#MESBG Middle Earth 3 Hunters and Fellowship - TO DONE!

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Middle Earth Strategy Battle Games 3 Hunters and Fellowship and I am super stoked having finished these. In particular I had no intention of attempting eyes on these. I just thought it was a complete lost cause. But I donned my magnifying glasses and did them all [except Gandalf, his brim cast too much shadow already].

I made the decision to add some flock to the 3 Hunters, alongside some of my tufts I found.

I think it adds so much, I'm really glad I did it. Overall they're still quite dark. I'm not sure why but I think I associate a lot more green with their colour scheme. But I kept referring to pictures and and dark greys, black and brown were much more common than green.

The cloaks are probably a bit too dark for their Elven cloaks but it makes them consistent with the hobbits too.

Legolas's orange fletching on the arrows might be controversial but Google it and I assure you they have something of an amber hue. It has a nice little link up with Gimli's beard too 😉

Such a great pose. I'm not sure about his eyes and teeth, but the stubble worked pretty well for an accident. It would have been nice to have him coming off a small mound of slate for height though.

Gimli too could have looked more impressive raised up a bit. His eyes are possibly the best executed though, even if it does look like he's got eyeliner. Meanwhile Legolas has some strange mark on his cheek I've failed to clean up. But I'm chuffed with putting the effort in to string his bow, even if it was ridiculously fiddly.

Gollum pretty much painted himself, but the hobbits were reasonably straight forward too.

They're backpacks were the only things I felt needed more effort.

I'd done them black but a bit of brown helped lift them off the already dark grey cloaks. The welts on Gollum's back came out really well too.

Some additional little tufts just added some extra 'bling' to the base.

I did Gollum's eyes blue and added some gloss varnish so they look glistening. Super happy with how he came out.

Frodo has the least successful eyes. But, potentially the smallest, so swings and roundabouts. I'm not totally convinced by 'Sting's' glow effect but I'm glad the browns are all distinct enough.

I think Sam might be the best executed, when it comes to still looking like Sean Astin. Close up the eyes work and it looks like the actor. Amazing considering just who rough the paintwork looks under a magnifying glass. And yet, it does look like him to me so I am super proud of this little guy.

Gandalf looks great, but I grudgingly acknowledged the guys calling him 'Gandalf the Black'. Yes his robes are very dark.

But at least that makes a nice contrast to his Gandalf the White version

And another bunch of Great Big Wooden Stamps of Approval.

And here they are with the Army of the Dead on one of Otty's boards.

I love these guys.

And the ghosts aren't half bad either.

And their new home in his display shelves, ready for when we might bring them forth to honour their oath.

#MESBG Middle Earth Army of the Dead - TO DONE!

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on Scott's Middle Earth Army of the Dead. I did not realise just how rewarding I would find this. All of the gaming crew has done something to advance Scott's armies. I wasn't really aware it was a thing, Ben had been quietly beavering away with a newfound love for Contrast paints making him both really productive and achieving amazing results. Liam had also got stuff done but they felt I should 're-base' and fix all these ghosts.

Naturally, finishing off the army for Scott was going to feel satisfying but it's compounded by me getting 50 models painted in around 10 days. Yes 10 had been almost finished by Liam when Scott was with us but they've all had attention in varying degrees put on them. Not to mention they've all been varnished.

Some even had to be finished building. But you know me the fundamental hit I'm searching for is the serotonin high of finishing a project.

And I don't think I have EVER finished so many models in one go, nor so quickly.

Even if I hadn't been doing it for Scott I'd be proud of the achievement but the fact I got to finish it for him makes it that much more special.

I queried whether the additional highlights were needed, Contrast does do such a fantastic job with these ethereal beings.

But it has indeed added to the overall look and feel of the army.

Just enough of what Scott did initially, enhanced with some glow on the ground and highlights up top.

I don't know how consistent the bases are. Whether it's obvious that some were done by Liam, who has a much finer grain of basing material.

And the newer ones don't have any grass tufts as the only tufts I can find at the moment have flowers on from my Halfling Blood Bowl Team.

I do have some brown tufts somewhere, for when I started my Turnip28 models, but for the life of me the packet has gone AWOL.

As you can see Liam and Scott had used different colours, so some dead brown tufts would have added a third dimension.

Then again, some without would equally have helped in differentiating sub-warband groups.

