ME-13 Frodo of the Shire

 And Help Photographing Minis

Going down a bit of a Oldhammer Lord of the Rings rabbit hole at the moment as I work through my collection. This time finishing off the mounted Frodo mini. Unlike repainting Legolas (which was a slog and I didn't think much of the final paint job*), painting Frodo was pretty straight forward and I am pleased with the final result. I think the mini helps quite a lot but sometimes the paint job just clicks. 

The pony had a bit of a tidy up unlike Frodo who went in the paint stripper. Because I really liked the original chestnut colour and didn't want to change it. 

*And probably going in the paint stripper at some point!

Frodo Nine Fingers leads the hobbits 

as they free The Shire.

The ruffians attempt to break out of the trap.

Also, I came across a short YouTube post by the Squidmar team on their Squidly Bits side channel about photographing minis. It was less than 15 minutes but packed with ideas. Now I am never going to buy an expensive camera (still with the trusty iPhone) but I still found it really useful. And even just the reminder to change the lighting to a cool light  setting made a real difference. 

Squidly Bits - Photographing Minis

Rob 

Axes of the Dwarves

And a Goblin Banner

It started with needing to make a goblin banner and then moving on to make a few more dwarves. I decided to move away from paper banners, so have been collecting various foils from around the house.  Which sort of led to making a few capes for a couple of dwarves who then of course needed the green stuff adding. 

The dwarves are sort of a slow burn project, to be done when I feel like a change. 

I am experimenting what small changes I can make to give them a bit of variety. Like some quick armour panels. 

This guy has a bit of dragon scale or troll skin armour? 

And a quick group shot. 

Rob 

Time for an Upgrade

 Playing With New Stuff

I recently bought a light box studio (from Green Stuff World - during the sale) to see if I could improve the pictures usually I take of my minis. Now, these are still taken with a trusty iPhone 11. I have had a bit of play with the settings and overall I am pleased with the results.  

The only real issue, that it is quite large and I haven't quite got enough space to leave it setup when not in use. 

Work continues on preparation on the Scouring of Shire campaign, with some 'new' hobbits. Just looked them up and the moulds are now twenty years old!

Friday is beer night and something I got given over Christmas. 

Rob 

Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?

 And the Last Zombie

Obviously as it is Halloween this week, and I had to shoot some zombie targets. Naturally I also had to follow this through with some zombie minis. This resulted in putting together the last Kings of War zombie (plus a few friends), I had from my bargain box last year. As well as rebasing a few odd revenants, I used as painting testers for the wild elves. These can now all be used my zombie regiment which brings it up to seventy. 

At least I might have slowed him down a bit!

The last of the KOW zombie split between two minis. 

Cleaning Paint Pots

I came across this on YouTube video. So, I can't take credit but up now I have been digging out the dried paint with a metal dental tool. 

1. Pull the lid and attaching ring off the paint pot. These usually come off quite easily. 
2. Invert the paint pot lid by pushing on the middle. Some lids seem easier than others, But all of the ones I tried popped out ok. Pull off the dried paint ring. 
3. Reattach the lid. 

The Amazon leader ready for battle. 

Nothing fancy tonight, but a relaxing Friday night beer. 

Rob 

Into the Dungeon Again Again

Mucking About with Photo Effects

As usual my photos are taken with my trusty iPhone. In this case set to night mode, Even with very limited lighting the photos still come out  quite bright and clear. So, I have made look more like an underground setting by adjusting the brightness and shadow settings. 

The final shot

Before editing.

The final shot

Before editing.

Rob 

Into the Dungeon Again

A Fun Side-Track

Once I had created the scenic display, I immediately had ideas about how to improve it. The mark one version was held together with blue tack and the light was coming out the joins. So I went about gluing it together and adding some details. I then decided add some dungeon scatter and played around with the lights. This gives me the option to use it again as a another semi-permanent display board. 

