Osgiliath Veterans

I haven'r been very meticulous in updating the blog this year and I still have several pictures of minis painted since January but never published. I will try to catch up with that in the nearest weeks. Anyway, I just wanted to write about my most recently painted miniatures - three Osgiliath Veterans and Beregond.
I started by undercoating using Platemail Metal spray from Army Painter.



I've been using sprays and varnishes from Army Painter for a while now and I'm a big fan. When I learnt that there's a silver one as well I immediately ordered one as I thought it would be a perfect solution while working on Gondor miniatures that are heavily armored.
After spraying the models and waiting for them to dry, I applied a wash of Badab Black to help me define the details. As you can see, I used bases that had been prepared earlier for these ones.



Painting on this undercoat worked pretty well although I'm not sure I saved as much time as I had thought I would. I needed to repaint the tunics, skin, gloves, boots, bows, etc. with a different undercoat before working on them and it took a while. Anyway, I'm satisfied with the painting experience and plan to continue working on the rest of Gondor troops in the same way.



I used dark color scheme on the veterans and added some rust and dirt to their armors. I went for a slightly brighter look while working on Beregond to make sure the veterans will stand out as a unit among other similarly painted WoMT.
I will try to update the blog at least more than once next week so stay tuned for more.

Iron Painter - onto round 2!

The results are in and my piece got through to the second round. I got 72 points from the judges, which meant I had the third result overall (there were 96 in total). It doesn't really mean much at this point as all of those who got to round 2 were paired up randomly. I'm facing a guy who won the whole thing two editions ago and is definitely an excellent painter so it's going to be an interesting and very competitive match up. You can see my entry in the pics below:



For some reason blogger always decreases the size of pics when I upload them so you can see a bigger one in the competition gallery. And a quick comment from me. It seemed to me that the theme for this round indicated the use of engines, vehicles, robots and other type of heavy machinery. I decided to go for something a bit more subtle.
I created a small diorama that shows Gepetto and his creation - Pinocchio. The creation seems a tad unwilling to start but the Cricket has an idea how to help it get its engine started...
I used a steampunk convention for the piece. First of all, I thought that it would be a good idea to tie my entry to the theme in this way. Secondly, in truth these models left me no other choice. I had to alter the models slightly as in the original version Pinochio had a much more dynamic pose and carries a big gun. I also added steam to the exhaust pipe on Gepetto's arm. After that it was just a matter of preparing the base and adding more details.
The theme for round is "The Next Step". It gives plenty of possibilities for interpretation and I have a crazy idea for my entry. It will involve ridiculous amount of work but if I manage to find enough time, it should be a nice one.