Re-painting Isengard (Nov WIP)

"Build me an army, worthy of Mordor"

Though I began earlier this year working on my Easterlings, the first army I am planning on getting painted up fully is my Isengard force. This is mostly because I'm quite happy with the base colours (it just needs highlights and touching up), I don't need to buy anything else for the force as its around 1000 points already, and Saruman is one of my favourite characters so he kinda gets preferential treatment.

The previous incarnation of this army (with some really awful blurry photos to boot) had a slightly different composition to how it stands now. Notably missing is one of the trolls and the unit of orcs which I have moved over to my fledgeling Mordor army. However, I have replaced them with some Uruk-Hai warriors I fixed up, a demolition team I forgot I owned, and a while ago I picked up a version of Saruman on foot and Grima Wormtongue. While I have no plans on expanding this force, if I were I'd probably want to add some Warg Riders for cavalry, possibly put some orcs back in there for cheap bodies, and crossbowmen for more shooting.

The main things I have done in repainting this army is taking away nearly all the red that was previously there. I wanted to make my Isengard force quite dark and grungy, as well as making it distinct from the other evil armies that come more directly under the thrall of Sauron which will feature red quite predominantly. This included removing red from the clothes of my Dunlendings, and repainting the flesh of my Uruk-Hai to remove any reddish tint. The only other big repainting I'm doing is Saruman himself who will be much brighter with less severe shading as I think I can do a much better job at painting him now than five years ago.

There's still lots to do in order to achieve the look I'm going for, in particular I will have to spend quite a bit of time working on re-applying white hands to quite a few of the miniatures who previously had them on their faces. However, I'm hoping that this project wont end up taking too much time and I'm aiming to have it finished by Christmas whereafter my Mordor army will become my main focus. My Mordor force will be comparable in size to my Isengard army but requires much more work.

Here's a bonus quick pic of the small Rohan force that I'm cobbling together as well. As you can see from the range of different coloured bases, these miniatures have served in quite a few other projects previously and I was actually surprised at how many I was able to pull together for this project. I've got 5 riders, 12 warriors with a decent mix of weapons, 4 royal guard, and hero-wise I've got Eowyn, Merry, and Hama. With the addition of the contents of the Battle of Pelannor Field box and a few more heroes I think this should end up as a solid 1000-ish points force.

Non-LOTR stuff is taking up most of my painting time at the moment, but now my Kill Team is finished I hope to really get going on my Isengard and Rohan armies while I finish off my Talons of the Emperor who just need tidying up and basing now.

Easterlings Redux

Flat colours

Seeing as in I obviously don't have enough projects on the go already, I decided that I would take some time this year re-vamping my old LOTR collection. Looking at my collection I realised just how flat the colours were and how dire in need they were of a highlight or two. I reasoned this to be a good excuse to do some work on them, in particular my Easterlings who I think are the worst offenders and the easiest fixed. I thought to myself that this would be an easy, quick project. That I would be able to do some dry brushing and some shading and then leave them alone.

I was wrong.

Once again I have stumbled myself into another big-ish project I hadn't planned on doing. As well as improving paint schemes; I've had some ideas for conversion, basing, and incorporating disparate miniatures into a single force. This is proving to be a fair bit of work thus far, but rather enjoyable and should I get it done in a timely fashion (i.e. this year) I think I might do something similar with my Isengard forces. Below I've collected some pictures of my progress thus far:

Thoughts from my desk - Titania, MiniCrate, and other Miscellany

I've had a lot of random thoughts about the hobby recently, and as I finish my first miniature of the year (its taken a while I know!), I thought I'd take some time to ramble and lay out some of the ideas and opinions I've had floating around in my head.

I was lucky enough to manage to pick up the alternate sculpt for Titania last Black Friday and I've had a lot of fun painting up the undead faerie queen. I tried as best I could to achieve a middle ground between her standard colour scheme and her appearance on the classic Red Joker artwork, and I think I've succeeded. Though I don't know if I'll ever build a crew for her, I can see her easily being the first of several Malifaux miniatures that I pick up solely for the pleasure of painting.



