Finishing with a Duel (Again)
A chance encounter turns violent. |
A chance encounter turns violent. |
Bertolac at Orcs Drift |
My Bertolac figure started life as a City Guard from Grenadier’s Fantasy Warriors Fighting Men (Still available from Fornlorn Hope). When I decided that I wanted to use him as the human hero, a bit of conversion was needed. I decided on him because has a similar looking figure to the one in Gary Chalk’s picture. I did find an original on eBay for £25 but that is about 4-5 times more than I am willing to pay. Now if I could find him for a fiver…
The Mark Copplestone City Guard |
With the original 90's paint job |
I managed to find a sword arm in my bits box and did a simple the arm swap. However, he has a 20-year-old paint job, but I really like the shield design, particularly the chequer board. So, I decided to repaint him without stripping the original paint job. If I can find a suitable feather I will add it to the helm later.
Another excellent Gary Chalk Illustration |
'Bertolac has removed his armour, but a shield is at hand giving him a saving throw of a 6. He is armed with a sword. He has a light head injury, giving a -1 on all profile characteristics.'
Bertolac lead the Walking Wounded |
Holding the Line. |
After what seems like a long time, I actually have finished something. I seem to have lots of stuff in progress which are all moving forward a little bit without actually finishing anything. However, I finally focussed on one figure and got him done. It probably helped that we have had a change in the weather form hot and sunny to wet here on the South coast of the England!
I definitely went for a bright heroic colours as befits the noble paladin. As this is the high level character he is well kitted out in an array of top end items and like other figures in this range is well prepared for adventuring! This meant it it took a while to work through all of the base colours as there are lots of different parts before starting the highlighting/ washes. But an enjoyable figure to paint and adds to my small but growing band of AD&D adventurers.
Rob
At the start of the Fae army building, I knew that I wanted a distinct look to the bases. Which included a blended scenic scatter. I had already seen the use of birch seeds from other blogs. Which give a suitably woodland look. So it was a bit a forage around the house and garden.
Woodland Scatter Mix
From Left to right in approximately equal amounts.
1. Light Brown Scenic Scatter - If I was doing this again I would probably leave this out as it doesn't show up much on the brown bases.
2. Mixed Herbs - form the local supermarket (Other Brands are available).
3. Autumn Scenic Scatter (Yellow / Orange grated sponge) from eBay.
4. Dried Catkins - The whole catkin was dried on a window sill and then they were removed from the stalk by hand.
5. Birch Seed Pods (Silver Birch - I think) - I found a load around the silver birch tree at the bottom of the garden.
Rob
With the lure of better weather, not surprisingly other things have taken over from painting. Like drinking beer in the garden/pub. Still I have managed to finish a few things. But mostly everything seem in progress.
Rob
This is one of those sets that I would regret not getting whilst it is in production and end up paying over the odds to get later. I managed to get a slightly discounted set off eBay but it still costs nearly £2 per figure. So not particularly cheap but as usual Citadel have done a great job of making miniatures out of the characters.
I was surprised to see how many of the figures are single piece mouldings whilst retaining a good 3-D design. There is bit of choice with Thorin and Bilbo to arm them before or after the troll hoard. I planning to use the after the troll horde as both figures just look better with Sting & Orcist.
My plan is to paint them one or two at a time as side project. Really so I can take my time and try to do a good job. After a bit internal debate I decided upon Gloin first, as I like the figure but he is not one of my favourite characters or models from the set.
I have got a couple of the glossy books which were released at the time. Which should serve well as reference sources. While scanning through the books I noticed a short piece by Ann Maskrey talking about colours: Thorin - Midnight blue, Balin - predominately red, Dwalin - Khaki, Bifur - rust, Bofur a dirty yellowy mustard, Bombur- tones of olive green, Fili - a slightly mauve grey, Kili - teal blue, Gloin - blood red, Oin - brown, Nori - grey, Dori - mulberry colours and Ori -soft lilac grey. Which gives an interesting starting point.
Rob
Water Heater Finished* * And painted another gobbo 😀 One more room to complete. Rob