Having fun Painting on a Sunday Night

Or Back to Painting as Normal

OK, so I managed to get a bit of painting done tonight and return to my normal Sunday night painting sessions. I didn’t try too hard with any clever techniques or complicated paint schemes; I just had fun painting up my second copy of the Witch-king of Angmar. I deliberately wanted to make him look a bit different from the first one I painted for my ‘official’ set of Lord of the Rings minis.

So, plenty of dry brushing and washes to bring him to un-life. I deliberately went with a purple and green colour scheme instead of the blues and greys of the original paint job. Not surprisingly, it didn’t take that long, so I was able to paint him in a single sitting. I’m pretty pleased with the results, and he will take his place as a new captain of the zombie horde.

Plus, as a bonus I managed to also finish off the Gondor citadel knight.

Since it’s Sunday night and I can’t be bothered to go to the shops to get any more beer, I had to drink what was left in the house, which was this alcohol-free beer. Hey, don’t knock it until you try it.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your evening, and have a good week.

Rob

A Bit of Sunday Painting

And Alternate Lurtz Done

And time to finish a mini including sculpting a quick white hand. 

And time for a beer before back to work. 

Rob 

Putting All of the Minis on the Table

 And Joe Devers Awesome Miniature Collection

So, what started as a bit of a mental grumble about working out army lists turned out to be a bit of a rabbit hole. Because my line of logic was why bother working out a balanced points army when I could just put all of my minis on the table...

And if I did what would that even look like.? I have sort of done this before with my Lord of the ring’s minis about 20 years ago. When I put all of my painted minis on the table for one big game. Now I'm not saying that I would actually get round to doing this (again) but it's an interesting idea given that I now have quite a few more painted minis than I did 20 years ago. As this was the gap in time between getting rid of all my classic Oldhammer minis and really started collecting classic minis again a few years ago.

Anyway, you might be wondering why there's a picture of a lot of obscure role-playing magazines from the 80s and 90s. Well, it's because when thinking about putting everything on the table, I remembered A couple of big battle reports in several of them, run by Joe Dever. Using his fantastic collection. So, I decided to dig them out and while in the loft looking for these magazines, I came across a number other more obscure ones which I collected for various wargames related articles.

Now the GM team (Tim, Paul, and Wayne), Had several goes at running a role-playing magazine which starting with the GM magazine and then a while later with the GMI magazine. I even remember Wayne (the guy with the white hair) on a local news programme talking about role-playing games.

And they were obviously in contact with Joe Dever because they managed to get him to run two big Battle Day scenarios for competition winners. I was definitely jealous at the time. They also managed to get a number of big-name Golden Demon winners such as Paul Benson to do some painting articles. Without a doubt Paul Benson was one of the best miniature painters at the time. And very distinctive visual style.

Having now got these magazines out the loft, I shall take a bit of a trip down memory lane and hopefully manage to share some of the best bits.

And as always, thanks to the talented people who produced them in the first place. And provided me some with some much needed inspiration at the time.

And of course I am still working on the classic LotR minis. One more Snagga goblin to complete the set. 

And the other and crazy thing I noticed was the exchange rate at $4.00 to £1.20 in 1989. Compared to $1.33 to £1 today.

And something to finish the weekend. 

Rob 

Finishing Up the Weekend

Treebeard has had Enough and the Ruin of Isengard

Hey, we are all feeling a bit a hot and bothered in the latest mini heatwave in the UK. And we can all go a bit far. But wrecking the whole of Isengard is a bit much! Anyway I finished Treebeard a while ago but have just got round to posting a few pics. 

After taking the pics, I think I might go back and lighten up Treebeard's head and and arms as he looks a bit too much the same colour all over.  The other ent in the background is one I scratch built several years ago for my Fae army. and rebased to accompany Treebeard to war. 

And looking at my blog list, I see that Goblin Lee has also just posted about his classic Oldhammer Ents. Last March of the Ents

Plus managed finish off the black rider. Not surprisingly, it didn't take long to paint the rider but the horse took me a bit longer as I wanted it to look wild and unkempt. 

Enjoy the rest of the Sunday 😁

Rob 

Painted it Black

More Oldhammer Lord of the Rings Goodies

So, no surprise it didn't take long to finish off the Black Rider when I finally managed to squeeze a painting session over the weekend. And I also got time to finish my Oldhammer Thorin for the start of my alternative Company of Thorin Oakenshield. 

Thorin & Balin tackle goblins of the Misty Mountains

I decided that I wanted to try and stretch my freehand skills a bit by putting the names of each of the dwarves in runes on the bases.  So, after a quick internet search I was able draw up a list of names. 

These feel like very different minis! And how tall does the film version look compared to a classic 28 mm dwarf. 

And I came across a new Badger beer over the weekend - Iron Hart* pale ale (very enjoyable) and had to double check that they were also still doing my favourite - Hopping Hare pale ale. Fortunately still seems readily available (Phew!).

*I wonder if there is a Burrows & Badgers - Iron Hart? 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. 

Rob 

Alternative Classic 80s Lord of the Rings Miniatures

It is Dangerous (& Expensive) to Think About this for Too Long...

Now, as I was thinking about the range of classic Lord of the Rings miniatures from Citadel in the 1980s and it occurs to me that there are some notable gaps such as Galadriel, Arwen, the company of Thorin, and the goblin king. And this then leads me think are there some alternatives from the 1980s that could be used to fill some of these gaps? 

