The last member of the White Council came together quite nicely if I do say so myself! This was the first white model I've ever painted and a serious learning curve. I'm pretty happy with how the foot version came out but less so the mounted one. I really struggled with the sculpt despite using the same techniques.

Saruman the Wise/White





Also last weekend I got the last of my good LotR models done; a pair of Eagles. These can nicely drop into either a Radagast Alliance or Wanderers in the Wild list and give me some more hitting power. Painting wise I really didn't enjoy doing them but feel they've come out well enough.

Eagles



I got an awesome game in against my friend this morning; Rivendell vs Minas Tirith/Durin's Folk. I managed to win 16-9 but it was super close. He could have forced a draw but we completely forgot about the objectives for High Ground...

The plan for May is the tournament tray and the last of the terrain. I’ve got an idea of how it’s going to work but it might need a little adjustment before being finalized.

I never realized how much the Saruman (on foot) model resembles Christofer Lee. Especially if you compare the foot model with the mounted one, which might as well be Ian McKellan with wrong staff.

I think the faces are really great. Are you using blue in the eyes?

I’M NOT DEAD! Sorry for being quiet on here folks; life and hobby chores have kinda taken precedence as of late. I haven’t even played a game in the past month or so! I can't believe I haven't been on here in three two months...


With WAR of the Ring coming up in November and requiring an evil army I’ve been steadily working though an (again mostly donated) Uruk-Hai siege force. I only needed 500pts but have ended up with 1200pts. Unfortunately I could not find/justify the cost of some Feral Uruks.

I’ve been chipping away at them for the past couple of months; stripping a lot, cleaning all the mold lines, pinning and replacing the pike shafts. After gap filling today I’m finally in a position to get them primed once it cools down a bit.

I made the bases up the other month; given that there’s about 80 it didn’t actually take all that long. Wood filler, brown Krylon and a couple of pigment washes. I’m planning on going for a slightly different style on these guys compared to my Rivendell Guard which will hopefully be quicker



Thank you! The good heroes really helped me get more comfortable around painting faces. It's not a particularly elaborate or complicated methodology; it's just a case of being neat which is a combination of patience, good brushes and strong magnifying glasses. They eyes themselves are VMC Ivory with the pupils done in VMC Black Grey, which is slightly blue in hue and probably why it works well. On heroic scale minis I'd like to start trying to get the retina in too.

Fantastic Saruman foot and mounted!

Wow I haven't been on here in ages... there's a lot of catching up to do!

However I come bearing gifts in the form of completed work! Given the scale, limited time frame, lack of motivation and the fact I was basically painting various shades of brown meant that I didn't both with taking WIP shots of my Isengard army. However I finished them with a few weeks to spare prior to W.A.R. of the Ring 2018 in Reading back in November and then proceeded to not take pictures of them for a month...

































I was fortunate enough to be given the plastic warriors by a friend and this formed the base of the force. The army itself is essentially themed around the siege of Helm’s Deep as a result of this. At around 70 models I wanted to make the scheme easy to reproduce and relatively quick to paint. I’m happy with the result and it looks impressive ranked up on the table, although it’s not particularly flashy to look at in pictures. Uruks are Uruks and all pretty self explanatory, so I’ll let you work out what everything is (*It’s probably a Uruk). I deliberately went for a quick, darker grittier look than my Good models. Saruman also isn’t shiny in real life; not sure what’s going on there...

I thought I was done with LotR but I’ve got to finish off the dislay boards and have just brought mounted Gil-Galad (from Unreleased Miniatures), am converting a mounted Elrond (based off of armoured Elladan and my most ambitious model yet) and grabbed Gimil so I’m heading back to Good before starting something outside of Middle Earth.

I know it's hard to take a picture of an army with any detail, but would still like to see your whole Uruk Hai army!

What color did you use on the shafts on the pikes? I'm seem to switch back on forth on how I color pikes/bows,etc.

Like how you did your basing, very simple but effective.

_________________
"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

They look great! Job well done!

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Check out my WIP: www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=24858

Cheers guys!



I will definitely get pictures up once the display boards* are finished. Shouldn't be too long; I just need to put the pigments down and finish the borders.

*Don't expect much as I don't think I have all that much space to play with given the size of the armies!

The wood on the Uruks was a bit of an experiment. It's AK Interactive Wood Base, washed with diluted Army Painter Strong Tone, the straight Strong Tone in the areas where shadow would be darkest, gloss varnished to seal and then an AK Interactive Brown Wood Enamel Wash over the top of it. I used the same technique on the terrain floorboards. This was the 'lazy' way of doing it as you're meant to use a variety of the AK paints to create the base/shadows/grain before the filter goes on. I wasn't prepared to paint wood grain on 80 models though!

