Monday 18 July 2011

Master of Puppets

I've been into the hobby for a while now but I've never had a chance to paint this model (calling it a "mini" somehow doesn't seem appropriate). It's one of the first from the Lotr range to be released by GW and by far one of the best, at least in my humble opinion.
At first glance it might seem like an easy model to paint, just a simple drybrush on the armor, some highlights on the cloak and it's ready. Well, it's not really that simple. Even though the way the armor is sculpted makes painting it and choosing where to place highlights much easier, there's still some more work involved.
I started by covering the whole armor surface with a layer of Scorched Metal from Reaper range. It's pretty similar to GW's Tin Bitz, only the consistency is better as it's not so think so it was my best choice for a base color. I began working up the highlights from there with silver paints. Boltgun metal was followed by Chainmail. This caused the contrast to stand pretty strong so I decided to start doing some washes. Ogryn Flesh and Boltgun metal were the first, followed by one more highlight, this time of Mithril silver but limiting it only to the most protruding elements of the armor.
After that I started with glazes. The main difference between a wash and a glaze is that the former is used to cover a larger surface and is usually applied more generously, while the latter almost always consists of very heavily watered down paint/wash. I really like using glazes as they're great for adding more definition to the metal surfaces. Glazes work best when applied in at least several layers.
I realize that the pictures don't show this well but the armor was given a few gryphonne sepia glazes, while the chainmail received some asurmen blue glazes. I also used glazes of baal red and leviathan purple on the mace.
I also tried to make the ring somehow stand out so I chose to add a touch pf red and yellow to it. Painting it silver or gold would also work but it would be next to impossible to notice that it's there. Here it's probably only visible in the last picture as the angle is right.
The cloak was painted with (surprise, surprise!) Andrea Black set which has become indispensable for me while working with Mordor miniatures.
Elendil (the dead one) and Isildur (the one with raised broken sword) were also fun to work with. I used much more varied colors here (brighter shades of silver and gold to begin with), while still keeping them toned down.
In the end I put everything into a themed cavalry movement tray.
Hope you like the final effect. Now I have six Nazgul to paint and I'm going to start with the Dark Marshal. And that about wraps up this blog entry.
Cheers,
Viruk

6 comments:

  1. Great work and a great song. Nice one.

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  2. Great work. How did you make the square display base to fit the two models into?

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  3. Actually, it's simply a cavalry movement tray - they can be bought in a set of three. Then it's just a matter of finishing them up like a regular base.

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  4. Ah! Excellent, great idea. Thanks for the info.

    I have to agree, it's one of my favourite sets from Lotr as well, and this is one of the best versions I've seen.

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  5. Hell yeah! Sauron would be pleased of this job.

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  6. Missed this one...WOW! Holy WOW!! :)

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