Hobby Summary: April 2025

 

April was a great month for me, hobbywise. I think it's the most I've painted in one month in my entire life. The streak remains unbroken on day 166! I also managed to accomplish a big hobby goal and came quite close to achieving another.

Painted (75)

• 9 Mordor Orcs (MESBG)
• 1 Sand Sprinter (Print Minis)
• 1 Erroish Beast Trainer (Print Minis)
• Gorbag (MESBG)
• Mordor Orc Banner (MESBG)
• Shagrat (MESBG)
• 10 Spider Riders from Battle for Skull Pass (WFB)
• 1 Weather Shaman (Print Minis)
• 2 Uruk-hai Command (Captain and Banner) (MESBG)
• 12 Mordor Orcs (MESBG)
• 1 Mordor Orc Captain (MESBG)
• Grishnakh (MESBG)
• Gothmog (MESBG)
• Denethor (MESBG)
• Minas Tirith Banner (MESBG)
• 20 Warriors of the Dead (MESBG)
• Faramir Foot (MESBG)
• Lady of Gallia (Highland Miniatures)
• Boromir, Captain of the White Tower (MESBG)
• 1 Annointed (Trench Crusade)
• Heretic Priest (Trench Crusade)
• Artillery Witch (Trench Crusade)
• 5 Heretic Troopers (Trench Crusade)

It seems that April was mostly a MESBG month. I painted two Mordor Orcs instead of one today to enter May without any big unfinished business in terms of projects, that is also the reason I painted the Trench Crusade warband I intend to start a campaign with. I add their photo to this post, but over the next few days I'll post single models and the colour schemes I used.

Finished (74)

• 12 Mordor Orcs (MESBG)
• 1 Sand Sprinter (Print Minis)
• 1 Erroish Beast Trainer (Print Minis)
• Gorbag (MESBG)
• Mordor Orc Banner (MESBG)
• Shagrat (MESBG)
• 10 Spider Riders from Battle for Skull Pass (WFB)
• 1 Weather Shaman (Print Minis)
• 2 Uruk-hai Command (Captain and Banner) (MESBG)
• 12 Mordor Orcs (MESBG)
• 1 Mordor Orc Captain (MESBG)
• Grishnakh (MESBG)
• Gothmog (MESBG)
• 20 Warriors of the Dead (MESBG)
• Lady of Gallia (Highland Miniatures)
• 1 Annointed (Trench Crusade)
• Heretic Priest (Trench Crusade)
• Artillery Witch (Trench Crusade)
• 5 Heretic Troopers (Trench Crusade)

Once again, the models for Minas-Tirith remain unbased, so they cannot appear in this part.

Printed (35)

• 15 Separatist Battlebots (Darkfire Designs)
• 15 Stormtroopers (Darkfire Designs)
• 1 Devaronian Commando (Darkfire Designs)
• 1 Heretic General (Westfalia)
• 2 Gwyrdgalas Elf Captains (Medbury Miniatures)
• 1 Lady of Gallia (Highland Miniatures)

The first three entries were printed to have at least one mini from Star Wars to paint each day in May. The Heretic General is a design I like very much, I plan to test out some schemes for my MESBG elves on the Elf Captains and I painted the Lady of Gallia for Mother's Day.

Assembled (47)

• 8 Goremongers
• 1 Uruk-hai Captain
• 1 Uruk-hai Banner
• 12 Mordor Orcs
• 1 Cad Bane
• 1 Maul
• 1 Rook Kast
• 6 Mandalorian Super Commando
• 8 Black Sun Enforcers
• 8 Pyke Syndicate

I managed to assemble half of the Blood and Zeal fomo box, finally assembled all my Star Wars: Legion miniatures and some more MESBG minis.

Assembled Terrain (1)

• Shrine Statue

I assembled and primed the terrain piece from the Blood and Zeal box, but did not get to actually paint it.

Bought (20)

• Blood and Zeal - 18 models (8 Goremongers and 10 Sanctifiers)
• Uruk-hai Command - 2 old metal models

What can I say: I love my KT fomo boxes. And I received the uruk-hai blister from a friend. A week later those models were painted!

