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Brent's WIP Blog - Grimhamer and Erebor Dwraves (pg 21)
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Author:  BrentS [ Wed May 02, 2007 1:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Brent's WIP Blog - Grimhamer and Erebor Dwraves (pg 21)
Time to start a new WIP Army blog. I have a number of projects running through my mind but I've wanted to try an evil army with a number of conversions. I've decided to start an Angmar Army. I wanted to use a cool Witch King as my hero. Here is a conversion I've started for the Witch King on a Dark Steed. I figured this could easily be the Witch King that rules over Angmar prior to the 3rd Age

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The parts are pretty obvious I expect - The mounted Witch King from the fellbeast and the dark steed from the Mouth of Sauron. Seemed like an appropriate horse for the WK when he's not off racing after the Ring.

I've been using FIXIT Sculpt instead of greenstuff. I've always had problems with greenstuff and found this a bit easier to work with. It is a two part expoxy resin that behaves a bit more like clay and cures rock hard. On this model, it was one of my first times trying to sculpt robes. I think I did okay but not great. However, I'm pleased with the outcome. I had to fill in some larger gaps along the legs of the rider and huge areas of gaps on the back of the model on the cloak. I think I still need to fill in the back of the horse where the chainmail seems to magically "end".

I also wanted to give this WK model the flaming sword, like was shown in the deleted scenes for ROTK. I had an extra sword from a RRG so I started to try and sculpt some flames on it. Not sure how this one is turning out:

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I'm not sure how I want to base these models yet so I haven't glued anything down to the base yet. I'm debating if I should put a large slate rock on there or just use smaller patches of rubble and static grass.
Author:  Lord Hurin [ Wed May 02, 2007 1:58 pm ]
Post subject: 
Looking good, Brent! I've been wanting to do the same sort of thing to mount a WK, except on a Haradrim steed. The sculpting looks good to me, and it'll certainly look better when painted! As for the bases, I'd go for a grassy field strewn with bits of crumbled buildings. The rocky slate would certainly work on some models, like the Witch King, to make him stand out.
Author:  GoodSmeagol [ Wed May 02, 2007 4:40 pm ]
Post subject: 
Its a pretty simple looking conversion but very effective, it looks great! As for the sculpting, it looks just fine to me, however the sword isn't so great, sorry to say. Maybe this would help you. It helped me a little.

http://us.games-workshop.com/games/warhammer/painting/fire/default.htm

I think slate would look good on the bases, maybe with some 'dead' grass.
Can't wait to see more!
Author:  Erunion [ Wed May 02, 2007 5:06 pm ]
Post subject: 
Looking good, so far, Brent. I love the Mouth of Sauron's horse, and I hope GW uses it as a basis for the Morgul Knights when they come out.

@ GoodSmeagol -- Nice link. I had seen that article before, but had forgotten all about it.

For the base...Slate would be nice to give the model a little more height and make it stand out. An idea that I had a while back and have yet to use is to put a ring of lush, green, vibrant grass around the edge of the base, but to have the ground immediately around the model look scorched and/or withered to represent the effect of the WK's evil aura on the flora around him.

Maybe that would be something you could incorporate.

Jon
Author:  BrentS [ Thu May 03, 2007 2:15 pm ]
Post subject: 
Concerning the base - I had a suggestion at TLA that a heavy armoured horse would probably have difficulting standing on a slate rock so maybe that wouldn't be approrpriate.

@ Erunion - cool idea on the figure base. I may see if I can pull that off.

@ GoodSmeagol - thanks a lot for that link - there are a lot of good ideas there.

As far as updates go, we'll have to see on this. I got my Plastic Dwarf Warriors and Rangers yesterday so I started playing with them too... too many projects to work on!
Author:  BilboOfTheWhiteTower [ Thu May 03, 2007 4:50 pm ]
Post subject: 
Looks great so far Brent! :shock:
Very nice conversion idea and it looks like it was meant to be put together like that!