Galadriel 

This is a bit of tricky one to start as there are no elven magic users from the mid-1980s as Citadel had already transitioned to a wargames focus in the C08 Elven range but they had not yet started to create a range of army characters such as wizards. However, Tom Meier comes to the rescue with Syndil Starsynne who was still available through Citadel in the mid-1980s. Now I had a look on eBay and there are a few about but as part of bigger sets so a likely candidate if I can get hold of one at a reasonable price. 

Goblin King

This is an easy one, there were plenty of interesting goblins in the C12 goblins range including a range of characters that were produced in 1987. So, if I am willing to stretch my rules to this time point then I could include quite a few characters. Citadel lost the rights to Lord of the Rings by 1986? So, I will have to choose a cut off point if I want to keep it 'legal'. Plenty of choice on eBay, so it just about waiting for the ‘right’ one. 

Arwen

Arwen is another tricky one as there aren’t many obvious choices on first inspection. There was a range of pre-slotta warrior maidens from 1983, some of which might fit the bill but by 1985, the only female fighter in the C01 Fighter range definitely does not say Arwen to me!

Not very LotR!

Some of the barbarians from 1986 might have some potential but still look a wild for Arwen. So, may require a bit of greenstuff and chopping. Another option would be the low-level AD&D female fighter. Who actually looks pretty good but is quite niche and is probably quite difficult to get hold of at a reasonable price. One to look out for in future. 

The Company of Thorin Oakenshield

Another easy one to finish off with, while there is an official Thorin mini (Which I already have two of!), none of the rest of the company had a mini. However, there are plenty of useful dwarves in Citadel range at this point. 

And I plan to repair the second excellent Talisman dwarf mini as Balin. 

And Some Final Thoughts

There are still some other obvious gaps such as Bert, Bill and Tom but I can already use some of my favourites from the C20 troll range.  

Tom, Bill & Bert discuss the 'merits' of mutton. 

And Thanks to Stuff of legends & Collecting Citadel Minis wiki for most of the pictures and saving me rooting around the loft for old copies of White Dwarf. 

Rob 

What Does the Eye Command?

Time to Paint 

After struggling to get any decent painting sessions, I finally sat down for a couple of hours today and worked through the pair of Snagga goblins and started on the Lord of the Nazgul. Obviously black is the overwhelming colour for the Nazgul. So, he sort of looks finished before I have even started. 

Given their very Oldhammer vibes, I decided to go with goblin green (Warboss Green) as the basis for the skin tones.  But used Ogryn green as the highlight for the first one. Giving a paler skin tone and Moot green for the second one. Giving a more yellow skin tone. 

Rob 

The Road to Hell

Is Paved with Plans to repaint Minis

So, I was having a sort out of my classic 80s Citadel Lord of the Rings minis* and decided a couple of them needed a bit of work. Now the plan in the main was to leave them  in their current state. Even if some of them where painted over a decade ago and not up to current standards. But they do represent the era they were painted in. However, I decided both Legolas and Frodo minis needed a bit of work. 

*Yes, I did notice a load of cobwebs after I  took the pictures. 

The Legolas mini was painted much earlier than the mounted version but I wanted them to look more like a pair. So, as I moved the mini onto a painting standard, the mini just snapped off the base & slotta base. I didn't use much force but the lead must have just very soft. And then on the Frodo mini, the base needed a bit of a tidy up but just came off in my hand. Honest Guv! 😕

Ok, now I have taken a proper look at him, he is going in the paint stripper. 

So, now  both minis need a bit of repair and a repaint/tidy up!

Right I need a beer, fortunately I have one left!

Rob 

Sunday Night Special

Work in Progress on Nathaniel 'Hawkeye' Bumppo

Nearly finished Hawkeye, I want to go back and tidy up some of the edges, but he mostly done. The colour palette of creams and tans seems very muted compared to my normal range of paints. But I suppose I will get a big dose of colour when I paint the Indians in their warpaint, and British and French regulars. 

When I looked for a photo of Daniel Day Lewis for reference, I was reminded that the film came out in 1992. I can't believe it!

Rob

An Unexpected Bonus

 Only 39?

Not had a lot of hobby time in the last few weeks but did manage to get a bit of paint on  a few figures and even finished another wild elf.  

Like many people in the UK today, the family and I popped home to see our mums on Mothering Sunday.  After a very nice lunch, an afternoon stroll was called for to work off some of that excellent food. Whilst walking around the town, my daughter wanted to pop into a charity shop that happened to be open. 

Once inside I noticed a box of zombies from Kings of War. I had a quick look inside and all of the figures were still on the sprues and everything seemed in order. So forty (Actually it was thirty nine but still very much a bargain) zombies for a tenner is a bargain.   Even with one missing this means each zombie only costs 26p each. I plan to mix these up with spare weapons etc. from the revenants set which will give a nice mix of armed and unarmed  cannon fodder. 

Presumably an unwanted Christmas present, as the set is dated Nov 2022. 

Anyway this will be a welcome addition to slowly growing undead horde. Once I paint a few more elves. 

A great looking Celtos Wild elf.

The Kings of War Zombie sprue

Time for some zombies...

I also want to try and finish a few of those figures which I bought at Salute 2021 before I go to Salute 2023. 

Boris with green zenithal.

Rob