From AaronH: 28mm Lord of the Rings Whargs and Wizard(s) (65 points)

 This entry is six wharg riders to go with Sharku from last week. These are, technically, Hunter Orcs, which are Hobbit armies not Isengard, but GW had a gap in production of the normal whargs so I had to buy these. 

Six of these dudes.

They don't have bows but I'll run them that way most of the time. These are vicious looking, both whargs and riders.

The mounts are very dynamic and the riders are sculpted directly on at the legs.

These are also based for my Mordor army as that list has more options to take Wharg riders.

These whargs are much fiercer than the older sculpts. They almost look like werewolves.

This entry also includes Radagast the Brown. I have the old version. I guess I also have the new on but he's an abomination and I have no interest in painting him. This one, however, is one of my favorite miniatures of any line or game. It's just really well sculpted.

Radagast the Brown. Without bird poop and rabbits.

The sculpting on this is nice and sharp and deep. It took my several years to source him in metal.

The face and pose are just perfect on this guy.

This is from the same era as the non-precise plastics but this is fantastic sculpting.

I can't imagine that I'll ever take him in Lord of the Rings (MESBG) but he'll work great for a wizard in D&D, Pathfinder, Five Leagues from the Borderlands or Frostgrave.

This is six 28mm cavalry x 10 pts each = 60 points

One 28mm infantry x 5 pts = 5 points

Total = 65 points

 

 Sylvain: I really like how you kept you palette simple, mostly brown and grey, for your miniatures, yet you were able to achieve great definition in the facial features. Like you, I prefer a de-pooped Radagast and your re-booted version looks great. Bravo!

 

From TeemuL: Pipe-Weed in Middle-Earth [High Adventure][Limo] (77 points)

"Let's get back to the real issue and our movie of Murin and Drar and leave this European movie industry alone, nothing but bare breasts, "artistry" and sad endings really. We have some problems to cast the main characters, it is extremely difficult to find proper dwarfs these days and it would cost millions to digitally modify/create them. Let's focus on the humans and others for a while. Dwarfs live long so it is not totally unbeliavable that Murin and Drar lived during the time of Morwen and Nienor, so we have prepared to make some flashbacks. By the way, the story of Morwen and Niniel is sooo sad, something like from Finnish sagas*, if you ask me, not a proper plot for us, but we can use the characters, of course. It is rather easy to find pretty ladies, much easier than finding dwarfs. We have some old men auditing for a role of Gandalf, you know, he lived long so probably met our long living duo. And these orcs, orcs are everywhere and trolls are always handy in action scenes. It is quite easy to find orcs around the studio, too. Trolls are harder, we need to get some NBA or NFL players for audit. Did I say this is an action /adventure movie, a high adventure movie?"

*The Story of Kullervo

This is the full set of my Mordor Orcs, the one on the right was painted last year

Morwen and Nienor is a nice dual sculpt or how would you call it? Morwen is wife of Húrin and mother of Túrin and Nienor (also known as Niniel). These fine ladies will give me a comfortable taxi drive from World Cinema to High Adventure.

Gandalf the Grey fits the High Adventure in so many ways. He had many adventures of his own and he started couple of adventures of others, all being quite high in quality and also going over the mountains and flying with eagles, lots of high stuff. And then the pipe-weed, whose effects might make someone feel high.

To accompany Gandalf I have a couple of Orcs and a Troll, almost mandatory for any adventure. All of these are metal minis from Mithril and painted mostly with GW's traditional paints, usually a basecoat, wash and drybrush. Nothing too fancy, but not too simple either. The troll is Mithril M295, Mordor Black Troll. The archer is Mithril M311B Mordor Orc Archer, and previously painted is M311A. The standard bearer is Mithril M310, Mordor Orc Standard Bearer and the one with the shield and mace is Mithril M313A, Armoured Orc. I might have M313B somewhere, too. These came some years ago in a mixed bag, so I might have it or not.

They are very dark. I first made the decision to give them very dark skin, Rhinox Hide, and also paint the wooden parts black, like the bows etc. And most of the leather, too. They have some armour here and there, which I painted quite dark using Iron Warriors and highlighted with Leadbelcher. To make them something else than dark blobs, I decided to use Ushabti Bone to various ropes, rags and similar stuff to break the dark areas. There is a soft drybrush with brown on skin and some grey on blacks.

Gandalf is my favourite, it was a bit difficult to get different greys there, but I guess I managed. There is a soft blue wash on his clothes and cloak and light grey and off-white drybrushing. Beard is grey, drybrushed to white. The hat is light blue, drybrushed with greys. Somehow I managed to make transitions quite smooth, I hope I could do that more often. The one visible eye turned out ok, too. Gandalf is Mithril M228, Gandalf the Wizard.

