Fellowship Friday - Gimli

Last but not least, Gimli, Son of Gloin!

...and that does it for the Fellowship of the Ring. I'll have to set up an Ambush at Amon Hen game of something similar - I've never used these models on the tabletop. Something about wargaming with them and getting them all killed doesn't appeal to me (oh, Frodo lost his head and the Uruk-Hai have the Ring... shame for Middle Earth).

Fellowship Friday - Legolas

Legolas was never among my favorite characters from the book - funny how the movie version has become so popular!

I did really like this model, though...

Fellowship Friday - Boromir

Missed a week, but here is Boromir of Gondor.

Edit: Just realized this is my 300th post! Hooray!

Fellowship Friday - Aragorn (Strider)

'With hope or without hope we will follow the trail of our enemies. And woe to them, if we prove the swifter! We will make such a chase as shall be accounted a marvel among the Three Kindreds, Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Forth the Three Hunters!'

Not sure why they replaced the quote above with 'Let's hunt some orc!' in the movie when the heroes set out to rescue Merry and Pippin. Anyway, Aragorn is probably my favorite fantasy character of all time, especially as Strider.

Troll Tuesday

... and that makes three...

This model was a bugger to assemble. Trying to get the arms in the right position was a trying process even for someone who has assembled hundreds (thousands?) of models, but in the end I would not be defeated.

Fellowship Friday - Gandalf the Grey

THE wizard...

Like the rest of my collection, this is the original metal model, wielding his staff and his sword, Glamdring the Foe-Hammer!

Troll Tuesday

Another Troll...

A word on the paints used... I took a departure from my Citadel paints for the hide of these trolls. I couldn't get the combinations I wanted so I pulled out my Foundry paints. The first step was to paint the entire beast with Slate Grey 32A. I used a wash of Citadel Nuln Oil and then went back when this was dry with a drybrush layer of Slate Grey 32A. Next I began drybrushing the belly, inner arms, and lower face with Rawhide 11A and gradually worked up heavier coverage as I got away from the edges. Then I began alternating highlighting these two areas with successively lighter drydrushing...

Slate Grey 32B
Rawhide 11B
Slate Grey 32C
Rawhide 11C

Each layer was blended around the areas where these colors meet and the result was a very natural transition between the shades. I went back to the Citadel paints and blended some small highlights into the Rawhide areas with Ushabti Bone and Screaming Skull and picked out small highlights in the knobby scales in the Slate Grey areas with Administratum Grey.

Another brute is up for next week!

Fellowship Friday - Peregrin Took

... and Pippen!

On to the bigger folk!

Wild Warg Wednesday

Ok, I just can't help myself with the blog headlines...

More models for my Angmar army. This warband will eventually be ten wolves plus the chieftain, but I had a little trouble getting my hands on another box... should be rectified soon. I promise I wont post the expansion on a Wednesday...

Stay tuned for Mordor Monday!

Just kidding...

Troll Tuesday - Buhrdur the Troll Chieftain

Another captain for Angmar, Buhrdur the Troll Chieftain!

This brute possesses a cunning above his trollish kind is destined to lead a pair of his less fashionable brethren. He may often serve as the leader of my Angmar force if there are no Nazgul present.

Fellowship Friday - Meriadoc Brandybuck

The third of the indomitable foursome...

Fellowship Friday - Samwise Gamgee

Sam has always been one of my favorites and I think this model does a great job at capturing the film version of the character...

The Tainted

Without a doubt, The Tainted is my favorite of the 'named' Nazgul models (I also really like all of the original 'Riders in Black' minis - I have them painted around here somewhere so I should get photos of them too...). I love the hunched figure on the horse. I opted to paint the horse dark brown to add a second spot of color to the model. As with the shade from a few posts back, this model was harder to paint that I anticipated. It took lots of layers, several washes, and a few more layers to get the effect I wanted.

It seems to be the opinion of the SBG community that The Tainted is the least effective Nazgul model in the game and often hinders your own side more than that of the enemy! Oh, well... I plan to use him in my Angmar army anyway. I also have The Dwimmerlaik and The Witch-king so between the three of these wraiths I should be able to find a combination I like!

Warriors of Arnor

Here is my first full warband, led by Marko Steelknife.

I am really happy with the way the unit turned out. I know some people were put off my the helmet wreaths, but I like these models far more than the Gondor infantry. I have enough models to build two more 12-model units, but I'm going to mix in some other stuff. I will probably paint one more unit identical to this one and then change the color scheme or add extra details to the third unit and call them the Guard of Fornost or some such thing. I am working on expanding my Rangers of Arnor to twelve (waiting on five reinforcement models I bought on eBay) and plan on painting the Beregond model as their captain.

I'm still working on the February Challenge for The One Ring forum and hope to have the rest of my wargs finished by the end of the week. I have no idea how long I will be able to maintain the level of output I've had on this project so far, but as long as I'm excited about painting I'm going to keep at it!

