33/100 - Coughing Henry and Dori Walk into a Bar...

I got another two models painted up this week.  After finishing Tiffany last week I was still on a Discworld kick (lets face it, I am always on a Discworld kick), so I started to paint Coughing Henry.  He is the forth and last member of the Canting Crew.  I painted the other three members, Foul Ol'Ron, Arnold Sideways and the Duckman a few years back.  I am going to start on a diorama display box for the crew.  Since I always remember the Canting Crew from the Hogfather book, I am going to do a snowy Anhk-Morpork Hogswatch scene. 

I was also able to finish another Dwarf for my Hobbit project.  This time I went with Dori (not to be confused with the fish).

I have a special project on the go right now.  Hopefully I will have it done by the end of the weekend.  Waiting for things to dry sucks!

Kevin

30/100 - Bifur the Dwarf

I finished up the sixth member of Thorin's Company the other day, Bifur.  The hardest part with painting up the Hobbit dwarves was trying to find so many ways to paint brown leather.  I went with a yellowed leather look in contrast to the red leather of the other dwarves I have already finished. 

It was a simple model and I am happy with how it turned out.  I tend to over highlight when I paint but I am really trying to pull back on it with the Hobbit project.  I think I get a little more control each time. 

I am going to take a little bit of a break from what I have been working on the last few months and paint something different.  I have started work on Tiffany Aching model from MicroArt Studios Discworld line.  Hopefully I can make some progress on it soon.

Kevin 

26/100 - Dwalin has Joined the Group

Every once in a while I'm really excited about a project.  It will be all that I want to work on.  Then somewhere down the line I will finish part of it and I am not happy how it turned out.  This usually kills the momentum for me and the project falls to the back burner.

Painting Balin did this to me.  I was super pumped when I finished Gandalf and Bilbo.  However when I finished Balin I was not happy with the final product.  I was a bit discouraged and less eager to start the next model.

After taking a little break to paint some Age of Sigmar, I got back to the dwarves.  I finished up Dwalin this week and I am very happy with the results.  He was one of my favorite characters from the movie adaptations.

I am thinking that the dwarves will make a good Frostgrave team in the future. 

Kevin

20/100 - A couple of Old Dwarves

I love extended universes.  I like when different characters connect threw different stories.  For instance, I loved that the Death from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's book "Good Omens" is the same Death from the Discworld series.  My favorite part of Captain America Civil War movie were the cameos of Spiderman and Antman.  I always get a kick when the CW's Flash, Arrow, Supergirl and Legends cross over.

Arguably the best at creating extended universes in literature would be J.R.R. Tolkien.  The man created several complete languages and even wrote the creation myths of Middle Earth.  The two members of Thorin's Company that I painted this week have a roll in both "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", Balin and Gloin.

Balin is the wisdom and heart of Thorin's company in "The Hobbit".  However he does make a brief cameo in The Fellowship of the Ring...well his corpse does at any rate.  Gloin on the other hand appears alive and well at the Counsel of Elrond in Rivendale in the Fellowship.  However his strongest connection for the trilogy is threw his son, Gimli.

I was not very happy with how Balins face turned out.  I painted Gloins face at the same time, with the same paint and it turned out much better.  Not really sure how Balin went pear-shaped on me.  I might go back at a later date and redo the old dwarf. 

That is 4 members of Warriors of the Lonely Mountain done, only 11 more to go.   

I am going to take a few days off from painting to build some models.  Lots of Legion of Death models to work on!

Kevin

15/100 - A Master Burglar for an Unexpected Journey

Every once in a while you paint a model and everything works smoothly.  The model is clean and simple.  The colours you choose work well.  You may even try out a new technique without a hitch.  Bilbo from the Unexpected Journey box was such a model.

It was a little unnerving how much the model actually resembles Martin Freeman.  It is a simple enough model; the biggest piece of flair on it is the scarf and jacket buttons.  I was worried that I was not going to be able to finish a project this week.  However once I got paint on the model it came together very rapidly. 

When I paint I tend to keep shades and highlights simple.  I paint the raised areas brighter and the deeper areas darker.  I don't usually consider the lighting a character would be under.  The result is models that tend to have a uniformed plastic appearance.  So for Bilbo I tried to keep a fictitious light source in mind when I painted him.  I figured that Bilbo would have the sun above him at Mount Erebor, so I did not highlight the underside of his sleeve much.  I also shaded the stones surrounding Bilbo darker to capture his shadow (which is fairly lost since I dumped snow on it). 

Now Gandalf has his burglar.  Time to start on some of the dwarves.

I also finished painting 3 stands of Ethereal Hosts for my Warmaster Vampire Counts army.  Models tend to paint up fast when it is 95% grey with a wash.
 

I am going to jump back to Batman next week.  I want to try and get a new model painted in time for the Lords of War Birthday event.  Cyborg will be boom tubing in! 

Kevin

11/100: Bring Out Your Dead!

I decided to get a start on two of my hobby goals I set for this year.  First up was some more units for my Grand Alliance of Death for Age of Sigmar.   I have a lot of undead stuff.  I have been collecting the various incursions of the Games Workshop undead for twenty years.  The fist models I ever bought were a box of skeletons. However one of the problems that I had last year was that I did not have a set goal.  I said I wanted to paint a full army, but there was no structure.   So I wrote a 2000 point army list last week to help me focus.  Now this list is not set in stone.  I am sure as I play more games I am going to drop units and add new ones.  But this gives me a start.

I worked on 3 units for AoS this week.  All of them where old models that I was re-basing and touching up.   I made a new large base for a Corpse Cart.  This is one of my favorite GW models.  It already has so much character.  I added a few tomb stones and graves to the base for ambiance. 

I also re-based and added some highlights to a converted wraith.  I made this guy out of a plastic Empire Wizard and some extra skeleton bits.  

The last unit I worked on was two bases of Bat Swarms.  I do not like the really really old plastic bat swarms.  I do however really really like their rule that gives all enemies within 12 inches -1 to hit.  So I dug out my Lord of the Rings Bat Swarms.  These are great models.  I know I have at least one more somewhere but I am hoping I have a second one to double my unit.  

I was also able to complete my first member of Thorin's Company, Gandalf the Grey.  It seemed fitting to paint Gandalf first for two reasons.  One: he organised the excursion to reclaim the lonely mountain. Two: one of the first models that I painted last year was Gandalf from the Battle of Five Army game.  Maybe this is a new tradition, new year = new Gandalf.   I do have Gandalf the Grey on horseback lying around...

                     

I kept thinking that it was going to be an easy model to paint.  Just a bunch of grey, right?  Trying to find different ways to paint various shades of grey became very challenging.  I almost gave up while working on the robes.  I hated the first highlight but the subsequent layers brought me back and I am very happy with the finished product.  The unique feature that I have found with the Lord of the Ring models is that I can see a very clear progression of my painting skill/style over the years.  Because I have painted the same character in different posses from different sets at different times, I can sit them side by side and compare.  Here is my most resent Gandalf with one that I painted at least three years ago (but it could be from longer ago, I am really just guessing here).  

That is all for this week.  Next week I am going to start on Bilbo Baggins and some Ethereal Hosts for my Warmaster Army.  

Kevin