Hi there!

Recently I came back to the hobby of warhammer painting/collecting again and I'm working my way up again in learning from my mistakes through painting.
I'd love to show you my works so far and hear whats good and not so good about them yet!

I don't have an expensive camera or something, but I found out that my iPhone should work fine in making pictures of my models.

I started with the hobby again by buying a 'Heroes of Helm's Deep' boxed set, and traded the legolas with one I liked more. In all honesty, I became driven away by buying too much and now I ended up with loads of characters already... Time to catch up by painting!

I started off by painting Théoden and realised I should've primed him with actual primer instead of just a black basecoat. After Théoden I continued painting and started with Aragorn, followed by Eowyn, Gimli and Legolas.
Currently I'm working on Haldir.

I noticed that I find blonde hair extremely difficult. I also remembered from before that eyes always had been difficult so I didn't have the courage yet to actually paint them. For Gimli, Théoden and Aragorn that didn't bother me, but with Legolas it does. I'm still thinking about reworking his face and hair a bit.

Make sure you click on the pictures to see more! I added extra poses of every model on photobucket!
Théoden (Paint is getting loose because I didn't prime good enough)


Aragorn (Difficult to work with only dark colours)


Eowyn (Dress was actually pretty difficult to not make it look too dirty and still add proper shading)


Gimli (Wups, spilled some brown on the rock)


Legolas (Been trying out a different rock colour.)


Haldir (Work in Progress still)

Your iphone camera is great. For the hair, just give em the correct priority (for example first) to dry-brush em when you dont care for painting other parts that are still unpainted, no need to highlight em in the end, it is more difficult. for the eyes: make sure you are keeping both the model and the brush steady, get a good tipped brush, make it a bit wet and put just the point of it in fresh black paint. Then check about the correct angle and while the paint is still fresh touch in the center of the eye. Needs a little practice. The rest of your models look nice, the next improvement is adding more highlights in certain spots. Don't forget the shade in the rock and next time look out for some cork to use, you will be impressed by the results

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Conversation/Ideas over painting etc, can check here:
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=29455

Thanks! That's some great advice.
I just have troubles drybrushing tin models. If I brush too hard I often scratch paint away, and if I brush too soft the paint doesn't stick. Altough I'm getting better at it by finding the right amount of pressure.

So far what I've done with the blonde hair was:
-Black Primer
-Brown Basecoat
-3/1 Bleached Bone/Light Yellow layer
-Brown Ink wash
-Bleached Bone layer
-1/1 Bleached Bone/Skull White highlight

Right now I'm experimenting a bit with creating good looking Uruks. The skin is working fine, but the armor is difficult. Chainmail base with black ink was doesn't work for me. I'm experimenting a bit with just having it black with a tin drybrush followed by a silver drybrush.

Also something I'm doing nowadays is priming in black followed by a skull white drybrush over the entire model. It makes me see the highlight areas better beforehand.

And I'm having troubles keeping my brushes in a good shape. They tend to split on the top after using them for a week or so. Making it annoying to work on details.

For the drybrush problem, try a softer brush. If you afford, the army painter one is the best. I am using the cheapest brushes on this, I just check em to have soft bristles and be the correct size.

_________________
Conversation/Ideas over painting etc, can check here:
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=29455

I've been painting a bit again!

Compared to some others in here, my models aren't that good. But I still wanted to show my progress (if there is any).
I had a lot of fun working on the Erestor model (really, really a treat to paint!) and the newly arrived Dain model. Dain is one of my favorites from the Hobbit movies so I had to give him a special treatment by skipping the line of miniatures waiting to get some paint.
It was also my first 40mm based model to paint and I decided to take some time to make a nice base. I added a couple of stones from my backyard combined with green stuff and some sand to make it look a bit realistic. Drilled a hole in it for the boar to be sticked in and surprisingly it just worked out!

Dain on Boar:


Apart from Dain I've also finished Erestor, a bunch of High Elves and a dwarven captain to test a colour scheme. I decided to not go for these colours for my Khazad Guard, but I still wanted to show the finished product of the captain.

Erestor:


Dwarf Captain: (Still practising highlighting a bit. His cloak looks weird with that)


Elf Bowmen:

Those are great. How did you do the gold on the bowmen?

Thanks!

I first primed with a black primer, then after that I used 'Retributor Armour' as a base. After that I gave it a wash with 'Seraphim Sepia' and after that I added some 'Auric Armour Gold' to some edges. After that I mixed 'Lahmian Medium' with 'Auric Armour Gold' and some water (I believe it was ratio 2:1:1 with Lahmian Medium being 2.) and added this as glaze on some of the surface areas. It's a very minor detail but makes it a bit more shiny in the end.

I've been working on some of my High Elves again.
My painting is improving, just as my bases. Still learning from mistakes and slowly getting there.

Here are the pictures of what I've painted so far:
(I like working on several different models at the same time to not make it boring.)

The most challenging was painting the horse since I've never painted a horse before with a good result. I think this one is my first I'm happy with.

I might have to highlight the cloaks a bit later. Currently I'm too afraid to ruin things as they are so I might leave this for the future when I'm more comfortable with highlighting cloaks...

Looks great! I also just started painting! How did you do the basing?

Thanks a lot!

The basing is actually fairly simple! I've got a few more bases in different stages waiting for me to finish them. I'll make a few pictures and write a little update about it when I have time!

Alright. This is how I made the bases:

1- I put cork on the base.
2- I put a tiny bit of rough sand on the base.
3- I put finer sand on the base.
4- Once it has dried I paint it all Rhinox Hide. (I feel like I don't have to work with primer here)
5- After that I drybrush Mournfang Brown over it.
6- After that I drybrush Steel Legion Drab over it.
7- Once it's dry I add Agrax Earthshade over it all.
8- A littlebit of Athonian Camoshade to some of the surface areas of the cork. (Don't have to wait for the Earthshade to dry up)
9- A tiny, tiny, tiny bit of Biel-Tan Green to a few areas to resemble an aged forest touch.

I usually mix the 3 steps a bit. It makes it look a bit better if the shades combine a tiny bit.

Once that's all dried up I add a few grass tufts to the corners and it's all done.

Here are a few pictures I quickly made:



I got the tufts and cork from http://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/ and the sand from a local hobby shop.

Thanks! How do you get the miniature on the cork?

Most of them just glue.
But some iron ones or 'weak' ones (like the horse on just 1 leg) with pinning and glue. I drill a small hole in the foot and in the cork and stick some wire in it. It makes it a bit stronger.

I've made some progress again!

This time I'd like to show a bunch of models I've painted from different forces. Just to practise painting a bit and try out a bit on making good bases (which I secretly enjoy almost more than the painting itself!).

I made a tray for showcase purpose. I put a few high elves on it and it actually looks really cool to have them all together on one tray. I got a few 13 slot trays but this one is just a 9 slot. I don't know why... I guess just because I like smaller groups for displaying.



More High Elves on Tray:


I also worked a bit on this old friend of mine to practise using whites. I read up a bit on tutorials and learned a lot about the highlighting. This is my first try on white robes so far, but I'm eager to work on another gandalf the white model soon.
I also have to say I'm happy with the base! This was my 2nd attempt at making a paved base (first attempt is below -> peregrin).



Backside:


And here's an Uruk-Hai. Also my very first actually. But I have to say painting uruks is pretty soothing. It's not that difficult so it's nice as a quicky after having worked pretty hard on something difficult.



A few days ago I made a great trade with Celevue and acquired myself some Arnor warriors. It took me a while to decide how I'd like to paint them. So far so good, I ended up with this one and I have to say I'm quite happy with the colour scheme.



More of the same Arnor guy:




And here's more that I've done lately:








And here are some WIP pictures of what is going to be finished soon.

WIP:

Looks great! I painted myself Cirion recently, was a real pleasure .

What colors did you use for the arnor blueish coating?

Looking really cool! I'm afraid it'll take me a while to get crackin' with the uruks and orcs

Nice models mate, Gandalf the white looks really nice

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You would of had me crawling on all fours like a BEAST!

Thanks everyone!



That's 'Stegadon Scale Green' from GW as a base, Drakenhof Nightshade as a shade and a very thinned out mix of Stegadon Scale Green and a tiny bit of white as a layer.

I've been painting a bit again but I rather wanna show something else that's coming up soon. I have seen something like this on the internet and wanted to try it out: The Warg Marauder's simple conversion by just adding 3 normal goblins on a pretty normal warg.

I bought 6 wild wargs and 12 goblins for only €6,- on 'marktplaats' (a dutch kind of eBay) and started with this today when they arrived.

Soon to be painted!

I've been working a bit on the hobby again.

Here's another Arnor warrior:


Two Khazad Guards:


Dwalin:


And here are two of the Warg Marauders I got so far:
(I also tried out something new with adding bow strings... I might continue doing this in the future.)



A few more WIP shots of the Marauders: