorrow I prepare to go back to work on Wednesday, as my Christmas Break/Long Service Leave combo finally expires. So I'm going to have my first week back at work worth of being horribly tired to try and finish the six horsemen. Unless I try to finish Forlong instead, and use the Horses as February's model completion. Well, I need to try and get one or the other finished and off the desk...

Minotaurs paint scheme looks promising, I will look forward to seeing what you end up with there!

Heh I could never paint at work. My lunches are invariably in a tiny muddy cabin in an isolated field in the middle of nowhere with too many people.

eBob?

I remember liking the Dol Amroth minis when I was thinking about getting into LoTR, but I never got around to buying any. They would make a nice change of pace from black-and-silver.

 Azazelx wrote:
Oh, those aren't mine. Those are Foundry's promo figures. Ours will be quite different

In that case, those harpies are only meh. Looking forward to seeing what your's will look like.

Nice use of colour on the harpies, the black/blue like crow feathers is going to look sweet.

Really like the minotaurs, so that was achieved with washes over silver?

EDC

I've been working mostly on scenery today. Got 10 jersey barriers drybrushed and then dirtied up. Gloss varnished (for durability) and drying out in the shed. Tomorrow after work I'll hit them with Testor's Dullcote. Got the next 10 inside drybrushed and ready for the first phase of the dirtying, so depending on how much I can get done tonight and how I feel after going back to work to see if I get them done tomorrow.

Harpies haven't had any more work done on them yet. Hopefully I can get Marouda motivated to get more done. If they turn out meh it's because she did them. If they're ace it'll be because I'm advising her on what to do next and showing her how to do it.

eBob makes some cool little things, including a few not-LotR items.
http://www.ebobminiatures.com/products/products.htm
http://www.ebobminiatures.com/products/components.htm
I originally bought a couple of sets of heads (dirt cheap - £1 for 4 plus £1.50 postage) - to cut up and mod the original mounted and foot Knights of Dol Amroth models

With the discontinued nature of the LotR range, I've since decided to not chop up my metals, and just headswap some of the WoMT plastics instead.

Before I get onto those, I'm going to do a few more in the black and silver - I dug out 12 swordsmen and 10 archers. I figure the Gondor contingent should be noticably larger than the DA one. Once they're done, the DA headswap models will represent almost all of my remaining Gondor plastic infantry. Just leaves a few spears (probably a unit worth of them).




This is a slightly better picture of the Minotaurs-in-Progress. That's black spray, dark silver spray, zenithal bright silver spray, 2 washes of Seraphim Sepia and then highlighted with Vallejo Model Air Bright Brass. In some ways they're a little rough, but I kinda like the ever-so-slightly slightly grungy look that the washes give. I'm obviously going for a more gold-type brass than a copper-type brass.

What I need to decide on now is where to add the red - I'm thinking maybe just the right shoulder inlay on these guys and I can vary it on different squads. One shoulder rather than both since I like the look of the brass shoulder pads as well. (I need to look for my FW Minotaur Transfers!) I'll save the brass etch and FW pads for more important and exiting models like specialists, sergeants and upwards for the time being. Also need to decide whether to keep the eagles and aquilas the bright brass, try to go a brighter gold, go silver, or go bone. Same choice for things like wreaths as well, though with green as an option as well.

I'll also add a little bit of weathering - just a tiny bit of Coelia Green in strategic spots to represent a slight tarnish of his armour. I don't think I'll be going so far as to use Nihilakh Oxide.

I have always found if I lay all the models out I want to get done I get overwhelmed by the number of them so I hide them until I need them. But good luck that's a lot of Gondor.

So, Saturday your time is the same as Saturday my time,right? I'm in the home stretch but I have a little more left to do than I had originally planned...

Yep, I'm 2 hours ahead of you. It'd be one, but daylight savings.

Those minotaurs are coming along beautifully Az. Loving the tones

You should have the armoured might soon Az! the Nerdwench is posting it tomorrow for me! then I can watch this come to a beautiful fruition!

