Bifur

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Unboxing: Lake-Town Militia Swordsmen

While waiting for the next Smaug release ;-), I bought the Lake-Town Militia Swordmen. When I saw the new releases, I like the Lake-Town Militia Swordmen immediately. I like the bravery of these fellows.

If you awaken that beast, you'll destroy us all!

This is a great miniature. I didn't know how great this miniature was, until I opened the blister. I also like Bard as character in the movies.

It's the first time I've used glazes for applying highlights and shades (on the cloak). So any tips/comments are welcome.

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Gloin and Oin

A small update on thorin's company. 

I present you Oin and Gloin. First up Gloin:

I'd rather share a drink with cockroaches than sit next to you!

Aah Saturday again!! So time for a painttable update! Last Thursday we had one of our Fellowship paint evenings and I started work on a miniature for Freebooter's Fate called Curly Ann. Well actually I started painting it a long long time ago, but never got very far. So I picked it up again and started with going over the paint allready on there.

A week or 2 ago me and some Fellowship friends bought a dvd set Masterworks Painting with Jessica Rich and I have been trying to apply some of the techniques that are shown on the dvd. It is going to be a hell of a learning curve, but I'm liking it!

Visiting Edoras in 2015

In 2015 I'm going to visit Edoras a lot. I'm a big fan of the Rohan realm and I've a lot Rohan miniatures so it's time to get started. I'm going to this in little steps because I want also to paint some miniatures from 'The Hobbit' range.

I also want to improve my basing, so any tips are welcome.
I'm first going to paint one warband to ally with Minas Tirith (250 army). But by the end I want a 250 Rohan army.

Because I'm more a painter then a gamer I chose interesting miniatures instead of a winning army ;-)

Warriors of Rohan

Riders of Rohan

Of course I've to include the Basic troops ;-)

Éomer, Marshal of the Riddermark

"What business does an elf, man, and a dwarf have in the Ridder-Mark? Speak quickly."

Éowyn, Shield Maiden of Rohan

"The women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them. I fear neither death nor pain. "

Meriadoc, Knight of the Mark

"I offer you my service, Theoden King. "

The Fellowship of the Miniatures Oberonn Adventure (11/12/2014)

We didn't play this evening but had been painting all evening. Next time we must take some more pictures but I think we were too busy painting ;-)
We asked and gave advice and learned from each other. This was our last Oberonn adventure this year. See you all next year.

Painting Challenge 2014: Results

Thanks everybody for participating and congratulations for the great entries.
Here're the final results

Gold Boromir ( +Darcy Perry  )

Silver Tom Bombadil ( +James Baldwin  )

Bronze Oin ( +Dylan Cloosen    )

A big thanks for the jury: +CorvusMiniatures +Randy Blood +D.M.S Dead Marsh Spectre +SBG Magazine

All entries

He Eats It By The Block

One of my favorite dwarfs

Painting Challenge 2014: all entries

(Random order)

Tom Bombadil ( +James Baldwin  )

Legolas ( +Stefaan F   )

FOTM Painting Challenge 2014: Painting Gandalf The Grey on cart

Our Fellowship Of The Miniature 2014 Paint Challenge has ended! The first in what will hopefully become a lovely tradition for years to come. All the entries will be gathered in another post in a couple of days or so. Also have to give our judges the time to judge ;). What I wanted to talk about in this post is my personal experience with participating and painting my entry: Gandalf The Grey on cart.

The Fellowship of the Miniatures Oberonn Adventure (27/11/2014)

Again we played the scenario 'Alone in the Woods'. It's a very good scenario with the legendary heroes, Azog the Defiler and Beorn:

One of our members learned some tactics during a point match:

And we did some painting:

First dwarven kinband

I nearly finished the first dwarfen kinband. I started with some warriors.

As you can see, I mixed the plastic and metal dwarves. The next two kinbands will also be mixed :).