Unlocked Achievements:

• More models painted than bought (75 vs 20)
• Painted something recently bought (Uruk-hai Command)
• Achieved a Painting Goal (Paint 100 MESBG Miniatures)
• Painted a unit (WFB)
• Painted a unit (MESBG)
• Painted a hero (MESBG)
• Painted a monster/vehicle (Necromunda)
• Painted a team (Trench Crusade)
• Painted a hero (Necromunda)

Finished: Second dozen of Mordor Orcs

Not much to say, apart from the fact that I sped up a little and finished this dozen today instead of tomorrow as I wanted to have a clear path to painting only Star Wars miniatures in May.

The scheme is exactly the same as for the first dozen of Mordor Orcs.

Painted: Boromir, Captain of the White Tower

 

The Stewards' family is now complete with Boromir joining the ranks of painted models.This also means that the only models for Minas-Titirth that I have left to paint are mounted versions of Faramir and the banner bearer.

The Model

It is quite a good model for its age. Basically a warrior+, with a cloak and horn and a custom shield. I enjoyed painting Boromir and the prep work was not too bad (even though I notices the last bit of random metal thingies immediately before I started painting).

The Scheme

Without surprises, it is almost entirely the same as Warriors of Minas-Tirith. The only changes are: Snakebite Leather for the hair and beard, Wyldwood for the shield, Screaming Bell for the "ornament" under thie shield boss, Skeleton Horde for the strap on the horn and Blinding Light for the "body" of the horn itself.

Finished: Lady of Gallia

This model is special for me, as I painted it as a gift for Mother's Day and that means that it won't be at my house for long (in my country Mother's Day is on 26th May).

The Model

A fantastic sculpt by Highland Miniatures. Because of a couple of my mistakes part of the sword didn't print, but I just shaved it off and I believe it still looks good!

The Scheme

The Horse

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Ashen Stone for most of the horse's flesh
3. Black Legion for the lower half of the forelegs
4. Bony Matter for the hooves
5. Hardened Leather for the head
6. Ratling Grime for the mane, tail and the eyes
7. Soft tone over the Ashen Stone parts
8. Grey Seer drybrush over the Ashen Stone parts
9. Skeleton Horde for the horn
10. AK Brass for the necklace

The Lady

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Guilliman Flesh for the skin
3. Pallid Wych Flesh as a highlight for the skin
4. Strong Skin Shade to tone down the skin (it turned out that my other light skintones went bad)
5. Magic Blue for the dress
6. Skeleton Horde for the hair
7. Flesh Tearers Red for the belt
8. Blinding Light for the dangling bits of the sleeves
9. AK Brass for the decorative elements
10. Reikland Fleshshade on the decorative elements
11. Stormhost Silver for the blade of the sword
12. Space Wolves Grey for the balde of the sword

The Base

1. White drybrush
2. Frostheart for the pond
3. Basilicanum Grey for the rocks
4. Algae Green for some of the greenery
5. Forest Sprite for the rest of the base

Painted: Faramir on Foot

 

The younger of Denethor's sons is almost ready to join the fray (and because of his mounted version I have to rethink how I want to base the entire army). When I showed the model to my friends, they said "Boromir would have been mounted", which is even funnier than normally for me, as I do have a mounted version of Faramir (even though I had to print the horse, because it seems that I either skipped that issue of the magazine or stopped collecting it by then), I don't have any mounted Boromirs!

The Model

Another really old sculpt, but I think it did not change over the years. It was easy to assemble (as it consisted of only two parts) and did not have to many metal snags to fight through. Overall, pretty nice miniature to work with.

The Scheme

Once again, it was mosty the same as the Warriors of Minas-Tirith. The only changes here were: the trim on his skirts was painted in Stormhost Silver and then Space Wolves Grey was applied over it to provide the bluish steel tinge. Also his hair and beard were painted in Gore-grunta Fur with Wyldwood applied over it.

Painted: Minas-Tirith Banner

 

April seems to be the month of banner bearers, as this is the third I painted (fortunately I didn't have to freehand the White Tree of Gondor) and now another faction can benefit from those sweet, sweet rerolls!

