Mustering the Defence - The Green Goblin (13/12)

cal585 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:33 am

Edit: I've sorta given up on the Army pledge idea. I find I paint a lot better if I paint what I feel like painting at the time and mix things up a bit. So this is now more a standard WIP blog (with my latest update in the thread title), but I will be working on completing some armies during my progress. I just am unlikely to do a timed effort.

Hello all, the purpose of this log is to encourage me to paint. Nothing unusual there. Despite having been in this hobby for several years and having quite a few models at my disposal, I'm yet to complete an army (probably not completely unusual either). This has served to annoy others in the past, with the most frequent question being "have you painted (such and such) yet?". Well, with motivation provided by my friend, I have decided to finally attempt to complete an army. Gondor or Moria would be the logical choices (as I have many models from them and a lot that are half painted), so of course this means that I need to finish a different army (because I'm logical like that). In the end, inspired by the Defence of the Forsaken Inn sample list in the Ruin of Arnor book, I'm creating an allied Grey Company and Dwarves force.

But it isn't enough for me to just start an attempt to paint, it's failed before. This time I have a goal, a challenge agreed upon by my mate.
I shall attempt* to complete this army within 2 weeks
*I say attempt because I'm notoriously slow at painting and have a few other things that might get in the way. I shall try my best however.

So to finish this post, here's a shot of all the models in the army, in various states of readiness

werner · **Posted:** Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:49 am

Great and good luck :!:

Hilbert · **Joined:** Mon Jun 06, 2011 7:07 am **Posts:** 2088

Good luck

garmenhord · **Posted:** Tue Aug 02, 2011 7:52 am

better to get some quality in them then hurrying them up. But good to put a deadline so u have some motivation.

Dezartfox · **Posted:** Tue Aug 02, 2011 8:03 am

Good luck

cal585 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:29 pm

Ok, sorry, this kind of failed. You go and make a commitment like this and life throws up something against you. Yeah... I kinda got bogged down soon after starting and haven't really been around much since due to time issues (except for the odd post in the painting challenge).

But I'm restarting this now (with encouragement from my mate who has agreed to give me a second chance) but with a slight difference. This time, I'm going to limit myself to a week. Could be tricky. Could be disastrous. Should be fun. THIS time, I shall at least give it a good go

Chris · **Posted:** Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:34 pm

Good luck mate

GothmogtheWerewolf · **Posted:** Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:57 pm

Good luck with your endevours

cal585 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 21, 2011 11:02 pm

Well, this challenge sort of failed (darn you Christmas and family!

). Sorry for the lack of picture updates. I find myself struggling with the Rangers scheme. The Dwarves on the other hand are going well, having a set paint scheme I'm happy with. I'll post some pictures of what I managed in a week or so when I get access to my models and camera at the same time. Ouch, I feel bad posting a third time without pictures... :oops:

In the mean time, I'll refrain from continuing work on this army as I attempt my hand at the Winter Painting Challenge and complete other Christmas tasks. Expect pictures towards the start of January I'd hazard. Sorry, I know how annoying these types of pictureless blogs can be.

Cyndra the Grey · **Posted:** Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:04 pm

Hmm I'm seeing a recurring theme here

Anyway good luck with your endeavors

Cyndra the Grey

cal585 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 12, 2012 11:55 am

Okay, I'm now back and settled! Which means resuming this project. Here's how things are at the moment:

You can't see that much here, I'm still struggling with the Rangers.

And here are the Dwarves at the moment. I'm going with gold armour and red cloth for the elites while the warriors have silver armour and black cloth.

Anyway, I reckon I still had a couple of days left on the challenge so let's see if I can properly finish this in time.

Oh and some of you may have seen this in the Painting Challenge, but here's what I've been working on while I've been away:

Éomer · **Joined:** Thu Dec 15, 2011 8:42 pm **Posts:** 59

Cool idea with the diorama there! Really like it!

Dead Marsh Spectre · **Posted:** Thu Jan 12, 2012 11:57 am

I love that diorama - its really clever thinking and use of the horse and rider!!! Well done - its a shame you didn't get it in before the deadline you'd have got my vote

cal585 · **Posted:** Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:19 pm

Thanks

So a second update in 2 days. What's happening?

