Blue Hasharin

Well, I finally painted up my Hasharin, he's been sitting undercoated black since before I started work on the Ents!

Sat down yesterday and painted him up. Took about two hours all up.

I think that makes me pretty slow, but I'm happy with the result =)

Went with the same blue scheme as my other Haradrim. The cloak is barely highlighted up from the really dark blue to a glimpse of Enchanted Blue. The clothes are highlighted up to Ice Blue so it's all blue but the clothes are a bit lighter than the cloak. I didn't want a pure black assassiny look, but still wanted him to be pretty dark.

On the side of the hood I did a tiny scorpion motif to fit the general theme. The blade has a slight green wash, heavier near the tip. 

I put tiny little script on the blowpipe, maybe it's enchanted or something? Perhaps the symbols are the initials of all the men he's killed.

And here's a view of the cloak with the scorpion on the other side of the hood.

And lastly a front view of the face, showing his evil eyes =)

So there you go, a leader for some as yet unpainted Haradrim =)

Good Monster Army

At loooooooong last after months and months and months of collecting and painting...

My Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game Good Monster Army (also Stag Mounted Radagast).

The back story for those who haven't been following up until now is that Radagast, always friend to birds, animals and plants, has heard from a long line of whispers that an entwife has been seen. This would be incredibly exciting to his Entish friends, so with the help of some friendly eagles the band sets off. This may not have been the mission that Radagast was first sent to perform, but he thinks it important enough to do - even though it means travelling through some very barren landscapes.

The ents are named Leaf-fall and Shy-bark. Leaf-fall is my Treebeard equivalent.

The eagles are Barukshathur (Axes of the Clouds), my Gwaihir equivalent, Sky-wolf (known for always pouncing right down low to the ground) and... something I'm yet to come up with.

Here they all are on the board and terrain that we play on - hopefully that makes more sense to those of you who pondered my drab bases!

Closer views of the left hand side of the picture...

And the right hand side...

I zoomed right back so that you can see just how much land they cover with so many large sized bases, it's on a 2 foot by 2 foot Citadel Realm of Battle gameboard (you can see more shots of it in our many battle reports and how I made it right in the very earliest blog entries).

And if Radagast dismounts it looks more like this...

Oops, how did these gratuitous shots of minis get here...

Wherever Radagast goes he has the power to bring life to the barren wastes, causing greenery to spring up in even the most unlikely of places...

And I'm really proud of this cloak, easily the best I've done!

I had a few questions about scale, so here is Shy-bark next to mounted Radagast...

And even on an elevated bit of rock, the Wizard is still dwarfed by the Ent!

So how does one transport three Great Eagles, two Ents and a Wizard mounted on a stag? Very carefully. But in the absence of that some blu-tac and a cardboard box.

Off to New Zealand for a week and then madly catching up on uni work, but in a few weeks I'm hoping to convince my brother to play a game so I can finally get a battle report up on the site!

Stag Mounted Radagast Complete

Well, my course hasn't uploaded my next assignment yet, so I had 3 hours free today to paint!

Finished off my Radagasts!

This is fantastic as we're off to New Zealand on the weekend/next week and I really wanted to get them both done before then!

Popped them in my handy milk bottle lightbox =)

Hmm, his eyes look just a teeny bit bugged out from this low angle!

And here he is from a more side-on view. Really am impressed with the new Citadel paints. You know my mantra is to use straight out of the pot paints and the new range worked really well for this. So far all I've got is the two browns mentioned in the Ent WIP but I think I'll pick up the flesh range too as I only have Elf Flesh and Tallarn Flesh which makes the skin hard to get a smooth tone on. 

And the back, which is mostly cloak, I really like using the new drybrush paints and the wash and drybrush combo with the layers gives me a really simple, easy to do cloak that I think looks pretty good for no fancy techniques or colour mixes!

And for our stag mounted Radagast, here he is finished off! The combination of Sepia and Brown washes are what shaded the horns of the stag.

Here's a more front-on view, you can see the way the drybrush picked out the feathery bits on the bird, really easily done compared to my old drybrushing technique which was just never quite good with normal paints.

And from the side, just used a bit of the leftover Ent foliage for the greenery sprouting up around the staff. Hopefully it hides the dodgy stag leg =)

And the back, I really enjoyed painting this model, so well sculpted that all the details were nice and sharp.

And an angle from a little above to face his eyes, he looks ready to spend a whole battle hiding and healing while his friends do the pounding =)

Just to remind those who are interested, the stag is a model from a french company, you get four animals in this particular pack (originally I was going to use the bear!) and the url: http://fenryll.com/

Well there you go!

Later in the week I'll try to pop over to my brother's house for the army shot with the ents and eagles as well. I think it always helps with my bases to see them on the full board.

Mounted Radagast Almost Done

Well, with a few hours here and there over the last few days I've had a good go at ye olde Radagast.

I've (mostly) been doing them both at the same time so as to make sure I use the same colours on each one! But then I got carried away on the stag mounted Radagast so the standing one isn't quite as complete.

Anyway, here is normal Radagast with the first two layers and washes...

And here's the cloak on the back. I actually quite liked it at this stage. It's just one brown layer and a wash.

