Middle Earth SBG

Middle Earth SBG – The White Council Gathers in Full!

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The wisest and most powerful of Middle Earth finally come together, ready to battle whatever evil they must!

A final wee push added the last three members to the council, completing the force.

I’ve painted many a Gandalf over the years, but surprisingly never on a horse. I’m happy with how he turned out overall, but wish I’d gone a bit grayer on the cloak as it feels much bluer than it should.

Glamdring was a delight! Every time I paint a Gandalf I always enjoy the sword. I tried to push my NMM on this one and I’m really happy with the result.

The final elf and Lord of the West! I found this a challenge because of the material. Finecast has a lot of problems that I won’t get onto, I will say I’ll avoid working with it if I can.

I decided to play with the colour scheme a little, as most of the force has a darker feel to them. I decided on black and gold for the armour, kind of mix of the elf’s I’d already done, and the red lent itself well accenting that.

The final member and the most recent release, Saruman the White!

A beauty of a sculpt, so much so I had to replace the foot model I’d prepared for the plastic one. The detail disparity between the old foot model and the plastic rider was too great.

He did turn out a bit more cream/bone coloured than white, I was happy with the result. It keeps him in tone with the sombre tone of the rest, and he doesn’t overshadow the brightness of Galadriel.

Take a look at some photos of them all together…

Middle Earth SBG – Radagast Arrives to Aid the White Council!

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The first of the Istari and definitely the..well…least renowned (unless we’re counting blues), but he does have some massive tricks up his sleeve. Not only an epic sleigh, pulled by Rhosgobel rabbits no less, but also one of the legendary great eagles.

It was a daunting task but the variety of models and base sizes meant some interesting opportunities.

The bases alone where an enjoyable, if sticky, affair. I wanted to continue the Dol Guldur theme, my White Council battling the forces of the Necromancer through the ruins. For the on foot model this meant a fairly simple stepped base, Radagast leaping into the fray, but for the sleigh and eagle I could get a bit more creative.

The sleigh already had a fantastic leaping pose, so rolling with that I created a chasm for them to leap over. This was achieved by positioning the model with blue tac and pencilling in the contact points, as well as a channel for the chasm. Then when I started building the base I could build around these guidelines.

I was free to create anything for the eagles base, just needing a contact point for the flight stand itself. I tried to create something more indicative of Dol Guldur than I had before. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if I pulled it off or not.

Overall I had a blast painting these. The variety of creatures was fun to tackle. I was going to complain about the amount of brown, but that’s definitely something I was forewarned about.

Take a look at the White Council so far…

That just leaves me with 3 members left; Gandalf, Elrond and Saruman. I’m still not sure which one takes my fancy the most.

Middle Earth SBG – Elves of the White Council

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The time has finally come for paint to meet elf!

These have been awaiting paint for a while and, like the Inhumans, I found my inspiration and got stuck in!

Galadriel leads the White Council so I felt she was a suitable place to start the painting. It’s also a fairly simple sculpt and felt really small after some of the other miniatures I’ve done recently.

I’m theming the models around Dol Guldur, so I wanted to push the creepy feel on the bases but also on Galadriel herself. This is why I chose the colours for the robes, White to off green.

Celeborn felt like a natural follow on. I chose the colours to link him to Lothlorien, golden armour, and to Galadriel, the robes. I also added some floating leaves to both bases using thin wire and miniature leaves. I hope it comes across as the leaves in the wind I was trying to portray.

Last but definitely not least is Glorfindal. I wanted to keep up the spooky theme and keep this chap fairly sombre. He has died before after all. It’s a fairly monotone mini, with only the sword and the hair to really add some colour, but not a lot of warmth.

I’m really pleased with the end result, especially with the way it helps the blade stand out.

The last of the elves or the first of the wizards? Still not sure what I’ll work on next…

Middle Earth SBG – Heroes of Rohan

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A commission I was working on last year for a host of characters, beginning with some of Rohans finest.

First up is the new Eowyn & Merry set. Games Workshop is knocking it out the park with thier plastic characters and these are no exception. The detail and dynamism is phenomenal.

Deorwine and Elfhelm are again some phenomenal models. Elfhelm in particular has a fantastic pose, the momentum carried through him and his horse, with the throw poised to release. Really one of my alltime favourite models.