The Model

As is the norm regarding MESBG, this is a very old metal sculpt. It has approximately the same amount of details that a standard warrior, but it has to be said that the scabbard of the sword is not a part of his leg, which is a really big improvement!

The Scheme

Nothing new here, I used the same scheme as I did for the Warriors of Minas-Tirith.

Finished: Warriors of the Dead

 

I have been waiting almost 3 months for this kit to arrive. Between the time I ordered it from my FLGS and the time they checked GW's website it was "temporarily out of stock" and I ordered it as a late christmas/name's day gift, bought with the money I received. But hey, when the wait was over I could paint up my first batch of ghosts and I really like the outcome. Now I need the King of the Dead to be actually able to play them... everything in due time, as they say.

The Models

This is a kit that gives us 20 monopose models and a bunch of different shields that we can glue on. It is the newest set for this game I have worked with, thus far, so the details are faaaar better than what I'm used to with MESBG miniatures. The mold lines were not bad (actually there were not many of them at all). I really like the sculpts and I'm happy could finally work with them.

The Scheme

The scheme is really simple. For the miniatures I used the recipe presented by Uncle Atom on Tabletop Minions. The only difference is that I didn't use white zenithal on black primer, because when I tried applying white ink through my cheap airbrush it went on so badly that I had to strip the miniatures and just spray them white. As for the bases, I slapchopped the toppers, slathered Skeleton Horde over the skulls and bones, and then used Desolate Brown on all the parts that were not bony matter.

Painted: Denethor

After a number of heroes for Mordor it is time for someone for the forces of Good. Although Denethor is not a likeabla character with his blatant favoritism towards Boromir, his fatalism and later insanity, he is still the Steward of Gondor.

The Model

This old, metal model does not have too many details to paint. I've been joking that Denethor strides to war clad in his chainmail nightrobe. This copy did not have too many snags and flash and it primed fairly well.

The Scheme

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Guilliman Flesh for the face
3. Pallid Wych Flesh to highlight the face
4. 1:1 mix of Blinding Light and Occultist Cloak for the hair
5. Black Legion for the overcoat, robe under the chainmail, boots, gloves and straps
6. Basilicanum Grey for the fur on the overcoat
7. Leadbelcher for the chainmail nightrobe
8. Retributor Armour for the pommel and hilt of the sword
9. Nuln Oil for the metal elements
10. Stormhost Silver drybrush for the metal elements

Finished: Gothmog

 

The lieutenant of Morgul that commanded Sauron's army on the Pelennor Field. The one that uttered "The Age of Men is over" and received at least two versions in terms of miniatures: the one above and the current one, made in plastic, both mounted and on foot. Also, this model completes one of my painting goals. It is the 100th MESBG model painted for that goal, meaning that I "unlocked" buying the new starter. I won't do it in this very moment, but it's good to know that when my Miniatures Fund is ready, I can just get the box!

The Model

Yet another orc hero from the magazine of yesteryears, a very old, yet characterful sculpt. I probably missed some snags on him,  but after painting I dare say that he looks decent enough.

The Scheme

I decided to look on the box art for the old model and then blend slapchop and Warhipster's Contrast+ tutorial for the new model, resulting in something like this:

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Skeleton Horde for the wolf pelt drapped over his back
3. Wyldwood for the middle part of the wolf pelt while Skeleton Horde is still wet
4. Black Templar for the parts closest to the straps and belts in the middle, while Wyldwood is still wet
5. Flesh Tearers Red for most of the clothes
6. Snakebite Leather for the belts
7. Guilliman Flesh for the skin
8. Iron Warriors for the metal elements
9. Targor Rageshade for the metal elements
10. Agrax Earthshade for the hair (there's a little bit on the back of his head)
11. Pallid Wych Flesh for the highlights on the skin, mostly focused on the highest points
12. Iron Hands Steel drybrush for the metals
13. Base: Dark Earth + Agrax Earthshade + Gorthor Brown drybrush + Gamers Grass 2mm moss

Finished: Grishnakh

Another day, another Mordor Orc hero model! This time it's Grishnakh, the orc that suggested eating the legs of the hobbits. In terms of MESBG, in the current edition I've seen him only on the "Ugluk's Scouts" list. The list itself looks quite nice, as it contains both uruk-hai scouts (that I want to get at some point) and Mordor orcs and they buff each other if they appear in the same combat.

