Final Entries for Painting Challenge IX - Part II

Regrettably, my painting production really slowed down as the Challenge entered its final month or so - real life can be a bugger!

We start with my entry for the final Bonus Theme - Fellowship. As soon as the Painting Challenge Bonus Themes were announced, I had known that my final entry would be based on The Lord of the Rings. I already had the big hitters of the Fellowship - Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Boromir - painted up, but for some reason had never got around to painting the remaining members, so the Challemnge was the perfect opportunity to get them done. All of these are the old metal GW sculpts, mostly sourced from Ebay, as I really am not a fan of the more recent plastic sculpts. For me, these are much more characterful.

First up we have Gandalf. I really like this sculpt - it is very dynamic and was a joy to paint.

Next we have Merry and Pippin. In the movies I think Pippin originally had a red cloak, but I wanted to paint all of these in the more muted Elven cloaks they received after visiting Lothlorien. So, in  a nod to his original cloak, Pippin got a red scarf. 

Finally, we have Sam and Frodo. I like the fact that these are modelled with knapsacks, reflecting the fact that they spend so much time journeying in various wildernesses. Sam's is suitably bulkier than Frodo's, and he even has a spoon and small pot hanging off the back.

And here they are together.

My very last entry for the Challenge was a small one. First up is a Britannia/Grubby tanks Kubelwagon with an AB SS crew. The Kubel is showing its age, with several holes in the resin cast, but it was very cheap! As with my previous AB SS, they are done in Autumn Oakleaf camo.

To finish off, we have eight AB Germans, this time just painted as Wehrmacht. The first two are an officer and NCO, the next six an infantry section. The LMG team for this section was painted but not based in time, so couldn't be included.

And that brings my efforts in the IXth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge to a close. I didn't quite make my 1000 point target, with all my entries totaling 978 points. However, that was enough for a 26th place finish, which I was very pleased with considering this was my first time in the Challenge. It was an absolute blast and it was great to be part of such an enthusiastic, inspiring and supportive community of painters. I would love to do it again! 

AHPC IX Bonus Theme - Mercenary: The Dark Marshall

Second update today is the entry for the Mercenary Bonus Theme. To begin with I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do for this Round. I knew I wanted the entry to be themed to The Lord of the Rings, but the backstory for my first thoughts - Easterlings & Haradrim - did not really fit the mercenary theme.

Rather bizarrely, everything fell into place when I started considering the definition of mercenary as an adjective, rather than a noun. Looked at this way, a mercenary character is venal - corrupt and susceptible to bribery. And who better fits this description than one of the Nine Mortal Men who Sauron bribed with rings of power, enslaving them and turning them into Nazgul, Ringwraiths, the most feared of his servants.

With the entry fixed, all I needed was a suitable figure and a quick rummage in the LoTR lead-pile turned up this old metal cast of The Dark Marshall. I am not a fan of all of the alternative 'character' sculpts for the Ringwraiths, but I do like the backstory of The Dark Marshall - even as a mortal he had a 'murderous reputation' and now his soldiers follow his orders as much out of fear as obedience. Suitably wicked!

To try and avoid horse and rider merging into one, I tried to create variety with different shading and highlighting. The Dark Marshall's robes are highlighted with a blue-grey (GW 'The Fang') and then washed with GW 'Drakenhof Nightshade'. I might have been better off using a lighter colour, as the wash has really muted the highlights - I can give that a go on one of the other eight Nazgul I suppose!

Meanwhile the cloth covering the horse was highlighted in a lighter blue grey (GW 'Russ Grey '), but instead of using a wash I used GW 'Gulliman Blue ' glaze to tone down the highlights slightly but still leave them distinct from the Marshall's cloak. Finally, bits of the horse itself like the tail were highlighted in a light grey (VJ 'Deep Sea Grey')

Last of all, as a nod to his past as a King of Men, The Dark Marshal wears a golden crown for a bit of contrast (and a break from highlighting all that bloody black!)

In the end, I am very pleased with how he looks; just got to do the foot version now!

AHPC IX Bonus Theme - Reconnaissance

Part of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is a series of Bonus Rounds, each of which is based on a particular theme and is worth an extra 50 points to your total if you get an entry in. Given that the theme of the Challenge this year is 'Fellowship', my aim is to enter each of the Bonus Rounds with something from the Lord of the Rings. I have quite a few of the GW LoTR figures, although not that many are painted, so hopefully this will get me cracking on cranking out a few more so that I can try out the new rules released by GW towards the end of last year.

The theme for the first Bonus Round was 'Reconnaissance', and straight away my thoughts turned to Uruk-Hai Scouts. One of my favourite scenes from the first movie was the Breaking of the Fellowship at Amon Hen and I have two boxes of the plastic Scouts, so I set out to paint as many as possible by the deadline; in the end I managed 16.

First up are 8 Scouts armed with bows.

These are joined by 8 armed with swords or swords and shields.

"Find the Halfling!"

Aerial shot of the group (plus Lurtz, painted many years ago!)

I wanted a dark look to the figures so they are finished in various browns and greys before being washed heavily in GW Nuln Oil. At some point in the future I may add some white hands to shields, faces and armour for a bit of variety and as a contrast to all the dark colours,but for now these are done and maybe I will get to finish the rest of the box by the end of the Challenge.