Second Mithril Miniatures Dwarf Traveller

It's been a long time since my last post! But I have been painting when I can.

Here is the companion of the Dwarf in my last post. He has been painted for the One Ring December painting challenge, so I have painted him as Santa Dwarf! (Click the pics to enlarge)

Mithril Miniatures Dwarf Traveller

I recently discovered Mithril Miniatures, a company near Cork in the Republic of Ireland, who make Lord of the the Rings and Hobbit miniatures, but not based on the film. They had a sale on their Classics range a while back, which I made good use of. I then had the opportunity to visit the factory itself when my family had a trip 'Down South', as it is known in Northern Ireland. Of course, this meant I had to make the most of it, and picked up a good few bargains!

Here is a Dwarf traveller from a two-pack:

He's based on a 2 pence coin, which leaves more room for basing.

I've entered him in the August painting challenge on the One Ring, and since it's my birthday on Wednesday, you are obliged to create an account, if you haven't already, and vote for me!! :P Joking of course... :)

Goblin Town is getting bigger!

I started another board section for my Goblin Town today, featuring a large, mountainous rock in one corner, under which is Gollum's cave! I have approached this in a different manner than the other rocky parts of my Goblin Town (mainly because I've run out of large sections of styrofoam!). This time I built up a sort of frame from cardboard and foamboard, around which I have built up strips of cardboard (just regular corrugated stuff) all stuck down with masking tape. All those boxes for new minis in the post are very useful, so hold onto them!

These pictures are at a midway-point of completing the cardboard coverage, to let you see the method. As always, click to enlarge.

The new extension

Gollum's cave underneath

Some of the pool will be included

The main structure. The pieces of pink foam were stuck in to add strength. You can see the tunnel entrance leading to Gollum's cave at the bottom left.

The tunnel leading to Gollum's cave. The hole is to allow movement of the figures in a game. Gollum's cave is to the left.

The old and new boards side-by-side. The old rock wall will be extended slightly and plenty of new walkways will be added all over the place!

The Great Goblin surveys the building work.

Hope you like the new addition! I've had plenty of fun building it. Since taking pictures, I have added stalagmites and stalactites to Gollum's cave. The next step will be papier maché, which I haven't done since Primary School! Then I'll add scenic cement to texture, then the walkways, then paint... phew, still plenty to do yet! And I haven't even finished the first board completely...

More Dwarves

I've finished some of the dwarves from Thorin's Company. They're good fun to paint due to the individual details and characters and the wide variety of colours. A great exercise in mixing paints and layering!

I've used my own colour scheme for parts of each of them, trying to marry the film and book colours. Fili, for example, has blue edging to keep in with his blue hood in the book, and Gloin has white clothing under his red armour.

Dwalin

Back view of Dwalin

Fili

Oin. I was particularly pleased with the face and beard here!

Oin's back has a noticeable line where the arm piece was inserted. I just painted the top grey to make it look like it was meant to be there!

Gloin

Fili, Oin, Gloin

More to come! I'm expecting my first Mithril Miniatures in the post soon, to represent two mysterious wizards and their chums...

Balrog Conversion, Goblins and Anfalas Levy

Exams are over, and I'm just back from a little break in Edinburgh with my family (Games Workshop a few yards up the street from the hotel!) and I've got stuck in with the hobby again.

First up, I won a metal Balrog off eBay, and decided to do a bit of conversion work. I wanted a different pose to make it unique, and also my friend has one too, so it would be nice to have some variation.
So here are the pics:

The Balrog

Close up of Green Stuff sculpting (I was quite pleased with it, if I may say so myself!)

I cut the left arm at the elbow, pinned it at a right angle, then sculpted a new elbow.

A Balrog is always going to be at the centre of attention in a battle, so the ground is strewn with arrows and discarded weaponry. Bitz from Perry Wars of the Roses, Conquest Games Norman Knights and a Rohan Royal Guard sword.

Spent arrows.

The previous owner of this shield has most likely fled in terror at the sight of the monster approaching!