The dungeon scatter was a mix of crushed stone, brown scatter, green scatter, birch seeds, broken up and painted matchsticks, gold glitter and bones, broken weapons and shields from the bits box. And scattered liberally around the base of the diorama. 

Dungeon adventurers beware of 'unguarded' treasure! 

Repair work continues on these old high elves, this time with a replacement spear*. A metal pin was carefully inserted into the broken spear shaft, the spear head was created from a press mould and the two were joined together with a green stuff collar. Which matches up with some of the same era high elves. 

*The spears on these old lead minis seem especially prone to damage. 

As usual (and entirely necessary), its time for a Friday night beer. And this week is an old favourite - Hobgoblin Gold.  

Rob

Airbrush Blues

 And the Closest To Buying a New Games Workshop Mini in Twenty Years*

After 8 months of hassle free air brushing, the airbrush finally clogged. And I had to resort to YouTube videos on how to clean it. Which I did but this didn't fix the problem. So back to the videos and still no joy. Eventually I worked out that the nozzle was broken (see photo) and was able to extract  it (very carefully). A replacement was ordered and I was back in business.  Probably broken  when I extracted the needle.  

A great example of it was obvious once I worked it out!

*Now I have been given a few current GW minis but I didn't pay for them. The last lot I bought were the LotR minis about twenty years ago. 

On  a better note, I was able to get the Slann mage priest mini I wanted, now it is still the most expensive mini I have bought since getting back into hobby. But was only half the price of the current Slann mage priest! Now all I have to do is work out how I want to paint it!

And at 20 years old is he old enough to count as Oldhammer?

As it is a resin one I am guessing is a later one, as I think the earlier versions of this mini were metal?

Something that is definitely is Oldhammer, is this classic Uruk Hai. However, what is odd about this mini is the weapon. As it looks as if the skeleton's head has been moulded on instead of the expected spear. As I am not aware that there were any variants of this mini. It could a recast but why bother if you are going to change it? The other two minis in the set were as expected. 

Rob

More Zombies Needed

Step Forward if You Like Brains

First batch of zombies now completed and I have got bitten by the bug (or is that zombie) to do some more. 

The second batch of zombies have all been cut, modded and armed with crude weapons. To up the variety of figures and give a more WFB classic look. This time I have gone for dark red low lights and grey highlights to change the range of colours. This should contrast nicely with the greens / browns of the first batch. 

The Ultimate Zombie

Now I think the zombie below is probably the best zombie from the old Citadel C18  zombie range, so I am going to see if I can recreate him using a bit of green stuff  and the KoW figures. 

The classic C18 Zombie

Salute Pile of Shame

As Salute 2023 approaches I am attempting to finish figures and scenery from Salute 2021.

• Scenery: 2/3 Finished hut and tomb,  just the Rohan watch tower to finish. 
• Oathmark Goblins: 25 /30 Still one sprue to finish.
• Odd Plastic figures: 1/3 Only the minotaur is painted but I have started the Japanese ogre (several times).
• Resin Monsters: 2/2 Griffon & Earth Sprit finished!
• Oakbound Metals: 6 /10 Still two Spriggans (trolls) and two badger riders to go. 

All the painted stuff has featured in at least one blog post, so if you want to see them then go and hunt them out!

Although the griffon has sat on the shelf for some time, when I finally got round to painting him it didn't take long. The airbrush certainly helped to get the base colours on but also to do a dark to light brown colour blend on the wing tips. 

The other change from 'normal' was to properly wet blend the skin on the lion part of the model. It still looks wrong whilst painting on the very watery colours but the final result has come out as I wanted it to look. 

This figure has been dropped a couple of times in the time between starting it and finishing it. But seems to have gone back together alright. Obviously not as robust as either metal or plastic figures but at a fraction of the price (I think he was less than a tenner?!). It is a compromise I can live with.  

He is now ready join the woodland host against the enemies of the Fae queen. 

Rob