Fell Beast Complete!

Well with the hardest part over, there was only probably two hours of work left to finish painting the Fell Beast and here we go...

Firstly you can see I've traced the veins on the wings in Regal Blue. I've also done some brown on the reins, bleached bone on the claws and metal on the metal bits. 

I was pretty worried about the brightness of the blue veins, but I had two things going for me... 1) the lighting in the photo makes it super bright... 2) I was about to wash them in black!

Here you can see the metal on the head and sword a bit better, I've also washed the claws with sepia.

And now the wings are washed more. I traced the veins in black wash, then added another heavy layer of wash around the struts (or whatever they are called). Also washed the metal layers and highlighted the edges.

From above you can see the effect (washed out by my lamp, but imagine it darker and less glary!)

Here it is near my ceiling light. Still a little shiny due to light proximity, but I think the colours are more "natural" to what it actually looks like here.

And here we are, some glue, some holding, some blu-tac and some time later...

And a closer view, sorry about the glare from that lamp, I'll take it over to my brother's house sometime and get a shot with his better lighting on the proper board...

Another angle...

And closer up, from this direction, the glare isn't on the head so much so you can see it a bit better.

And from the top...

And closer...

 Here's a lower angle...

Other side... I really like how dark it stays under the Nazgul's hooded cloak. 

And for perspective, here's a whole host of different minis...

I've spent so much time on the larger ones that the little ones really seem tiny now... almost... miniature!

So there you go, now I'm waiting on my foot Nazgul to be posted (Christmas/New Years not so quick for postage!)

A BIG thanks again to Oz Hammer (http://ozhammer.webs.com/) for providing the prize and here's hoping they think I've done it good justice in the paint job!

Now I've just got 35 Haradrim to paint!

And now that I've seen The Hobbit (and LOVED it) I'm sure I'll get suckered in to buying some of those new dwarves... or maybe eagles... or the wargs... droooooool!

Fell Beast First Wash

Sorry for the dismal pictures. We just don't have great lighting. My desk lamp is great for being able to see what I'm doing, but washes out the photos something shocking!

I finished the highlighting with some bleached bone on the wings...

Here is the top view:

And another angle.

Oh, and the base has had a few more layers done...

This is after a single black wash...

I held it up near my ceiling light to try and get a more natural colour, though probably too close to the bulb really so it's not quite that bright and shiny for real.

Back to the desk lamp for the other angle...

I still want to do one more all over black wash. Then I'll do the veins on the wings and other details like the reins, sword, claws etc. After that another few targeted washes should finish it off!

Fell Beast Highlights

**Thanks for the poll answering, still plenty of time to add your votes.**

I spent some time doing some highlighting, nice and quick and messy stuff.

Here's some grey...

And the base...

Starting the lava process, as you know from previous projects it takes many layers to finally come out looking okay.

This is after three types of grey, Fortress Grey the final highlight. I decided that I didn't like it. Too much the same as my board. I had similar difficulty with the Mumak as you'll recall, but this doesn't even have a decent lot of colours like a howdah etc.

So now I've drybrushed some pale brownish colour on the bottom of it.

And a dark camo green on the scales.

I don't like how it looks at the moment, but the idea is that after the black washes go on it the colours will essentially disappear, but not quite be just the grey colours. A vague hint of green and a slightly lighter underbelly will hopefully remain, but still be really dark and black.

Anyway, that's where I'm up to so far!

Black Fell Beast

**Another annoying reminder to answer the poll question about photos. So far it looks like the majority click for bigger pics.**

Well, as I mentioned, nothing exciting, just some greenstuff and spray paint. I still can't seem to get seams covered properly with greenstuff. I'm sure it's just a matter of doing something, I tried multiple layers of liquid greenstuff but I can still see where the seams are. Then again, maybe I'm just oversensitive or something.

In any case, I thought I'd put one of my eagles in for size comparisons. The eagle is more compact, the wings on the Fell Beast are really huge, very impressive!

This is roughly the pose I'll be going for, flying but head angled down towards the ground (where most of the victims will be!)

