From The Painting Table #16

Another showcase of my latest eclectic selection of painted minis for today.  December was inevitably a busy month and I really didn't achieve much on the painting front at all, but what I did manage to do somehow was play a lot of Warhammer Quest....

Which leads me nicely to this chap, who is of course a classic citadel Chaos Warrior who has had a repaint and a dedicated Warhammer Quest style base rather than my normal green flock.  The party also contains a pit fighter, a wizard and a warrior priest.  Both the pit fighter and wizard have dedicated Warhammer Quest minis already so expect to see a warrior priest in the near future.

Next we have some additions to my Darkest Africa collection courtesy of Foundry, on the top a couple of British NCO's from their Boer War range and on the bottom an explorer both on and off a donkey.

 

Staying with Foundry somewhat randomly we have here two ancient Greek Hoplites, why? I really don't know except that I fancied painting them.

 

The last Hobbit movie was an enjoyable movie if admittedly not a masterpiece like the Lord of the Rings movies were, and it gave me the urge to paint a few more middle earth bits starting with this Tauriel.  I was quite pleased with the result until I photographed it and now the hair is looking way to bright so I will have to try and tone it down a bit somehow.

 



Not going far from Tauriel at all we have these wood elf archers from GW Lord of the Rings range, but who would of course happily work fighting along side Tauriel and Legolas in a Hobbit game.

Now to the first finished minis from my second wave Deadzone kickstarter package.  I started with a few Enforcers, which for some reason I really enjoy painting, from left to right we have an enforcer captain, Sgt Howlett and an enforcer with fusion gun.

 

Finally we have these two plague corrupted enforcers.  I've a veritable mountain of Deadzone stuff still to paint and of course I am eagerly awaiting the imminent arrival of wave 3.

From The Painting Table #13

I've had two quiet months in a row now on the blog, and although it wasn't planned I often find gaming and painting takes a back seat in the summer as my life fills up with other things.  This time the main culprit is the fact that I bought a second hand Xbox 360 which came with Skyrim, and I've got a little bit addicted to it, couple this with holidays, family stuff and a new role at work and I've found it difficult to find much spare time.  All this aside I have painted a few bits over the last month or so...

First up we have this addition to the Eldar army for 40K, a squad of wraithblades, great models, not so sure about the rules, a mere one attack seems to limit their potential.  I tried a bit of an experiment with the energy shields and gave them a coat of gloss varnish , I think it works.

This is a bit of a random LOTR figure I dug out from the pile, mainly because I wanted a Legolas for my Hobbit collection, but didn't want to pay the price of the new one, this one does the job nicely.

Next we have one of the new dwarf Gyrobombers for my warhammer fantasy dwarf army.  It's not a bad piece at all but I was a bit disappointed when the new Dwarf book came out that the dwarves didn't get one of the really big impressive kits that absolutely every other release seems to come with at the moment, where's my dirigible GW?  having had that little moan overall I'm pleased with the new book, nothing radically changed, but lots of little tweaks that make the army that little bit more competitive and also fun to play with.

This is what I really want!

The Gyrobomber was a pain to paint with lots of intertwining runic decoration, and another big thing for me was that this was the first time I'd seem a new style GW flying base with round attacher.  You wouldn't believe how happy I was when I first saw this piece of plastic tumble out of the box!

The joy this piece of plastic bought me is indescribable

Finally we have the last two mercenaries that came with my first deadzone package, the forge father woman Freya and the psychotic Judwan assassin Wrath.  They're probably the worst models out of the set, which is why I left them till last.  The second package from the deadzone kickstarter is due soon and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Heroes of Middle-Earth: Beorn & Elendil

Just a quick post today to show a couple of middle-earth models I've just finished.

First is the Brand new Beorn model from the new The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug range.  A giant of a man, he towers over the other races in the range.  Unfortunately He's made out of finecast, and had several bubbles I had to fill in, I hope they ditch finecast soon, it really isn't a good material.

 

Secondly we have this old Elendil model I dug out of the pile.

Treebeard Some Call Me......

The release of the extended DVD version of the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey a couple of weeks ago has inspired me to paint a few models off my pile of Lord of the rings figures, the star of which is the mighty ent treebeard, but I've painted a few smaller characters as well.

