A Busy Hobby Table...

...but not much getting finished.

I think most of us run into this phenomenon: Lots of projects started, but not much coming off the table. I'm in the middle of that right now. Here's the current state of affairs...

In the last couple of weeks, I've started a lot of new projects...mostly to support new games and armies I want to get underway. First off is an expansion project for my Kings of War Lizardmen. There is a unit called Hero on Winged Fire Drake (or something like that). This, of course, requires a Winged Fire Drake that can take a hero figure on his back. I found one in the Reaper catalog, and started the build. I have a Lizarman figure for this (unpainted, of course), and just need to build his flight seat.

Also for the Lizardman army expansion, I have a flight of three Ripperdactyls. Painting is underway, but these guys are still a long way from being finished.

Speaking of which, same can be said for this second group of Lizardman cavalry. Half painted...but when will they get finished?!?

Next up is a new (big) painting project. My second Kings of War army is going to be a Middle-earth-themed Undead army. I have a lot of the figures for this collected, and ready to go. The larger pieces are currently on the table. Starting with "Revenant King on Flying Wyrm," which in Middle-earth terms equates to Nazgul on Fell Beast. Here's the Fell Beast, assembled and awaiting attention.

And then there are the army's other two captains. One: "Vampire on Undead Dragon," otherwise known as a Balrog. Two: "Liche King," or as I like to call him, Sauron as the Necromancer.

On the role-playing front, a number of new projects. First, this Reaper Frost Giant figure. Half-painted, of course. Skin and hair done. Looking to paint the clothing now.

Then there is this awesome Behir figure from Gale Force 9. Half-painted. Again. Love the detail in this guy's sculpt.

And from the makers of Frostgrave, I have 10 cultists on the table. Weird. Half-painted. Jeeze...they've already been used in a game. They need to get finished off!

Another project on the go is a set of damage markers for Kings of War.

I settled on these turning disks for damage markers, and bought the type with blank tops in order to do some customization and create little casualty dioramas. I'm going to start with shields, helms and discarded weapons. But, of course, that requires me to paint these accessories in order to get finished. Not surprisingly...not done yet.

Well, it's no time to get depressed about hobby table projects that aren't getting done. Happily, stuff that is done is being well-used on a regular basis. Last week we had a D&D game, and the Viking longboat got trotted out...

...along with a goodly chunk of model buildings and civilian figures. It felt good to get this stuff on the game table.

In addition, I'm starting to get more Kings of War games in. Here, my Lizarmen are doing battle with Tom Carter's Orcs.

So, doing blog reports turn out to be just another form of procrastination. Back to the painting table.

'Til next time.

A Giant, Troll and Two Ogres

It seems like a few months since I last painted some fantasy figures. So, this week I decided to knock out four I'd been working on-and-off for some time. Years, in fact.

The first figure is another one of the excellent Gale Force 9 limited-run plastic figures for their D&D line. This is the Hill Giant, and giant is right. It's a big figure. Great sculpt with nice animation. I started it a few months back, then let it sit for a while. It came unassembled in about 6 pieces. It went together quickly, and once I set my mind to it, it painted up fast as well.

For this guy, I started by airbrushing the skin and finished off the facial features with a brush.

The rest of the figure was very straightforward to paint...and there's a very cute (but dead) goat tucked into a sling on his belt.

Next came the troll. OK, this is a BaneLords figure I picked up at GenCon about four years ago. As soon as I got back from the convention, I started the build.

To my eye, I figured this troll could easily pass for a Middle-earth figure, which is what attracted me to it.

But to pass as a Middle-earth troll, the comically big axe had to be pared down to a more realistic proportion. I used a dremel to carve away a good-sized chunk of resin.

Better now...

I assembled the troll and mounted it on a resin base from Secret Weapon.

But the gait was too wide for the base...so I built it out with some cork.

Assembled and ready for a wash.

A dark wash for pre-shading and picking out detail...and ready to paint.

Which I did start...laying down the base colors with an airbrush.

And then the figure sat on the shelf for four years. However, this week I finally finished it off. I had lost one of the shoulder spikes at some point, but the figure doesn't lose anything for lacking it. Looks more battle-worn.

I like this guy.

Next came a couple of metal ogres from Reaper. A husband-and-wife team, perhaps?

The female has plenty of cool detail, particularly in all the stuff she's packing.

I thought the mammoth tusks were a particularly interesting feature in the model.

The sculpt for the male wasn't nearly as clean, but his armor has a lot of detail in it, which I really liked painting.

The shield is another interesting feature, and provided the opportunity for an involved paint-up. However, in the end I decided on a plain light hide, scarred and rusted. I seemed a better choice for the single-minded martial aspect of this model.

Well, that's everything for this week. Hope you like 'em.

'Til next time.

Mirkwood Rangers

Last Christmas, I got a boxed set of Mirkwood Rangers (i.e. Wood Elves) from GW's Hobbit range. I was feeling a little OD'd on Warmachine, so I decided to knock these guys out this past week.

First of all, I know GW's Middle-earth range is in a smaller, more lifelike-proportioned "28mm" than their normal stuff...but these Elves seemed very small to me. Regardless, the sculpts were great, and the box of 10 figures contained no duplicates. Those two facts alone erased any misgivings I had about scale. 

Here are five of the figures assembled and based. Each figure was composed of two pieces...and the poses are very dynamic.

Some of the figures primed white.

Here, all the figures are primed, and each has been given a dark wash to pre-shade and pop out details to aid in the painting process.

Painting went backwards for me this time. I usually start with skin and work my way out on each figure. However, I wanted an overall green scheme on these Elves, and green...light green in particular...can be hard to brush paint. So I wanted to airbrush on the initial base coat. So...I masked off the faces, hair and hands with ticky-tac putty.

And then sprayed on a couple of shades of light green. I then removed the putty, which left the faces and hands ready for a good skin coat later in the process.

Before getting to the skin and hair (which I did last), I painted in the green cloth highlights, leather armor and some of the metal bits.

Finally, bows, arrows, knives, hands, faces and hair were completed...bases were finished off and the project was done.

'Til next time!

The Forgotten Men of Middle-earth

A few weeks ago, I got the urge to paint some more Middle-earth figures. GW's old metal minis are really nice. Great sculpts, nice animation, good proportions...on and on. Looking through the shelves of inventory, I decided to do some free men. 

And when you think of men in Middle-earth, Gondor and Rohan immediately come to mind. I have some Rohirrim ready to go...but I didn't feel like painting horses. So I dug into some of the more obscure models.

These are an assortment of models from the fiefdoms of Lamedon and Lossarnach, the Kingdom of Arnor, and men from Dunland.

After basing, priming and the first ink pass, skin and metal were the first things to paint.

Then, cloth. GW painted their clansmen from Lamedon with tartan kilts. Looked good. I tried it on mine as well.

Next up I worked on the leather items. There was a significant amount on the Dunland models...it's always a challenge to vary up the shades of leather.

Then it was time for cloaks. King Arvedui has the fanciest.

Finally, it was time to finish off details. The remainder of the wood bits, eyes, hair, and everything else missed in the previous steps. Bases were painted and flocked...and then, all done.

Clansmen of Lamedon.

Axemen of Lossarnach.

Men of Dunland.

And finally, an assortment of characters from Arnor.

This week I was also able to base the 10/12mm sci-fi vehicles I've built recently. First there's this flight stand for the 1/144 scale stealth fighter.

And then a mix of other vehicles and artillery pieces. I like how they mix with the Heavy Gear models.

Well, that's all for this week. Next up, I have a number of Warmachine models ready to be logged in.

'Til next time.