Mr. Gandalf? A glass of red wine as requested. It's got a fruity bouquet.

I finished Dori last week. It's the fifth dwarf is finished of the the company, so a lot to go ;-)

C&C welcome...

Bard the Bowman

Today I started assembling Bard the Bowman. I like Bard as a character in the movie and this resin sculpt has a lot of details. I had no issues with the resin. If I compare it with the first resin (finecast) models, this is a lot better.

Painttable Satursunday?

Painttable Saturday!!! On a Sunday.

As some of you may know we are having a little painting challenge due November 27th. If you didn't, well shame on you!, and now you do! My entry is Gandalf the Grey on Cart. Ever since I saw that particular scene in The Fellowship Of The Ring I wanted to own and paint that miniature. I had it lying around for years, but never seem to have gotten around to painting it. That's why I jumped on the bandwagon and entered with this model.

Mordor (III) and a grimhammer captain

I made some progress on the great beast, painted the howdah but still need to do the base.

And I painted the wild warg chieftain. Very beautiful model and a real joy to paint.

Next up where some Black Numenorians. Again I like the models, the resemblance with the mouth of Sauron is great.

And at last some progress on the dwarf forces. A grimhammer captain. Again a very lovely miniature. I'm a big fan of the grimhammers, probably on of the best sculpts on the Hobbit range.

That's it for now, but more dwarfs will follow!

Crisis 2014

I have not been really active on the blogosphere lately and neither have I been working on my huge backlog either. But I have been busy working on a hobby project.

Every year the Tin Soldiers Of Antwerp organize a miniature fair called Crisis. More info can be found here. Also every year my local club, the Golden Goblins, have a special project for Crisis. So that is where most of my available hobby time has been going to. So for those of you who did not had the chance to check out our project at Crisis, I present you "Shipwreck Cove"

New battle box project + Painting Challenge

Hi all

In the last post I talked about the Dale Battle Box, which I finally finished. Last week I played a game and though I eventually lost (yeah, tons of reasons: battle companies, 2 soldiers missing next game, old battle wound blah blah blah, bad dice, headache, you know), I could apreciate the 4/4+ fight score. And as you can see in the pic the color scheme (which? ;-) ) scares the orcs. 

I mainly started a dale battle company 'cause not many people choose for it. It's almost the same as minas tirith with better stats, more colors and the option to include erebor dwarfs (which have Defence 7 (with shield). 

Anyway, I started a new battle Box project (1 of 2) with erebor dwarfs. When it's finished I can add 24 erebor dwarfs to my dwarven legion, which gives me some versatility in models. 

The Fellowship of the Miniatures Oberonn Adventure (30/10/2014)

 

Finally Finished - Dale Battle Box

Due to some unexpected complications in my personal life I didn't have much time to paint. So my backlog only grew (more on that later). But at least I finished this box.
Overall, the models were good cast, but the faces (especially the captain) were 'stretched'.

 I did not follow the GW painting guide, so the company has more are less a 'grab and run (before the dragon arrives) vestibule. . 

Mordor update and the beginning of a dwarf army

I started with the great beast of Gorgoroth. The beast itself is nearly finished. I still need to do the base.

I also bought these foam trays. They really are amazing. I can now stuff up to 200 models in one games workshop figure case.

And last but not least, I started with my dwarf army. From the 300+ models I still need to paint, nearly 100 where dwarfs. So painting this army will hopefully reduce the backlog.
The dwarf host will be divided into three kinbands. The first one will be "The Ravens" with a blue and gold paint scheme. This kinband will be lead by a captain, a banner and Murin and Drar.
The first warriors:

The second kinband will have a red/gold paint scheme led by Balin and the last kinband will be green/gold. I will divide the dwarf warriors and Khazad guard equally among them but I can't figure out what to do with the dwarf rangers.

Shall I paint the cloaks in the same colour as the warriors? Or keep the camouflage and paint it grey?