Lookee! I put paint on a thing!

With a slew of minis from the Reaper Bones 3 Kickstarter due to arrive in a couple months, I figure I need to up my rate of mini-completion to better than an annual schedule. So I put brush to paint and managed to get the last barrow wight from the LOTR/Moria project done. (Yay me!) The base is garbage. I may upgrade that later, but at least it's table-ready for now.

I always feel silly when I get out of the painting habit. It's something I do for fun, not a job. Hopefully I'll make some inroads on all the Bones minis I still have from before!

Three more, reporting for duty

(heh, 'duty')

Continuing to work my way through the LOTR Minas Tirith archers. Very simple rack painting. 

What?! Minis Painting!?

Apparently that's something I do from time to time.

At least, I used to! The last month or so has been mildly nuts, but I promise I'm going to get some more stuff done. I just restocked a few colors I was getting low on, so my excuse list is dwindling.

I have a Gondorian and a couple of Bones gnolls that are nearly done. I should wrap those up first. After that, I think I will try to alternate between all these Bones and the rest of the Minas Tirith boys.

Back in Black

So, in keeping with my earlier statement about working on LOTR stuff, I decided the Minas Tirith soldiers were a decent place to start minis-wise.

Originally, I had primed them white, following the whole "prime good guys in white to make the colors brighter" theory. Looking at them again, I realized the black made a lot more sense, since their uniforms are supposed to be black and silver. So I re-primed them all black (less the color scheme test I did a while ago). One of the spearmen had lost its weapon so I pinned a sword to the empty hand. Otherwise, they are pretty much straight out of the box (24 total.  A mix of bows, spears, and swords).

The bases are completely plain, but I figure on doing a simple static grass flocking after they are painted. I know they aren't part of Moria, but they are definitely JRRT.

Barrow Wight

From the batch I bought for my Moria/LOTR stuff. I was going for an incorporeal-glowy green look, but I don't think it quite worked. Still, like orcs, you can't have too many undead minis!

Painting away

I haven't done much with the Moria terrain lately (I've hit a few logistical snags), but I have painted a few minis, so I thought I'd post the evidence. These were all done with TAP's war paints. I'm really enjoying the paints, but the finish is a little glossy. I've hit these with a layer of Krylon Matte sealer, but maybe a second coat when it's less humid is in order.

First off, a Chaos Space Marine (going to be Alpha Legion) and some Battle of Macragge Ultras.

 

Next up are some of the Skull Pass gobbos, including a shaman:

 

Finally, here's a Beastman from Reaper's Warlord line:

 

The GW's were spray primed with TAP's color primers (Alien Purple for the goblins and Navy Blue for the Astartes). The beastman had been spray primed white a while back. All of them were done with a "speed paint" process of basecoating followed by a wash and a (very) few highlights. It's a great "Get it on the table" method, which I find more satisfying sometimes than struggling with "fancier" paint jobs.

Speaking of Middle Earth

After playing in a mammoth (400+ minis) 1st Age ME Chainmail game at Garycon last month, my Moria project is all the more on my mind. Beyond that though, I'm looking at getting things together for a broader LOTR scope beyond Khazad Dum.

I picked 30 or so WFB High Elves on eBay recently to represent some 1st Age Gondolin-style fun. And I also unearthed several sprues of WFB dwarfs I'd bought years ago on a charity auction. Between those, the Rohan cavalry, all my orcs and goblins, and the Minas Tirith soldiers, I think I could field some gnarly battles!

So my goal now is get the elves and dwarfs and horsemen prepped for painting. Warm weather is here so spray primer opportunities should be easier to come by (at least until the humidity sets in). I think I will try some TAP color primers to speed the paint process along for these minis.

Apart from that, the Moria terrain still addressing and I'll probably want some ME scenery for "normal" surface battles.

TAP Goblin Pics

TAP Mega Set: More thoughts

Back from Garycon, I sat down and painted a GW Moria goblin archer captain (pics to follow) last night using the Army Painter set. The paints are smooth and cover well. The metallics are fine and the inks give a nice wash (Strong Tone is roughly equivalent to Badab Black from GW).

