Hobbit WIP #5 first batch of gobbos done!

I've finally finished the first batch of Hobbit goblins. Took me much longer than I had anticipated. Not only due to the fact that I've been pretty busy in the last two weeks. At first I thought  that getting them look right would be just a matter of a few highlights and I quickly learned how wrong I was.

I ended up going from light shades to dark washes back and forth several times before I found a method that I thought gave the effect I was after.

I wanted to make them look as dynamic as possible. In the movie those little buggers seemed to appear out of nowhere and fill all the space in the underground town with their activity. That's why I chose taller rocky bases that incorporate fragments of wooden platforms. Kudos to my friends from work, especially to Patrycja, a psychologist (note please -  not my psychologist ;) who supplied me with wine corks on a regular basis :)

After dealing with the gobbos I started working on the throne. I had initially painted the sculpted part using much colder grey shade but repainted it to go with the brownish scheme better. I think it worked out not too bad in the end.

And since no throne can stay empty too long, I had to paint the big ugly himself. He's magnetized so that he can be used on a normal base as well (see the pics below). Working on this fat bloke was a bit of a challenge as there are so many large flat surfaces on his skin that I really needed to give it a lot of attention to make sure it looked realistic and not too dull.

And the king on a regular base.

I had a lot of fun working on these. The sculpts are really great, very dynamic and full of character. I'm going to work on Thorin's company next so expect an update soon. But before that I'll leave you with a gong. Not a song that matches the content in any way but it's a cool one anyway so enjoy ;)

Hobbit WIP #4 All your bases are belong to us!

The bases are more or less done (the throne included - I haven't noticed that red spot and now it's fixed). The bases took forever to finish. I primed everything white which meant that I needed to put 2-3 layers of dark brown on the wooden platforms to get a solid basecoat before I could begin highlighting it. Lesson learnt, next time I'll use either grey of brown basecoat.

I've started working on the skin. It's still a fairly early stage as it will be both darkened in the recesses and some highlights will be added.

Dark Debts Done

I've finished the last of the Illuminated. I was struggling with taking a decent pic on the dark background I normally use so I switched to a blue one. I think the pics look better now but I'm not very happy with them...

While working on her I also pushed on with painting the rest of the crew and finished Jakob and Hungering Darkness.

I've written that before but have to repeat here again - I'm not a fan of the HD model. It seems somehow too soft to me and not menacing and evil at all. I realize that it's supposed to be an ancient entity that doesn't really have a specific shape but still I would like to see more texture on this model. Perhaps something similar to the manifestation of brilliance coming out of the back of one of the Illuminated.

I was considering adding some gore to its mouth but after thinking it over decided not to as I thought I might be overdoing things.
Jakob on the other hand was a fun model to paint. The miniature is extremely well sculpted and while the surface of his tailcoat and pants is a tad flat, his butler more than makes up for it.

Oh yes, they all glow in the dark

My Malifaux painting backlog is beginning to look better as I've now painted 5 minis this year but... I bought three Illuminated so I'm almost back to square one.

Hobbit WIP #3

A little more progress on the first batch of goblins.

Hobbit WIP #2

My winter holidays are almost over so now that I'm at home I've made some progress on the Hobbit goblins. I've prepared bases for half of the ugly ones from the box. The other half will be based on lower terrain so that there will basically be two different height rows of goblins on each tray.

I've also finished the display base for Goblin King. I used the throne from the box and placed it on a cavalry tray. Then I went over the recesses with plenty of GS and he's ready for priming.

Hobbit WIP #1

I've started my winter holidays so before packing my things and going for a well deserved holiday I'd started working on the Hobbit stuff.

First off, something big, fat and ugly. The commissioner suggested using the throne for this one and I couldn't wrap my head around it. It seemed too small to fit the Great Goblin in. Here's the first mock-up version of the idea I had.

My little helpers keep vigil, as always

In order to make it work I needed to prepare more "stones". Fortunately, I have a big supply of wine corks. My friends and colleagues at work know that I use them for hobby and every now and then bring me a handful :) I also used a part of wooden floor to extend the surface a little further so that the Big Ugly could stand on it comfortably. As you can see, there's a hole in the middle and below it there's a bucket full of... crap. Which leads me to a conclusion that the Great goblin was the first of the race to actually multitask as he was sitting, thinking, and... I think I'll cover the hole with some more wood as it doesn't really serve any special purpose for the display.

Having done that, I magnetized the King so that he could be placed either on his throne or on a regular base. That way he could be part of a display piece as well as a legit miniature for gaming.

I also started working on the other goblins. The one in the pic below is, as far as I remember, a captain. He is very small and looks very mean so I thought I'd put him on a fancy base. Below is what I created using bits from the Hobbit box.

I also used similar types of bases for Thorin's company. I think they add a lot of dynamism to the minis and the way they're arranged makes it almost look like some kind of a diorama. I plan to smooth the edges of the hole in Bilbo's base and add some water effect inside once it's painted.

There's still plenty of GS that needs to be used to fill in the recesses and I will also add gravel and sand to their bases. Then I'll have my hands full of goblins. But that will have to wait as I'm leaving for a week tomorrow. Until then, keep the paint flowin'!

The Illuminated WIP

I'm currently focusing mainly on the Hobbit stuff but I try to work on some of my Malifaux backlog in the meanwhile. I started working on the last of my Illuminated and while painting her I noticed that the gaps at the sides of her dress are clearly noticeable after some highlights. I thoughts I'd got rid of them but turns out that only black undercoat isn't that good for showing things like these.

Lesson learnt. I had to go over these with GS one more time.

I wasn't sure about the choices of colors for her dress and hair and started considering other options. In the end I chose a bleached purple for the dress. The pic is bad as I took it in artificial light but I'll take a better one once it's finished.

Painting her face was tricky with the tentacles glued in and I knew that I basically had one shot at getting the eyes right. I think I've managed to do that.

I also started working on the evil tadpole. Not sure where I'm going with it but at least it's some start...