Pretty much more of the same though the Dwarven contingent is mostly finished to a tabletop standard. Obviously I'd like to do a bit more on them later.

Captain and Khazad Guard. KG have always been some of my favourite models, ever since I picked one up when I first got into the hobby and thought it was Gimli. Small, compact and weighty (metal). The Captain is also quite a nice model.

The Dwarf Warriors are fairly standard. Silver Armour. I'm painting the shields separately though they're not much to look at.

I'm stuck on the basing though. As you can see with the Captain, I was initially basing the Dwarves underground, but I want them to tie into the theme of defenders of Arnor with the GC. So maybe defending a town? Though it might be weird having models dragging bits of a town/ruins around a battlefield with them...

Red Corsairs · **Posted:** Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:21 pm

Nice work here cal, it's good to see you getting some more painting done. I like the Dwarf Captain a lot

cal585 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:37 am

I'm back again and have achieved a little more. Rangers are still troubling me, so I've put them to one side for now until I find motivation. The Dwarves are almost done, so I'll wait until the finished shots (minus bases) before I post them. I do have 2 things to show in this post however.

Firstly a quick Mordor Uruk conversion:

This was inspired by another thread here and I had a quick go at seeing if I could pull it off. I posted there but didn't get any responses, so figured I might repost here for some feedback. Personally I'm not sure. I know it was a fairly quick job, but I doubt my skill to make it look that much better even if I do spend more time on it. Although it's not terrible either and I have more use for Mordor Uruks instead of Isengard (even though Saruman was one of my favourite characters). My other thought was that Scouts would make better Mordor Uruks and the armoured Isengard Uruks could be turned into Black Guard. Seeing as I don't have any scouts, this was just conjecture. Anyway, I'd love to hear some outside opinions.

Secondly, my first KoDA:

And just because I'm proud of the eyes:

I like the blue and white scheme but wanted to have a go at making my Knights a bit more heraldic. After all, my standard WoMT have a quartered scheme. At the moment his shield is just blue-tacked on (I realised the back could be seen and thought that maybe I should paint a wood pattern on or something).

Oddly enough, I find that the rumours of warbands have inspired my painting. Not in the sense that the game is getting a shot in the arm and my enthusiasm is encouraging me. Rather, I'm starting to think that a hero and up to 12 warriors is a good size project to be working on at a time. So I'm going to be trying my next projects in warband stages.

lorderkenbrand · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:58 pm

Nice work, have you trimmed the KoDA helmet? The wings looks more in proportion to what I imagine they were from their brief description.

GothmogtheWerewolf · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 3:04 pm

@lorderkenbrand, the helmets of the plastic ones aren't as stupid as the metal ones.

@cal585, both models look very goo, I like how you have turned the annoying Isengard Uruk-hai in the vastly better Mordor Uruk-hai. May I ask, do you intend to turn the pikes into two-handed weapons.

Telchar · **Posted:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:12 pm

GothmogtheWerewolf wrote:

@lorderkenbrand, the helmets of the plastic ones aren't as stupid as the metal ones.

@cal585, both models look very goo, I like how you have turned the annoying Isengard Uruk-hai in the vastly better Mordor Uruk-hai. May I ask, do you intend to turn the pikes into two-handed weapons.

I side with you on on the paint jobs, but not on the relative value of Uruks (we have had this discussion before, so let us leave it at this).

cal585 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 04, 2012 3:42 am

Yep, it's a plastic KoDA. They look much better than the originals IMO. I'd like to be able to use the heads on the foot versions (not that I have any) but feel that could get expensive fast.

Thanks for the positive feedback! If I do decide to convert some more Uruks, then the pikes will mostly becomes 2H weapons of varying description. Maybe see about changing the odd one to a bow, though I've always been iffy about combat elites wielding ranged weapons.

A (minor) update. I caved. Even with Australian prices and finecast quality, I caved. :oops:

Any guesses? :wink:

Mustering the Defence - The Green Goblin (13/12)

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