The Hobbit - Azog the Defiler

There are many changes and additions Peter Jackson has made to The Hobbit when adapting it for his epic fantasy trilogy; one of which is the inclusion of Azog as the main orc villain despite his death many years before the events of the book. His death has been changed to only a maiming and he rides out once again to inflict woe upon the race of Dwarves. I actually like his presence in the story despite it being such a massive departure from the book. I am a self-admitted Tolkien purist but I realise that Azog is necessary in pacing and thematic terms in order for the films to work. Of course his role could have been filled by someone like Bolg but that is a thought for another time.

I really enjoyed painting Azog though his scars were fiendishly difficult to paint, particularly when the model does not have them deeply sculpted on. I ended up painting them darker than in the film but I am overall happy with the final result.

The new Imperial Knights look fantastic and I want one, or maybe three. My love of heraldry and old 40k lore seem to be screaming at me to do an army but that may be some time in the distant future as new Imperial Guard will be coming out soon. I am looking forward to the new IG or Adepta Militarium as I think it will now be called. I have been wanting to re-paint some of my Guardsmen to bring them more in line with some of my other stuff for a while now and just to try and streamline the army a bit more.

On another note I am slowly reworking parts of the website. Most changes so far will have been barely noticeable and I have plans to do some of the more major work in a few weeks time so stay tuned.