More pics

Hi folks!

Painting miniatures is an activity I'll put aside until next winter.
The summertime is much too nice to do other things outdoors... .

For you to overcome the waiting period, here a few more pictures I took recently.

Kingfisher

Speaking of my other hobby, photography... .

I know, this is supposed to be a miniaturepainting blog, but maybe you like to see some of my other work.

This morning i was out and about, looking for the kingfisher, which I've "hunted" in recent weeks. And today I got lucky!

A little timeout...

Hello to all my frequent visitors,

and sorry, that I haven't posted any new work lately.

But the weather was just too good this spring, so that I didn't spend any time painting miniatures at all.

Instead, I was busy with my other hobby, photography, and spending a lot of time in nature.

As we all know, those rainless summers never last long, and then there'll be enough time to sit inside and paint.
So keep coming back and check what's new.

Until then - have a great summer!

Tom

Some new aquisitions

From time to time I buy painted figures from other people. If the paint job is good, I have no problem adding such miniatures to my collection.
It also saves me some time I can use to work on my many other projects... .

Here we have a Daemon Prince conversion that is really well painted. I also liked the idea of the conversion.

I kind of like Space Wolves. I paid quite a high price for this Grimnar, but it's well worth the money. A really professional paint job and - as I think - a good idea using real slate for basing.

This is a little vignette showing two High Elves, a mage and a hero. Nicely painted, but they were very plainly based, so I decided to put them on a base that I made myself using cork and some plaster.

New Treebeard pics

I've added new pics from the Treebeard conversion.
Find them further down... .

Bilbo Baggins

Being one of the smallest figures I've painted so far, this little LOTR Bilbo miniature was quite a task and took me a few days. I just didn't want to rush things.

I put a special emphasis on the face and the eyes and honestly like the result very much.
The clothing has been washed and highlighted several times with very thin paint in order not to see any brushmarks due to the small size of the miniature. I purposely didn't set the highlights too harsh, since this one will be at close display and not part of a larger diorama or such.

As usual, the pictures don't do the figure justice. I guess, the smaller they get, the harder they are to photograph.

WIP

Inspired by Holger Schmidt, one of the best miniature builders and painters I know, I started with a conversion of a LOTR Treebeard.

Being very static in his pose, the Ent was modified in several ways.
His right arm was slightly bent and put in a position pointing backwards.
Also the legs were repositioned as in a slow walking motion.
The biggest change happened to the left arm, which was cut in two pieces and repositioned in a pose in which it's holding its hand up and forward. Also the fingers were bent to form a cup shape.
All this, of course, to hold one of the two hobbits he is carrying around in his left hand talking to him.

The hobbit in the hand (Pippin) is another than the one supplied with the Treebeard. It was also converted fo fit nicely into the open hand.

All in all it was a nice conversion needing a lot of Greenstuff, but worth the effort.

Since I'm not sure yet, what kind of diorama to make for this miniature, I only crafted a small base with some plaster and Greenstuff to resemble a forest floor with rocks and roots.

At this stage it still looks a little odd, but I think one can see the difference to a "standard" Treebeard. Once painted it will look better.

One last note: I didn't use the leaves supplied with the model, since they don't look very realistic. H. Schmidt used some fine etched brass-foilage, that I will also attach to the model after painting it. Also, I'd like to thank Holger for his support and tips regarding this project. He assured me that he didn't mind me using his idea... .

Work on the Treebeard is progressing.
It's basically finished, but I need to add some leaves on tiny branches to it. I want to use etched foliage, but having some difficulties finding it in the correct size...

Gustav Adolph of Sweden

No, I'm not into Pike and Shotte now, just I liked the miniature, so I thought I'd get me one and paint it one day.
Being a little fed up with painting Rohan Riders and Haradrim for the Mumak Diorama, I painted this one to get a relief of the other project.

I'm not much of a fan of gold colors. Unfortunately, this one had quite a lot of it, but I somehow managed... .

LOTR Mumak Diorama Base

After a hard working and long weekend, I can proudly say, that I've finished the base for the Mumak Diorama.

Here it is:

And this is what it looked like, before the original Mumak base was integrated:

The entire diorama is made of styrofoam, also the rocks. After the raw modelling it was covered with plaster an sand.
The oval base was then set into the hole and the gaps also filled with plaster and covered with sand.

Since the oval base was already completely painted, I had to be very careful not to damage any of the paintwork, which was very difficult.

But I think the result was worth the effort. What do you think?

WIP

Been working on a little LOTR diorama.

I bought the troll partly painted and added a few figures, I've already had.
I thought, the two hobbits made a could contrast to the size of the troll. In the back, Grishna is seeking safety behind the troll.

All I have to do is to finish the right arm.

Mumak

I finished the Mumak.

Here are first pics of it. I'm currently working on the crew as well as the larger base for the planned diorama.

For something completely different...

... I painted a base for a LOTR Mumakil, which I received partly built.

It took me four days to finish, but was a lot of fun painting it. Almost to nice to put that big Mumak on top of it.
I'm planning to integrate it in a diorama with a slightly larger baseplate in order to add a few Rohan riders attacking the Mumak.

We'll see...

40mm Cruisader

This is my latest aquisition.

A 40mm figure depicting a cruisader. I bought it this way, but can't say who made it... .

Does anyone know?

Anyway, it's been beautifully painted and a nice asset to my collection.

My first ever horse

Hi,

I finished my first horse today!
It's a 40mm horse from the HLBS napoleonic range and will soon carry a british hussar (in the making...)

I was a little afraid of painting horses at first for the large areas frightend me a little.
But after trying out several techniques, I found "my" way of doing it:

Basecoat - Wash of basecoat with some black - from then on dry-brushing in several layers with basecoat getting lighter with the time.

I'm quite happy with the result. In reality, the horse looks astonishingly "real". I almost thought it would jump off my table... ;-)

Hope, you'll like it.

The base will be covered with grass and bushes a little later.