The wings sure do look huge from a top view!

I'll be doing a lava base under the Nazgul, so used a bit of greenstuff and sand to cover up the shield and weapons that were originally there.

Anyway, that's the sum of it so far. Not sure what the best way will be to get it balanced on the plastic thing. Haven't worked with anything like this before!

Really hesitant to paint it, not sure what I'm doing, but when am I ever hehe!?

Fell Beast

**Please click an answer on the poll on the right - I need to evaluate how I resize my images!**

As I mentioned in the previous post, I won a competition sponsored by Oz Hammer (http://ozhammer.webs.com/) and my prize was a Fell Beast!

I'll be using this guy to lead my Harad army (which I haven't started yet apart from a couple of guys and a Mumak) or my Angmar monster army or allied with my goblins or for my brother to mount the Betrayer on. So many practical uses!

So anyway, then we had our overseas trip etc. and I've only just got to putting it together now. I won't be doing any major conversions, but I couldn't resist a little reposing because I'm just compulsive that way.

I sort of wanted my Fell Beast to be looking like it was attacking things below it. So I used the long straight neck, but the angled head.

A bit of greenstuff fixed the join...

I also wanted the claws to be coming more forward, as though it is getting ready to attack something rather than just flying along.

I cut away the pegs they sit on and rotated them forward, then filled the gaps with greenstuff.

I chose the wraith that is looking to the same side as the Fell Beast head and assembled the rest of the kit...

And here's the other side. Today I'll try and get some time to liquid greenstuff the remaining gaps.

It's a really clever kit, the joins are nice, most of the seams are in places that get covered by other things. I really liked the different options to choose too. I'm a bit daunted by the painting, it's a big model! I think it'll be a bit of grey, some more grey then a black wash. I think I need to buy more wash =)

I was tempted to paint it with colours, but in the end I really like the general black, darkness of the wraiths. Given that my armies are usually quite colourful it might be nice to have just a blackness hovering overhead.

Probably shouldn't have written that, if I change my mind I'll feel like an idiot later =)

I am teh win!

I don't usually enter competitions because I'm not the greatest painter in the world. Last month, though, there were two competitions that I thought I'd have a go at. 

The competitions were over at The Last Alliance website.

The first was a converting competition, I entered my mounted Radagast and won!

http://www.thelastalliance.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5735

But that wasn't as exciting as the next one - I entered my Hasharin into another competition sponsered by Oz Hammer (http://ozhammer.webs.com/). These guys are fantastic for us "Down Southers" as they send miniatures from the UK to us, saving us a TON of money since GW gouges the heck out of prices in Australia. 

They sponsored a painting comp for people in Australia and New Zealand here: (http://www.thelastalliance.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5555)

Of course, the restricted entries meant I had a chance and won with the Hasharin!

They let me choose a prize that would suit my armies/what I wanted and I chose a Wraith on wings! So shortly thereafter the postman delivered me a Fell Beast kit!

I'll post updates in the next post as I've started putting it together now.

Aragorn

This year for our family Christmas we decided to eschew the commercialism to some degree. We've all got plenty of stuff already and are trying to be a little more conscious of the greater world. Of course, it's still important to celebrate from time to time! The kids will still get presents, but the adults are doing something a little different. We went with a Kris Kringle, but with rules. You can make something yourself or get something second hand/antique/pre-loved. There should also be reused or recycled and minimal packaging/wrapping.

We drew out of a hat and I got my sister-in-law. Fortunately for me she's a Lord of the Rings fan (of the movies in particular). Very subtly I found out that Aragorn is her favourite character. So I trolled eBay until I found a cheap used metal Aragorn and pounced!

Here is the result of my work...

The original was part painted, so I gave it a clean up and a re-spray.

Here he is unbased:

I tried to keep earthy type colours, the green isn't quite so vibrant under normal light. 

And based, I know, shock of all shocks it's not my underground style.

And the back...

So there you go, almost a pity to be giving it away =) I hope she likes it! More than that, I hope she at least recognises who it is!