The Model

By now you are probably used to me saying this, but it is another old metal sculpt from a magazine. The current one is made from Forgeworld Resin and is sold alongside Snaga. I had some issues with priming the model, as the black primer didn't wnt to take in some places, but at the end I managed to get him ready for painting.

The Scheme

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Gore-grunta Fur for the skin
3. Ashen Stone for the hair
4. Basilicanum Grey and Skeleton Horde for the fur elements appearing all over the miniature
5. Garaghak's Sewer for clothes
6. Ushabti Bone for the teeth
7. Heavy Metal for the armour and sword
8. Voodoo Shade for the armour and sword

Finished: Mordor Orc Captain

 

Today's Model brings another hero to my Mordor Roster. He was sitting on my "please, paint me" tray for some time now and because of that I have actually forgotten to prime him when I was priming the previous batch of Mordor models. But now here he is, not only primed, but painted and ready to join the future battles alongside some of the named Orcs!

The Model

Another very old Mordor Orc Captain sculpt. Quite good in terms of details, as pleasurable to paint as a regular Mordor Orc (which in my case means, that I had lots of fun painting this model). The fact that he has this much of fur wrapped around his person means that he'll stand out amongst the other orcs (he's a bit taller as well). This is a very cool model and I'm happy that he made the trip from my pile of opportunity to the painting table.

The Scheme

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Snakebite Leather for the skin
3. Basilicanum Grey for the wolf pelt
4. Desolated Brown for the cloth
5. Wyldwood for the handle of the hand weapon
6. Black Templar for the shield, straps, boots and other leather elements
7. Ushabti Bone for the teeth
8. Heavy Metal for the metals
9. Voodoo Shade for the metals
10. Base: Dark Earth + Agrax Earthshade + Gorthor Brown drybrush + Gamers Grass 2mm moss

Finished: Spider Riders from the Battle for Skull Pass box

 The unit for today is the penultimate bigger one from the Battle for Skull Pass box. The only miniatures left are the second unit of Night Goblin Spearmen and the troll. The bases for this unit are a bit unusual, as they had a bit of a texture, as well as some spiders, rocks, skulls and stimps already sculpted! As always with goblins, I had fun painting those 10 miniatures.

The Miniatures

This sculpt is at leas as old as the box it came in. The funny part is that it is also the current sculpt in AoS. I dare say that it aged quite well! I also have the regular "modular" box, in which the torsos and arms come separate and the bodies don't have the bit to insert into their spiders - the goblins have to be glued to their mounts. These though, can be put onto the spiders without glue.

The Scheme

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Blood Red (Army Painter) for the spider
3. Black Templar (Citadel) for the bigger gaps in the carapace of the spiders and the background of the shield
4. Plasmatic Bolt (Army Painter) for the small spiders on the base
5. Basilicanum Grey (Citadel) for the rocks on the base and the riders
6. Bony Matter (Army Painter) for the mandibles
7. Ghillie Dew  (Army Painter)for the skin of the goblin
8. Gore-grunta Fur (Citadel) for the loincloth
9. Skeleton Horde for the straps and bone elements
10. Terradon Turquise for the feathers
11. Zealot Yellow (Army Painter) for the face of the shield
12. Wyldwood (Citadel) for the wood
13. Averland Sunset (Citadel) for the eyes of the spider
14. Ushabti Bone (Citadel) for the teeth of the goblin
15. Mephiston Red (Citadel) for the eyes of the goblin
16. Leadbelcher (Citadel) for the metal elements
17. Agrax Earthshade (Citadel) for the metal elements
18. Leadbelcher (Citadel) drybrush for the metal spead
19. Base: As all the other goblins

Finished: Uruk-hai Command

 

A friend of mine was digging through his pile of models and found a very old blister containing an Uruk-hai Captain and a Banner and he immediately thought about me. I received those miniatures last week and as today I wanted to paint a bit more after finishing the penultimate model for the Spider Riders unit, I decided to get these guys ready for the table and I really like how they came out.