Morwen and Nienor are quite simple. I guess I'm not alone, who gets confused with dresses and all accesorizies and things like that. What's wrong with chainmail bikini? Anyone, I tried to make them look classic and classy, single colour should do that. Some washes and drybrushes, little bit attention to faces, since they are so visible. The blue dress is basically a basecoat and wash while the orange one is basecoat and drybrush - the latter is very faint in the photos. Morwen and Nienor, Mithril M216.

Mithril minis come with their own bases. I glued them on MDF bases (various sizes) from Warbases and then used some Vallejo Earth Texture to hide the metal base.

3 Orcs, 1 Wizard and 2 Ladies in 28mm for 30 points.

1 Troll, 40mm, for 7 points.

Limousine and High Advanture for 40 points.

The Map

Karwansaray had a Christmas Day sale and I pressed the button to buy couple of rules I have been thinking about for some time. I had some issues with the package tracking, but eventually these arrived on Monday. It seems I might get into some historical skirmishes in the future...

It's a bit of role reversal here as Teemu is my regular minion and it's nice to give some kudos back.  Nice collection of LoTR stuff teems and I'm enjoying your tour of the Studios.  I really like Gandalf and the ladies are lovely too.  The Orcs and Toll are neither nice nor lovely, nor are they meant to be.

From JamieM - A Delicate Balancing Act at Cooke's Crevasse (38 points)

Wizards.  What on earth are they about?  Usually stupid sparkly stuff, trying to impress the local wenches/muscle down the local inn most likely.

Take this one for example.  What benefit could it possibly have if you balance a load of rocks on each other and then stand on them?

Bloomin' wizards...... always standing at the back chucking fireballs around or taking no interest in magic armour and only worrying about dusty old books......can't trust an adventurer who thinks like I don't reckon.

What?  Me?  Ever been adventuring?  Not a chance.  Much safer to stay here at the farm.  Probably more fun too.  Right?...... right?......

I thought that was rather a good fun wizard, it's by GW and was originally an Elf, but with a quick headswap with a Greatsword figure, he's now Magnus Purple-Eye (and yes, that was the name of a D&D character I ran back in the day :)  Sadly the original Magnus died in his first dungeon with the exit in sight and so lasted less time in the dungeon than he took to roll up, but that's RPGs for you sometimes!)

But I digress.  He's standing on several pieces of Geology and so I thought he'd be perfect for Cooke's Crevasse and so here he is!

Having enjoyed the rocks, I think I'll be off to Hawkin's Hill next as I have a frankly embarrassingly large choice of figures to paint for there......

5 points for the 28mm figure and 30 points for the location I believe.

From DaveD. aah , our resident telecommicationally challenged geologist has missed a treat here... that just brilliantly executed. The yellow is particularly well done - so lets call it 38 points .  Enjoy your rummage at Hawkins Hill!

From SeanS - Bretonnians and Wizards (112 points)

Hi All,

I have for you 22 figures in 28mm that should net me 110 points. They are 20 retainers and two wizards. I'm not super happy with the picture quality, but here you go.

I'll start with the two C02 Wizards, Mazda and Holbon Toddlebrrew.

Yes that is a calculator on Holbon's belt.

I decided to go with stars and a crescent moon on Holbon to make him more Wizardy.

Next we have the retainers led by a Baron.

I accidentally painted his shield blue and yellow while batch painting and had to repaint it.

I also had to switch them around for the rear shot. They wouldn't rank up turned 180 degrees.

The second rank of these guys. I had four retainers and my friend, Blue in Vermont, helped me acquire the rest.

The fighter on the end has a bottle on his belt.

My four Perry, Games Workshop Crossbowmen and one Foundry figure. The plastic Crossbows seem a little large.

The second row are all Foundry.

Triumph and tragedy in each figure, but I'm happy overall with the end result. This time, at least, the varnish worked correctly. Just had a myriad of other little nit picking things that made this group seem to take forever.

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Fantastic work, Sean, bringing together a great collection of miniatures stretching back over quite some years.  I love the livery these figures are sporting - the blue and yellow match perfectly, and bring the units together in a really striking manner.  I love how you made the Baron look just a little bit special with his personal heraldry (clearly setting him apart from the hoi poloi of mere retainers).  Great stuff!

The wizards are very special.  I remember seeing these figures many moons back, from GW's wizards and magic users range.  It's brilliant to see them again here.  The mystical stars and colours of their magical robes really makes them stand-out in a terrific submission.

Well done, Sir, and a well-deserved 112 points to your tally (adding a couple through the sheer dedication of collecting these chaps over the years)!