Ruling Gondor

A while back, a friend of mine gave me a big box of Middle Earth miniatures and paints. The paints really supplemented my collection, because there were lots of earthy tones and moody blues and greens, that I didn't already have, and I was very grateful to be able to expand my selection of paints that way.

However, the stars of that box were the miniatures, and there was some really cool stuff. A few of the characters were painted, but most of the models were built and not painted. After sorting through, I realised there was probably enough for both a good and an evil army, and perhaps one day I could play some Middle Earth games with a friend. I've never dabbled in the GW Middle Earth games or miniatures, so this was a new venture. These are quite different to the Warhammer miniatures. They're in a more realistic scale, without the oversized weapons and hands that you find on Space Marines or Imperial Guard. 

When it comes to painting them, the colour choices tend to be different to Warhammer too, as the aim is to recreate the way they look in the films rather than make them bold and high contrast, as most people tend to do with Warhammer. Certainly I would be using fewer bright reds, pinks and blues, and instead using more of those earthy and subdued colours my friend gave me! Thus here stand Aragorn and Denethor, doing their best to look like the film representations of themselves! Something I enjoyed was all the folds of cloth and the simplicity of the models. There aren't as many details as I'm used to, so I could spend more time on the fabric and not have to worry about too much else. 

I'm very pleased with my first Middle Earth miniatures. I have a lot to paint, so I will do a few more characters to increase my enjoyment, then move on to some of the troops, such as soldiers of Minas Tirith and Uruk Hai, before coming back to some more characters. What's nice is that there are a lot of characters in the collection, including four different Aragorns and two Gimlis, so I have a lot of fun to look forward to!

 

Shiny little so and sos

 I just discovered this photo from a couple of months ago and thought it was worth sharing, despite not having my usual photoshop touch.

This is a Vanguard Veteran squad for my Minotaurs. There is a variety of models here, all converted, from different eras, all brought together to make an elite-looking unit of the Emperor's finest!

Back from the breach

Hey readers! I'm back. Sorry about the break. I hadn't been doing a lot of painting for a while. Where I had done, it was on a model here or there in a really basic standard and I didn't really feel like posting them on here. They wouldn't have been interesting to look at!

But I'm back into the swing of modelling and painting, and specifically, trying to paint nice models to a high standard again.

Something that really motivated me was picking up this wonderful 3D print of Blade, from Etsy. Unfortunately I can't share a link as Etsy didn't save my order in my account and I can't find the item again! It's a really good render of Blade, with a high quality print, and it was nice to paint something a little different. It's amazing how different something like this can be compared to almost any Games Workshop model, with a different way of sculpting details and creating shapes. I got a Riddick from the same seller, so expect to see him soon.  

The model came with an integral base that was quite small and low-profile, which made it difficult to put a magnet under it, so I put him onto a larger Warhammer-style base, and added some battlefield basing material. This will make him fit in nicely if I make some rules for him and field him in a 40k battle... just for a laugh!

 

Just an upshot to show you what I did with the inside of his coat. You know I love blending with red, so of course I enjoyed doing this!

 

 

Death and Taxes

It was my birthday recently, and I received a wonderful gift from Tess: a set of Chaos Knight Wardogs! By the end of the day, I'd built, primed and started painting them! I painted them in the Black Legion colours, because well... I have a lot of Black Legion and they'll slot in nicely.

 I called them Death and Taxes, because they're going to get you: it's inevitable.

 

Leap Into the Air

Behold the Exocet single-person fighter craft! The Vrayaxan 1st Airborne have stocks of formerly Imperial Navy aircraft, but over the last 50 years they have started to produce their own designs, and this is one of them. The Exocet is a supersonic craft primarly designed for ship-to-ship engagements and precision strikes on small buildings or emplacements, and has superior handling compared to Imperial craft such as the Lightning or Avenger. It is fitted with a fuselage mounted, long-barreled autocannon, and two heavy stubbers and two rocket pods mounted under the wings. It carries a fearsome amount of firepower for such a small and fast aircraft.

The aircraft can take off from water, and thus was given the name of a species of flying fish, the Exocet, to evoke the sight of a shoal of these creatures springing from the waves.

The model was designed by Tess in Blender and printed on a Prusa Printer. There were a couple of issues with warping, but I worked with them and painted the craft to look a little battle damaged. Tess did an amazing job with the design, blending classic Imperial Navy blockiness with a sleeker overall profile. I particularly like the swept-forward wings and the twin stabilisers. 

I am really, really pleased with this model. It's amazing to have a completely unique model, and what's more it was designed by my girlfriend! 

Here's the Exocet alongside the Albatross. The Vrayaxan Airborne have renamed all their former Imperial Navy craft, giving them marine names that befit the Vrayaxan culture.
 

Big tech

Hey folks! This is my Riptide! Most of my T'au models were donated by a friend, but I really liked the Riptide model, so I decided to splash my cash on the kit. It's been painted in the same sunset scheme as the rest of the force, and I think it looks rather splendid. Enjoy!

 

 

The Unknown in full

Today is a nice showcase of a full army. This is the Unkwnown. Lord Knar was a member of the Death Guard, but he felt their ambitions were too vainglorious and so he left the legion. He wandered off during a battle, slew the crew of a Thunderhawk and flew off in the craft to lead a more humble existence, sewing death and plague wherever he went. Where he goes, he turns humans into plague zombies, and they now inhabit his Thunderhawk and follow him into battle. He visits unknown and under-populated worlds, slowly walking through the streets, cutting apart local defence militias and waiting for them to reanimate as skulking abominations of the Plague God. He refuses to fight alongside other space marines, as he finds them too ambitious. He turns his back on them, fading into a cloud of mist and flies...