The Models

I have already painted that exact same captain sculpt. There were a few excess metal bits on those miniatures, but nothing difficult to deal with. The tedious part was when I noticed them after priming the models. But all in all, those are fun, easy to paint sculpts!

The Paint Scheme

It's the same I used for my other Uruk-hai. The only difference is that this Captain has hair painted with Bony Matter (Army Painter) and the picture on the banner was painted with Corax White (Citatel). Wit a little bit of good intent the fact that I  tried to paint a hand might be noticeable.

Finished: Weather Shaman

 

The choice for today's model is actually a combination of a few factors: I wanted to clean some projects from my "I really want to paint this soonish" tray; I really like this miniature; I got really bored of using a Dustback Helamite to proxy for my Stormcaller and I believe this model will be a really good fit for that profile!

The Model

This beautiful sculpt is another one of Print Minis Erroish Tribe line. It printed without issues, even though my resin was not dialled in! It comprises of three parts: the mount, the saddle and the shaman herself. I highly recommend painting either everything separately or at least the mount and the saddle, with parts of the shaman as well, to make it easier to reach some of the elements.

The Scheme

I decided to basically mix the scheme for my Dustback Helamites and the Desert Sprinter. The only new colours here are Volupus Pink (Citadel) for the snout and interior of the mouth of the mount and Flesh Tearers Red (Citadel) for the hair of the shaman. The shaman herself was painted in the scheme chosen for my Ash Waste Nomads, with the addition of Guilliman Flesh (Citadel) for the skin.

Summary

I really, really love this model. It was a joy to paint, it printed without issue and I will proudly put the Weather Shaman on the table in the days to come!

Musings: Painting Goals

There are many different ways in which people can try to help themselves either start painting at all or paint more than previously. Last time I wrote about the 1 mini/day system that I devised for myself and that helps me immensely in hobbying (my hobby streak is on day 149) - today I decided to write a bit about a method that gave me mixed results and I had to rethink my approach to suit me better.

What is a painting goal? In short it's a set of miniatures that we "pledge" to paint before buying a certain another set. The idea behind this is that from what I'va seen many miniature hobbyists tend to amass hoards of plastic/resin/metal. Especially if there are absolutely no restrictions imposed on spending. Thus, setting a goal of painting specific miniatures before buying specific miniatures can curb those spending habits. It is also important to make the "I'll paint this" part of the "deal" larger than the "I can buy this" part. This way, even though we ultimately paint to get more stuff in our collection, we are "net ahead", as after painting our pledge and buying the new stuff our pile of unpainted miniatures is still smaller than it was before setting the goal.

It seems really easy, doesn't it? The core of it is as simple as it gets, but it's the minute details that gave me mixed results. First of all, it doesn't take fomo boxes into account. Unfortunately Games Workshop caught me in some of their games - I own all the seasonal boxes for Kill Team and I have also bought many of starter boxes and two of those Army Sets (Krieg and the goblins on wolves one). This is a thing that I decided to not put into painting goals as I'm sure I wouldn't be able to accomplish any of those. Also, if I "need" something for a game (as was the case with the Sha'Dar Hunters for my Nomads) I will just get it. If you look through my monthly summary for the year you'll see that I obtained only fomo boxes, gifts (it basically took three months for all the stuff I ordered for Christmas to arrive) and that solitary Sha'Dar box. So I think it is important to not get into a mindset that every new purchase must be backed by a painting goal. I think that it should compliment what we actually want to paint and if the pull of the new purchase is too strong, just get that new shiny box.

I tried to set goals for everything and it ended up as a disaster. The only goal I actually acomplished was the one set in 2023 - I promised myself that I will get the night goblin Underworlds box after painting 40 goblins. It shows what I mean by the fact that we should be "net ahead" - I painted 40 models to buy I think 6. 

This is why I basically erased most of my list of goals, leaving only a few. I will make a page that lists the goals and their progress starting from now (so the goblin one won't be listed). The page will be divided into two parts: the current goals along with how far along I currently am and the list of accomplished goals (I will probably just leave the goal and reward, without the list of models).

It is also important to note, that accomplishing a goal is an enabler, not an imperative to buy. If your hobby funds are low, just wait till you can afford your unlock!

BTW, One of the goals was reset this year and another one is old and encompasses all the MESGB minis painted since 2023! 