Sounds good to me, Nerdy. Fingers crossed for some Greek-style BA bits that can get drafted by the Minotaurs!

With my return to work, general antipathy for painting Cavalry, and distractions with those Minotaur Space Marines (I found my transfers and Brass Etch today - only took about 3 hours!) my plans for my Gondor unit for the 6-month "Take of Gamers" painting challenge got diverted, even moreso since I started playing Rainbow Six: Siege this weekend. So I thought I'd spend much of this post complaining. Without enough time or the inclination to finish that cavalry unit, I found another Gondor unit that satisfies the criteria: Forlong the Fat.



A casualty of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, I started Forlong at the same time as I started the Axemen of Lossarnach. That is to say, roughly a year ago, and possibly a couple of months longer. As he'd been sitting on my desk for a year, he's actually an ideal hero figure to complete for this challenge. Now, he's not much to look at up there, but the rear view will show why it took me so long to complete.



Sure, it looks nice now that it's done, but that goddamned tree is such an anti-motivator to paint. It's a combination of all of the swirls and twirls along with the need to keep it as (close to) perfectly symmetrical as possible. Anyway, like much of the Gondor army, it's not that much fun to paint, but looks nice when it's done. I still need to add the static flock once his spray varnish dries, but I'm calling him done now.



January's Painting Challenge models, completed. Of course, I got a ton of other stuff finished in January. 65 models so far, and while some of that are scenic pieces, only 22 are scenery. Off to a goo start to beat my 288 from 2015. Let's see how it goes. Now I'll try (again) to finish those cavalry for February....

Looks good. Your free hand work is exceptional. It really raises him to a true character model and not just a rank and file.

Forlong looks excellent, good job!

Yeah, really nice - That tree is superb!

Thanks guys! I've got some more jersey barriers finished today, as well as two models that finish two units of (Undead) for the paint challenge. They're drying outside after a spray, so I should have the flock on them and take the photos tomorrow. I'll hold off until I've finished all of the jersey barriers before I photograph them. I picked up a ton of them and other little bits of resin terrain secondhand last year or the year before, so I'm finally doing them now, but in batches since they're not exactly thrilling to do.

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I've done a bit more work on the Minotaurs.



Close to finished, but I'm in the process of deciding whether to use a touch of green shade to the armour at the end. I've tried to keep it quite subtle, a slight bit of discolouration rather than severe corrosion, something from wear on well-used armour that would be mainteined well enough that it never got severe. Similarly, I'm after a mid ground between beautifully polished and immesely battle-worn. These pics are a bit small, but I'd describe what I'm after is a slightly "roughened" look.



Here's the other two as well. It took awhile to decide what to do with the chest eagles and such. Eye lenses aren't finished, nor are the gloves or chest gems on the 2e Marines. I need to decide whether to paint the laurel on the... 4e? 5e? Marine's forehead. The other option is iron/silver, similar to the chest eagles. Weapon strap will be a deep red-brown. Packs aren't all glued on yet, nor are any of the weapons which all need a few more touches, and obviously the weapon strap. I'll probably redo weapon grips to black rather than red. I'm not going to add brass to the weapons as in IE10 - there's already plenty of bronze on them, after all...

The story behind these models joining the painting challenge is simple. I had 2 of these models from ages ago, and always planned to have them lead the Black Númenóreans. I only had two of them, though - and I wanted the third sculpt because a) collector, and b) aesthetics. With all of the changes that GW has been making in the last couple of years, I thought they might be discontinued, especially given the ridiculous prices people are asking for them on eBay. But no - they're still for sale, and indeed - the model I'm after (Sword and Dagger) is specifically still available. It's right there on the picture. A shame, going by the webpage, it seems the third one may have been discontinued as it's not pictured with the "models will be supplied at random" disclaimer that the GW pages used to have.