I have only recently been made aware of Privateer Press's 'MiniCrate', which is a miniatures version of the loot crate business model. For those of you who aren't aware of it and fancy a look heres a link: MiniCrate. I've got a lot of thoughts on this because on a basic level it really appeals to me as a collector and a painter, which I think is really the target audience for this. After all, the miniatures that are part of this product are simply alternate sculpts and seemingly chosen at random from across the various factions, so not much use to gamers. I quite like the idea of getting a new miniature every month to just paint up and have on display, especially as most of these alternative sculpts are quite cool-looking. The 'mystery' aspect is what I think is the greatest turn-off for most people, as there's a good chance of not getting a miniature for any of your factions or even one you actually like. Miniatures can be quite expensive and it would be disappointing to end up buying something you don't even like the look of. Indeed, the whole thing seems quite expensive for just a single miniature every month, especially for anyone like me who does not live in the United States. While a novel and interesting idea, the whole thing doesn't quite work for me. Privateer Press aren't particularly my favourite miniatures manufacturer as far as aesthetic goes and I'm not deeply into the lore of the game, but I did think this product worthy of a mention as I can see it, or something similar to it, being successful in the future and possibly attracting me.

Now onto a few bits of misc. thoughts I've had about my miniatures recently...

Horribly flat colours in desperate need of a highlight, ideally two

I'm thinking of doing something with my Lord of the Rings miniatures this year. They are painted in quite a basic fashion and would benefit simply from a few highlights, a bit of dry brushing, and maybe some better basing. I also ended up with a part-complete second-hand Mumakil about two years ago I really ought to do something with. Of course I have other, more pressing painting matters to attend to first, but I can easily see my Easterlings or Uruk-Hai getting a little attention in future.

Last year I was able to get hold of some second-hand Sisters of Silence which I've not really done anything with yet, but I have added a converted Astropath, an imprisoned psyker (to use as an objective marker), and some Tempestus Scions to represent the Black Sentinels of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. I think I am going to use these as an allied detachment for my Custodes and paint them in the same way. Hopefully in future we will see some manner of combined 40k Talons of the Emperor codex and I can have my Custodes and Silent Sisters fight side by side properly.

Such an incredible miniature, just the right balance of detail and simple elegance 

Though I still have lots of Death stuff to paint, I have been greedily eyeing the new Daughters of Khaine miniatures. I am very tempted to pull my Dark Elves out of storage and start putting some of my Witch Elves on round bases in preparation for getting Morathi and some of her new mutant aelves. The main thing stopping me is the financial burden of my upcoming Custodes project (as well as all my other unfinished projects!), though later on in the year I can see myself splurging on some Daughters of Khaine. First however I have a tonne of ghouls and skeletons to paint, and won't consider getting anything else for Age of Sigmar until they are done.

Coming up on the blog soon should be my Malifaux miniatures which I am close to finishing; after which should hopefully be a little bit of Eisenhorn, some progress on my Lich war band, and possibly a bit of Age of Sigmar if I can get the colours on this next war band right. Life has continued to be hectic recently but I am managing to get some bits of hobbling in when I can.

Army Showcase - Part 9 - Harad and Umbar

The last of my three Lord of the Rings armies: this Harad and Umbar army took longer to paint than my other two armies as it took a while for me to really get into them. I seemed to keep getting distracted with Dark Elves and Uruk-Hai to ever really power through them, however they are finished now and it is another project ticked off of my list. 

When I first joined the hobby the Mumak was amongst the most impressive models Games Workshop produced; certainly one of the largest and most expensive at the time. After several years of collecting I managed to get my hands on one which I have painted and repainted every few years as one of the centrepieces of my entire miniatures collection. 

Army Showcase - Part 7 - Isengard

Like my Eastern Kingdoms army this is painted with a limited colour palette to create a cohesive looking force on the table top. Using various models I had collected over the years I managed to make what I like to think of as an Isengard scouting force or raiding party. Composed of Uruk Scouts, Dunlendings and Orcs this is a more lightly armoured force made to represent one of the bands sent to burn the west fold. It also includes two trolls for no other reason than I had them sat doing nothing in a draw and they fit the over all look of the army. 

Army Showcase - Part 4 - The Eastern Kingdoms

This year as well as painting the 'Escape from Goblin Town' set I have been repainting some of my other Lord of the Rings armies. First to be completed was my Eastern Kingdoms army; quick and dirty I completed this army in only three painting sittings over two months. Using a limited colour palette I achieved a uniformed appearance that looks good on the table top with minimum effort. Not quite 1000 points and intended to act as allies to my larger Harad and Umbar force, I am thinking of perhaps expanding this army with some mixed infantry some point in the future.