Thats a lot of robes!

Just a bit of humor there for you (a la the post title)

Anyhow, down to business.

This post is mainly just to show off the finished Nazgul Riders, and the spruced up Ringwraiths on foot! Now, as my camera is terrible (its my phone camera, 5.1 megapixel) you may not be able to see a difference from my last post. However all I've done is add a drybrush of codex grey. I think this game them a good pop as they were looking a little bit boring in my humble opinion. Below are two lighting options as well, one with flash, the other with just my desk lamp. I thought about adding some dirt around the bottoms of the cloaks but don't have the colors I would want to use for that. I also got lazy and I'm really tired of painting Nazgul (which is funny because I have a lot more to paint).

Now here are the mounted guys, all finished and done. I got really lazy on them, as I despise painting horses (too many hard to reach places with large surface area). Also one of them was kind of miscast on one side but you can't really tell from the pictures. Anyhow, dont judge too harshly. I also ended up adding the codex grey drybrush on the rider's cloaks as well. However I do regret that I did the horses in black now however, as all the GW pictures I've found show dark brown horses, so on the rest that might be what I do. You can also tell from the detail shots that the primer coat got really grainy, probably due to humidity (its hot here). So I'll try to avoid that next time. I'll shut up and show you pictures now.

So that's all for now. Look for an update sometime later this week or next as I'm itching to start my Dunedain/Rangers.

Nazgul and beyond

Catch-up

So, sorry it's been so long for an update, but life takes precadence over painting unfortunately. My vacation was lovely, and I spent some time at home in the mountains and managed to find some old supplies with which to build some terrain. Also the previous trade I mentioned fell through :( However I set up another one on www.bartertown.com and I just shipped my end today! This trade has a ton of good stuff and will mainly satisfy the later books. Anywho on to the painting!

The 4 (out of 9)

So the idea of painted a dude whos just wearing a black cloak and hood sounds kind of boring to me. So I decided to switch it up a bit. The normal way I would paint a model like this would be to start with a black undercoat, and work up through mixes of grays and blacks using dry brushing. However thats way to easy. I also don't have any black primer, so that option was out as hand basing takes forever!

However I do have grey spray paint. So I did the only natural thing and decided to paint these guys inside out. That is to say, start with gray underneath and go from there. How you may ask? Well a long time ago I saw MightyChad painting some sort of beastman or something (It might have been a PP model) and he was painting the skin by layering on thin layers of wash over a white undercoat. Well I had a gray undercoat and black wash (badab black to be precise), and VOILA! I ended up doing three coats to get the color dark enough, and that almost cleaned out a pot of the stuff as I layered it on very heavily. However I think the effect works great. I got lazy when spray coating them so there were some spots where the metal showed through, but like I said, its hard to get excited about a guy that looks like a 90's horror movie killer without his mask.

I think they turned out pretty good! The metal bits (swords and armor) were painted by applying a layer of Tin Bitz followed by a drybrush of boltgun metal. Usually I would have proceeded to a further drybrush of chainmail, however I wanted these guys to look extra grungy and nasty (as Nazgul should).

I also painted two mounted Nazgul at the same time. However I haven't made it to the horses yet, but they'll be coming soon. Here's a sneak peak!

In other news...

My previous trade I had lined up fell through, however I have another one which should be here by sometime next week. Its a whopper amount of stuff and includes the following, mostly stuff thats useful for later scenarios. Also, as soon as I'm done with these Nazgul I'll start painting up some Dunedain (I'll be using plastic ranger models as the Dunedain are hard to find and expensive).

Blisters:
Merry & Pippen VS Grishnakh
Moria armoured goblins
Glorfindel mounted and on foot
Gandalf on Shadowfax
Elladin and Elrohir
Mounted Boromir
Eomer Mounted
Legolas and Gimli on horseback
Gandalf the white
Warg Riders x3
Uruk Hai Warriors (LoTR)
Sam, Frodo, Gollum on rock (two towers) x2
Cave troll
Cave Troll w/ spear x2
Rohan Royal Guard on foot
RingWraith on foot
Lurtz
Gorbag and Shagrat
Sam and Frodo in orc armor

Box sets
Heroes of the West
Ambush at Amon Hen
Attack at Weathertop
Fellowship of the Ring

Starters
Return of the King x2
Two Towers x1

Army Box
Forces of Free People

Vacation Update

Well I'm here in sunny Florida for a few days so I thought I'd shoot out a quick update to prove I'm still intending to follow through on this whole mess. Before I left for vacation I got the last Journeybook (Return of the King) I was very lucky and found the second two for super cheap. I also got a Faramir model for $5 ($0.99 plus $4 of shipping :P) The ROTK book is different as most of the scenarios don't have recommended participants beyond key hero's. It bothered me at first, however I think by that point I will want to flex my creative muscles and that will give me an opportunity to mix and match some things. Also from a scenario design standpoint it makes sense as the forces are so much larger and varied than any battle from the earlier books. You've got a lot of players in the final few battles: Easterlings,Southrons, Khandish Mercs, Knights of Dol-Amroth, Lossarnach, Lamedon, Grey Company, etc. etc. etc. So being less restricted means I can have a smattering of whatever I want without having to shell out too much money for 30 Knights of Dol-Amroth.

Anywho I've been scouring eBay for deals. I've struck well too. I have in the mail:


10 Warriors of Rohan (all with bow)
12 Rangers of Middle Earth (these will become dunedain more than likely)
1 Ringwraith Blister (includes foot and mtd. version.)
17 Warriors of Minas Tirith
AND
Classic Fellowship poses of Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, and Boromir. So I have almost all the fellowship except Gandalf, and I would like alternate versions of the hobbits but thats not vital. So I'm doing pretty good. I will also be acquiring (through a trade) the following, which will put me in great shape as it has lots of hard to find and expensive stuff:
 
 Aragorn at the Black Gate (Mounted)
Aragorn at Amon Hen
Boromir with Gondor Standard (Discontinued model)
Halabarad with Aragorn's Standard (Discontinued model)
Gil-Galad
Glorfindel on foot and mounted
Haldir in Mirkwood (discontinued model)
Legolas at Amon Hen
Gandalf at Khazad dûm
Balin
Elendil
Isildur

Infantry

8 Minas Tirith Bowman
6 Minas Tirith Swordsman
6 Minas Tirith Spearmen
1 Minas Tirith Standard
3 Rangers of the Gondor
3 Fountain Guard
3 Knights of Dol Amroth
13 Numenorian Swordsman
5 Numenorian Spearmen
1 Numenorian Standard
3 Rangers of the North
5 High Elf Archers
2 High Elf Spearmen
2 High Elf Swordsmen
1 High Elf Standard
8 Khazad Guard

So be ready for lots of updates when I get back (hopefully)

Also I got a part-time job playing with Lego Robots! Yes I am an adult!