I have always commented on peoples' work but have never shared, due to a lack of time, any photos of my miniatures. I finally figured how to upload photos.... (I am not a computer wiz..) and have decided to start showing you my work.
Please be as judgmental, critical, and thorough as possible, It will help me improve my painting and terrain-making skills.
I will be updating my thread every Sunday. If anyone has any questions he/she can PM me or reply to my thread. Thank you so much for time!

This is the last Dwarf Captain I painted. I like his dark colours.



I have only recently started a Moria force, to wage war to mine, and my brother's dwarves. Due to a lack of funds I began converting some models. It was a perfect incentive to start practicing that aspect of the hobby.

Here is a goblin converted intro a Captain:





This is what I considered my best painted miniature. Radaghast the Brown. I decided to paint him in a darker palette and give him a Bacchus's look.





And finally, since some people have asked me: an extremely cheap way to make piece of terrain, and what I used to create it.





Thanks again for watching, more pictures of our Dwarven army, and my burgeoning goblin army on Sunday.
P.S.Next time I'll try and take pictures where the models' bases are actually shown.

Looking good. I would never have thought of using packing peanuts as terrain, though I guess they are foam....Good work.
You radagast looks really good too. It's hard to see the face, but what I can see of it is great. The only thing is that the green on top of his staff looks really flat in comparision to the other surfaces, maybe add some more highlights?

An one-armed captain? ^^
Nice painting, i really like the dwarf. Maybe his beard is a bit too yellow, but that's just my thoughts

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Check out my WIP: www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=24858

Liking what i see mate. Very nice terrain

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

OMG that poor goblin lost his arm in a battle?

Thank you for your words people. Hmm maybe I do need to add some highlights on the stone on Radagast's staff.
You are right, the captain's beard looks too yellowish. I think my editing of the picture is to blame for that..
I like the goblin too. He did not lose his hand in battle. He told the other goblins he lost it while fighting and slaying a Cave Troll with a tree branch (the one he's holding.) In reality though, the Troll bit his hand off.

Nice work man!

I must ask though, why does the goblin have a shield when he doesn't have an arm left to use it?

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My old WIP thread - http://www.one-ring.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16246&start=0

He uses it as a skateboard like Legolas. Thanks for your words.

Nice well done simple rocks.

Sunday has arrived so it's time for an update. I finished my 24 Moria Goblins and the last of them await basing. I also finished Durburz the Magnificent; I will be posting a picture of him later, along with the second stone wall!

Yesterday, I found two blocks of foam in an abandoned construction site. My mind instantly went to the amazing terrain shown in the first issue of BGiME. For 7 years I have wanted to create such an amazing piece.

Promptly, I took them home and started working on them. My goal is to create an Erebor mountainside. Optimally the piece will be scenic yet offer playability. This is my first ever attempt at using foam, or making such a large piece, and initially the project seemed too ambitious for a complete amateur. Nevertheless I was not intimidated (heroic music playing on the background). And my brother pleas of waiting a couple of days were futile.
Although mistakes were made along the way: cutting my finger with the blade, realizing that the blade won't easily cut expanded foam... and then my room was a total mess. Thankfully cleaning duties were relegated to the helping squad aka my brother .

Here are the first steps of my work:




I have not glued together the different layers yet.



I am thinking of painting the whole model black. Then cover all the surfaces, besides the rocks, and cliff faces, with sand. Then proceed with painting the sand in the same manner as my Dwarves' bases. I am also thinking of adding yellow lichen, and combining scorched grass, with dead grass, and yellow turf.

Guys and gals, I want your help with some questions.
Will PVA glue dissolve the foam? Will it be strong enough to glue together layers of foam? If yes, then will slightly watered down PVA be adhesive enough? And finally does the black spray paint have an unwanted effect on foam?

Thank you for your time, and for all your kind comments so far.

Looks really good so far

From my experience with scenery building PVA will not dissolve foam it will glue sand on the foam but if you don't undercoat it the sand will start to gradually fall off bit by bit.
Now as for the part of gluing together foam as far as I'm concerned I always used to glue my foam parts together with PVA and never had any "accidents" but sometomes I use for extra strength needles to hold the pieces firmly together.

Thanks for your reply


You mean undercoat the foam and then glue the sand, or glue the sand on the foam and then undercoat it?

Make sure you do your research on what kind of paint you use to undercoat and what type of foam you have.

I once carved out a castle wall (of similar looking foam from the pictures), and went ahead and sprayed it without any thought or research. The paint dissolved the foam like acid, ruining the structure. It was very time consuming and disappointing lesson to learn.

Glue the sand and then undercoat.

If you undercoat first you will melt the foam

I find its best not to spray paint on sand, the paint does not have enough binder in it to glue the sand down, use acylic waterbased artist paints instead. The GW pack of scenery paint is good.

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Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

This is frustrating. I seem to be getting conflicting advice lol. But from what I saw only spray painting will melt the foam for they contain a chemical that reacts with it. In case ones is determined about spray painting foam he/she must first coat the foam somehow to protect it from the spray. Acrylic waterbased paints are perfectly harmless for foam.

But nevertheless, thanks for your advice.

The best way find out is to just do a test piece. If it doesn't react then your good to go. Just do a test before you do your real piece.

I was speaking in case you use spray paints for undercoating the sand if you use a paint and a brush to paint the sand then there will be no problem but with the spray it will take you a couple of minutes tops but with the brush it will take you forever

Of course I was saying first glue the sand together with PVA(common wood glue) and then to "seal" the sand in place you undercoat