Mertaal's Wip: Barrow Wights and Tom Bombadil p17

Crucium Giger · **Posted:** Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:37 am

That Gollum piece is excellent, looking forward to the finished Cirith Ungol.

mertaal · **Posted:** Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:31 am

Thankee. I'm probably most proud of Gollum, of everything I've painted.

Cirith Ungol however, I've had to rush a bit as I'm going away tomorrow, and as of monday I've been ill for a couple of weeks and thus not hobbying at all. It's turning out well I think, but not of the same standard.

Bit of tweaking, and painted the base properly. Trying to tie in the colours of the figures and base, without making it look too drab or monotone. I've also added a few tufts and vines.
Sam's eyes need a bit of definition, as does the sword, and I think a sprig of dead bush poking out of the right hand side might add a bit of interest too.

Not sure you can see that well, but I washed a bit of ruddy brown around Frodo's eyes, which has made his face look sick but alive, rather than zombified!

Fëanor, the mighty elf · **Posted:** Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:48 am

Wow, excellent painting mertaal! :yay:

The base is also a joy to the eye, and the Gollum piece is fantastic! So gloomy and full of character.
I'm going to keep a close eye to this thread.

mertaal · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2013 8:20 am

Thanks

.

It's finished, but I'm away for now. However, as I'm giving it as a gift and only return on Xmas eve, I shall try and get the missus to take a couple of pictures, or I probably won't have the chance to record the finished effect.

Thanks all for the comments and encouragement. They do wonders at making me strive for a higher standard, as well as just motivating me to keep up with this thread.

Although i will have to find another image hosting site- I've already exhausted OR.com's allowance!

mertaal · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2013 8:27 am

Oh, and I decided in the end to call it "Samwise the Brave".

Rognarr · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2013 10:12 am

Beautiful mini-diorama

It's absolutely brilliant and very well done... I would have gone for a little more "fleshy" skintone for frodo, he looks like he is dead for hours... but meh, that's just a minor detail and a matter of taste anyway..
the overall impression of your piece: Stunning!

mertaal · **Posted:** Sun Dec 29, 2013 6:38 pm

Thanks Rognarr! In the end I had to give it without taking a picture. I made a label for it, which matched my "Gollum" of last year.

And on to my Xmas present project! Her ladyship gave me the Zetrides "not weather top" scenery piece, and so today I made a start on basing it and adding a few pieces to make it look nice.

I've set up a wordpress blog for the soul intention of photos for this place.

So, having cast a few of the statues myself, while using some of the plastic ones from the LOTR scenery sprue, first I laid out my basic concept:

Then the basing cut to size:

Then I did a bit of work on the step area leading in:

And here is stage one:

Next step a paint of PVA, and a liberal application of sand. Hope you like it!

Bandobras Took · **Posted:** Sun Dec 29, 2013 6:48 pm

That is a stunning terrain piece! Really like the diorama as well. Some really brilliant work here! :yay:

Bofur The Dwarf · **Posted:** Sun Dec 29, 2013 8:05 pm

Awesome dioramas and amazing Weathertop piece. Look forward to seeing more

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Sun Dec 29, 2013 9:50 pm

Wonderful piece that is taking shape nicely. Where did your good lady get this from ?

mertaal · **Posted:** Sun Dec 29, 2013 10:10 pm

I'm definitely pleased with the progress, but of course have to give 90% of the credit to the fact that it's a great model (hard foam).

She bought it from Thomrarillion.de. It's manufactured by Zeterdes. They have a few "almost" middle earth pieces which aren't named as such for obvious reasons, but fit in well with our hobby. The Weathertop piece is a little small, but I don't think it'll be too small to play the scenario, and will make an excellent centrepiece in other games too I think.

It's now had a layer of sand and a soak of PVA glue. A progress pic in the morning!

As always thanks for the compliments and encouragement guys. Does wonders for my motivation.

Harfoot · **Posted:** Sun Dec 29, 2013 11:25 pm

Just looked at Zetrides Web site, I have never seen it before, well impressed.
Following your work with great interest

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Mon Dec 30, 2013 7:33 am

I like good terrain and this is shaping up to be really tremendous - I like seeing adaptations and improvements based in part on existing products but taking them up a notch (or ten!)
Middle-earth: full of old statues. You can never have enough of them!

Oldman Willow · **Posted:** Mon Dec 30, 2013 2:11 pm

Nice Model. It looks very playable. The extra details will make it look very good.

mertaal · **Posted:** Mon Dec 30, 2013 3:20 pm

Thanks folks- it's taking shape. I've sanded the whole model, and left it to dry overnight (drenched in watered down PVA to fix the top layer of sand).

But this morning I decided it needed some rubble:

and here they are applied:

Since then I've also added a few bare twigs here and there, but most of the vegetation, bushes etc will be applied after painting.

mertaal · **Posted:** Mon Dec 30, 2013 3:45 pm

I'm now wondering idly about the brickwork, and how to go about painting and weathering it.

My board is winter themed, and so I have a tub of woodland scenics snow waiting once everything is finished. Looking at various reference images there seems to be little colour difference between the snow of the acropolis itself and the bricks which make up the building.
This makes sense I suppose, as it's likely they would have been quarried locally to the build site. So I think the best way to differentiate between them is in the weathering of the brick work.

Does anyone have any useful tips for painting and weathering stone masonry?

JamesR · **Posted:** Mon Dec 30, 2013 3:57 pm

I too really like the converted sons of Eorl, (not Erl, James lol) especially the bald one. Perhaps because he and I are much alike with our shaved head and beard combos lol

And of course the Weathertop is excellent. Far beyond anything I have ever done terrain-wise

Gilcris · **Posted:** Mon Dec 30, 2013 4:06 pm

That thing is a beauty and really looks like it belongs in specifically Tolkien's world (as opposed to generic high fantasy world). Kudos!

Erunion · **Posted:** Mon Dec 30, 2013 5:33 pm

Loving the Weathertop piece. The additional detail work you've put into it is really going to make it shine. In fact, I'm considering getting one for myself!

My only criticism is that it appears that you don't have stairs to the main entrance. You've made that nice little paved entryway and statue, but there are no steps up to that level before you go into the terrain piece proper. Am I making sense? Or maybe I'm just not seeing it.

Anyway, this is cool and keep up the good work!

mertaal · **Posted:** Mon Dec 30, 2013 6:18 pm

Thanks Jonathan- also, thanks for battle companies. Great project, and one I look forward to giving a try one of these days.

You're right- I've tried to model the staircase falling away after the first few steps. It's probably not very obvious in the previous photos, but this one should show it up better. I've base coated and pre-shaded, and now the half-a-staircase shows up a bit better (I hope!).

Here's a link to the image full size:
http://mertaal.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_4957.jpg

And here it is for anyone who doesn't need to see it mahoosive!

Mertaal's Wip: Barrow Wights and Tom Bombadil p17

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