Minas Tirith Rocks

Specially imported from Ludlow - Minas Tirith or Osgiliath masonry dislodged by Mordor catapults.

Warriors of Minas Tirith

 That's the dozen Minas Tirith Warriors practically finished.

There's varnish to go on the armour and I may give a blue wash on one as an experiment.

I may also sprinkle a few rocks about illustrating Minas Tirith or Osgiliath under attack.

These are the poor fellows who were glued down before I remembered to lay the Minas Tirith road on their bases. 

I was able to prise most of them out but you'll see a couple of them appear to be standing in holes in the road.

Bernard Cribbins has a lot to answer for.

I tried sawing one off so he has no soles to his boots - there will be moans.

Theatlasheart

I don't think I've put this up here before. A good look round Hobbiton and Weta Workshps.

http://theatlasheart.com/2015/02/17/a-land-of-hobbits-where-to-indulge-in-lord-of-the-rings/

Hope you don't mind, Mimi.

Riders Riding

Here are all six of the Riders of Rohan on horseback and fully kitted out with shields.

The Horses are painted with Scorched Brown (3) Rhinox Hide, Mounfang Brown and Codex Grey for the others.

Cloaks were Warboss Green highlighted with Scorpion Green.

Leatherwork used the above browns plus Calthan, Steel Legion Drab, Balor Brown and Doombull Brown.

Again I tried for the wide river look on some of them with grasslands and rocks.

The 'log' is a piece of root.

I tried for a wet area on one base by using gloss varnish but I think you need a larger area or a different colour underneath it.

I chickened out on making the grey a dapple.

Riders - The real thing

Well, as these four no longer fall from a rearing rocking horse, they have been given the real thing.

I'm still tinkering with the base colour as, on a cloak, Warboss Green looks ok. On the base it looks dull.

I've tried for that same look of grasslands swept by swollen rivers when the mountain snows melt.

As you can see, they are not yet able to carry shields as well as remaining on horseback.

It will come.

Riders of Rohan May 16

I'm working on a second set of Riders of Rohan and here are the riders. Why are they sitting atop lumps of blu-tack stuck on poles? Well, they have to start somewhere. Once they've learned to balance whilst waving axes, shooting arrows or throwing spears, they move onto the next stage in their training - rocking horses.

Mordor Orcs

Ah! Those were the days. These Mordor Orcs came in a box of 24 for the same price that you are now conned out of for only 12.

I've gone against established wisdom on 'themeing' this batch as it's generally accepted that colours should be in a narrower range than I have used.

I let the bases establish the uniformity of the army which gives me greater freedom when painting.

Result - some of these guys have a splash of oranges and green, even yellow.

This also makes it easier to give each one a different look on the battle field.

I've given them a nice range of skin colours too.

The previous bases were painted Codex Grey, then washed with Badab Black. Here I achieved a similar result with a black coat and a Fortress grey dry brush.

I used less of my 'slate beach' this time as several of the previous group complained of turned ankles. One even tripped and grazed his knee.

Gandalf on Shadowfax

Here's Gandalf and Shadowfax, just back from their holiday in Spain or 'Far Harad' as it was then known (note Gandalf's unusual lack of Foresight in taking no sun cream)


I used the DeAgostini painting guide in the 'Two Towers Edition'.

The base is as the Rohan bases as he was always to-ing and fro-ing across their grasslands.

I think he had Shadowfax out on a library ticket from King Theoden and had to keep darting back to renew.

This model was obviously spray-based in white and I had no trouble with paint peel back as I've had with black spray.