The kids are off for the April holidays, what a joy! In all seriousness, it’s an absolute endurance test, and the only thing that’s getting me through is being able to write/paint minis in the evening.
I have also managed to tidy up my cabinet of plastic, and have resumed work on some of my Lord of the Rings miniatures. This week, I’ve been painting the warriors of Minas Tirith again, some fairly neglected minis (on my part).
It’s been mostly armour, swords and spears, so nothing majorly exciting. The smaller details are where these minis shine, though it takes a sea of silver to get there. I have also been working on some citadel guard, and guard of the fountain court too for my Denethor warband, as well as rangers and Osgiliath veterans for my Boromir warband.
I’ve missed working on these troops, and it’s funny it took a cabinet reshuffle to make me realise. I’m determined to get this Minas Tirith army up and running shortly though, so hopefully I can finish the two main warbands with relative speed.
Welcome back, folks. Today I managed to steal 10 minutes to finish the bases of some Minas Tirith miniatures, which is a miracle in itself. My kids seem to require proximity parenting at the moment, so it’s hard to actually do anything constructive or be anyone but a walking snack dispenser during the weekend’s daylight hours. But anyway…
I’ve painted up 3x Citadel Guards with spears, which leaves the 3x bowmen to do. These guys are going to be part of Denethor’s warband, or possibly Beregond’s. They are useful troops with the Bodyguard special rule to help with the hero they are protecting.
Pippin himself was painted in the same manner, sticking to a similar colour scheme as he had in ROTK. I am not even going to attempt to free-hand anymore white tree insignias, despite how well they might have turned out on Boromir’s banner. I consider that a fluke, if nothing else.
The mischievous hobbit is also going to be part of either Denethor’s warband or Beregond’s as he could really fit with either, based on the books and films, and brings a little visual addition to this army of Gondor.
Anyways that’s all for this installment. I’m hoping to post more frequently in the coming months, as that is now the bulk of my uni work done and submitted, and I’m starting to see a return to my free time in the evenings now.
This is just a quick update tonight, as I managed to get some painting time in this evening. I’ve been working on some of my Minas Tirith troops, progressing with the Citadel Guard, along with Pippin too. He’s been a fun miniature to paint so far.
Minas Tirith Citadel Guard & Pippin
I’m still bashing through the Orcs for my Angmar list. I only have 3 more to paint up and that army is complete. Until then, here’s 2 I got completed tonight. These are for my final warband, which is the only one to make use of Orc projectiles.
A pair of Angmar Orcs.
I painted the final Elf archer for my Lothlorien army. This fella will go in Haldir’s warband, which is going to be mostly archers, mounted archers, a Sentinel, and a sprinkling of armoured sword & shield Galadhrim. I aim to get a pic of the warband so far next time.
And also, I don’t know if I mentioned my sister got me Elrond for my Christmas. He’s the ‘Finecast’ version, and came with a mounted version, as well as Lindir. Here we have the on-foot Elrond, looking surprisingly like Hugo Weaving actually! I’ve been painting him up in the green and greys of the Rivendell scheme I’m using (which came from an old White Dwarf issue- don’t ask me which!)
So there you have it for this evening. Wishing you luck with your projects in the meantime! Take care
Hello again! Did I ever do a Beregond post? I’m not sure I did… I wrapped up work on this mini a couple of months back, but I think I was waiting to wrap up a few other minis at the time and just never got around to posting.
Here we have one of the minor heroes from the LOTR MESBG. Beregond is one of the Guards of the Citadel in Minas Tirith, and friend of Pippins when he begins working for Denethor in the books. His character is stout-hearted, even going to extreme lengths to rescue Faramir during the siege of the city. He did not appear in the films, but thankfully like many characters who did not, GW immortalised them in metal anyway.
Beregond, with sword & longbow. Fragments of the ruined White City lie around him.I realise my blond Beregond looks like an early-2000s era Bon Jovi.
