He lied... With all of the batch painting that I have done, I've got a storage problem, so I opened up my case and realised how many undercoated figures I still had. So here are some of them. One mounted rider. More hobbits than you could shake an Orc at, Boromir, Gandalf, a standard bearer, Arwen, and Eowyn. I dont think I should be buying any more for a while until I get these done. I was happy to have conveniently forgotten about them.


Also here is another one I finished, Although it just looks like black with a bit of drybrushed silver on the armour, its not. There are several different mixes of dark blue and chaos black and then loads of ink washes. This has given a deep and rich effect - one of a freshly undercoated model. ho hum. Waste of time that was...

An hour or so's work has got these finally finished. I've had these for ages since Rowan bought me them as a gift. They've been half finished for about 5 months, and as i was sorting out everything I thought I'd finally put them to bed. I had to spot repair quite a few, as they have been knocking about in various locations and the undecoat and base coat had chipped off. So I've fixed that, and sort of modified them where a couple of the weapons had broken off as well. Last night I finally completed a few details (mostly change of colours on the trims and dry brush metal on the weapons and armour) and then matt varnished them and finished the bases. Not often I complete 10 models in one post (or evening)

Labels: LOTR

So here is Legolas, finished finally. I though I was going to get him finished before the next issues arrived, but they beat me to it. I’ve had him complete apart from his cloak and hair for about a week, but the next issues (and Sicarius and the boys models) distracted me. Spent a lot of time blending the flesh tones on his face, and blending all of the colours as described in issue 76. I mentioned at the time how much better the painting guides are now – I think the idea was that the mags introduced the concepts gently to the new reader – which is why the new paint articles are better, as it’s almost two years since the first issues. I didn’t complete the base this as it was stupid o’clock by the time I had finished the main model. I’ve done some other things since, like mounted and undercoated the new Aragorn from 78 as well as undercoating Sicarius and building Zeds Marine bike with him. Next job is finishing the Mordor Orcs that I have had basecoated for a while now. Or the new Aragorn..

Labels: LOTR

I may have mentioned that the other week Reuben ordered a Gandalf from Games Workshop. We nipped up to get this one evening, and Zephan blew his top in the shop because he wanted a ‘goodies bike’ to go with his baddies bike (the orc) that he got a week or so ago. This was a bit out of character for him, so we didn’t succumb to his yells but when the dust had settled let him know he could buy one when he got his pocket money. Today was the big day, so we went to get one.

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned before about what a good deal you get in Games Workshops shops. Although collecting and painting the figures can be quite expensive, the advice in the shop is second to none. You can leave your kids (if they are over 11) in the shop all afternoon if you want, for free. You can book and play on the tables (as long as your miniatures are mounted and painted) And you can go there in the evenings for games. Not to mention training on how to play and how to paint. All around you get quite a good deal.

So there in the shop one of the staff was patiently describing the merits of Space Marines to my 4 year old. He spent a good 10 minutes and I was really impressed at his patience. When I could get a word in edgeways I asked about the Captain Sicarius model that was released that day, and the guy went and found none on the shelves. This was a special edition model, which was made to commemorate their new Website/Campaign the Fall of Medusa, which starts about now. He went to check his order book to see if there were any spare and in the end he let me have one that had been ordered by one of the staff in the store. Now I thought this was really above and beyond.. I’ve respected the staff in the stores for a long time, and this really was a great experience, continuing on from the way he was treating my little boy.
So thumbs up Games Workshop! Well done. Here’s Sicarius, which I have mounted, but will take some time painting at a later date to commemorate the staff member who gave his up for me. Sorry about the picture quality.

Labels: W40K

This has to be the last Aragorn! Issue 78 comes with him as King Elessar, in a colourful costume with his sword raised above his head for a hard chopping blow. It has what looks like the last parts of the campaign with "The end of All things" campaign conclusions. You get the idea for a Mount Doom set in the moddelling workshop, which is quite nice as it works from both sides (inside and outside the mountain)
Issue 79 moves away from the films, and back to the books, with Radagast. I already have this figure, and painted it a few months ago. I'd like to say it would go on ebay, but my king of the dead didnt go for very much, even when I painted it, so I dont know. Theres a bit about Radagast and how to use his magic, then a scenario called Kill the Wizard. Then you get to build him a log cabin using real wood - quite clever - but looks like it would take ages to make. Involves finding real wood (twigs that are straight and all the same size) and then constructing the cabin very much like a real one, apart from it uses Dremel's and not chainsaws.

Labels: BGIME Review