Painted: 9 Uruk-hai Warriors

 

Sometimes an army just has to grow a little bigger to be able to play in larger games. Such is the case this time. The models above are the 9 Uruk-hai warriors that were left on the sprue after I made my first warband for MESBG. The scheme for them was shown in the first post (here). Possibly I'll make a better photo some other time, as I could not get the rid of the bluriness at this time.

This is possibly the last finished painting project for this year, unless I manage to highlight and base the last remaining Isengard hero in my possession. Either way, this projects pushes the number of finished miniatures to 73 this year, which in all honesty I didn't think possible at the beginning of November!

Painted: Moria Goblins

 A couple days back I posted the goblins on which I tested different greens for skintone. One of those greens was Malignant Green, a colour I thought was ideal for my vision of the goblins infesting Moria. As I already had 11 of them laying around, assembled about 20 years ago, most of them primed and  ready to go, I decided to jump in and paint them to see if my idea looked good on an actual model.

The answer is: I really like the outcome and if I get a general for these menace, I fully intend to play at least one game with them. I still have 24 of them on sprue, so there's a good chance that these sculpts will appear here at least twice more.

Some might wonder, why 11, when there are 12 on the sprue? The answer is: one got lost in the 20 years between me assembling it and actually getting to want to paint it. I have also lost one WFB orc boy and now I want to think that they eloped together to live a happy greenskin life, even if by doing this they were condemned to live either as grey plastic or just primed black.

If you like what you see, here is the recipe:

1. Usual slapchop underpainting was applied
2. Malignant Green was used for the skin
3. Blood Red was used for the rags they are wearing
4. Ratling Grime was applied on their hair
5. Wyldwood was used for the wood elements on the models that have them
6. Snakebite Leather was used for the quivers on archers
7. Skeleton Horde was used for the arrow fletchings
8. Black Templar was used for the non-metallic parts of the gloves and boots
9. Leadbelcher was used for the metals
10. Black Templar was applied on the armour to make it look like a metallic black
11. Leadbelcher was applied to the armour as a drybrush to highlight it
12. Agrax Earthshade was applied to to the chainmail and weapons
13. Ushabti Bone was used on the teeth and  eyes
14. As for the bases: Lunar Desert + Agrax Earthshade + Ash Grey drybrush (any light grey should do)

There are some gaps in the bases... at first I attempted to fill them with the Lunar Desert paste, but then I decided that fiddling with it is not worth the effort. Some little goblin feet were also dirtied with the paste, but it does not look that bad from a distance.

Merry Christmas!

Painted: Ash Waste Nomads Dustback Helamites

 

I have finally finished the bases on those models. The Dustback Helamites is the only plastic kit containing a mount for the Ash Waste Nomads... actually, apart from the warbands this is the only plastic kit that the Ash Waste Nomads received. As the only gang officially unable to take any vehicles (something that we house-rule in our campaign and after playing a campaign cycle with "vanilla" Nomads I am now ready to get them some vehicles).

This is a great looking kit, even if a little bit flimsy. The barelly visible model in the back (the one with magnoculars) is holding reins made of rags and they were a real chore to glue properly, they fell apart at least five times. In order not to have do this a second time, one of the chainlance wielding nomads got a pistol arm from the warband kit (as I had a spare one which was a great fit), so if we want to be generous we could say that this a little bit of a kitbash.

The riders were made exactly as the warband. The Helamites were painted using mostly Ruddy Fur, with Royal Robes for the eyes, Skeleton Horde and Ushabti Bone for the ropes and badages, Garaghak Sewer for any leather bits, Bony Matter for the rags and Leadbelcher/Screaming Bell + Agrax Earthshade + Leadbelcher drybrush for the metallic  bits.

Finishing this kit is a little bit of an achievement, as it put me on 53 finished miniatures, which is one more than last year! Hopefully I'll have some more miniatures to photograph and post here before the end of the year, even though each finished little project sets the bar higher for the upcoming year.

Painted: Lurtz

Another Isengard hero is ready to tread the battlefield. I have repainted this miniature after my first attempt that took place almost 20 years ago. This is the penultimate hero for this faction that I have in my collection.

I followed my traditional recipe for uruk-hai, with the only additions being Snakebite Leather for the quiver and Skeleton Horde for the rope holding his hair and the fletchings of the arrows.

I'm not going to lie, this post is more of a placeholder and I'm hoping to return to it later and write something better.

As a bonus, below is the original painting done by me in my early teens.

 

Painted: Highland Miniatures Goblins

 

This time something on one hand different, on the other still in line with what I usually post and what might be expected of me: more gobbos! The miniatures above are painted models from Highland Miniatures Steppe Goblins. I highly recommend this creator for various fantasy species and factions! 

I decided that I didn't actually like the skintone of the Night Goblins that I posted here, so I bought a couple of different green transparent paints to test them out and decided which colour I liked best. The results were a big surprise for me.

As for the paints used, let's start with everything apart from the skin tones. The pants and leathery parts of the shields were painted in Snakebite Leather, the leather elements (such as pouches) in Garaghak Sewer, the ropes in Skeleton Horde, the topknots and red fabrics in Blood Angel Red, the shirts in Aggaros Dunes, them the boots in Black Templar, the fur and other "wolfy" bits in Basilicanum Grey, the wooden elements in Wyldwood, and the metal elements received the classic Leadbelcher + Agrax Earthshade + Leadbelcher drybrush treatment. Then some Mephiston Red for the eyes and Ushabti Bone for the teeth and stitches.

And now for the skin tones. The first goblin was painted using Gutrippa Flesh, the second Algae Green, the third Ghillie Dew, the fourth Forest Sprite and the last one Malignant Green. I found out that apart from Gutrippa Flesh I could see the use for each of those colours. Thus, the normal gobbos will be painted with Ghillie Dew, night gobbos will be painted Forest Sprite, the warbosses will be painted in Algae Green while the shamans will look a little sickly in comparison being Malignant Green. So this litte experiment was a greater success than I expected.

PS. when I wanted to put those goblins on the shelf after taking this photo, one of them (the Malignant Green one) fell down, the shield fell off and the hand with the weapon and the spike on the healmet broke off. I couldn't find the spike. I will attempt another search later, but it is quite possible that I will have to file off the remaining bits of it and paint that part as if the little fellow never had a helmeted spike in the first place.

Painted: Ash Waste Nomads Warband

 

Today finally something that is neither an orc or a goblin or related to them in any way (as Grima is in Isengard, an orcish army): the Nomads. I received them from my parents for my birthday more than half a year back. I assembled them and they have already seen some games in an unfinished state, yearning to finally get the last colours and some bases. And now, here we are!

As for the recipe, it was as follows:

1. Traditional slapchop underpainting.
2. Aggaros Dune (Games Workshop) for most of their robes/rags.
3. Magic Blue (Army Painter) for the rest of their robes/rags.
4. Bony Matter (Army Painter) for the clotch on their backpacks.
5. Basilicanum Grey (Games Workshop) for the pants.
6. Nuclear Sunrise (Army Painter) for the masks.
7. Black Templar (Games Workshop) for most of the non-metallic details.
8. Snakebite Leather or Garaghak Sewer (Games Workshop) for elements that I chose to be leather (sometimes one, sometimes the other).
9. Leadbelcher  (Games Workshop) on all the metal elements.
10. Screaming Bell (Games Workshop) for some of the metal elements, to provide some visual interest.
11. Agrax Earthshade (Games Workshop) for all the metal elements.
12. Light drybrush of Leadbelcher on the metal elements.
13. Ushabti Bone (Games Workshop) on the stiches.
14. Royal Robes (Army Painter) for the eyeholes in the masks.
15. Bases: Agrellan Earth (Games Workshop) + Mechanicus Standard Grey (Games Workshop) + Agrax Earthshade + Dawnstone (Games Workshop) drybrush + tufts.

Painted: Uruk-hai Siege Troops

 

Another foray into Middle-Earth and Isengard, this time with an Uruk-hai Siege Troops unit, consisting of 8 warriors with swords and two berserkers carrying flaming brands. The base recipe can be found in my first uruk-hai post (recipe). The only additions are the brands themselves, the "bombs" and the ladders (stack of which can be seen in the background).

