Lotr revisited. Army of Harad

After lengthy absence I'd like to return to blog with a pictures of my Army of Harad. Well maybe army is a strong word, it's more like armed company by all standards. It's a force that took part in last 2009 Eastern Europe Grand Tournament. To be honest I've always had more to do with modelling side of our hobby rather than with gaming and my attandance of that event was mostly driven by my desire to win Best Painted Army Award second year straight (in 2008 I participated with Wood Elves army).

Size of this force is not breathtaking as it was composed to look good not to place high in the tournament. It consists mostly of Haradrim Warriors with small platoon of Watchers of Karna, couple of Hasharins and Witch-King along with one other Nazgul.

                                  

Now to painting side. I decided to do a custom colour scheme that will represent the character of Haradrims in it's best. We all know that they are people of South-East linked mostly with desert. That's why I chose earth-sand hues for them. I always thought GW's scheme with all that red and purple to be a little inaccurate. Frankly they looked more like a circus than people of the desert to me.

                   

I did a couple of variations and mixed schemes between all those Haradrims. As far as I remember I divided them in groups of 12-15 and tried to keep each unique yet consistent with the whole army composition.

                     
                           
                                                 
For Watchers of Karna I decided that original GW's scheme with all black robes made them look more like Ninjas...which can be awesome...if you are a Ninja. That being said I used another shade of yellow-brown (Bubonic Brown in that case) to be a base of that squad.

               

My favourite part of that force are the Hasharins. I always liked playing with those characters. They are fragile but deadly if used the right way. I painted one in traditional way with black robes and the other with scheme of an army that would allow him to blend in. You wouldn't believe how often my opponents focused on that black Hasharin being totally oblivious to existnce of the other one hidden usually between Watchers of Karna. When they realised their mistake it was usually to late as he already got his poisoned weaponry on their strongest heroes.

   

To compliment the points of the roster I used two Nazguls (including Witch-King). I painted them in experimental way. I tried to use some OSL to make them unique among all those other Nazguls you see on tournaments, cloathed all in black.

                                             
Anyway besides presenting that army I have also posted it for sale on eBay. I'm finally drifting away from gaming aspect and focusing more on my painting, plus hockey season is upon us and I have to make some additions to my equipment.

So if someone is interested in purchase of that force visit eBay auction.

That being said I hope you like the scheme I applied to my Haradrims, maybe it will inspire some of you to paint them in similar way or at least to implement some own schemes to your armies.

Cheers,

Far East Band

Having a very limited access to the Internet is a pain in the neck. Still, it's better than no access at all. My Internet provider has failed to deliver for more than two weeks now and I ended up borrowing a mobile device from my brother. So yes, I'm back online though the speed of my connection is terribly slow...



Anyway, I managed to paint part of a big commission that I'm currently working on. First off, the Khandish Warriors. Pretty nice minis with great details. Still, I smile when I try to imagine myself running with a banner like that attached to my back. These minis remind me of Mongol warriors, similar style of helmets and clothes. The cavalry in particular, but this will be a topic for a separate update.



I used my old trusted Andrea black set for their clothes and mixed vallejo game red with model (flat red) red for the helmets and banners. Somehow, I've never felt comfortable using GW blood red. It dries too quickly (even on a wet palette) and the paint needs several carefully laid layers to look decent.



I also managed to finish a small group of Abrakhan Guard. I like the concept - no other minis from this range of minis are sculpted similarly. I like working with GW purples so it felt nice to work with liche purple and warlock purple. These colors nicely complement each other and it's fairly easy to create smooth highlights using these two.

The Golden King of Harad is another example of interesting concept and a very decent sculpt. My wife said that his pose and his mask remind her of some of the common images of death. I guess there is some truth in it as the mini has a slightly menacing look to it.



Now, onto the Easterlings - a solid group of twenty infantrymen is waiting to be painted. It shouldn't take too long as I will only need to focus on the two dominant colors - gold and red.

And here's one of the songs that was in my head when I was working on these minis:

Sand in my eyes

The conjunctivitis is still bothering me (hence the title of this post) but I've finally managed to finish the Harad minis I started at the beginning of this month. The quality of pictures is poor as I don't have a camera at the moment and had to use my mobile to take these pics. Unfortunately there won't be better ones as the minis have already been packed and will be sent tomorrow.



First off, the Command group. I know that the quality is rather poor but I think that it's a good example of my style of painting lotr minis. I usually try to go for smooth highlights, keeping the colours rather dark. Citadel purples (Liche Purple and Warlock Purple) are definitely my favourites. They work together really well and make highlighting much easier (of course as long as you put at least a few layers of paint and dilute them with water). Here I chose very bright green for the gems as I thought that this element of contrast might look good. The bases are finished according to the client's wish to fit with the rest of his army.

And the second part of this batch of minis - Corsair Arbalesters. I really like these minis - long-haired, bearded crossbowmen equipped with large metal shields. Nasty looking dudes, probably useful in the game (I don't play it so I'm just guessing).



I know the picture is terrible and doesn't really do them justice but overall I was quite happy with the final result. I went for slightly more sharp highlights here as I thought that their clothes are sculpted in a way that calls for more contrastive shades. Similarly to Harad command, i went for a slightly darker skin colour, these are desert people after all!

Well, that's it for now. Next I'm going to work on a Warhammer 40k commission, Catachan Command and some Ogryns, but there will be another time to write more about it.

Have a nice week. Cheers!
Viruk

Easter with Harad

Finally a few more days off (not that I have much to do at the uni - only one seminar once a week ;). Once again I'm working on minis from LotR SBG, this time several Harad minis. I like most of the minis from this army. It seems that GW sculptors really gave their best. They have perfect proportions (not always the case with minis from this range) and lots of details. Also, I really like how their clothes are sculptem, makes painting them very enjoyable. I've already painted quite a few Harad minis for various commissions. To name a few: Harad Chieftain , Mumak 'driver' , the new Suladan model (aka. The Kite Man), Serpent Riders , and both metal and plastic Harad Riders.



Another thing that makes painting them enjoyable is the possibility to use more varied colour schemes. I usually use different shades of red, blue and purple but there are lots of other possibilities. I've seen some really nice Harad schemes while browsing hobby-related websites, and Haldir's army has to be one of the best out there. I really like the classic desert look. You can check it out here .

Now, enough of beating around the bush, here are the minis I'm working on at the moment.



While painting minis that have brighter colours I either start from white undercoat or a black one sprayed over lightly with white one. I chose the latter here as apart from providing a solid basis for painting it also nicely highlights the details.

OK, that's it for now. Happy Easter everyone :)