The DVD was worth waiting for rather than getting the standard edition earlier in the year.  The extra scenes themselves are OK, but I can see why they got cut from the theatrical release.  The extra features are however fantastic and I've sat through and enjoyed around 8 hours worth of the documentaries plus the full length directors commentary.  I'll defiantly be getting the extended versions of the other films.

The first miniature releases for the desolation of Smaug are out now as well, the elf rangers look fantastic and I'm planning on getting some at some point (although not straight away as I have all those deadzone models to paint).

 

Treebeard

 

 

 

The sons of Elrond, Elladan & Elrohir.

 

Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth, a high elf spearman and Grima Wormtongue.

 

Gorbag & Shagrat.

The Hobbit: Kili, Fili, Goblins & Elves

More from middle-earth today starting off with the dwarf brothers Fili and Kili.  The fili model is a bit flat, but kili is excellent.

Next we have the last of the goblins from the goblin town boxed set, they've been suprisingly fun to paint.

And finally a few elves, a metal Gil-Galad and 4 plastic wood elves.  Origanally I painted gil-galad with the dark hair that is normally painted on this model, but it didn't work so I've switched it to blonde.

First Hobbit Miniatures & Some More Uruks

Some more painted figures for middle earth today, stating with the Hobbit himself Mr Bilbo Baggins;  A really nice little model (and I do mean little) he come with the option of carrying either sting or his walking stick, I think he looks better with the stick so thats what I've gone with.  Below is also the first piece of the goblin town scenary, just sprayed brown and then given a brown wash, it's come out rather well I think for little effort.

Next we have 10 of the goblins from the Hobbit starter set, all single piece models, but nicely detailed.  I still find it a bit odd they're very different from the Lord of the Rings goblins though.

And finally 6 metal Uruk-hai models including Lurtz, a captain, an archer and 3 berserkers, some formidable additions to my Isengard force.

LOTR - The Fighting Uruk-Hai

As part of my return to middle earth for the last week or so I've been working on these Uruks that I had in my pile.  I really rather like them and they painted up very quickly and I now have a real force. It also means I now actually have someone for all my good heroes to fight!

And below we have the whole group which has been joined by their master Saruman.

LOTR Moria Goblins

A few more Lord of the Rings figures today, this time a sprue of moria goblins, which I got a pile of a long time ago, and these are the first ones I've actually got around to painting.

One question I had with these was how to base them, I nearly decided to base them all rocky and cave-like, but in the end all the models they are going to fight have grassy bases so these do too.

I've given in and ordered the Hobbit - escape from goblin town, and am actually really quite excited about it, expect to see lots more from middle earth in the near future.

More LOTR, Theoden, Gamling & Bilbo Baggins

I enjoyed painted Balin so much the other day I've had another rumage through my mountain of unpainted figs and have dug out a few more, this time three heroes for the forces of good.  For a quick one afternoon paint these guys have come out remarkably well and I admit that I'm rather pleased with them.

On another (but related) note the first pictures of the new Hobbit range have appeared today, and they're looking rather spiffy.  I know it's going to be very hard for me too resist getting the main boxed set at least, but the final decision will be made at the weekend when the prices are annouced.

Angels of Death & Balin

It's been a horrible rainy day in Bedfordshire today which meant I couldn't get out and do what I was meant to be doing, on the plus side it's been a constructive day on the painting side as a consequence.

First off we have these 'Angels of Death' which will count as Vanguard veterans for my space marine army.  They are of course basically blood angel sanguinary guard, but In a different paint scheme.  I've been promising myself a unit of these ever since they came out, really fantastic models, especially the death masks, but all of it to be honest.  A real design triumph in my book and I'm not going to let something as silly as them being the wrong chapter of marines stop me adding them to my army.

Secondly we have this Balin model for Lord of the Rings.  I've been rereading the Hobbit over the last few days and it gave me the hankering to paint a few lord of the rings figs again.  I had a rumage around and came up with the Balin figure, which is appropriate as of course he appears more in the Hobbit anyway.  I'm really looking forward to the new movie now and hope GW come up with a good value boxed game for me too buy.