Enough for a Small Warband (52pts)

Equalled the Previous Best

So with five wood elves painted I have equalled the size of my previous attempt at a wood elf army (see last post). Overall I am happier with this first batch of four compared to the first one. As I am getting a feel for how to paint these figures and learning to keep to the lines and so not having to do too much tiding up on the skin. I am particularly pleased with the hair as I have managed to keep the black low lights with the white highlights which gives them a very albino quality.  These ex-Grenadier and ex-Celtos figures form the core of the army. As reward for for finishing five I think is time for a standard bearer. 

A mixture of ex-Grenadier and & ex-Celtos figures

Very pleased about how the hair turned out. 

I also think I will add some Beastman skulls from the Citadel skulls set. As think this fits the wild look of these figures. 

Working with the Airbrush

After doing a zenithal highlight with the light brown, I then decided to do two zenithal lowlights from below with two shades of green. A light green from one side aide and a darker green from the other side. They don't particularly show up in this light but the result looks good by eye. And will provide a good (and quick) starting point for painting the rest of the miniature. 

The excellent Oakbound Miniatures 6-Soul Sluagh will be
 pressed into service as the wood elves treeman

Rob

Beginner's Luck

 Fun & Games with Airbrushes

On very relaxed Sunday afternoon, I managed to break out the paints and settle in for nice long painting session. I also, set up airbrush for a second go. And to use a very well known footballing phrase it was very much a game of two halves. 

The first session was used to zenithal highlight Sauron the Necromancer and in the main it went very well. So, I had a second batch of figures already black undercoated. Ready for a repeat performance. However, I couldn't get paint mix right and the paint ran all over the figures. Now I did use the cheap white paint included in the set but with some decent thinner (Vallejo) but I think I over thinned it. Now I do think I will need to buy some good airbrush white and have seen a couple of recommendations on Youtube videos. 

I then changed colours and had much more success with the light brown which went on smoothly.  Now this was with a quality paint with was a bit thicker and I didn't use as much thinner. So, this probably helped. And since this went well I finished off with a green zenithal on some other stuff which also looked ok. 

The green around the base of the Griffon was
a mistake but looks rather good. 

The attempt to beat my previous personal best of five wood elves continues with another batch of four. Overall I am much happier with the skin tones. With was helped by using the two very pale skin tones in the right order. I have now labelled them to avoid that mistake again. 

The speckled bases were because I had attempted to
zenithal highlight them with a spray can and it did not go well. 

How many Bilbos?

With only Bilbo left in the company of Thorin Oakenshield to paint, I thought it would be a good time to break open the other Bilbo figure. This time from Lord of the Rings. It picked this one up last year for a fiver which I thought was bargain. I have now heard that they have finally retired this figure after twenty  years. So, it looks like I got this one in time. 

Now given the packaging is from the first film, I reckon this one is fifteen to twenty years old. So, I as opened the blister, I was reminded how long it was since I last bought a new Citadel blister. Which was also probably fifteen to twenty years ago. 

I also have the Bilbo figure for the 80's ME-34 Hobbits of the Shire set. Which I am painting at the moment so I might as well paint him as well. 

Rob

One Small Step for ...

 One Giant Leap for the Forces of Evil

After rushing to build Sauron, I decided to pause work on him until my new airbrush arrived.  As I wanted to  do a Zenithal highlight and I find the spray cans are not fine enough. Now I have seesawed on a decision to buy an airbrush because even a basic kit is about ~£100. And that buys a lot of classic figures!

Anyway with a bit of money from Christmas, I decided the time was right to buy an airbrush. Ended up with a starter set for £97. I had watched a couple of Youtube videos where they had bought a similar one. So once satisfied, the money was spent.

 And Sauron was the first time I have used it. I am still working out how to use it but I am quite impressed with the overall effect. I hope that I can move on stepwise from this first go. 

First go with an airbrush

One of the main reasons I have been struggling with Zenithal highlights, I am still expecting to end up putting on one coat of opaque paint. So there is not much point doing a zenithal highlight if the paint isn't thinned down enough to let the highlights show through. Now  this is very much still a work in-progress but it is interesting to see how the effect turned out. I think He needs a final very light highlight, but mostly finished. 

A few hours later

Never too  many skulls

You shall not pass

Rob