Middle Earth Terrain

 The first of my post-AHPC XV projects are some pieces of Middle Earth terrain that were prepared for the painting challenge, but put on hold when terrain was dropped from scoring status. These are two sets of hard plastic terrrain from Games Workshop - 'Ruins of Middle Earth' and 'Ruins of Osgiliath' that I acquired years ago. They have since been rolled into a single box with some deletions.

First up is the 'Ruins of Middle Earth. It consisted of two identical sprues of ruin corners, some fallen pillars, a fallen statue, a standing statue, and a campfire. The standing statue was glued to a 35mm wooden disc to make it less prone to falling over on the gaming table. The ruin corners were only a few millimeters in thickness, so I decided to beef them up a bit with a thicker layer of XPS foam cut using my Proxxon hot wire cutter. I glued the foam to the inner side of the the corners, clamped in place until the glue was dry. I then trimmed them with a handheld hot wire cutter, cut some stonework into the surface, and applied a coat of Mod Podge. Once that was dry, they were primed dark grey with a rattle can, and then dry brushed with light grey latex paint, followed by white latex paint. The wooden platform was painted using acrylics, as was the campfire and adjacent weapons and shields.

Original box art for the 'Ruins of Middle Earth' set

'Ruins of Middle Earth'

 

The second set was marketed as 'Ruins of Osgiliath' and had structures with much thicker walls, and stonework on both sides. The set I got was slightly warped. The large wall sections rocked back and forth a bit, so I evened out the bottoms using epoxy putty to prevent that from happening. I also added some walls to the section of stairs using some plastic card and epoxy putty as I didn't like the void underneath. Again the statues were glued to 35mm discs to make the base wider. Once all the glue was dry and the putty had hardened, the pieces were painted in the same manner as the first set.

Original box art for the 'Ruins of Osgiliath' set

 

'Ruins of Osgiliath' (A side)

'Ruins of Osgiliath' (B side)

Both of these sets are now out of production in this format. The thin walled sections from the first set have been dropped, and the remaining fallen pillars, statues, and campfire all rolled into one box with the Osgiliath ruins.

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AHPC XV Submission #4 - Warriors of Númenor

 

My fourth submission for AHPC XV was a Númenorian army from the end of the Second Age of Middle Earth. It consists of 49 figures from the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings collection, specifically 12 warriors with bow, 12 warriors with spear and shield, 23 warriors with sword and shield, and 2 banners. The bow and spear figures are metal I bought in 3-figure blister packs, while all the rest are plastic figures from the Warriors of the Last Alliance boxed set. These are all 'eBay rescues' of which most were painted to varying degrees of proficiency. Since the boxed set only contains only 8 Númenorians, along with 16 High Elves, the 25 figures represent the remains of at least four separate boxes. Two were missing their shields, but I decided to convert these into banner bearers. 

The metal figures had their mold lines cleaned off and then were mounted on their bases. I added a layer of fine sand to the base with PVA glue. The plastic figures got a soak in isopropyl alcohol followed by a scrub with a stiff toothbrush to remove as much of the old paint as possible. The alcohol bath didn't seem to affect the ground work that had been glued on, but those figures with an excessive amount had some of it removed with an X-acto knife, especially around the feet and the bottoms of the cloaks. Three warriors had the position of their sword arm changed to distinguish them from the rest as I was going to used them as captains. The warriors missing shields had the recess where the shield attached carved away, and a pole added using florist wire.

Once everything was assembled, they were primed black with a rattle can. It would have been easier for painting if the shields had not been glued in place, but they were all solidly affixed in position, so areas where I couldn't get a brush in behind the shield were left black. All the figures were then painted using Vallejo acrylics. As these are fantasy figures I won't bore you with a paint list, but I used a lot of shades of grey to differentiate between the surcoat, shield, trim, and cloak. For those that I modified to be captains, I used either silver or gold to trim their shields and surcoats to make them more readily identifiable.