The color limitations aren't really much of an issue (so far). I was able to make a fairly convincing reddish skin tone with one drop each of the barbarian flesh, lava orange, and leather brown. I'd like a Tin Bitz, but I still have my GW pot for that, and it could probably mix that from the bronze, brown, and gun metal.

I am thinking about using them to speed paint some night goblins (Skull Pass), but I should probably stay focussed on the Moria project for now.

Promised Moria Pix (Ent, Wight, and Gollum)

 

Apologies for the lateness and the quality of the pix. I've been playing with a homemade light box and I'm not happy with the results yet.

 

Cats and more

I had a week off from work and did a lot of painting. I've finished about a half dozen kitties for the Catthulhu thing. I'm not posting pics as they should be for the donors first.

I also painted up one of the barrow wights and Treebeard, which was fun. I will post pics of them soon.

I also played a simple SBH skirmish with my oldest daughter using some fan-made LOTR stats from the Yahoo group.  She ran Gandalf the Grey, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas while I ran some gobbos and a cave troll.

The fight was over pretty quick as Legolas skewered the goblin captain forcing a morale test that catastrophic for the forces of evil. Only one warrior and one archer remained to fight, and they were no match for Aragorn & Co. It was fun to dust of the SBH rules and roll some activation dice, though!

I've been killing orcs for over sixty years, and I'm GOOD AT IT!

Update Madness

I managed to prime the minis yesterday (Yay Me!).

Bilbo and Gollum (on 1/2" bases)

The Average Wight (war) Band

Ent-y!

The wights got stuck onto 1" squares for uniformity, but I think the basing will need to be prettied up a little. 

Treebeard (on his included 2" metal square) got spray-primed with a green undercoat. I was going to use black, because I wanted to make sure the leafy recesses were –ahaha– shaded. But I was out of black, so I used the green instead. Why not?

Next up: 

THE WATCHER IN THE WATER!

Yes, the pool is done. Granted, I still need to do something about the Doors of Durin, etc. But check it out (I put the bead there as a "Transfix/Entangle" marker):

Bad day for Gandalf!

The water is coated with gloss Modge Podge for sheen. I tried to make the color sort of murky. I also painted the tentacle bases with the same shades. The process was basically the same as the river pieces.

Another finished (but not varnished piece is Balin's Tomb from the GW set. 

Also, I did a color test for the Minas Tirith soldiers. It's a very quick & dirty job, but I basically went with the movie look of black and silver.

Racing the sun

Tomorrow (Saturday) is supposed to be sunny and in the mid 50s. Tonight, Gollum and the Reaper minis I'd ordered get filed and assembled for priming! If there's time, I may prime Bilbo too.

Winter Woes

It was sunny and 73ºF here on Saturday. NOT typical December weather! My Reaper order was estimated to arrive Saturday, so I was stoked to get the figures prepped and primed while Mother Nature was cooperating. Sadly, the holiday shipping madness delayed the box and I didn't get it in time. (Insert sad trombone Wa-WAAA) Now it's raining and cold and the stuff will probably arrive today. Such is the life of a mini painter in winter on the East Coast of the US.

In different news, I have yet to receive the reference photos for the Catthulhu minis, so that's on hold (at least the kitties are paint-ready). In the meantime, getting ready for X-mas has eaten up a fair bit of weekend/evening time (NTM wasting time on Minecraft :-p ). I'm thinking the next thing for Moria is to finish the water terrain.

I've started the GW piece for Balin's sarcophagus too, so that's almost done. You can see the piece in the foreground here. I'll post a pic of my finished version once it's done.

Teaser: Smaug is coming down the pipeline, too! I've had this fig for a while, but I haven't really put paint to brush yet. I really want to make him nice. This is the biggest dragon mini I own. Check out this old bare metal pic I took for scale (the Reaper elf is on a 1" Hirst block base):

It's now assembled and I spray primed him "Dragon Red" with Army Painter primer, so I guess that counts as started. I also have a wooden display base I want to use for him on the shelf that he can come loose from to put on the table (probably on a CD base for SBH rules' purposes).

What IS that??

A pretzel gone horribly wrong?

No, it the water outside the doors of Durin. You know, the water part of "The Watcher in the Water"?


