BY YOUR COMMAND

 Sorry no Cylons here, just another finished command group for my Night Hawks chapter, this is for the 1st company the Wing Knights. The entire company is assault marines with jump packs, so the command group needed to represent this, and I also wanted something to show the name knights, I had thought about getting some Grey Knights, to use the heads, and I may well do in the future, but on these I just changed the helmets with a bit of greenstuff. First up is the medic, this was my original medic, which I later replaced, as I made the other command groups, so it was spare, I changed some of the conversion, and gave it a repaint.

Next is the standard bearer, I've given him a combat standard, so less likely to get in the way, the model itself is a kitbash.

the last one I needed was a standard trooper, which was another kitbash.

Here they are with the two I had previously completed for the squad.

I wanted their jump packs to stand out from standard ones, so added the company motto on to them " Death Before Dishonour" 

While I was in the mood for kitbashing, I made a Tech Marine, using mostly parts from the vehicle crew you normally get with most vehicles, and then used a metal tech arm, and a custom made Storm Hammer.

This means I only need to do one more command group for the second company, which are all on jetbikes, can't decide on using the jetbike I made, or getting some of the Imperial Custodes ones, but that's a decission for another day, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

ROAD TO INSANITY

 I've realised there are more Uruk Hai than a sane person would attempt, but I've never been accused of being sane, so I've finished a few more, and have another 20 more on the painting desk with many more to go ! LOL First on show today is a standard bearer, took a while to find a decent reference picture from the movie, rather than other sources, but glad I pushed on with the initial thought.

Next is a captain, which you saw a few in the movies.

Last today is a Shaman, which obviously didn't appear in the movies, but is from the Tolkien foundation licence, you can see GW's standard approach creeping in again (skulls anyone) ! LOL

Need a break from all things Tolkien, so may well do something totally different this week, while still working on some more monsters, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

I WANT MY MUMAKIL ?

 I've actually finished this quicker than expected, but will probably mean no Monster May(hem) post next week, but we'll have to see how that goes. So here is the one from the movie that I've based the model on

Then this is quite different from the basic GW model which looks like the below picture.

So after a fair bit of greenstuff work I ended up with this.

As you can see from above I added the driver as well, not just the details to the tusks and front legs, I also add to blend out a lot of the seam lines as the detail didn't line up well, and if I was doing all this work I needed a good base to work from, happy with the end result though. So that's all for today, so until next time stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

YOU SHALL NOT PASS

 

So who could forget the classic scene shown above when Gandalf faces the Balrog, I've spent a lot of time recently rewatching this scene, in preparation to paint these two characters, and one thing I noticed was that the Balrog isn't glowing all over, but in sections, almost as if as if the skin is breaking open at points where the skin is tight due to movement. The other thing I noticed was his wings weren't solid and actually made of smoke (that's going to be fun to try and replicate ! LOL). With all of this in mind I pulled out my special edition Balrog ( you didn't know there was a special edition, it was released with all metal wings instead of plastic, and you can really feel the weight ), and looking at the basic model compared to the reference, it needed some work, first was his mohawk of flames, needed to spread across the shoulders and not just be a solid line, it also needed some small outbursts near it's elbows, these were all done  with greenstuff, I also greenstuffed the base to look like flagstones,  fitting the Mines of Moria.

When it came to the painting I started with all the flames and areas that would be cracking. I basecoated them GW Yriel Yellow, then put GW Iyanden Yellow contrast all over, for the tips I used GW Fuegan Orange Wash. For the hotter parts I started with GW Yriel Yellow, then Flash Gitz Yellow, and finished with GW Phalanx Yellow, making each layer smaller than the last. Once this was all done and fully dry I basecoated all the black including the wings, I highlighted the black with GW Covus Black, and some areas had some orange worked in as well, which I noticed in the reference picture (easier to see in hand than my terrible photo's ! LOL) For the smoky effect on the wings I used GW Apothecary white contrast, which I applied in a random fashion to give the illusion of smoke, this was a liitle too brigt on it's own so I layered GW nuln oil wash over the top to darken it back down.

Gandalf was a lot simpler and just tried to replicate the colours from reference pictures, pretty happy with how he turned out, and here is a shot of them facing off against each other, although I didn't build a casam for them ! LOL

So that covers my first submission for Monster May(hem) plus additional figure, hopefully I should have another to show next week, and I've got a couple more that I hope to do by the end of the month, so until next time stay safe, and have fun ! 

Cheers Dave

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU

 Yes it's that time of year again to post up something Star Wars, for me that could be any day of the year normally ! LOL But I do like to try and have one for this day to join in with everyone else. So today I have the last Rebel squad from the Legion box set, I've swapped the arms around again, to add variation, some involved trimming pegs, and others just needed a little greenstuff to fill the small gaps.

As you can see above I have a female leading this squad, and what would normally be the leader carrying one of the heavy weapons.

I do like these models, but glad to finish this third squad, I only have one rebel box set to get now, the Rebel Commandos which is good as this shelf is getting very full ! LOL That's all for today, so until next time stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

ARE YOU READY

 So May is rapidly approaching, and it is the time for Monster May(hem), Keith has already got the sign up post up, and you can find it at his blog angrypiper . So what is Monster May(hem) well you paint up monsters during the month of May, if you want to get a double win you could paint up a Dragon, which counts for Keith's other challenge Year of the Dragon, which runs until the end of the year. For me I'm going to try and use the time to paint up a couple of large Lord of the Rings models, these are from my own collection, not the box of wonders I've been working on, but I'm thinking of selling as well, as I'm never likely to play LOTR. With this in mind, I've done some background pieces for one of them, why do them before the challenge, well there's a whole squad of models needed for one, which would take away a large chunk of time from the actual Monster. So first up today I have the base required, which has almost a squads worth of bodies on it.

Next up are the crew for the monster, I've photographed them as archers, spearmen, and leader.

You'll notice that the bases are just black, as I'm going to sell this one, I'll leave the basing dilemma to who purchases it ( do you go for earth or wicker ?). That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

SKINKS GALORE

 To clear a bit of space on my desk I've finished my squad of Skink skirmishers ( hence the round bases), these are expensive skirmishers as I gave them javelins instead of blowpipes, as they have better range and strength, at some point I need to make a regiment of them as well, but that will have to wait until I get some more models, as these are the last of the Lizardmen models I currently have.

The box comes with 24 models, but I used a champion model that I converted from the Stegadon set to bring it up to 25 models. At some point I expect GW to change the names of these as a Skink is a real lizard, and so they can not copyrite it, but we'll have to see what they do, hopefully next time I'll have some bits to set up one of my Monster May(hem) entries, so until next time stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

GUARD THIS

 With the starter set of Kill Team that we got for the children, there was a squad that neither child wanted, so I've painted them up to have a different squad for them to face ( this plus the Kroot squad that I wanted). These are Death Corp of Krieg models that come in the starter set, for colours I've gone simple and muted, construction wise I included some interesting options, like a spotter, a sniper, and anything else I liked the look of, it's probably not competitive, but should give the children something to get used to battling.

This now completes my contribution from the starter set, and the rest is down to the children, so until next time stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

WHAT A PIECE OF JUNK

 No I haven't started work on my old Millennium Falcon toy, but I have finished some junk piles from my children's Kill Team set. I've only painted half the terrain as my daughter wanted to have a go on the other half, but as she is busy revising for her exams, she may get to them by June ! LOL I've gone for an overall rusty effect, then picked out some details that wouldn't be rust coloured.

These were pretty quick wins and actually fun to do, next up will be a Kill Team, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave