Mertaal's Wip: Barrow Wights and Tom Bombadil p17

Dead Marsh Spectre · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:53 am

Thrydan looks outstanding James. Well done on the awards too buddy!

mertaal · **Posted:** Sat Jun 21, 2014 4:19 pm

Gandlaf the Grey wrote:

I love the texture and colours on the rock, it's almost a shame to cover it.

Haha, you know, it hurt to do it!

Thanks all for the compliments. Here he is finished, today. I decided to go for a Bay with white socks, although I was concerned about a bay horse with the already brown wolf pelt saddle. They are similar, but used quite different shades for each, so I think they stand apart.
I didn't greenstuff the neck in the end, and painted carefully to try and counteract the crappy sculpted surface. Here we go:

I'm pleased overall, and really did enjoy painting him. Despite the difficult sculpt he was a pleasure to work with.

Now I am done with Isengard for a while. I have some more scouts to paint, and various other bits and pieces, but I'd like to take a break from it, and play with them for a while but paint something else. I have several choices:

1. Finish up my fellowship, which got shelved in favour of armies.

2. Finish the High Elves which I painted at the beginning of the year- the troops are speed painted using army painter dip, and i have 12 spearmen, 6 bowmen and a command group yet to paint.

3. Related- begin work on my "last alliance" all hero army: Elendil and Isildur mounted, Elrond, Gilgalad and Glorfindel. All mounted, so conversions required.

4. Galadhrim Elves. I'm going silver and white, with very pale turquoise and maybe even pale purple accents on these. Winter themed.

Being the hobby butterfly that I am of course I'll pick one of these and start on another simultaneously, and then probably a third while shelving the first... arg!

Then of course, I still have much scenery to make...

Son of Fundin · **Joined:** Thu Sep 26, 2013 7:04 pm **Posts:** 258

Wow, I love that Thrydan model!

Lovely work, I especially like the browns and reds! And of course the base! :wink:

I agree with you that the miniature looks great from a bit distance, I have never seen all those issues of the model before. What I don't like at the model at all is the axe. Compared to the other dunlending's axes it looks like a baby axe... :lol:

P.S.: When you look at the pictures you can see that two of the scales got some red paint on them...

Rangefinder · **Posted:** Mon Jun 23, 2014 6:40 pm

Though I won't paint until winter, this is some great work!
I could not be more excited to paint up my warband.
I recently picked up Thrydan and 12 Dunlendin warriors.
4 or 5 are bow armed, one has two hand axe, and the rest hand axe.

Hodush · **Posted:** Tue Jun 24, 2014 12:06 am

He looks awesome, well done! The base would benefit from a bit of dead grass though and im not really a fan of the purple snow, but we don't get much snow in Australia, so you would know better.

mertaal · **Posted:** Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:43 am

SoF: good spot! Totally didn't notice in the flesh.

Hodush. Hehe, the purple snow is a lavender plant which has been snowed on. We don't have purple snow here either!

So, I've decided to finish painting my Fellowship, which got shelved in favour of hardcore army painting. Here's Boromir so far. Last night I spent quite a long time on the cloth.
Thought the black hauberk was boring, so reversed the colours of the hauberk and undercoat. Pretty pleased with the progress so far, and it reminds me to alternate army painting with individual models regularly as I think a mix of both does wonders for your technique.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Tue Jun 24, 2014 11:15 am

That is looking very nice. I think just a little shading needed on the top half of his tunic.

Harfoot · **Posted:** Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:10 pm

Another hobby butterfly, so i'm not an endangered species after all!

garmenhord · **Posted:** Wed Jun 25, 2014 7:24 am

great colours! looks nice

Rognarr · **Posted:** Wed Jun 25, 2014 3:42 pm

Quite a nice idea. The red hauberk works out surprisingly well!

Gildor_Inglorion · **Posted:** Wed Jun 25, 2014 7:53 pm

You're ridiculously good at painting mertaal, these are all fantastic

I'm so jealous :yay:

Goldman25 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 30, 2014 8:23 pm

Love the look of the alternate colouring of Boromir!

mertaal · **Posted:** Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:52 am

Sooooo it's been ages, and I've been a busy boy!

This year has been very tough indeed, and slightly over a week ago I closed my antique shop- I'm mostly a wholesaler and there just isn't enough business around to justify the rent, sadly. So now I'm back to trading mostly online.

On the plus side though, it's meant I finally have time for a venture I've been wanting to undertake for quite some time- a commission painting service and community driven blog!

Please do head on over to the Facebook page and "like"
https://www.facebook.com/yggdrasilpainting

I have a fair few exciting plans, such as a logo competition, community poll on blog subjects, special offers, maybe even a few tutorial videos.
So far I haven't worked scenery making in to the mix, but it's on the way.

The website and blog itself are here: http://yggdrasilpainting.wix.com/yggdrasilpainting

Some of you may know that Yggdrasil is the "world tree" of Norse mythology, connecting all the different realms of reality. At the roots sit the three Norns, who weave the tapestry of our lives.

Anyway, enough waffle- please do head on over to the Facebook page, and if you have a request for the blog, post it there!

Hobby wise, what have I been up to?

Well, I converted this fellow:

and he's half way through being painted, along with some bow wielding scouts:

You can get the full article about the conversion here: http://yggdrasilpainting.wix.com/yggdra ... 54C5A61026

And I painted these guys for a customer and friend:

And I made a LOT of trees!

I'm still having problems with my "snowy" board surface though. I've tried the old bicarbonate of soda, white paint and PVA trick, and it just looks like what I have already. Basically, to my mind there's a rather annoying incongruence between the flocked and realistic looking scenery elements and the rather stark looking board itself.

Any suggestions?

Anyway, just a reminder- I'd be made up if as many of you as wanted to would head on over and like my Facebook page. It'll be worth it, I promise!

https://www.facebook.com/yggdrasilpainting

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Thu Jul 31, 2014 7:01 am

Your painting looks like it's come on another level, it looks great, lots of smooth colours and blending. I'm impressed.
I've no experience with snow so I'm struggling on that one I'm afraid.

Sithious · **Posted:** Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:28 am

Thyrdan Wolvesbane looks great, I think the snow on his base should look more like the snow on your trees you did, it would look more natural.

Boromir is looking good. Interesting color choice.

The Lurtz conversion is great, take that "rare" version, who needs it when you can make a better one.

Well Keep up all the chaos. Keep following the inspiration.

mertaal · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2014 6:20 pm

Thanks guys- I've been neglecting this thread a bit, but mostly because I've been charging around trying to get that venture I mentioned previously up and running. Namely, commission painting, and a blog too. The latest blog entry can be found here:

http://yggdrasilpainting.wix.com/yggdra ... 5B3F72998D

And do take a moment to "like" my Facebook page, if you're that way inclined.

https://www.facebook.com/yggdrasilpainting

So from here on in I hope to keep everything updated all at once! So, here's the finished job on Lurtz and pals:

Not perfect, but I'm happy with them.

Anyone who was following this thread around the beginning of the year might remember I batch painted a bunch of high elves, but had more planned. Well, I finally got round to th rest:

In fact, i'm pleased to say that I've now got a commission to paint another 20 uruk scouts, and about 40 high elves, on the basis of the above photos. Yay!

I'm actually visiting in-laws at the moment, but here's what I was working on before I left:

The top wing is airbrush only, and the bottom after various glazes and washes. I think it's quite interesting to see how different the finished effect is. Plenty of people still think using an airbrush is "cheating". In fact the wings have also now had various brown and green glazes to bring out the volume a little bit.

I was toying with the idea of changing the OSL from green to blue, to be more in keeping with the colour scheme of the rest of the model, but the general consensus seems to be that the "Minas Morgul" green is preferred. In any case, it needs to be toned down a little I think.

Still quite a lot of work to do on him anyway

I've got a fair bit of painting to do when I return, and if I'm lucky I may be able to squeeze my Erebor project in somewhere... Treasure bases and green marble. Nuff said!

Pretty grateful to have such an awesome hobby. It's definitely keeping my keel even at the moment.

Sithious · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2014 7:00 pm

I wish you lots of luck with the commission work. It must be tough to put a lot of care into painting and then send it away as well as cut into your own hobby time. But you do fine work and anyone would be happy to have a painted army from you. The High elves are fantastic. and the Fellbeast is very good.

Not sure if I will pop onto FaceBook to support your page or not, I have actively avoided Facebook since last October and done very well so far as to not needing it's full blown marketing adds all day everyday from all my friends, it is one big commercial for what everyone likes trying to get me to like it too (bullying comes to mind), but I digress, I may chance liking your page later.

Either way, please keep showing your work as you go.

Son of Fundin · **Joined:** Thu Sep 26, 2013 7:04 pm **Posts:** 258

Well, I don't wonder that you got comissions for Elves and Uruks, the paintscheme and paintjob in these is amazing!

I'd love to have some elves in this quality at home, brilliant! The fellbeast as well, gorgeous!

I wish you all the best with your comissions, you have definately the skills to do so! And the speed obviously! I also very like your blog, much better than the common ones! :yay:

Does it cost anything?

If I had facebook I would like it, but as I don't have it...

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:24 pm

Great news about the commission work and you make people happy with your work. Good luck mate.

Crucium Giger · **Posted:** Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:33 am

Great work on the Elves and Uruks, interesting to see how the airbrush works on the Fellbeast and the difference the glazes/washes make.

Mertaal's Wip: Barrow Wights and Tom Bombadil p17

Who is online