Finished: Mordor Orc Banner

The last miniature from the ones I painted alongside the first dozen Mordor Orcs gets to be published today. It is another very old sculpt that was waiting for paint for almost 20 years and now can proudly display the banner of Mordor for all to see. I am not artistically talented so the freehand looks like a doodle made by a toddler, but I think it's appropriate for orcs!

The Miniature:

Another very old metal model. Removing all the flash and mold lines was not as awful as it usually is. The details are good and much of the orc is covered in metal, which makes painting it my way quite easy. I really like how this model turned out and honestly I believe that this sculpt is much better than the current one available in the Mordor Orc Commanders pack. 

The Scheme:

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Militarum Green (Citadel) for the skin
3. Ruddy Fur (Army Painter) for the cloth
4. Desolate Brown (Army Painter) for the cloth element wrapped around his neck
5. Wyldwood (Citadel) for the wood
6. Skeleton Horde (Citadel) for the cloth wraps
7. Black Templar (Citadel) for boots, belts and the flag cloth
8. Fiery Vermilion (Army Painter) for the freehan
9. Heavy Metal (Army Painter) for the metals
10. Voodoo Shade (Army Painter) for the metals
11. Base: Dark Earth + Agrax Earthshade (Citadel) + drybrush Gorthor Brown (Citadel) + Gamers Grass 2mm moss

Finshed: Shagrat

 

Today we are graced by the presence of the commander of Cirith Ungol himself. Another model from my still vast backlog of MESBG models and the slowly dwindling backlog of Mordor miniatures.

The Miniature

As, I believe, all the hero models from 20 years ago, it is a metal sculpt. Not overly detailed, but still full of character and evoking memories of his appearance in the movie.

The Scheme

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Noble Skin (Army Painter) for the skin
3. Skeleton Horde (Citadel) for the hair
4. Occultist Cloak (Army Painter) for most of the clothes
5. Gore-grunta Fur (Citadel) for the "tabard" on his chest
6. Black Templar (Citadel) for the belts, straps, boots and gloves
7. Heavy Metal (Army Painter) for the armour and metallic bits on the orc
8. Leadbelcher (Citadel) for Frodo's chainmail that he's holding
9. Voodoo Shade (Army Painter) on his own armour
10. Blue Tone (Army Painter) for the mithril chainmail
11. Stormhost Silver (Citadel) drybrush for the mithril chainmail
12. Base: Dark Earth + Agrax Earthsade + Gorthor Brown drybrush + 2 mm moss from Gamer Grass

Summary

This model was easy and fun to paint. Having both Gorbag and Shagrat enables me to field Cirith Ungol in MESBG. It would be nice to get Shelob at some point and some Mordor Uruk-hai, either from GW or some proxies (for some test games of the list I will probably proxy them with regular Isengard Uruk-hai).

Finished: First dozen of Mordor Orcs

 I had a sprue-worth of Mordor Orcs taken off sprue, but never assembled. As I needed a new project for my "at least 1 miniature/day" system I decided that the time to tackle those models has come. I also had a "theme" in mind. Instead of my usual, quite strict scheme for models I wanted to achieve a "rabble" effect, with the models having clothes and skin of different colours, but still look cogerent as a group and I believe I managed to achieve this with this lot.

Miniatures

The miniatures are monopose Mordor Orcs. The sculpts are really, really old, with all that entails for the MESBG range - sometimes what a certain detail is or when it starts and ends depends on painter's judgement. But in all honesty, I had a blast painting those miniatures as I really do like the sculpts. They are fairly dynamic and most of them are open, so reaching everywhere is quite easy

Scheme

1. Like I said, I wanted to achieve a certain feel for the lads, so there is quite a number of paints involved!
2. Slapchop underpainting
3. Military Green (Citadel), Snakebite Leather (Citadel), Noble Skin (Army Painter) for the skin
4. Ratling Grime (Citadel)/Skeleton Horde (Citadel) for the hair
5. Black Templar (Citadel) for any straps and most of the leather
6. Garaghak Sewer (Citadel) for the quivers and leather gloves of the archers
7. Wyldwood (Citadel) for the wood
8. Agarros Dunes (Citadel)/ Desolate Brown (Army Painter)/ Burnt Moss (Army Painter)/ Ruddy Fur (Army Painter)/ Gore-grunta Fur (Citadel) for the clothes
9. Basilicanum Grey (Citadel) for the furs
10. Heavy Metal (Army Painter) for the armour, weapons and other metal elements
11. Voodoo Shade for all the metal elements
12. Base: Dark Earth + Agrax Earthshade + Drybrush Gorthor Brown + Gamers Grass 2mm moss