The Shade of Angmar

One of the cool things about the Angmar army list is the ability to include Shades, Barrow Wights, and Spectres. I plan to paint some of all three of the undead minions of the Witch-king, but kicking off first is an evil Shade...

This is one of my favorite models from the LotR range. It was actually a lot harder to paint than I anticipated. I'm not sure my photos captured all of the tones in the model, but there are purples, blues, grays and white and used more blending than I normally bother with. Any way, it was fun and offered a change of pace from the orcs and wargs.

I really need to get back on my Arnor army because they are growing hopelessly outnumbered rather quickly, but the bad guys are just so much fun! I'm up to 428 points and can quickly be at 500 with the addition of a few Spectres for the Shade to lead. Again, I'm not really painting to a set limit or army list at the moment, but it's still fun to keep track of...

Fellowship Friday - Frodo Baggins

I painted the Fellowship way back when they first came out, but I never really bothered to take good photos of them. Since I've gotten back into the LotR Strategy Battle Game, I thought I'd post them... one per week, every Friday (way to milk it, Harrison).

I'm going to post roughly in the order the characters are introduced, lumping the hobbits in together...

Warg Chieftain - Part Two

Done and Dusted!

Even though I didn't like the older versions of the Warg models, I did like their color scheme so I opted to mimic it for my pack. I am very pleased with how this turned out. It is hard to tell it is a conversion (and that's the goal)! I'm going to start on the pack next and they will be painted in a similar manner, though their manes will be a bit darker to make sure there is no mistaking the big dog. I probably won't post more pics until the mob is finished, but I have other LotR minis on the table as well so some of those should be up in a few days.

Warg Chieftain - Part One

Over at The One Ring I'm taking part in the February Hobby Challenge and I'm going to paint up a Warg Chieftain and four Wild Wargs. However, I HATE the old plastic LotR Wild Wargs - only two poses and I just don't like the style. The old metal models with riders look better, but sadly they were ONLY produced with riders so no joy there. I'm going to build my unit from the Hobbit Fell Wargs. The plastic kit comes with six different poses and separate heads means much more variation. I also like the style of the monsters better.

Now this brought another small dilemma. I wanted to have a Warg Chieftain to lead the pack, but the official GW model is of the 'breed' I'm not fond of. If the original plastic set had the variations of the later I might suffer through because I DO like the Warg Chieftain. This required me to convert a Warg Chieftain from the Fell Warg kit to match the rest of the models. Certainly I could have just painted the model different enough to stand out, but where's the fun in that? Besides the chance to add a unique character model to your army is always worth the effort!

Diving into the kit, I didn't immediately see a simple solution. I wanted to mount the model in a similar pose to the GW version, climbing up onto some rocks. Not only would this be dramatic, but it would raise the leader above the rest of the pack. None of the models really fit the bill so it was time to start tinkering. I cat all of the parts away from the sprue and begin to try different pieces on a base with some loose stones. After a while I came up with the perfect solution.

One of the models springing forward had a separate right paw. I realized by cutting a small notch in the rear leg I could increase the height of the pose. I needed another front paw that looked to bearing weight...

This running model had the perfect limb which I amputated and then carefully carved away the rear paw which was touching the front leg.

It took some further fiddling and sorting through my pile of stones to find the most natural fit, but finally I have ended up with this...

All I needed was a minimal amount of greenstuff and I can see some more work needs to be done with a file, but I think this worked out great and I can't wait to paint it! Finished shots in a couple of days...

More Orcs!

Did I mention painting orcs is fun?

Now that the rank and file are out of the way (though I do have enough metal models to build a third warband), I'm going to paint up some of the stranger creatures haunting the north...

I'm not working from points lists or what might be best in the game. My collection includes...

Angmar

The Witch-king, mounted and on foot

Dimmerlaik, mounted and on foot

The Tainted, mounted and on foot

Gulavhar

Orc Captain and 12 Orc Warriors (PAINTED)

Orc Captain and 12 Orc Warriors (PAINTED)

Orc Captain and 12 Orc Warriors

Buhrdur and 2 Cave Trolls

Shade and 8 Spectres (models from the Army of the Dead)

6 Barrow Wights (wouldn't use all of these in one game, but might paint them all)

Isengard Allies (will actually be Evil Men of Angmar and Rhudaur)

Thrydan Wolfsbane (probably change his name) and 10 Warriors of Dunland

Dunlending Captain and 10 Wildmen of Dunland

Dunlending Captain and 10 WIldmen of Dunland

Moria Allies

Warg Chieftain and 10 Wild Wargs

Bat Swarm

I have lots of other stuff like Uruk-hai (both Isengard and Mordor versions), more Nazgul including one mounted on a fell beast, lots of goblins, etc. but the models above are the ones I want to paint specifically for Angmar. One of the cool things about the evil armies in LotR is that many of the models work for Angmar, Isengard, and Mordor and can be themed for any of these with the right additions.

Muzug Murderkin

Another orc hero for my Angmar LotR army...

Possibly not a very Tolkienesque last name, but I like it...