The Númenorian Host with Isildur and Elendil at their head

 

The First Company

The Second Company

Close up of the First Company

Númenorian Spearmen

Númenorian Bowmen

Númenorian Captains and Banners

Thanks for stopping by.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIV #4 - Easterling Warriors and Command

For one of the special challenges of AHPC XIV I painted a group of twenty-two 25mm Games Workshop Easterlings consisting of a captain, a banner, four spear and shield, eight sword and shield, and eight archers. These were in the queue for the previous year's challenge, but the clock ran out before I could get to them. 

The miniatures were second-hand that needed some cleanup and repair to get them ready to paint. They got an overnight soak in rubbing alcohol (2-propanol), followed by a scrub with a stiff toothbrush to remove the previous paint job. Two of the archers had the upper half of their bows missing, and these were repaired with pieces of florist wire. A few of the spearmen and swordsmen had been assembled with their shields upside down, but I didn't think it was worth going through the effort to remove and re-attach them. After being primed with matt black, all the figures were painted using Vallejo acrylics, followed by a wash of Citadel Seraphim Sepia on all the armour, shields, boots, and gloves. Finally I went in with some 'Old Gold' to highlight the raised areas of the armour and shields.

 

A Shadow in the East

Complete group of 22 Easterling Warriors

Command and Spears

Archers (Can you spot the repaired bows?)

Swordsmen

At some point I think I will have to supplement this force with some Easterling Kataphrakts and a few faction heroes, but that is a project for the distant future. Thanks for reading.

The Emperor vs. Horus - Homage to Mike McVey

                                         

If you're over 40 and played Warhammer 40K I bet you recognize these models. Back in the days of second edition, one Mike McVey headed up the painting crew at GW and what a talent he was. One of the amazing projects he undertook for the Studio was a diorama based on an Adrian Smith illustration, "The Emperor vs. Horus" from back in 1990. I've put a pic of the illustration at the end of this post.

So ever since then I've wanted to have these models to paint for myself. This desire was only reinforced when I saw the original diorama at Warhammer World in 2019. Unfortunately the models in the diorama were one-offs converted and sculpted by McVey - he said in an article in White Dwarf #183 that the Emperor model had parts from eight other models and some sculpted detail too. Horus was similar.  I even tried my hand at a Horus conversion myself, so desperate was I.

Fast forward to this year. I'd seen some 3D prints of models sculpted by a man called BigMrTong, a fellow who's also an enthusiast of the Golden Age of GW. In fact I bought a set of amazing Rogue-Trader-style skeletons in spacesuits (wielding RTB01 bolters no less), and needed to know more. So I joined his Facebook group...

...and nearly lost it when I saw this model, painted by one of the group's members. I hoped it was a 3D print but was quite deflated to learn that it was a metal sculpt produced (along with Horus) in a limited run by BigMrTong. He picks up the story of their origin: "a guy was finding all the parts used in the original conversions and I found the final few bits and then tracked down all the original parts, then resculpted the custom parts, finally casting up a few sets with that base for display." 

Sadly (and unsurprisingly) they quickly sold out, but after I reached out to him, BigMrTong came to the rescue by offering to sell me a set he'd held onto himself. I couldn't get out my wallet fast enough, and after a week or so the parcel arrived with the Emprah, Horus, the 3D-printed diorama base, and a smaller bit of stair for the Emperor to stand on. 

What can I say about these models? They're fantastic and were super-fun to paint. I'd always wanted a set of these models and BMT made it happen.

                                       

Freehand here on the shoulder pad and power fist [pats self on back]

Here's Horus, looking mean and moody. A word about the painting. Having only a fraction of Mr. McVey's skill, I painted the armour in straightforward red and white. However, if you've seen the original models, you know that McVey painted the armour in a very detailed freehand filigree style, it just looks stupendous but like I said, well beyond my skill level.

I cheated a bit on the freehand here, the base was a decal from "Chaos Decal Sheet 1" from the 1990s. I painted the white around it and the colours on the eye.

As you can see here I've actually magnetized these too. I ended up sinking one small neodymium disc magnet into the bottom of one foot on each model, then putting a somewhat larger disc magnet in the appropriate positions on the diorama base and 32mm round bases.

That way Horus and the Emprah can actually take part in a tabletop game if we want - however unlikely that is.  

