Re: Oropher's WIP Thread - Mirkwood Armoured Elves

YOrcShire · **Posted:** Sat May 30, 2015 7:00 pm

Bilbo looks good and should compliment the rest of the company nicely.

abcdefg · **Joined:** Mon May 28, 2012 3:52 pm **Posts:** 273

Bilbo looks great. The whole company will look fantastic together.

I know it's a bit late, but I've been looking at your grim hammers (which are some of the best I've seen) and was wondering how you do the armour?

Oropher · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:16 pm

abcdefg wrote:

Bilbo looks great. The whole company will look fantastic together.

I know it's a bit late, but I've been looking at your grim hammers (which are some of the best I've seen) and was wondering how you do the armour?

Hey thanks ever so much, that is one huge compliment.

Glad you like them. They are some of my most favourite models in the entire range and were a total joy to paint.
For the armour it was pretty simple really. Just a base of Leadblecher, making sure to leave the gaps in between the plates black, followed by a heavy wash of Agrax Earthshade. Highlight with Leadblecher again, then if you wish go over the very edges with Runefang Steel. How much of this highlight you want to do is entirely up to you. Depends how 'dirty' you want them to look.
Give the chainmail a wash of Nuln Oil rather than Agrax.

I tried to stick to the 'Tale of Painters' guide. Really useful stuff those guys churn out!
http://taleofpainters.blogspot.de/2013/ ... .html#more

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Tue Jun 09, 2015 10:05 pm

Your Bilbo looks great... I haven't painted mine yet, but just by watching the mini I can tell It'll be a hard model to paint... super tiny...
Great job mate

Oropher · **Posted:** Sat Aug 01, 2015 8:15 pm

So after a few weeks off from painting I've finally started up again.

I have been wanting to start a Mirkwood force for quite some time and finally I got one! Just acquired what you'd probably call a rather large backlog... Going to be a huge amount of work to be done here, and right now it feels like I may never even fully complete it all. But looking forward to the challenge nonetheless. Plenty to keep us going through the dark winter nights at least!
Anddddd should have a bunch more dwarves arriving anyday now too...

Just got started on a couple of the Mirkwood Rangers and spent the last hour highlighting green! My eyes need a break. They are all beautiful models though. Absolute stunners. Really going to take my time with them and hopefully do the whole army justice.

Feanorthenoldor · **Joined:** Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:44 pm **Posts:** 879

aw man, can't wait to see these guys all painted up and ready to go, gonna be a great army to look at.

davec1980 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:47 am **Posts:** 29

ooh nice work on the elf ranger

Crucium Giger · **Posted:** Tue Aug 04, 2015 11:43 am

The Elf is looking real good so far.

Oropher · **Posted:** Wed Oct 07, 2015 5:02 pm

Just about finished up with the Mirkwood Rangers, just their bases to do and they'll be complete. Will post some pics of the bunch once this is done.

Next up I figured on having a crack at the Palace guard. So for the last couple of days I've been working on this guy...

I've spent ages trying to get the right colours going. Pouring over various movie shots and trying to get something that I'm happy with. Still not totally convinced just yet but the model is growing on me everytime I pick him up. I'm just not sure I have the will power to paint another 9 of these and 2 captains!! They are so detailed and require quite a bit of patience. Worth the effort though.

I also got a brilliant set of bases through the mail the other day from Micro Arts studios. The minute I saw them I knew they'd be a perfect fit for the city of Dale! Definitely recommend those guys in Poland.

paliouras · **Posted:** Thu Oct 08, 2015 3:08 pm

Owwwww man!!!... what a backlog! Can't wait to see these completed.
The test models look satisfying already.

YOrcShire · **Posted:** Sat Oct 10, 2015 2:21 pm

That's a lot of models. Great work on the Palace Guard. I really like the green tint to the scale armour.

Oropher · **Posted:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 7:02 pm

Thanks guys

I had a play at attempting some free hand work on the shields. Free hand is something that I very very rarely have a crack at. I figured these models were worth the extra effort though and you gotta start somewhere.
Quite tricky but pleased with the overall effect in the end.

Not the best of photo I know but here we are...

Banjer · **Joined:** Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:48 am **Posts:** 22

Looks great!

rustedplate · **Posted:** Sat Oct 31, 2015 6:54 am

Beautiful mirkwood army approach. Yea they are soooo time consuming.

Eric · **Joined:** Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:58 pm **Posts:** 123

Gw´s product pics of these looked quite bad to me, something about them made these guys look so wonky. But now you made me consider to buy one box x) It looks very nice!

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Wed Nov 18, 2015 7:34 am

The freehand on the shield is inspired - it really takes the mini up another notch - beautiful work!

orc-archer · **Posted:** Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:25 am

The Palace Guard looks brilliant!

Oropher · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2015 4:42 pm

Big thanks for all of your comments everyone.

Unfortunately I have had no time for painting over the last few weeks although before things got busy I did managed to start work on a couple of spearmen. Hope I can start on the rest of them soon!

Harfoot · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2015 8:53 pm

Very nice, I haven't even opened my pack yet, i think i will now after seeing your work

Oropher · **Posted:** Fri Jan 01, 2016 1:38 pm

Wanted to take a break from standard troops so switched things up a little.

WIP of my latest.

I always seem to struggle with faces/skin. Not massively happy with the way it turned out on Legolas, and as you can see I've only based coated Tauriels face. I know practise makes perfect etc but if anyone has any tips or methods on ways to improve skin work please let me know. Also any other ways I can improve are always appreciated.

Oh and working on these two once again hammered home how much I prefer painting plastics and metals!

Re: Oropher's WIP Thread - Mirkwood Armoured Elves

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