Radagast the Brown, on sleigh.

Radagast the Brown, one of the five Istari, and a wonderfully characterful friend and ally to Gandalf the Grey.

This was my entry for the "Comedic" Bonus theme round of the Painting Challenge...

Radagast's portrayal by Sylvestor McCoy was simply inspired I thought. Certainly not how I first imagined him, but a brilliant rendition none the less.

He brought drama, and also a slight comic relief, to the grim tale of the dwarves of the Company of Thorin Oakenshield in their Quest for the Lonely Mountain, in The Hobbit.

Seeing him scampering about on foot was wonderful... but then to see his transport, was a bewilderment!

When I first heard the rumors before the movies release, I shook my head in disbelief... but as soon as I saw it in the movie... it just worked! Hilarious, fun, inspired, novel. Great stuff...

It quickly became one of those must have models upon its release... not that I envisage using it in every LOTR game I play, even if it is remarkably effective on the table top!

The model itself is a 28mm scale multipart Finecast resin kit, from GW, and took some trimming, and greenstuffing to have it ready to paint. I decided to paint the component parts, then assemble the the whole and base it at the end. It would have been just too awkward to do otherwise.

The minor niggle I have is that some of the rabbits have the void between them and the next rabbit in the line, filled... I trimmed away as much of this as I could, but for a couple of the connections it was just a necessity to leave them as is, as with just the sides reigns joining otherwise, they would not have been strong enough to support the model. But if you can see past these minor effects its a great model :)

It is mounted on a large oval base, that lends itself to a little diorama work in its own right, and the kit includes two small side features; broken tree stumps, one with a small spider at the base, the other with a bird, looking startled into flight as Radagast zooms past, to add to the overall effect.

The bird I decided to simply paint black with a little dark grey drybrush to represent a Raven as these birds are mentioned throughout the tale, so it seemed appropriate to use. The thrush is also in the tale, but the bird on the model looked far too big to be a thrush.

So there you have it...my Comedic bonus round entry... if a nutty old wizard riding a sleigh through the woods pulled by giant rabbits doesn't make you grin, nothing will!