And here's the pretty much completed stag mounted Radagast. I still have to do the claws on the bird and the base. You might need to click the image for a larger version, or just wait until he's done and I'll post some better shots.

The other front view... Man that light bulb is harsh! Note the front sculpted leg on the stag, not bad for my skill level, though probably too thick. The greenery growing up around it will help hide that. Oh, and just realised I haven't done the hooves yet either!

Back, I think the cloak over the stag's back worked out okay in the end, not brilliant, but okay.

And the other back shot...

Here's an extreme close-up. I actually got the eyes looking in the same direction, sort of upwards in line with his body pose. Quite proud of the eyebrows too in a self-congratulatory way =) Obviously the lighting and closeness of the shot make it look a little harsher than it really is, but thought you might like to see what colours I used etc.

So there you go, almost done with the mounted version and well on the way with the standing version. I quite like how it's all come together and can't wait to see stag mounted Radagast with his ent and eagle friends!

Mounted Radagast First Coat

Slopped on the first coat of paint on my mounted Radagast and his foot-sore duplicate...

Back...

Pretty straightforward colours I think. Reddy brown for the stag body, darker brown for the shaggy bits.

I think the cloak bit actually works okay?

So looking alright I think so far! As always, the highlight and wash will hopefully give the depth etc. that really makes it work!

Mounted Radagast

Well, I headed off to my Dad's place to use his Dremel today. I wanted a mounted Radagast with a difference. Instead of mounted Radagast on horse I decided that mounted Radagast on Stag would be cooler.

The story for Radagast is fairly sparse, with Tolkien changing his mind a few times over the course of his life. We do know that he appears to have been distracted from whatever his true task was, but that part of his task was to look after the flora and fauna of Middle Earth. 

We also know that he either has the power to change shape or at least seems to have taught the skill to others. I toyed with "mounted Radagast" being an actual bear model (and may still do that too for coolness). But instead I went with a stag, so that it's obviously different from a horse etc. 

Here he is all burrowed out ready for climbing on board his mount.

As you can see, an unfortunate incident left me with a stag without one leg or an ear. I found the ear, but the leg remains missing.

Here it is from the back.

You may notice the longer staff. My plan is to have some greenery growing where the staff meets the ground. On my lava board it means that the Ents and Radagast will add that teeny bit of colour and life to the otherwise dreary landscape. A sort of nod to his powers if you will. This will help tie the theme in as well as (hopefully) look a little different and nicer than the plain bases.

And here he is with greenstuff and stag horns (and ear). Oh, and plastic feet (sorry poor plastic guy who now has no feet).

I had to greenstuff the rest of his tunic to drape over the stag and have tried to make the staff longer and more gnarled. I also had to greenstuff a stag leg, the greenery growing around the staff base will hopefully hide my horrible greenstuff skills!

The cloak had to fold over the back of the stag. I cut a triangle the same size and shape as the one missing from where I cut it, then attached it along the edges and let it drape over the back of the stag. Hopefully it'll paint up okay.

And here's the last angle of interest. The super shiny spot is where the dremel skipped once, burred the metal (and took a chunk out of my finger!). I've since put a bit of liquid greenstuff over it to smooth it back down.

Anyway, that's it so far. My plan is that Radagast, with his Eagle friends (which we know he talked to regularly) has spotted what could be evidence of Entwives and so, naturally, he endeavours to follow up on the lead with some of his Entish friends. That sounds like a distraction that involves both animals and plants and perhaps is why Radagast did not fulfill his other mission the way he should have.

Letting it all dry tonight, hopefully will undercoat it tomorrow and then the day after might see if I can coax some paint onto it. Otherwise I'll get to it sometime next week.

Please don't flame me for putting Radagast on a stag instead of a horse, just get out photoshop and change it for yourself if you don't like it =)

Now THAT'S ENTertainmENT!

Yay! The Ents are done! Prepare yourself for a barrage of shots =)

Remember they are the great sculpts from Majestic Bear Miniatures: http://www.majesticbear.net/

As always, clicky click for bigger versions.

Here is the Birch Tree Giant from the front...

Left...

Back...

Right...

And here's from a slightly higher elevation to see the base a little more clearly...

And if you look at the full image (click) you'll see the eyes of which I am so proud =)

And now onto the Willow Tree Giant...

Left view...

Back view...

Right...

Slightly elevated view - I love how tree-like it looks...

Direct top-view - check out how well the foliage curtains around the whole mini. It's quite hard to show in flat pictures just how 3-D it all is, so cool!

And here's an attempt of a close up of the face, again I like the eyes =)

And here's the warband so far, just missing Radagast and he's almost ready to paint now =)

Two ents, three eagles and a wizard - sounds fun =)

So there you go, I'm pretty happy with the team so far and can't wait to get to Radagast. Will try to do the final touches on the conversion during the week (but not before Wednesday) so maybe I'll show you some updates next weekend!

Thanks again to the brilliant sculpting of ukfreddybear at Majestic Bear Miniatures - if you like the ents, there are these two, and another, and some other great sculpts over at his website: http://www.majesticbear.net/