Summary

Despite their age, Mordor Orcs are still fun to paint and I really like the achieved effect and how they look as a group. Cant wait to see how they perform on the battlefield!

Finished: Gorbag

 

Gorbag is one of the commanders at Cirith Ungol, one of Shagrat's underlings. He's the first hero for Mordor I painted in 20 years (as years ago I painted one of the Nazgul, but as with most of my MESBG miniatures, I intend to repaint that model). The only "problem" with painting him is that currently I couldn't use this model in a game. He's available only for the Cirith Ungol list alongside Shagrat and the only regular warriors that Shagrat can have in his warband are Mordor Uruk-hai and I have none. So, unless in this new edition it's legal to have a general without a warband, Gorbag will have to wait on a shelf for the reinforcement to arrive.

The Miniature

It is a very old metal sculpt with all it's drawbacks. The details are ok, but for some reason undercoating this model hadn't been as easy as it was for the plastic orcs. I had to work on the model with black paint and then it chipped a bit during painting, so I had to go back with it.

The pose is fairly open, which helps with slapchop. The only area that was actually difficult to reach was the armpit on one of the arms.

The Scheme

I tried to recreate the box art with what I had and I ended up with:

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Militarum Green (Citadel) for the skin
3. Ratling Grime (Citadel) for the skin
4. Basilicanum Grey (Citadel) for the fur pants
5. Black Templar (Citadel) for the boots
6. Gore-Grunta Fur (Citadel) for the leather armour
7. Garaghak Sewer (Citadel) for all the straps and belts
8. Ushabti Bone (Citadel) for the teets
9. Heavy Metal (Army Painter) for the metal element
10. Voodoo Shade (Army Painter) for the metal elements
11. Base: Dark Earth, Agrax Earthshade, Gorthor Brown drybrush, Gamer's Grass 2mm Moss

Summary

Even though I generally don't like painting metal models, painting Mordor Orcs is fun in general. I do hope that I'll be able to field that model at one point, either in MESBG or some other fantasy game that accepts models of this scale!

Finished: Sand Sprinter and Erroish Beast Trainer

 

Another small project finished. I had those two models printed since either October or November last year, but recently I just felt the urge to finally slap some paint on them. The sculpts were created by the talented artists at Print Minis. They create a very wide range of miniatures suitable to use in gothic, sci-fi settings and games such as Space Weirdos, Grimdark Future: Firefight (especially as the Gangs of Eden), Xenos Rampant or, if you want a game from the currently biggest publisher: Necromunda.

The Miniatures

Those two minis come from the Sand Sprinters and Erroish Beast Trainer set. These particular Sprinter is a male, but there is also a female version of the bug available, as well as a version of the trainer kneeling near his companion and gently patting it, suitable for a diorama or an NPC element in a game.

The scuplts printed without issues and the support removal was a breeze. I was a little bit afraid of snapping the fiddly bits on the Sprinter, but all the claws survived  the process, even without using warm water.

The Sprinter's sculpt is quite simple in its design and it yields to speedpaint really well, it was a real joy to paint this particular miniature! The Trainer has a fair number of details, but it is well within the limits of what is fun to paint and it is definitely not overwhelming.

The Scheme

I decided to paint those minis as part of my Ash Waste Nomads tribe. This means that for the Trainer I used the exact same scheme as for the Nomads. The Sprinter is just three paints over a slapchop gradient: Plasmatic Bolt for the carapace, Bony Matter for the legs and soft underbelly and Ratling Grime for mandibles and claws.

Summary

This is a great set and I wholeheartedly recommend buying and printing it to anyone that wants to add to their collection of sci-fi post apocalyptic wastelands denizens!