The page GoodSmeagol posted looks like the best referrence for sculpting flames on a sword.
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Author:  hobbit_homebrew [ Thu May 03, 2007 9:34 pm ]
Post subject: 
if you want to try sculpting flames on a sword, you can achieve a look in the picture above by slicing the gs the same way you would for hair and folding it over slightly, you just have to try and get the flame shape to it, if that helps! :D looking good so far though
Author:  Haldir_Strikes [ Thu May 03, 2007 10:10 pm ]
Post subject: 
haha churning out ANOTHER army!
I recently finished 12 of my Uruk scouts(leaving the poor 2nd beserker in my WiP to the wayside), got sick of them and just started painting my Rangers! Seeing as I'm having so much trouble sticking with a boxed set, I find it amazing that you'll be making another high quality army.

Good luck!
Author:  Viruk [ Thu May 03, 2007 10:20 pm ]
Post subject: 
Yet another WIP thread that I'll be following with keen interest! Taking into account how fast you managed to finish your previous army project, I', sure that watching the growth of this one will be equally interesting.

The conversion is great- simple yet very effective. As I've written before on many occasions, the conversion doesn't have to be very complex to look impressive, it is often the original idea that makes the work look outstanding, as in the case of your Witch King.

Keep up the great work!
Author:  BrentS [ Fri May 04, 2007 2:14 am ]
Post subject: 
Thanks guys... As far as churning out more armies - I've actually got four armies planned - Uruk-Hai, Angmar, Dwarfs, and Minas Tirith. I'll probably be working on the UH, Angmar, and Dwarfs at the same time to break up the monotony!

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks again for all the support and encouraging words.
Author:  BilboOfTheWhiteTower [ Fri May 04, 2007 6:00 pm ]
Post subject: 
BrentS wrote:
I'll probably be working on the UH, Angmar, and Dwarfs at the same time to break up the monotony!

That is the plan I use to prevent burnout...the only drawback I've found is that I tend to paint up the command for the armies quickly leaving me the rank and file troops and I get more burned out from that than I do painting one army at a time. If you can find that sweet balance of working on different troops and leave the special characters toward the end...kinda making it a reward to paint them, it should keep you from getting that wiped out, overwhelmed feeling you got when painting Rohan after Rohan unit. Another thing that will help too is conversions...they make those rank and file guys fly along quicker, and from what I've seen you have quite the nack for making some pretty cool ones! :D
Author:  BrentS [ Sat May 05, 2007 5:43 am ]
Post subject: 
I'm going to go ahead an combine all my WIPs into this thread - no reason to start a bunch of different threads.

I started working on idea for basing my Dwarf army. I'd like them to represent the halls of an underground city - could be Moria or something like that. I thought it would be neat to have some sort of carved tile floor. So here's attempt number 1:

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I made these by carving out a piece of Fixit Sculpt and then making a silicon rubber mold and casting it in resin. By making the mold, I could make many multiple tiles with minimal work.

The pics above show two of the four designs I made (these are the two I like best). I quickly painted up two of them to see what they'd look like. The molds came out great they are exact replicas of my sculpt. However, I'm not so sure if I like the "sculpting" designs that I made. I'd certainly welcome some opinions.

I've also take a few pictures of a plastic dwarf on the bases so that you could see how they may look. I took the plastic warrior I like least (looks like he's got wood-elf head/arm :? ) in case I didn't like what I was doing.

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What do you guys think of these bases? Are they worth continuing or should I start over?
Author:  jackharrison [ Sat May 05, 2007 7:55 am ]
Post subject: 
I like them, but I think it would be worth painting up one just so we could see the finished model- It"s hard to tell otherwise.
Author:  Haldir_Strikes [ Sat May 05, 2007 7:56 am ]
Post subject: 
I think they're good, but you may want to limit how high they go off the base. Maybe if you just add a thin layer of Greenstuff and then sculpt in the tiles? It would be more economical to do it that way.