I was amazed how rich the turquoise shading on the lower half became from my Craft Acrylic. This is one of the ones I've used on my Tyranid striations. It never looks this vibrant, but I think it really works. 

The question we have now is that I do have a sizeable Night Haunt army that is unbuilt. I've not intention of making them now or painting them anytime soon.

But having done these so quickly do I go with this [standard] approach. It's so quick and productive, although I like the idea of rusty metallics on the weapons. Or do I do something else a little more bloody and disgusting...

And another bunch of  Great Big Wooden Stamps of Approval.

#MESBG Middle Earth Army of the Dead - Big Build and Base TO DONE!

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer and this time it's 'off list'. In amongst 39 Goblin Town goblins my gaming crew have been attempting to finish off some of our late-friend Scott's unfinished armies. Some things weren't built, some were part done and others had basic bases that a bit more effort would make them look like a coherent force. I had been volunteered to take on his MSEBG Army of the Dead. Initially it was a box of so many figures I didn't even count them. But when I did I identified:

• 9 cavalry
• 8 infantry practically finished with highlights
• 24 infantry half-done - Aethermatic Blue contrast, no highlights
• 9 infantry stuck to bases, but unprimed and with shields unattached

That's 50 models in total and somehow I was fine batching the lot. I'd had to base a couple of other MESBG figures, so what's 42 more? Having done the bases I added a bit of turquoise glow to make them a little more ethereal and more Aethermatic Blue and then I had to decide on highlights. The 8 almost finished ones had been done by Liam for Scott and he'd added a bit of cream highlights, which I liked the yellow next to the turquoise, but even so Aethermatic Blue on it's own looked great. But I felt a couple more highlights would be the effort Scott's army deserved, no cut corners! 

Some were even missing bits, so spare arms had to be sources and I am kicking myself now that I did not photograph these in their original state. At the very least I'd have a record of what day I started them as it took no more than 2 weeks to get them all done

These were the 9 I did from scratch. It was a bit inconvenient to go back to the beginning stage when the rest had been done through to varnish but I pushed through. Varnishing [and photographing] so many figures was a challenge in itself. However, the results in the next post are worth it.

Another Great Big Wooden 'BIG BUILD' Stamp of Approval and a Great Big Wooden 'BIG BUILD BASE' Stamp of Approval.

#MESBG Middle Earth Goblin Town Goblins - Big Build and Base TO DONE!

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I recently celebrated a birthday which included some gifts from my gaming crew. This included a Goblin Town warband, including the Goblin King himself from Otty. There's even Goblin Town terrain piece from Liam, but I'll get to that further down the line. I built the heroes...

And the 32 goblin warriors. These were a dream as they are not multi-part kits. You just snip them off the sprue and glue them to the base - my kind of build. Even basing this many figures seemed much quicker than I bargained on, ready to prime. 

Another Great Big Wooden 'BIG BUILD' Stamp of Approval.

I realised that I already new how to paint the 'pale and interesting' effect common on these goblins as I'd done the same on my Poxwalkers.

This was a simple division - 16 primed grey, 16 primed Skeleton Bone.

The a quick squirt of white as a zenithal highlight on the face and shoulders.

I then did a quick mask and got the bases with Matt Black (hero of the imperium).

I'm not sure this was the right choice as the overspray caught things I didn't want and even the mask dripped onto models, which would require fixing.

I used burnt umber for the bases, dark wash, burnt umber highlight and then added skeleton bone for two further highlights. Now you can see the front two ranks are paler/cooler looking. This was something I was unhappy with. I decided to risk a VGC Beasty Brown drybrush and you can see the top ranks are much warmer looking, which is what I prefer.

I added the drybrush to all the rest. Then I had a very weird experience trying to work out if I needed more goblins to create a 500pt list. It revealed a box of warriors is 36 figures, not 32. I looked at pictured of the sprue and counted them all up. But I only had 32, what gives. I looked back in the box I had clipped them into and found 3 more figures knocking around, so 1 is still AWOL. That still meant I had 3 to base and prime to bring them up to speed. Luckily I'd also been volunteered to base about 40 undead warriors from Scott's Middle Earth Army of the Undead so I'll add them to that task...

In the mean time, another Great Big Wooden 'BIG BUILD BASE' Stamp of Approval.