Progress update:

The mounted Elrond conversion has come out really well if I do say so myself, especially as it is my first foray into any sort of sculpting or conversion. I've basically got the block colours down on the last of the heroes; I just need to tidy them up before washes and highlighting. I'm hoping that they'll be done by the end of the month, where upon I'll get them posted along with a load of stuff I forgot to put up from a few months back!

So I have been trying to think of how to make a good orcish metal, and was going to do a brown and black wash over silver, but that metal is great. It yields the appearance of impure iron, which is perfect. Teach me your ways?

_________________
By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

That's basically it!

- Model primed Krylon Camouflage Brown
- Washed with home made black ink
- Drybrushed Darkstar Molten Metals: Steel
- Drybrushed Darkstar Molten Metals: Graphite
- Drybrushed Darkstar Molten Metals: Baroque
- Drybrushed Darkstar Molten Metals: Old Silver
- Washed all over with Citadel: Agrax Earthshade
- Panel lines/recesses lined with Army Painter: Black Ink

1) Krylon Camo spray paint is my preferred aerosol undercoat and has only even given a great finish. I don't see any reason why you couldn't use another brand, or black instead of brown.

2) Normally I prime my models in a zenithal fashion, with black at -45* and then white from +45*/overhead. I then always wash my models with a watered down black ink to show the details and shadows. Having worked from an exclusively dark basecoat you can probably skip this step.

3) I happen to have used Darkstar paints as I brought the set and feel I need to justify it! Any other silver paints should work just fine. My personal preference would be for the Vallejo Model Air.

A slightly different but just as simple approach that I used on my older models and Malifaux gangs from a few years ago:

- Prime metallic areas black.
- Drybrush VMA 072 Gun (Metallic)
- Drybrush VMA 065 Steel (Metallic)
- Drybrush VMA 063 Silver (Metallic)
- Wash all over with Citadel: Agrax Earthshade
- Wash all over (slightly thinner than above) with Citadel: Seraphim Sepia
- Panel lines/recesses lined with Army Painter: Black Ink/Citadel: Nuln Oil

That gives a slightly brighter but dirtier metal like the below:

Many thanks! I will be using this technique.

_________________
By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

Here's me keeping the trend of terrible inconsistency going...

I’ve said if before and I’ll probably say it again, but I’ve finally finished my Rivendell Guard! It has been a while since I’ve painted the Elves and I feel these aren’t quite up to the same standard as the last heroes, but they’re perfectly suitable for the tables top.





(Mounted) Gil-Galad, High King of the Elves by Unreleased Miniatures. This was one of their first models and you can tell. I hated building and painting him.





(Mounted) Elrond, Master of Rivendell. He’s too good not to at least consider taking in the new edition, especially with how he buffs Knights. However the official model is OOP and I refuse to use Finecast anyway. This was a pretty simple conversion using the mounted Elladan and classic Elrond sculpt. One razorsaw and some Milliput later and I’m fairly happy with how he’s come out considering I’ve never done any sculpting before!



Gimli, Son of Glóin, Friend of Rivendell. I painted him as I realised I had 2/3 Hunters and it seemed wrong not too. Lovely sculpt.





Now I’ve had these for a while but forgot to post them. I had the dice box made by the aptly named Custom Dice Box on eBay. Really nice guy to deal with and I am incredibly happy with the service and product. I’m planning on using him again for my other games as I love the extra details. Speaking of; I also have a complete set of colour themed dice/tokens and objectives for my Rivendell Guard. I’ve got something similar for my Isengard but they’re not quite as tidy and not really worht posting. They’re all neatly kept in a little wooden chest though, which you’d have seen if you were at WAR of the Ring!

Now, my life in 1:1 scale has kinda fallen apart in an unprecedented manner over the last month and I’m still not entirely sure what’s happening, but that’s a bit heavy for a hobby blog! I’ve tried to keep myself grounded with the stability of a fantasy world in 28mm, but that’s probably why these haven’t come out as well as my previous works. There will be some disruption to my posting over the coming months, but I’m so inconsistent anyway you probably won’t notice!

On the plus side I’ve finished the display plinths this week so will try and get some army shots for you all. The army is now basically done but I do have two 25mm bases left that are prepared a’la the Rivendell Guard which are saved for Gildor inglorian and the classic metal Thranduil but I’m waiting to find them for a reasonable price.