Anyway, keep it up!
Author:  Viruk [ Sat May 05, 2007 8:22 am ]
Post subject: 
I really like the idea of basing minis in this way. I'd suggest making the tiled floor casts a bit larger, so that there would be no space left between them and the edge of the base. Secondly, I think that it would look better if the tiles were smaller. Have a look at this army, I find it quite inspiring :wink:
Author:  BrentS [ Sun May 06, 2007 5:26 am ]
Post subject: 
You guys picked up on the things that I didn't like about the bases too. When I made them, I thought they were the right size but I cheated a bit too much and they came out slightly less diameter than I expected.

I've got another idea to try and I'll work on it this week and see how it goes.

@ Haldir_Strikes- I already had all the casting supplies so there was no real "extra" expense. I was trying to find a way to keep from having to manually carve out bases for all 35 models! :wink:

@ Viruk - WOW that Moria army is awesome. It is definitely inspiring. I was going for larger tiles like those seen in the KD supplement. However on version 2, I might try and make them a bit smaller.

Now on to the updates from today - Back to Angmar!

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Although I hope that the Witch King is the centerpiece to my army, I loved the Burhdur model as soon as I saw it. Buhrdur and a converted Cave Troll will be the main hitting force of this army. I've started working on both of them. For Burhdrur, I'm trying a sligthly different arm position. I had to sculpt a lot more fur for the back and shoulders.

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The Cave Troll is modified from some parts I got from BilboofhteWhiteTower. Its a Cave Troll upperbody and head along with the legs from the Mordor Catapult Troll. I wanted to give him a weapon more suitable for the Forests of Arnor, so I'm creating a heavy club. I'm debating on weather or not to add metal spikes to this club.

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Lastly, I wanted to show the Warg Chieftan that I painted as part of the Foundation Paint Contest. I got him back tonight and snapped some pictures:

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For those that didn't see my post before, this miniature was painted in 2 hours and used only the new Foundation Paints, Chaos Black, and Skull White. I found out after I got there that I could use Metallics too. I was quite pleased with how it turned out considering the limitations. I'm going to do some touch-ups, more hightlights and finish up the proper base now that the contest is over. I don't think that I will win anything as there was at least one very good looking WH dwarf also entered. However, I clearly entered the most ambitious model in terms of size! The results won't be revealed until May 26th (part of the 300th White Dwarf celebration events).

Thanks again to everyone who is following my threads!!
Author:  Haldir_pl [ Sun May 06, 2007 6:26 am ]
Post subject: 
Very nice mate.

I like the troll you converted and the whole GW's carcass idea with Chieftain. really clean painting on that one. I wait too see you paint Burhdrur , It will be interesing project ;)
Author:  BilboOfTheWhiteTower [ Sun May 06, 2007 7:32 am ]
Post subject: 
Brent, very nice job on the warg and I love the conversion to the troll...he looks great! :shock:
I'd leave the club as is...I don't know if it would look as good with the spikes in it.

This Angmar army is really going to be something!
Author:  Beatrice [ Sun May 06, 2007 8:00 am ]
Post subject: 
I like all of this thread!

the witch king on horse is a nice idea. it looks a bit calm on the base, but e.g. when put on a steep rock it would look more threatening.

the bases are good! and not too complicated. you can do many variations in a sensible amount of time even without doing moulds.

the trolls are great!! (I want a troll army, too! ;-) thinking of a scene where two trolls accidentically hit eachother and fall down to the floor ...)
Author:  Viruk [ Sun May 06, 2007 5:01 pm ]
Post subject: 
The trolls look great. I'm a big fan of these minis (which should be obvious to anyone who's seen my gallery :wink: ) and always enjoy seeing original conversions of them. As far as spikes on the club are concerned - I agree with Bilbo, the club already looks very nice without them. However, if you decide to add some, I reckon that a few could look nice too.
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