Finally we have the bearer of the royal standard, Gamling. This is an old school metal miniature and it does show. Whilst i enjoyed this figure for the most part the banner was hell. It’s really hard to paint patterns in such a wavy area and sometimes the texture of the metal can be a little funny. I just hope that it still looks suitably impressive.

Next up is a wee bit more Rohan and a fair chunk of Mordor…

Middle Earth SBG – Iron Hills Dwarf Army Commission

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I’ve been working on and off on these guys for a while now and it was finally time to pull everything together and add the final touches.

I’m happy with the result, especially the purple and the bases, a great way to tie everything together, that was requested by the client.

If you’re looking to get you’re army painted, pop me an email at deathwatchstudios@gmail.com

A Month in Pictures – April 2019

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Another month of many a model, this time mainly Lord of the Rings. Nearly painted the entire Pellanor Fields box, it’s just the Troll and characters to go.

I also snuck in a couple of Van Saar additions, something of which I’m looking to do a lot more of in May.

It was all finished off with some lovely minis from Knight Models for this months Tabletop Gaming Guide.

This gives me a great total for the month, almost doubling the year so far!

Models Painted: 72

Model Total: 147

Middle Earth SBG – Pellanor Fields Painting in Progress

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This month I’ve been furioursly painting away at the Lord of the Rings: Battle ofthe Pellanor Fields box set, and I’vejust about finished 80 or so of them…

The Morannon orcs and Army of the Dead are complete and the Rohan forces only have a little more work to be done on them.

I’m pleasantly surprised by what are some fairly old sculpts. The Rohan in particular are fairly simple, but are still very characterful.

A Month in Pictures – March 2019

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55 models this month! Trippling the total so far.

I’ve been in deep with the painting this month working on a lot of commissions but also finding the time for a few of my own wee projects along the way. It’s also a month were I have tackled a variety of ranges, Harry Potter from Knight Models, Guild Ball from Steamforged, a Beholder from Wizkids and Necromunda as well as Lord of the Rings from Games Workshop.

This gives me a stiff target for next month, but I do have a job coming up that will help tremendously.

Models Painted: 55

Model Total: 75

A Month in Pictures – February 2019

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On through another month and this time my painting total is looking a little healthier, but has a major difference between any of the months previous. It’s mostly terrain. My main work was the Mantic terrain crate and this one is difficult to stack onto my model count, so I’ll be starting a new scenery count as well.

Models Painted: 14

Scenery Painted: 65

Model total: 20

Scenery Total: 65

Middle Earth SBG – The White Council; Now With Extra Wildlife!

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Over the last couple of weeks my focus has shifted from Azog’s Legion over to my good force, the White Council. It’s primarily the realisation of what can be done with mounts, not just horses but some of the other fantastic beasts(oops, wrong franchise) certain members of the White Council have access to, but for now we’ll start with the horses…

The first to receive an upgrade are the Gandalf and Elrond, which are also replacing the 2 I had already painted. Back to square one on that then. Both beautiful sculpts, other than the usual finecast troubles. You’ll also see my Glorfindal on Asfaloth conversion, just a simple head and weapon swap but it does the job. I will be adding a couple more details with greenstuff, to add a bit more character. Now all I need to find is a mounted Saruman.

Next up is a certain brown wizard who, due to his affinity with nature and all her beasts, can access some pretty cool options…

His sleigh, which was a lot of fun to build the base for/not a lot of fun to build, and a great eagle from the Misty Mountains. Radagast on eagle does come with a resin version but as you’ll see from the images below it’s not the best kit, so I opted to stick him on one of the plastic versions, which incedentally turned out to be the same sculpt.

I’m really excited to use Radagast and each option he has, as they each add thier own unique flavour to how you use the wizard.

Finally we have an ally coming to the aid of the White Council and his friend Radagast, Beorn and a great eagle…

Part of a bundle I was so happy to find, Beorn wasn’t a planned addition to the force but can easily join them with an allies of White Council and Radagast’s Alliance. They may lose thier army bonuses but I think it’s worth it to have a giant were-bear-man coming along for the party. This is another I’ll be addign some greenstuff to, whilst the bear form looks a lot better in the flesh I’d like to bulk him out a bit more and add a bit more detailing to the fur.

Not much left to do but fill some gaps before I can finally get a lick of paint on these guys!