Remember when I started making the lake/pond for the terrain? Well, this is (finally) the next step. The border was covered in a mix of sand, PVA glue, and water and left to dry. I purposefully wanted it a bit sloppy to give it a natural look. The brown rectangle outside the edge is just a scrap of cardboard I laid down to catch the drips. The few edges and corners of foamcore peeking out will be further obscured by flocking and paint. The center of the MDF board will get a water effect similar to my modular river pieces. Though the pond will be more a murky greenish shade. Once the water and the border are painted, I'll add a few bits of scrub brush on the edges and some grass flocking. The piece should be usable as water terrain for any scene, but should serve admirably for the tentacle fight at Moria's entrance.

My Preciousss

So I was thinking about all this Lord of the Rings stuff and I realized that as long as I was including non-Moria figures like the Nazgul, then I should probably have a mini for a character that was actually at Moria in the books and movies. Namely, Smeagol aka Gollum.

Since I didn't really feel like spending $20-30+ for the GW ones, I picked up an unpainted Mithril Miniatures figure set from Noble Knight Games on eBay. It's 32mm scale, includes Bilbo and Gollum, and was about $10 (with S&H).

I don't know that I'd use Bilbo in a skirmish, but it's sort of cool to have a mini for him too.

Do not Disturb the Water.

I had mentioned before about my concerns about the Watcher in the Water, and spent the last couple weeks trying to find a non-scratchbuilt solution. Oddly, tentacle minis aren't as plentiful as you'd think. Oh, there are things like "Chaos Bits" to add to the figure, but just monster tentacles are somewhat limited.

After getting sniped on an eBay auction for the old GW watcher bits, I finally found something worth giving a try at Auggie's Games. They arrived yesterday and –I have to say– I am pleased. Check these bad boys out!

Look out, Strider!

All six plus S&H was about $25. They are pre-painted, but look pretty darned good, IMO. I think I may try to make the bases more "watery" (and I may add a color coded dot to each base to keep the pseudopods straight during combat) but otherwise they are exactly what I was after. 

...Now I just need to finish the pool and the doors. 

The Nine have left Minas Morgul!

Or at least the painting table. 

I finally finished the last of these Reaper wraiths that I bought to use as my Nazgul. As mentioned previously, the Witch King is Murkillor. The wraiths came in 4-packs from the Dark Heaven line.

These are very simple paint jobs (the flame on WK's sword is the fussiest part of all of them). Just black primer and some grey highlights. The armor and weapons are 50-50 black & gunmetal. A bit of stone basing and voila! These once great kings of men are ready to do Sauron's will!

Not exactly from Moria, but good for spooky undeads and for general LOTR goodness.

Furlough figure painting

For those few of you reading this blog who were not aware, I am a federal employee and have been furloughed these last two weeks (yay. :-/ ). On the up side, I have had time for painting. I'll try to get some pics up later, but I am heading out of town tomorrow for a few days (trip was planned and paid for weeks before the shutdown), so if I don't manage it today, it may be this weekend.

On the Moria front, I finished the cave troll from the "Mines of Moria" box set. I also painted a few figs from the WFB "Skull Pass" set: a night goblin, a spider rider, and a troll. I even finished three Dark Elf crossbowmen!

I have also actually been working on a commission from my brother. His new RPG "Call of Catthulhu" has been getting some nice reviews and he wanted some kitty minis to go with his demos, etc. I have one more to do, then I'll be finished with his order. I can't post pics of them yet until he gives the say-so. For the record, though, these minis are TINY! They are Reaper figs, I believe from their familiars packs. Thank goodness they don't need complex paint jobs. Although I have tried to do different breeds. So far there is a "Tuxedo" (black & white), a Siamese, a Russian Blue, a Calico, and a pure white shorthair. The last one will be an orange tabby. I've also tried to have fun with some of the bases (GW 1/2" squares).

Shadow & Flame (finally!)

Well, I have declared the balrog table-ready! He's been spray varnished and photographed, so now he's ready to drag some wizards off some bridges.

I beefed up the base with some green stuff for stability and added  a few Hirst bricks and gravel for rubble. The broken axe was part of the sculpt, but the cracked shield and the skull (in back) were added.

Going for the whole "fire on the inside" look.

Distance shot.

Not 100% happy with the molten sword, but it gives you the idea. The "stripes" on the wings are more molten-y goodness.