The Breaking of the Fellowship 6 – Legolas

Legolas from the ‘Breaking of the Fellowship’ set is finished. I have now completed the eight members of the Fellowship who were at Amon Hen. The set also included a Gandalf model depicting him shortly before falling in Moria (his ‘You shall not pass!’ pose) which I will no doubt get around to painting at some point.

He was tall as a young tree, lithe, immensely strong, able swiftly to draw a great war-bow and shoot down a Nazgul, endowed with the tremendous vitality of Elvish bodies, so hard and resistant to hurt that he went only in light shoes over rock or through snow, the most tireless of all the Fellowship.

Legolas gave me the most trouble out of all the models from the Fellowship and I found it difficult to match the green of his tunic to the film (it still isn’t perfect). The tunic was painted Luftwaffe Green, shaded with Athonian Camo Shade and highlighted with Loren Forest followed by Straken Green.

The completed members of the Fellowship together:

I also have a few other projects on the desk which I intend to get on with now that these guys are done. I have my recently purchased ‘Escape from Goblin Town’ boxed set (which I will share with you later in the week) and my Dark Angel army to be getting on with.

All the best,

Andy.

The Breaking of the Fellowship 5 – Gimli

Another member of the Fellowship, Gimli son of Gloin.

The Breaking of the Fellowship 4 – Boromir

Boromir is now finished and based. For the leather jerkin I tried to emulate the slightly blueish tint that you see in the films. This was done by highlighting the black with Dark Reaper and Thunderhawk Blue. Not only does this match the films quite closely, but the blue/black is more visually interesting than simply highlighting black with grey. Over all I am very pleased with how Boromir has turned out. This is a great model and one of my favourite poses from the Breaking of the Fellowship set.

There was a tall man with a fair and noble face, dark-haired and grey-eyed, proud and stern of glance. His garments were rich, and his cloak was lined with fur and he had a collar of silver in which a single white stone was set; his locks were shorn about his shoulders. On a baldric he wore a great horn tipped with silver that now was laid upon his knees.

The base, as with all of the other members of the Fellowship, was painted VMC German Camo Medium Brown lightly drybrushed with Bleached Bone. Various flocks, clump foliage and tufts were used to build up the bases. Finally, birch seeds were added to simulate fallen leaves.

The Breaking of the Fellowship 3 – Aragorn

Another member of the Fellowship finished, Aragorn.

I am Aragorn son of Arathorn and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again!

Hopefully I will be finished with this set soon, Boromir and Gimli are nearly finished (they just need basing) and I’ve started work on Legolas.

I’ve also been working on other Tolkien-related models which I will share with you soon (check out my Twitter feed for a sneak peak @Mini_Miscellany).

Until then have a great week,

Andy.

The Breaking of the Fellowship 2 – Frodo and Sam

A couple more models from ‘The Breaking of the Fellowship’ set, this time Frodo and Sam. I’ve really enjoyed painting the hobbits. It’s been something of a challenge because of their tiny size but I am very pleased with the results.

The Breaking of the Fellowship 1 – Merry and Pippin

Recently I have been painting a lot of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit models. My passion for these models has really been reignited by the recent film. Currently I am working my way through ‘the Breaking of the Fellowship’ set which depicts the Fellowship as they appear during the climatic scene of The Fellowship of the Ring. Here are the first fruits of my labour, Merry and Pippin.

These models really are tiny (standing about 2cm tall) but are really finely detailed. They were a great deal of fun to paint although painting details such as the eyes were tricky! However, undeterred I have already started work on Frodo and Sam who should be finished soon.

All the best,

Andy.

My precious…

Another of my Hobbit themed models, this time Gollum. As with the White Council, this model is taken from the Lord of the Rings release rather than the new range of models released for The Hobbit. This was a fun little project and quite quick to paint (the whole model is largely one colour).

The rock was drybrushed first and then I painted Gollum himself. The skin started with a basecoat of Tallarn Flesh with a bit of Codex Grey added to remove some of the warmth of the colour and make Gollum look a little less healthy. This was washed with thinned Dark Flesh followed by a more precise application of Scorched Brown in the deepest recesses. I then highlighted the model by adding increasing amounts of Bleached Bone to the basecoat. I then added a tiny bit of White Scar for the final highlight.

In the photo below you can see the scars on Gollum’s back. These were picked out with Tanned Flesh and highlighted by adding Bleached Bone. I also used a little bit of Baal Red around the edges to add to the effect of the scar tissue.

I added some clump foliage and flock to the base to match the look of Emyn Muil in the film and to tie Gollum in with my other LotR/Hobbit models. It also adds a bit more realism tot he rocks which are rarely as bare in real life as they often are on model bases.

I hope you like Gollum and my other Hobbit models. In my next blog post I will be returning to the grim darkness of the 41st millennium with some more Dark Angels.

All the best,

Andy.

The White Council

As mentioned in a previous post, it was my intention to try and paint all of the White Council before the release of The Hobbit as a kind of ‘count down’ project. Well here they all are finished. As these have been completed ahead of schedule I have started work on Gollum who will hopefully appear in another post later in the week.

Here is the final model to be painted for the White Council, Elrond of Rivendell. Now I know this isn’t the ‘official’ model of Elrond, rather it is meant to represent Celeborn. However, I don’t really like the unarmoured Elrond model GW produce and so I was searching around for an alternative and I found this model in my collection. I think it suits Elrond very well.

The model has quite an unusual colour palette which I would not have chosen had there been no existing depiction of Elrond to work from. The lilac robes were painted with a mix of Space Wolf Grey and Warlock Purple highlighted by adding white and a little bit of Bleached Bone to stop the colour becoming too cold. The warm brown robes were painted Dark Flesh and highlighted Vermin Brown followed by a Vermin Brown and Vomit Brown mix.

All the best,

Andy.

Galadriel

With only one week to go to the release of The Hobbit here is my version of Galadriel for my White Council project. This is such a simple, elegant miniature and it was a joy to paint.  Unlike Saruman, who was painted with off-white robes, Galadriel’s garb is much brighter. The model was primed white and shaded with Fortress Grey followed by Codex Grey and then blended back up to pure White Scar.

Next up is Elrond to complete the White Council.

Saruman the White

Continuing with my Hobbit countdown here is Saruman the White. The robes are Dheneb Stone shaded with Vallejo German Camo Pale Brown and highlighted by adding increasing amounts of White Scar to Dheneb Stone all the way up to pure white.

For Lord of the Rings and Hobbit miniatures I favour a more natural, realistic finish to the models to capture the look and feel of the films. Because of this I used very soft blending for the highlights rather than the starker, more stylised highlights found on my Dark Angels, for example. I think it’s really important to adapt your painting style to fit the model at hand in order to bring out the qualities and character of the model.

One of the interesting things about revisiting Middle Earth after so long (nearly ten years since the last film) is that it really shows how much my painting style and ability has changed over the years. To illustrate this, below is on older model of Saruman that I painted eleven years ago back when The Fellowship of the Ring was released.

And the two side by side for comparison.