I've also painted the first four Goblins from Escape from Goblin Town. They are very character-filled models, and when painting them you really notice all the (rather repulsive) details. I've tried to create a variety of skin tones, overall trying to give the impression of various illnesses and maladies plaguing these twisted creatures.

This fellow has been unfortunate enough to have one eye completely obscured by his face growing over it. Yuck.

His equally delightful back.

Another pretty little Goblin.

The picture doesn't really look much like it does in real life - his head looks like Radagast's bird friends have perched on it too...

This Goblin is a little paler, with more green mixed in. I like the mad looking pose on this one. I changed the angle of the sword hand a little to differentiate from his duplicate.

This chap has the most green mixed in, so he's a little more related to the Moria Goblins. I painted his eyes so they are not quite facing the same way, and moved his arm round a bit. All in all he looks a bit demented. It's a versatile pose - he can look angry and grabbing forward, or clean terrified and backing off.

This guy needs to see a doctor - but pity help the doctor who tries to treat him!

The merry crew.

Finally, an update on the Fiefdoms. Here are some of the Anfalas Levy, untrained but hardy men from Golasgil's region:

That's that for now, quite a long post as I haven't had time to paint or post in a long time. Thanks for reading!

I am still alive!

In case you have missed me (you have, haven't you??), just letting you all know that I am doing my AS exams at the moment, so painting etc. is on hold until the delightful things are finished! My painting desk is currently dedicated to Chemistry and Biology notes...
Ah well, they will all be over on June 19th!

Golasgil, Tarnost Guard and Goblin Town progress

One of my fiefdoms that I have been working on (using Perry miniatures) is Anfalas, which is Pinnath Gelin's southern neigbour, and one of the westernmost coastal areas in Gondor. Tolkien described the people as mostly farmers and fishermen who were not well equipped for war, except for the house of Golasgil, the Lord of Anfalas.

Here is my Golasgil:

He's created from a few parts from different sets, with some sculpting from greenstuff by myself. The head and body are from the Perry Mercenaries set. The beard, however, is sculpted on by me (which I'm rather chuffed with!). The wolfskin cloak is from the Gripping Beast plastic Viking Hirdmen box, with some sculpting around his neck. The base is meant to depict Golasgil in one of his subject's fields (because they're farmers) which is being raided. I pictured him as an older man, in contrast to my younger-looking Hirluin the Fair.

Here's a little look at the progress with my Goblin Town board:

Atmospheric shot of the Great Goblin going for a dander in the cavern:

A view of the supports for the walkways. (I'll paint over that huge brown splodge on the rock!)

And to finish, some shiny new (only recently released) minis from eBob Miniatures. These are the excellent new Normans from eBob, which are really lovely sculpts. I'm using them as the town guard of Tarnost. Tarnost is a town in the Belfalas region of Gondor. I've designed a new version of the White Tree for their shields. The guy on the right is a Captain of the Guard, and I've stuck on a feather from one of the Perry helmets to mark out his position.

Dwarves of Thorin's Company

It's been over a month since my last post, so sorry for that!! School and whatnot eating away at every second...

Anyway, I've painted some of Thorin's Company, so without further ado, here are the pics:

Bofur: It was a nice challenge to try and paint a deep, golden yellow colour and I'm quite pleased with the result. And he's Northern Irish too :)

Balin: I had a go at a bit of freehand on the edges of his coat. He is quite an important chap, after all.

Bifur: Again, the yellow was fun. The beard was a good painting challenge too!

Bombur: The bright ginger hair was a treat to paint. All the Escape from Goblin Town characters have loads of details to pick out, really fantastic models all round!

 

Dori: As with the other Dwarves, I'm trying to keep with the colours described in the books, which means Dori (and Nori, still a work in progress) have purple clothing. I don't actually have any purple paint, so it's all mixed red and blue.

And the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield: You might notice an extra detail I included that is not present in the films, but is in the books. It's the gold chain around his neck - the trim on his collar made a handy V-shape which I simply painted gold!

That's all for now. Coming some time in the future should be more Dwarves/goblins etc., Radagast, Goblin Town scenery, Fiefdoms... Oh dear! the delights of backlogs...