Friday, May 23, 2014

"Welcome, Mr Bowman, to the Company of Thorin Oakenshield!"

Did you see what I did there? ;-)

Well its been a long journey, but I finally, almost 18 months later, finished my set of the 13 dwarves from The Hobbit, Escape from Goblin Town (Ltd Ed) set...

So to set the scene... cough, deep gravely voice..."Far Over,..."



I started off quite well, and even DIY-ed a whole Goblin Town layout, then got the Goblin King and the minions of his subterranean kingdom all painted up... then stalled at getting the dwarves done... not sure why, I guess I got distracted by other things and disillusioned at the time over subsequent pricing of the forthcoming GW range...

Months later, Balin managed to sneak back into the painting queue as part of this seasons painting challenge, but still the rest went for quite sometime before I knuckled down and got them finished, probably again at the instigation of my son saying he'd really like to have a play of the Goblin Town scenarios, having watched the DVD movie several times over...

So finally I can present The Company of Thorin Oakenshield!







Thorin

Dwalin

Balin

Gloin

Oin

Bofur

Kili

Bifur

Ori
A little enforced conversion work, for Ori;  I recall two summers ago now, trimming these dwarfs outside in the summer sun quaffing a foaming ale whilst doing so...everything on a tray, sitting at table on the patio...when I brought tray back inside I couldn't find Ori's catapult holding hand, so had to do my own. I trimmed off a hand from a spare plastic figure, and fashioned a catapult out of melted and stretched plastic sprue, then used some fuse wire for the sling shot part. I thinks he's come out OK, and it makes him a little unique!


Dori

Bombur

Fili


Nori
"Nori" or Jed Brophy, is our local celebrity, as he's from my home town vicinity, here in NZ, and also played, among other roles, Sharku, captain of the Isengard warg riders in the Two Towers...

I think perhaps part of my delay in getting them done was actually a little apprehension, that I was rather conscious of the fact I wanted to do a good job on them and that meant trying to get the colours right. Most of the time painting mini's you can easily decide on colours; brown here, green there, vary the shades a bit, and all is well. But when you are painting something that everyone is familiar with, there then is the expectation to get it 'just right' - and that means the right shades...

I looked over the painted examples from GW, and also got the Visual Companion, to further give me clues, but if anything this further muddied the waters as the shades seemed to blend together before me into so many subtly differing shades of browns, grays and reds... I also endlessly poured over the making of DVD of the Extd Ed of the Hobbit, just for differing lighting shots of the costumes, as lighting makes all the difference in the way colours look on screen...

In the end I more or less followed the GW painted examples as a guide, matching the colours as best as I could figure out with the paints in my collection; a mix of GW, Foundry and Vallejo...

I hope they meet with your approval, and Chris and I can now look forward to some games, "Down, down, down in Goblin Town..." :-)

I just need to finish the weapon pile and then get the Ltd Ed Radagast model done to complete the set... after which I might be eyeing up the boxed set of the three trolls I have on my shelf...

I'll sign off with Neil Finn's Misty Mountains Cold... enjoy!


38 comments:

  1. Very nice work. Initially I wasn't really impressed with the look of the dwarves, but they've grown on me since the movies were released. Looking good, keep it up :)

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    1. I must admit, I always like most of the dwarfs - not terribly thrilled with Ori - he seems a bit soft for a dwarf, but he's grown on me with time... it took me a long time to get to like the Goblins of goblin town, having seen the Moria ones first, but I like their misshapen revolting-ness now!

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  2. Excellent work Scott. Definitively my favorite rendition of these models to date. I like the way your colors are bold, and yet still sufficiently subtle.

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  3. Congratulations! I'm yet to make a dent in my EFGT...

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    1. Thanks... Its certainly a big set to work through.

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  4. Very nice! I've only painted Gloin and a handful of goblins so far... interesting facts about Nori too!

    BTW, you mixed up Bifur and Bofur. Easy mistake to do...

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  5. Congrats Scott ! an excellent work (and more !)
    Even if I've some reticence about the PJ characters, I must admit that your painting work makes me forgot it !
    You're really the King of Tolkien's Universe !

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    1. Thank thanks Sam - that's a wonderful title! I know there are better painters out there in the blog-o-verse, than I, but I appreciate your thoughts :-)

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  6. Looking good Scott. I can't believe that slingshot is home-made-fantastic!

    Like you, I first tried to paint my dwarves 'more realistic', but when painting in miniature, you just need to have more contrast between the colours to make the distinctions stand out. Great figures.

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    1. Thank you! Yes that's very true, so you end up exaggerating the colours somewhat to make them stand out.

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  7. Superbly painted characters, Scott, Each on a masterpiece

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  8. Great job Scott on these lovely models!

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  9. Absolutely the best versions of these I have seen! Just superb!

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  10. Great work. Another set of figures I'm trying not to buy! Seeing your painted examples I 'might' have to make a purchase myself.

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  11. Hey Scott, can I get your opinion? As you know from my blog and email, i'm a novice just starting out. I'm planning on buying the set for Christmas (providing another isn't released by then). My question is would this be user friendly to me? Would I get my money's worth? And I can't wait to see the dwarves in action! Cheers,
    Brandon.

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    1. The starter sets are generally good value, and probably designed to hook you into the game and range... This set is fairly easy to start with as the goblins although there many of them, they are nearly all one colour so painting is relatively easy for a beginner. If you want to mirror the movie story then its a must have set... but if you are wanting it as a starter set for army building, its not so good unless you want to build a goblin town goblin army. The dwarfs are hero characters and not really the basis of an army per se....

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    2. Thanks for the advice, I intend more to play scenario's than Point match games for now, So I think I will get it unless as I say, a box set to match the third film is released. Thanks for the help.

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  12. Stunning work Scott! Nice work on the "enforced conversion work". I have had to do that a few times!!

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    1. Many thanks Rodger! Yes sometimes needs must!

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  13. They look really good. Good job Scott.
    Cheers

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  14. Cracking stuff mate. I think Bombur is my favourite, great colour on the beard...

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  15. They look absolutely grand Scott!

    Christopher

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  16. This was always my favorite part of the first Hobbit film were Thorin & Co meet Mr. Bowmen. They look like the movie versions to me. The catapults conversion was well done I think.

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  17. A great collection Scott, lovely stuff

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