Elves and Horses

This post is brought to you by One Ring's monthly painting challenge. It did indeed challenge me a bit to come up with something new. Especially since I saw some great entries there.
Kudos guys your minis are top notch. Also due to a fact that I had Arwen (mtd) waiting for her brush time I wanted to make her special. I decided to leave standard purple scheme I used with foot version a while ago. So I asked myself  "What's my second favourite GW colour?".

  

Dark Angels Green was the anwser. So I build the scheme around that. Also I wanted the mount to be some kind of unique , hence the idea of dots. I think it presents istself rather good though there's always room for improvments. Only thing I'm not totaly found of is the sword. I've choosen to  go with metallics this time, it'll be great but I think I rushed it a bit due to approaching deadline forentries in challenge :D Maybe I'll change it someday :)




Now it's the time to wait and see. I hope it will do good in poll.

For music corner I picked piece that I accidentally found a week ago and been listening to it ever since (yep 7 days...). It's magical :)

 

Scavenger

Here's the last WM mini I painted a while ago but haven't had time to show it here yet. It's another character jack called Scavenger. Nice model that has all that I like about WM models - exaggerated features so characteristic for the tongue-in-cheek approach to sculpting that the guys from Privateer Press have.







I placed this one on a much taller base. I thought it would suit this one and add to the slightly comical effect of thin-legged robot with torn wings. I also paid more attention to the bone parts, using two different colors for its jaws and teeth, trying to make them look ancient. I also worked a little more with washes and glazes on the metallic parts. I finished the mini off with more colorful types of flock that will keep this one in the theme I chose for the army.






As for the choice of music, there's only one song that comes to my mind:

Forest Rangers

I put some of the Gondor heroes on the new forest bases. I needed to slightly alter them so that these guys fit better but overall I'm really pleased with the effect.

They look more dynamic and will definitely pop out among the rest of rangers.
I put some of the LotR heroes on the forest-themed bas Here's a quick pic to show them next to regular rangers. I used pieces from old LotR ruin set (not sure if it's still available. I plan on adding more static grass and different types of forest flock to make it look as it they were scouting in the forest among some old ruins.
I also finally had a chance to use GW tools from the new Cleanup kit. I really like the mouldline scraping tool. It's got blunt edges and removes the mold lines easily both from plastic and metal models. The fact that it's blunt is a big advantage as I cannot even recall how many times I've managed to cut myself while working with Citadel hobby knife. The handle is made of rubber so it's comfortable to hold too. The other one, a flash brush, is something that I still have to find good use for. So far it seems like a really unnecessary tool. I've also tried the Liquid GS and it seems very promising but I'll write more once I've worked with it a bit more.

Forest bases and a dead troll

I've recently bought a few 25 mm round forest bases produced by Micro Art Studio. |I've worked with their products before but never mentioned them on the blog. I thought I'd take this opportunity and write a few words. First of all, the quality is amazing. I've used many other resin bases and in each case I had to deal with numerous bubbles (the ones that are left in a resin base/model after casting) that needed to be removed. Here there are just a few tiny ones, as you can see in the picture below.



Apart from the quality of cast, the level of detail is amazing. The texture of these trunks looks really great and the shape of each one is different. I plan to use them for Gondor characters (such as Faramir, Arathorn, etc.) so you can expect an update soon.
I bought mine at maelstromgames but if anyone's interested in MAS's products, you can check out their website. And to finish this post off, here's an example of a MAS base that I painted a while ago. The scales on the back were sculpted (not by myself, I bought this one slightly converted) and the snow flock was added after painting.
With long weekend ahead (four days off in total) I plan to do some painting and catch up with blog backlog so you can expect a new post tomorrow. For now that's all and I'll leave you with a nice song.

Dwarves again

Here are a few pics of LotR dwarves I painted a while ago that haven't been posted yet. First off, Gimli - version in cloak. Very nice mini with lots of details. His face is particularly well sculpted which is an achievement given the scale. I followed the classic red color scheme. I also wanted the cloak to look worn and dirty and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The axe looks bad in the pics but I worked on it later on to smooth out the highlights. Of course, I forgot to take the pics.


And here's another one - dwarven captain. I really like the "come get some" pose of this model. I positioned it differently that it normally is as I thought it gives him more dynamism. I use Andrea red set so often that it's hard for me to imagine working with this color using different paints now.






And finally, a quick shot of the Iron Guard. The pic is really bad as the lighting was very uneven but it gives a very general idea of how they look like. Maybe I'll have better pictures in the future ;)

SM Terminators Painting Day 1: Armor

I've started as usual with main parts of mini , which in this case is armor. Only difference is that this time I decided to use airbrush to do whole thing. I must say that I'm really pleased with the effect. Of course there are some parts that are in need of remaking and I think that I should take now some dark colours like Regal Blue to emphasis shades even more but in the end...4-5 h of painting instead of two weeks.
Who wouldn't like that deal, plus transitions are far smoother than any I could create with standard brush. Now to finishing touches on armor like creating shades on plates and in deepest parts which couldn't be done with airbrush. I must say that it would be shame to damage those pieces with scratches and rust but all in all that's what's supposed to be done to them so It's not my call :) I'm sure that they will look amazing. Also I must decide which parts will be repainted as metal plates, I think I'll choose them randomly for each model to add some more personal feel to it. Also squad and individual numbers will be given to each one to customise them even more (as usual). In the end it has been very, very productive day. I leave the results up to your judgment. As always any comments and critisism is deeply apprecieted.    

And for music corner (yep our little tradition), music piece by Kaisers Orchestra , very dark and full of climax, and with history that's really adequate. I'm posting live version since it's a lot better plus mentioned background of that composition is explained. I think it suits Terminators theme very well.

Elven Royalty

Yes, you're right if you think that title of this post is a reference to Viruk's earlier Dwarven Royalty. On my part I was working on set of heroes containing mainly of elven heroes such as Rumil, Gil-Galad, Gildor and Stormcaller (Elrond and Cirdan still in progress ;) ). These are made similar to codex painting as you may see. Only unsual thing is look of "Aiglos" i.e Gil-Galad's spear. Friend asked me to fix it with part he supported so no decision on my part here, just plain old "do what you're told to". Definitely it looks...different :D

Stay tuned for more updates involving mentioned heroes and some wolf-releted hero (feel free to guess who ;) ) 

To top that some lovely music that accompanied me for duration of work on this set.