Since he is armed with a longbow as well as a sword, I had imagined running him with his own warband of archers. Being a minor hero (in game terms), he can only lead warbands of up to 6 troops, and as such I thought some of the Gondor rangers would have been adequate company for a group of archers on the battlefield. He also comes with the Bodyguard special rule, meaning that as long as the hero he is ‘bodyguarding’ (i.e: whichever is the highest-tier hero in the army I bring along to the battle- so, likely Denethor or Boromir) is still alive in the match, then Beregond automatically passes all Courage tests.
As always, thanks for reading. Take care out there.
A couple of brief shots of the Citadel Guard from my Minas Tirith horde. I don’t know why I like the look of these guys so much, they just have this moody, badass look to them that elevates them above the Warriors of Minas Tirith. I’m yet to tidy up the yellow trim on their clothes, but that detail can come towards the end. So far, I have been drybrushing some highlights onto their armour and cloaks.
My intention with the Citadel Guard are to use the spears as part of Denethor’s warband, while the bow-wielding variety will stick with Beregond’s small, 6-man warband. I enjoyed Beregond’s role in the book, and I think my love of the Citadel Guard must have come from there also.
Welcome back, and here we are for another hobby update. As always, I am working through my piles of miniatures, this time mainly those in the Lord of the Rings tabletop game.
This evening, I was working on one of my warbands for my Minas Tirith army; Beregond and a pair of Citadel Guards. I drybrushed some highlights onto the guards, before filling in Beregond’s armour with Leadbelcher (as he was a few steps behind his colleagues). At the end, I gave him a Nuln Oil wash all over, with the intention to drybrush his armour next time, as well as fill in his flesh tones and hair.
I’ve been getting back into the swing of drybrushing using this Gandalf miniature from the Fellowship kit I got a year or two ago. While it was a technique I leaned heavily on for pretty much every one of my armies, I am a little out of practice with everything. I’ve been working with various tones of grey, highlighting with Dawnstone. These new Fellowship models are fairly ugly in comparison to the ones that were doing the rounds back in the early 2000s when I was in my teens, but the reason I picked up the new(ish) kit at all was for using members of the Fellowship as allies in themed armies.
With my small Rivendell force, I could either ally in Gandalf for magic support, or bring in Frodo, Sam and Pippin alongside Gildor Inglorion and his Noldorin Exiles, as in chapter 3 of the book. Alternatively, Aragorn and a few rangers could accompany the Rivendell elves as a scouting party, much as they did in the book before the Fellowship left Elrond’s home.
I’ve stuck with the same scheme for my Rivendell elves, with the grey sash, green cloaks and silver/gold armour. The wood elves (available through the inclusion of Gildor in a Rivendell list) are more individual, though I have opted to keep their colour pool small so there is some coherency among them.
So this evening was about getting a few of the minis across the finish line; one tiny detail on some, basing with the others, and a few that are just in the early stages of painting up. I completed a warrior of Minas Tirith by finishing off his shield (did not photo him because that would have been too sensible), based two of my wood elves, tidied up a base coat on Cirion and an Osgiliath veteran, painted then shaded Gandalf’s skin, and worked on the armour of a few other models, that of Beregond, the Citadel Guard, and a trio of Rivendell elves.
I’m happy with the progress today, and have enjoyed painting again. Jumping back in felt a little scary at first, but it was ultimately relaxing and fun. I do have to apologise for the less-than-stellar pics; whereas the old kitchen was lit up with 12 spotlights in lieu of having a small window, our kitchen in this new place has just two ceiling lamps, but large glass backdoors that obviously let in additional light. I might need to get a small personal lamp for painting, but until then the pics are mostly me experimenting with where the hell the best light is coming from!
I’m getting back into the general swing of life after a huge event last week, the birth of our third child! It has been an incredible time and has really turned life on its head, though we are majorly happy. I think it’s safe to say our little family is finally complete! Everyone is healthy and safe, and that’s the main thing.
Obviously, this hasn’t left a lot of time for much else, though it was my birthday last week and I treated myself to a pack of models for my Minas Tirith army: the Guards of the Fountain Court. Despite being foulcast, they don’t look to be bent out of shape (thankfully) but when I get a spate hour I’ll be cleaning them up and gluing them together!
Painting has taken a backseat right now as a deadline for my writing course looms next week. I’ve mainly been too exhausted in the evening to drag my paintbox out and prop myself up, but I’m sure once life settles down again I can resume.
I’ll update again in the near future, but until then, take care!
Much like some amateur chef on a terrible reality TV cooking show, I present Boromir: 2 ways.
First off is the bare bones Boromir with sword and shield. It’s a great model, I like the pose and when I first saw this one I thought how awesome it was to see Boromir in his Gondor armour like one of the troops. He also has the Horn of Gondor hanging down by his waist, which is one of my favourite details of this sculpt.
Secondly, we have Boromir with the Banner of Minas Tirith. As well as counting as a run-of-the-mill banner in game, it also increases the Fight value of friendly Gondor troops within 6″ by +1. I find this to be quite handy as I’ll be filling out Boromir’s warband with a mix of rangers, warriors of Minas Tirith and Osgiliath veterans (who also benefit from an additional +1 to their Fight value just by being near either Boromir or Faramir).
I struggled with the freehand at first. My initial attempt can be seen lurking in the background of one of the shots in my previous post, but I decided to redo this after the tree I painted on the back of the banner turned out better than the front. I’m really pleased with how it turned out! I just have the banner on the mounted Boromir mini to do now haha.
I intend to use Boromir as one of my main heroes in the LOTR battle game, as he is one of my favourite characters from the book and just an all-round great warrior. I’ve enjoyed painting both of these minis and am happy to see them integrate with the rest of my Minas Tirith troops.
This is the first post of 2022, and is a hobby update on what’s been going on. Recently I’ve been working on my Minas Tirith army, and chipping away at my Angmar orcs.
Painting these guys takes me right back to the early 2000s, and I enjoy painting orcs as their schemes can vary as much as you like; they are always a dirty, ragtag bunch. Lots of various black or brown ink washes, various metal and leather armour types, and various orcy skin tones ranging from sickly greens to blues and greys.
I’ve also been chipping away at some of the Christmas models, mainly my citadel guard. They follow the same recipe as the warriors of Minas Tirith, with some deviations. Already they are adding some visual difference to the silver tides.
I recently freehanded Boromir’s banner too; this was kinda tricky. And I still have the back to do! There are some parts I need to work on/change on the current side, but I’m reasonably happy with how it has turned out so far. I’ll post closer pics when I’m done with him.
That’s all for now anyways. I hope you’re all well, and take care.
What will probably end up being the last post of 2021, here I am about to begin painting Boromir’s banner! Freehanding anything makes me very nervous, but I’m going to take it slowly and not get stressed about it along the way.
I found some rare sunlit, dry time to get my newest models primed and ready for painting. So far, I have based them and just waiting for them to dry before beginning work on their armour.
I grabbed myself a packet of the Osgiliath veterans as well, as the models are so cool. I loved the battle in Osgiliath during the LOTR films, where mixed forces of rangers and armoured warriors fought the orcs; this blending of these different troops is part of what inspired me to collect Minas Tirith as an army, so having the veterans added to the mix does wonders for the visual aspect of the army as well as the bonuses that they bring (i.e: receiving a Fight value bonus of +1 when 6″ from Boromir or Faramir). If Boromir has his banner, this can stack, making these guys Fight value 5 (equal to Faramir himself).
This year has been a strange one. I’ve fallen in and out of love with the hobby multiple times, picked up the Lord of the Rings minis and fallen down a rabbit hole with them. Although I’ve been distracted by writing and uni, painting models is still a great stress relief for me, and I hope to continue onwards into the new year with this, even if I am just posting once a month.
Wishing you all a happy and safe 2022 when it comes!
Dreadaxe Games 