Supposedly the original head here was a part from the old Leman Russ model, with the hair carved off. Looks scary.

Here's a pic from the White Dwarf of the original diorama, just in case anybody needs a reminder of how good it was. 

And here's the picture it was based on. So good.

I know that the world of GW has moved on some in the last 30 years, but I miss metal models and the original lore, before everything got so serious. Let us not forget that the "Horus Heresy" was only invented because Space Marines were the only models made for the Space Marine (epic scale) game and there had to be some reason that Space Marines were fighting each other. But that was before there were 200 books published telling the story of the Heresy. Whatever.

Anyway I had such fun painting these models. Gotta say a big thank-you to BigMrTong for the sculpts and for selling me these models from his personal collection. If you like RT-era GW please check out his stuff (Facebook or Google works) and support his work. You'll probably see more of it on this blog!

Dallas

Citadel "Fellowship of the Ring" BME1 from 1985!

Well I do love me some old Citadel models, and their Lord of the Rings range from the mid-1980s has a special appeal. Don't get me wrong, I also love the newer LotR "movie range" models from the early 2000s till now, but the old chunky Citadel style really gets me where I live. They're oh-so-characterful and easy to paint too!

I already had an old Frodo Baggins in the cabinet so some time ago I decided to acquire the rest of the Fellowship. These models comprise the BME1 set (minus Aragorn, Boromir and Frodo) and were all procured via ebay... despite being long OOP they're not that hard to find or expensive, thankfully!

 

First up, Legolas... I really like this sculpt. Unfortunately the metal ferrule at the bottom of the bow shaft had broken off so a cack-handed greenstuff repair has to suffice.

 

I finished the model in earthtones and think it turned out OK.

Gimli son of Groin Gloin!

Sam Gamgee. This is a pretty good model. I love the walking stick.

And all the pots and pans of course!

Merry and Pippin! Can never tell which is which.

Little packhorses aren't they!

Gandalf. The Gandalf models from the old range are great, really iconic and representative of the popular image of a "wizard".

And Bill the pony!

I didn't take a ton of time painting Bill, you may be able to tell. Packhorses are a pretty low priority for my painting desk tbh.

And the catalog page from the Third Citadel Compendium. I guess Merry and Pippin are identifiable this way :-)

Still missing Frodo, Aragorn and Boromir from this set. I don't really feel a need to paint a Frodo because I have already done one from the Citadel ME range. Aragorn looks pretty cool but I prefer the Boromir model that came from the "Moria and the Balrog" set (that model is pretty pricey though). Anyway I have Aragorn and Boromir from the modern range (inasmuch as you can call 20+ year old models "modern") so there's no rush on that.

Hope you enjoyed the trip down the Middle Earth memory lane!
 

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIII Submission #12 - High Elf Warriors and Command

 This submission consists of 10 High Elf Warriors with spear and shield, a Captain, and a Banner Bearer, all by Games Workshop. Four of the Elf Warriors are a recent purchase and made of resin. The remaining figures are all metal. When I first got into Middle Earth gaming, I acquired some secondhand plastic High Elves from the 'Warriors of the Last Alliance' box. I wanted to flesh them out with some warriors with spear and shield and had picked up the metal figures as 2 or 3 figure blisters, and more recently got the last four that are made of resin. The resin figures are the same sculpts as the earlier metal minis and look identical once painted.

 All the figures were cleaned up and assembled, and mounted on their bases. Some fine sand was glued to the base with PVA, and they were then primed black with an airbrush. Painting was primarily done using Vallejo acrylics, but also my long-serving Partha True Blue and Bronze Metallic, which are still hanging in there. I also used some Citadel Reikland Fleshshade wash on the faces. Here's the final result.

 

High Elf Warriors and Command

 

Metal High Elf Captain and Banner Bearer

Metal High Elf Warriors

Resin High Elf Warriors

My High Elf host with Gilgalad and Elrond

 This completed the last of the High Elves I had in my storage boxes, but since then I have picked up a box of six Knights of Rivendell to add to my elvish muster. Thanks for reading. More to follow