So I ordered it and received a blister with 2 duplicate sculpts. As in, not only a sculpt that I already had, but two of the same one in the blister. I tried to contact GWAU's mail order number a couple of times a week (when I remembered, after work when I got home early enough) for over a month and could not get an answer or even a callback. I eventually got onto someone, after well over a month and the guy had a bit of attitude, telling me that he'd been moving. Which.. doesn't really explain why nobody answered their customer service line, or made callbacks. Anyway, I explained my issue, and as it was close to 5pm on a Friday, he said that it'd be hard for him to get down to the warehouse to check, because they were finishing up for the week.



So back to the same, and a couple of weeks later I managed to have the phone answer there again, and it was a different guy who was much more helpful. I explained my issue again and he suggested that I could look on a swap group on facebook, or similar. When I pressed him and also let him know that the blister was still unopened (we're a couple of months after receiving it at this stage) and told him that I really wasn't keen on paying more postage to get the figures that are pictured on the website, he gave me the details to return them and said that he'd have a look with the warehouse guys.

Though by now we're into the start of December, and the craziness that happens at that time of year, so I actually mailed them back in the quiet time between Christmas and New Year's. A couple of weeks later (completely understandable given the time of year and what it does to the post) I received a little box in the post with a blister containing the correct model. So thank you to Sam at GWAU for sorting it out in the end. I do wonder what's happening there though - as on the rare occasions I've had issues I needed to contact mail order for in the past they answered the phone pretty quickly, and things were sorted with lightning speed (and maybe a photo emailed to show the exact issue). Hopefully they can get it back together.



So now we roll around to February, and the 6-Month Tale of Gamers Challenge over on Dakka that I've been coordinating. My "pledges" are to complete a unit/hero/warmachine/monster/etc each month for both Undead and Gondor. Now complete means just that - and it means I can motivate myself to finish off figures that have been part-painted for ages, or the last couple of models from a unit and so forth. While painting their robes on my lunch break at work the other day I realised that these guys finish off the two units of Castellans/Black Númenóreans that I started months ago, and so they count - since they'll be used in Marouda's Undead army with the Soul Reaver Infantry statline - essentially Vampiric infantry. I think they work well as Medieval-Fantasy Vampiric types who will drain your soul rather than just your blood. Not all vampires have to be 19th century aristocrats, after all....



I painted the Númenóreans some time ago last year over a period of time. I shared the first few on the blog, as well as the standard bearer conversions (not much of a conversion, but hey). Later on I finished even more of the warriors but didn't feel a need to write another post showing off identical models to the ones I'd already shown.



The eagle-eyed amongst you will note that there's one guy missing from the back rank in the second regiment. I appear to have misplaced one of my Black Númenórean Warriors. Funny how on forums whenever I point out some minor thing like that, there's always some socially-inept person that feels a need to post "I saw that". Well, between the Reaper forums and the LotR ones, anyway. Yeah, thanks. Well done you. So I'll have to either find the little bastard, or failing that - locate another Black Númenórean and paint him to finish the unit. Again.

Let's face it though, even I think that painting 2 non-character models in a month for half of a painting challenge is a bit pissweak, so I'll be trying to paint that RPE Skeleton Ballista I showed the other day on my Wordpress blog as well for the Undead component.

Those Numenoreans look great all ranked up like that. I hope you find the escapee.

Yep very nice undead dudes.

Thanks guys. Back from my out of town work trip now, so hoping I can start getting some more painting done. I'm still pretty smashed, though.If history is any guide, I'll start getting right productive and enthusiastic about painting by Sunday afternoon/night. Just in time to go back to work.

Still, I wanna get some more stuff finished this weekend.

They are some great looking models. Some of the Lord of the Rings stuff is gorgeous to look at. They really fit the Vampire aesthetic really well.

The colours work really well together as well.

Those guys are awesome! The Minos are good too, though I do find it quite amusing that your 'middle ground' between weathered and shiny is my 'get some more weathering on those boys pronto, this ain't no parade ground!'

The Black Numenoreans look great, just a shame that getting your desired sculpts was an epic worthy of Tolkien himself.

Digging the Minotaurs too, nice to see the early miniatures get a great paint job.

Lovely job on those Numenoreans. I think they fit really well as Soul Drinker infantry. Two regiments of those will be vicious in game!