... and the city of Minas Tirith!
Three companies of the Ecthelion Tower Guard!
I have been playing and painting Lord of the Rings for many years now, yet still had not got round to painting up some of the main core human troops; the Gondorian soldiery of the City of Minas Tirith.
A couple of years back now I got myself an airbrush, and one of the things I thought would be good, would be to blast up a load on Gondorians with some spray silver paint...
Well that worked out OK, and was the easy bit... leaving the metallic paint to dry I then gave them a wash with a slightly thinned dark brown shade wash... that was another easy bit... but then reality kinda dawned... these troops have just about as much black to paint as silver - all their tunics are black as are the harness and other strapping and most of the shield... I began to wonder if I had really saved myself much time???
And as is typical I then stalled a bit with them... and they sat staring at me for about a year as other troops leap frogged past them on the painting table, and they stared, and they stared, and they stared till I could bare it no longer!
So I have been busy working on them over the last month or so, to get them finished off. I also added a couple of banners and a captain.
I was in two minds to try and go for speed and not bother with the eyes in their close fitting helmets.. but again... I just couldn't bring myself to leave them 'blind' so spent the extra time doing the eyes as best as I could...
I have kept the basing sparse so they will hopefully look OK defending Minas Tirith or Osgiliath, or fighting on the Pelennor and elsewhere in Middle-Earth...
The formation is not legal yet as I only have one Captain here and need a couple more heroes to lead two of the three warbands... I do have Denethor painted up who could be a cheap hero to lead one, and also have Faramir in Ranger garb. Boromir currently is half done on the painting table, and he will add some power to these fine toops!
I painted up some rangers a long time ago so they will compliment these troops nicely. I also have a box of mounted knights to add, a box of Warriors of the Dead, Swan knights of Dol Amroth, and I would also like to add a warband each of the various Fiefdom troops...
As you can probably guess these are a solid core base trooper, with fair fighting ability and good Defence, and ranked up with supporting spears and banners, can generally be expected to hold their own.
More to come soon... at this rate I am going to need to paint up more Mordor troops to balance things out a bit on the home front!
We'll they may have stalled a bit, but they look just the job now.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Dave :-)
DeleteExcellent work, Scott, and congrats to your airbrush. As a basecoat for armour I can honestly recommend Vallejo Air Color Gunmetal.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Stefan
Thanks Stefan - Yes I used a Vallejo Air colour though think it might have been called Aluminium... I'll have to check the bottle... the subsequent models had their armour brush on basecoated with GWs 'Chainmail' and washed as before...
Deletenice work Scott. considering how finicky metalics can be to get a nice, even coat... I'm going to go with yes, you probably saved yourself a fair bit of time to get that good of a result. keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThanks mate. I like the 'apparent' ease of use of the airbrush, the bugger is cleaning it out afterwards... Last time I tried to use it, I just couldnt get it to work properly and dumped it in the corner in disgust, a lot of time wasted cleaning and retrying it... it now has a nice layer of dust building up on it... I probably should ebay it off...
DeleteNicely done Scott, they look great.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark :-)
DeleteNice work Scott. I wish you lived in my city. You are the most active LotR/Hobbit man and I admire your love for the this hobby- even if the father company doesn't. :)
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work.
Thanks Mate. I know what you mean , there's loads of great blokes out there I have 'met' through blogging who I'd love to game with... if only they'd hurry up and invent the Star Trek teleporter ! ;-)
DeleteNice warbands! Boromir will add a lot of power to your Gondorians!
ReplyDeletePanagiotis
Thanks Panagiotis. I currently have him simply on foot, but have tracked down a mounted version with banner but still on look out for foot version with banner... though would probably only go with banner in large games...
DeleteNice work Scott. Doing the eyes on those plastics is sure going the extra mile since you can hardly see them (and won't from the table). Looking good though.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark... yeah I know... I just cant help it... I'll probably stop doing eyes, when my own eyesight fails!
DeleteThey look wonderfully impressive Scott, especially all arranged like that.
ReplyDeleteThanks Michael. I was lucky to win an auction bid for the Minas Tirith walls set and it certainly sets them off nicely :-)
DeleteDon't think of it as stalling. Think of it as taking them time to get them right :-)
ReplyDeleteLOL, thanks mate :-)
DeleteThey look wonderful. The eyes really add something and I think it was well worth the effort to add them. The shading of the armour pieces also worked very well and you achieved some good contrasts.
ReplyDeleteI rember getting a free sprue of these guys, but they are still in a box unpainted. After seeign this I might finally give them a go. Thought of using them as generic guards/knights for RPG sessions.
Thanks mate.
DeleteI know what you mean, I always hoped I'd be able to use my figures for some Middle Earth roleplaying someday too... I've got a bunch of old MERP stuff thanks to Millsy (comment above)... I'll have to figure it out sometime... likewise I was interested in the new Over the Edge of the Wild RPG, but it doesnt seem very miniatures focused unfortunately...
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Thanks Nathan. Yep, a great deal of pleasure can be derived from just casting an eye of your painted troops :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's rare for me to undercoat in black but I did for my knights of Gondor. However, seeing your Gondorians may yet inspire me to complete mine. They look superb!
ReplyDeleteI always find silvery metallics work best over a black undercoat. For gold I sometime work off a dark brown base, but black works too. Thanks :-)
DeleteWell they look great now Scott! I know the feeling though, I once spray painted a bunch of Confederates gray, thinking I was saving time! Yea, nah!!!
ReplyDeleteOddly enough it was exactly that idea I bought the airbrush for and hoped it would be useful for base coating other armies where one colour dominates, and perhaps terrain uses too... but I just find setting the thing up, getting it working and cleaning it out afterwards a time wasting chore... think I should clean it off and put it on trademe...
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