Dawn at Helms´Deep

Hello, I am spending intense nights at my desktop :)


I had a very hard time of testing painting white clothes.(it is rally difficult) .. i followed the very useful  tips from Phil C in his blog and several messages (for instance http://philotepsfigures.blogspot.de/search/label/painting%20technique), but I like the result at the end :)




Here is Gandalf the White arriving to Helms deep when the Party is almost over.. :)

Some lighter pics:


the trick is starting with a pale grey layer, then highlighting with differente white tones..


My wife thought however at the begining that he was too uniform, so i changed the base layer of the cloak to a yellowish "crude" mixture (as in the film is actually) , whereas the horse and the beard and hair of magician was greyish fromn the very beginning.


So i gained a little contrast between all three "materials": tunic, cloak and fur/hair..

Viking Shield Maidens

This is a topic that motivates me a lot long time ago.

Some would judge me maybe as a sexual perverted, but you must admit that the image of  warrior armoured viking women (usually represented also as very  beautiful in Tv, cinema and literature)  is visually too much impresisve and attractive

The TV Show "Vikings" for sure has influenced much, but therer was already before of that, the characther of Eowyn from Tolkien was also there. And, if you search you can fin some records in the nordic sagas about these supposed fighting "shield maidens" (skjaldmo) .. The Myth of Valkyries is strongly related also to that... They all stay more or less in a Legendary world...

Here a little link on some medieval records on those women and apparition on Sagas and imnspiration images :

https://www.tor.com/2015/06/08/viking-warrior-women-did-shieldmaidens-like-lagertha-really-exist/

http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com.es/2013/03/women-in-warfare-did-viking-shield.html

 

For sure, not much material available in 1/72 (still ).. 

I like for sure the newest sets of Amazons and moderns Amazons from redbox, but they are not exactly what i mean here (they show too much flesh :)) I was looking for women with armour and long robes.....

So this should be my first option (Orion viking "valkyrie) : i must paint her, if I find these guys in my parents home

Or also some ladies form the Orion pirate set:

But I went to another way in the meanwhile: As I have still several 15mm figures from demonworld left.. i realize that some wood elves look very nice and beuatiful .. (not sure if the figures were man or woman in the designer head? that happens often with elves..) 

So why not combining with long mail shirts and robes form Strelets Normans and Norman Archers????

RESULT IS FOR ME QUITE SURPRISING !!! 

AND WITH GOOD PAINTING WORK IT GOES EVEN BETTER

Hope to make more of there fighter soon!

 Some Caesar adventurer is als useful here by the way)

Wessex last stand

Good evening,
I am finishing several works, so that I can post still for a while :)

This time I switch to 100% historic (I should do it more often, I realize I only post my Fantasy works!)

I was painting the special figs from latests 1006 Strelets sets: Stamford Bridge and Anglo Saxon Army big-boxes

I took enough saxons now to represent an imaginary last defensive shieldwall formed around king Harold II Godwinson in battle of Hastings 1066, in the previous moments to the norman arrow which hits on his eye and brings the anglo-saxon England to its end...

The figures from these sets are quite nice and detailed, they look much better after painting.

 There are some heavy Housecarles and/or Thegns , with complete mail shirt, shield, helms and diverse weapons. They are supported by some not-so--well armed fyrd miltia men, including the lighter archers and javelineers with no armor at all.

The king Harold himself is represented however by a figure who comes from the viking sprues, probably he was supposed to rperesent king of Norway Harald Haardrada, but in my opinion he matches much better the last Saxon King, standing in second line  behind his bodyguards, next to the Red Draco standard of Wessex in hist last defense...

Many poses are quite dramatic, I hope you like this as I enjoyed painting and placing the figures together.
I will increase this with figs form "regular" Strelets-M infantry sets and other manufacturers (Revell, Emhar..)

Elves (ii) Satisfactory conversion

Hello,
I am happy to be so active during last days,

After my first tests with elves, I decided for some classic warhammer "high elf" look, combining middle blue, white and bronze armours.. (when I start with rangers it will be different)

After reading some old tips in some blog, abput increasing variety in our 1/72 Famtasy, I made two new elf noble swordmen from exisitng 1/72 historical figures.. CAn you gueess were the parts come from?

They definitevely do look nice, so probably I wil convert more. What do you think about them?

Then more pics with other elves form yesterday, this grouip of heavies is OK for me, colour scheme works fine

Diverse characters

I am somehow inspired this week,

Here some different characters I was also working on during last weeks

I think you can recognize a popular Warrior Princess here and a famous... Bastard?

And my first batch of Fangorn "angry" shepeherds, with Treebeard!!!!!

Many of these figures were already painted when I acquired them (2nd hand is quite good),  they are from very different producers  and origins  I just finished osme shadowings, highlighting  and so on...

Actually most of them 28mm but Trees have no Scale I think...

Thanks for watching

Elves

Good morning,


I made some first tests about elves...


Not quite sure about what I am looking for.. more like impressive high elves  (gold, blue, white..) or morde wood elves look (greenish, brown..)¿??¿


Here what I have for the moment.. Comments welcome as always




Figs from:
Caesar (old set and new set)
metal Miniknight
Metal Eureka mimns (18mm modified by making them TALLER)
Light Alliance (modified by making them SHORTER)
War of the Ring Boardgame
Battlelore boardgame (2 Ed),


And some quite rare (and expensive)metal fig from another exinguised game "Quest from the Dragonlords"




Ah"1 AND AN ALLIANCE "MODERN" AMAZON WHO LOOKED QUITE ELVISH

Middle Earth (i), and more...

Hi,
I was quite busy many nights, I am working in several topics at the same time, not really a progress but I feel quite happy indeed with my results anyway


I think many of you do know the boardgame "War of the Ring" It brings a lot of nice figs for the Tolkien universe, the scale  matches quite good the 1/72 (not so good with horsemen but OK)  and there you have troops and officers for all different factions (Rohan, Gondor, elves, dwarves, Nordor and Orthanc-Saruman....)  But best of all, there are a selecition of the main characters!!: fellowship of the Ring, Bad Guys...

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9609/war-ring-first-edition


There you can find some Uruk Hais htat Phil OTep asked about, (i took a pic fromn the same website)

I was working on the characters mainly, here the first look of figures (not yet finished), GAndalf the Grey, Frodo and Sam,

There "Strider", Gimli and legolas.

This Strider-Aragorn is not from the game  , as the included figure there ressembles more Aragorn as king of Gondor. This is the figure form Cesar adventurer set .. So you have a size comparison!

I am quite happy with them

The last pics show my converted Boromir and the other two Hobbits.. Also the original Boromir state, so yo can see how better he looks now with some relevant equipment changes :)

I started also some enemies for them..

Here a selection of diverse Uruk Hai including one form the commented game.. 

Standard bearer comes from Eureka 18mm. he is tiny, but he is not important, the HUGE WHITE HAND FLAG is :)  .

Many  uruk here are self-production with milliput, moulding form an Alliance master

Othe day i will sohow the making-off.. Do you find the original in the picture?

PS. As last gift, going back to Westeros, a preview of how Drogon grew up during las month,  he is able to carry Daenerys on him. Still to finish