Journey into Middle Earth

 Some time ago, someone gave me lots of Middle Earth miniatures. Lots of them. Not being one to turn down free miniatures, I graciously accepted them, and then... they sat in a box for a long time!

Well, currently filled with motivation and energy, I have made a start of fixing them up and painting them. Some needed stripping of paint, some needed small repairs (such as straightening bent spears or replacing missing swords), and some actually need to be built. There are lots of heroes (there are four Aragorns!) and lots of Men of Gondor, some Elves, some Uruk Hai, and Orks. Oh, and Sauron and a Balrog!

The plan is to create two balanced armies and put them in a box, ready to play games with whomever of my geeky group of friends fancies a romp through the Pelennor Fields. I'm only going to use the minis I have, except for the occasional addition to even up the sides or fill out a unit (e.g. I have just bought Treebeard, so the Free Peoples have a centrepiece model).

Previously I showed you a couple of models: Aragorn and Denethor, but now I am going to be showing you a lot more!

The next completed models were the Elves shown below. I painted them in a muted palette, mixing each colour with Eshin Grey so that they all had this subdued, greyish hue to them, which is sort of how the Elves of Rivendell appear to me in the films. There are a few more Elves that I will paint after after I try my hand at something else! I also painted my first Legolas. I think I have three Legolases, so expect to see his pretty face again!

The Bloody-Handed God

As soon as the new Avatar of Khaine was released, I knew I had to have one! I've never been really into the Eldar, though recently I have been reading more and understanding them better, and they're actually quite fascinating. Though I was never an Eldar fan, I always liked the Avatar of Khaine models, and the being they represented. You may already have seen my older Avatar,  and now I have added the new one to my collection. I decided to keep the Avatar in the same style as the old one, head-wise, rather than use one of the newer designs, though I decided to go with the spear rather than the sword, just because the spear looked cool and seemed to balance the pose of the model more. 

This model is really easy to build. Thanks to whoever did the slicing: this thing was a pleasure to put together. The colour scheme arose because I am planning a Harlequins force that belong to The Midnight Sorrow masque. However, I will be modifying their colour scheme to have a bit more blue in it. Thus the Avatar, with blue skin and blue flames, will fit in nicely with those Harlequins. I experimented with some other colours too, such as the reddish hues of the plume and the blue-grey of the tabard. These will probably be carried over to the Harlequins. I will be able to recreate them too, because I have just started making notes of colour schemes in a little notebook. I wish I'd done that years ago, instead of vainly staring at models, trying to decipher if the paint on the model is Mordian blue or Ultramarines blue!

Enjoy the Avatar of the Bloody-Handed God!

 

Gors for the Blood God

Last week, I showed off my completed Doombreed model, and now it is time to reveal his warband of followers. Once again inspired by the second edition Chaos Codex, my plan is to create a daemon world warband. My idea is that he rules over a planet within The Warp and from here he draws his soldiers. At the moment, I only have Khorngors (beastmen) in the warband, and I'm considering what else to add. Perhaps it will be other units from the Codex or some creative ideas of my own. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment below!

 

Here they are, all together. There are currently two unpainted Khorngors, but apart from that, this is everyone.

While most of the models are converted GW gors, some are from elsewhere. Below, centre, is a model from Mierce Miniatures. To the right is Gor Halfhorn from Forgeworld.

Many of the models are converted with parts from bloodletter, space marine and cultist kits.

 

In the second row is are two models from one of the Warcry warbands.

Thanks for reading!