So, how did I tackle the brands? I painted them in Averland Sunset (Citadel Paints) and then just drybrushed them with Ryza Rust (Citadel Paints). It was the fastest way I could imagine, but I believe it looks quite ok. As for the "bombs" I drybrushed them with Iron Warriors, then washed them with Targor Rageshade and lightly drybrushed them with Iron Hands Steel, so nothing fancy, but it looks decent. The ladders were even simpler: slapchopped the wood, painted it with Wyldwood and then drybrushed the metal parts with Iron Warriors.

I have actually painted the last model from this set a few days back and even based them at the same time as the generic Uruk-hai Captain posted  on Saturday, but in order to view the set as finished I had to paint the actual siege equipment as well, To be honest, I don't even know if it appears in the new edition at all (it disappeared from GW's website some time ago), but even if not, I can just use the berserkers as... well, berserkers and the warriors as regular warriors without shields.

Painted: Assault on Black Reach Ork Boyz

Today I have finally finished a project started during Orctober 2023: 20 Ork Boyz from the Assault on Black Reach starter box. I decided to paint them as Bad Moonz, because yellow does not usually appear on my palette nor in most of my projects. I'm really happy with how this merry bunch turned out!

If someone wants to achieve a similar result, here is the recipe:

1. Usual slapchop prep: Black primer, light grey drybrush (or rather an overbrush) followed by a lighter white drybrush to achieve the gradient.
2. Militarum Green (Citadel Paints) for the skin.
3. A few coats of white on the armour followed by Ancient Honey (Army Painter). Putting it on a regular slapchopped areas will make them look greenish in places, thus reinforcing the white. It can be done during prep.
4. Snakebite Leather (Citadel Paints) for the pants.
5. Basilicanum Grey (Citadel Paints) for the shirts.
6. Wyldwood (Citadel Paints) for leather elements.
7. Blood Angels Red (Citadel Paints) for the loincloths and topknots.
8. Black Templar (Citadel Paints) for the boots and weapon hafts.
9. Leadbelcher (Citadel Paints) on metal elements.
10. Hardened Leather (Army Painter) and Blood Angels Red for those metal elements that you want to be another colour.
11. Agrax Earthshade (Citadel Paints) on bigger metal elements, followed with Nuln Oil (Citadel Paints) as an optional step for some of the melee weapons.
12. Leadbelcher light drybrushed on the weapons.
13. Mephiston Red (Citadel Paints) for the eyes.
14. Ushabti Bone (Citadel Paints) for the teeth.
15. Base: Agrellan Earth (Citadel Paints) + Agrax Earthshade + Tyrand Skull (Citadel Paints).

Painted: Uruk-hai Captain

 

Another finished model for Isengard. This chap was painted in exactly the same way as the other uruk-hai (recipe) warriors. It is a really old, metal model and only generic Isengard hero that I have in my collection. I hope to make a list where he will be fielded (it would probably have to be a bigger game as it's usually better to just take Saruman, Lurtz and generally named characters, I believe).

This sculpt was actually a joy to paint, which was a bit surprising. I believe that when one has to work on only one heavily armoured miniature at a time it's fun, whereas painting a bunch of them without a wet palette is a chore (metallic paints tend to dry quite quickly, both on the dry palette and on the brush).

Painted: Grima Wormtongue

 

Recently I am able to paint more. This might not be visible on the blog as I don't post here unless the model is not only painted, but finished (usually, with the orks last year being the notable exception). Either way, I have some more models on the way (as they are waiting to receive their bases), but one day when I was waiting for the wash on one of them to dry I just kind of painted Grima.

The recipe here is quite easy:

1. Black primer and traditional slapchop underpainting, which means light grey drybrush (Administratum Grey in this case) followed by a lighter drybrush of white (Matt White in this case).
2. Black Templar was used for the cloak and boots. Then I drybrushed them white again and applied another coat.
3. Wyldwood was used for the robe and fur trim of his cloak.
4.  Snakebite Leaher was used for the belt.
5.  Ratling Grime was used for the hair.
6. Crusader Skin (from Speedpaints 1.0) was used for the skin.
7.  Leadbelcher was used for all the metal elements.
8. Agrax Earthshade was used on the napkin and to shade the metals.
9. Light drybrush of Leadbelcher was used to highlight the metal elements.
10. He was based as all other Isengard models posted on this blog

Overall it was a quick and easy paintjob on a very, very old model. He appears in my Isengard rosters, so having him painted seemed like a good idea.