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...

Progress with Goblin Town and the Great Goblin

First of all, I hope you all had a good Christmas and Happy New Year! I certainly did, especially since I got the Escape from Goblin Town set and it is fantastic!

I've made a good bit of progress with Goblin Town. The plastic scenery pieces from the EfGT set serve as sturdy platforms between which I have run my own bridges. The new parts still need painting. (Click to enlarge).

Higgledy-piggledy Goblin Town

In the second picture, see if you can spot the Great Goblin!

The Great Goblin (or Goblin King, whichever you prefer) is the first model I have painted in the set. I used plenty of layers to create the mottled flesh effect.

The beautiful (sarcasm) Great Goblin.

Coming soon: more EfGT models and Ebob Miniatures Normans for Tarnost Guards of Belfalas!

The Hobbit: Goblin Town Scenery

I'm getting the Escape from Goblin Town box set for Christmas (not long now!) and I thought I'd like to do something extra with the scenery. So I decided to make a Goblin Town board, with helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy walkways and columns of stone.
The first bit I've done serves as a backdrop and also a high entry/exit point for the Dwarves to make a dash for. It's made out of polystyrene, styrofoam and scenery mortar to blend and add texture. So here are the pictures (as always, click to enlarge):

The cliff face, complete with tunnel entrance, flaming torches and rickety railings.

The tunnel entrance.

Close-up of the torches. These were made from cotton buds, with the cotton drawn upwards, glued and painted.

Gandalf makes an appearance in the nick of time - ready to blast some goblins!

I'll make some more when I get the Escape from Goblin Town set. Until then, happy Christmas!

Finished Knights of the Green Hills and beginning of Anfalas

Knights of the Green Hills

I finished painting my Knights of the Green Hills, who will ride with Hirluin their lord. So here are the pictures! (Click to enlarge)

The different horses and colours of horses help to distinguish the two above. Also, the one on the right has a little beard.

The two above are the same figure, but I did a headswap for the one on the right to make them look different.

Anfalas

I decided that my pikemen should have a different colour scheme to add some flavour to the army, so I decided to have an alliance between Pinnath Gelin and their neighbours to the south - Anfalas. The Fiefdom of Anfalas was a sparsely populated place, and the men were mostly hunters and farmers. Only the household of their lord, Golasgil, was in any way well equipped for battle.

So here is the beginning of Golasgil's household troops, a banner bearer and a pikeman:

The design on this banner depicts a white bird and the White Tree. I chose blue partly because there was no blue in my Pinnath Gelin army, and also Anfalas is along the coast, so the sea would have great influence.

Thanks for reading!

Haradrim banner bearer and captains

I have painted one of my Haradrim banner bearers and the two captains, and finally have found time to post pictures (half term holidays - hooray!). 

So here's the banner bearer (click to enlarge all pics by the way):

The banner displays the Red Eye over a black snake.

Here is one of the captains, ready to draw his blade:

This captain stands out from the other Haradrim through his green coat and purple turban: