Scouring of the Shire!

Here is some of my recent work. I finished a few more Hobbits for my project and built another Hobbithouse.

Lobelia leading the resistance 

The Firstborn

Welcome to Esgaroth!

Into the Mirkwood...

We really enjoyed painting a couple of miniatures of the new Hobbit release!
Can't wait to see the movie next week!

Thranduil by MarcK

Palace Guards by HVM

Orcs!

I finished my 4pt warband for SAGA. At least it contains two units of warriors, two units of hearth guards (1x mounted) and the warlord.

The warband includes mostly the old metal Mordor Orcs by GW. Because i like the wargs of the Hobbit range more than the old metal ones, i used them as the only plastic miniatures in that army.


Meine vier Punkte Armee für SAGA ist fertig geworden. Letztendlich besteht sie aus zwei Einheiten Kriegern, zwei Einheiten Hearthguards (1x beritten) und dem Warlord. 

Die Armee besteht größtenteils aus den alten GW Mordor Orks aus Zinn. Da mir die Warge aus dem Hobbit Sortiment allerdings besser gefallen, bilden diese die einzigen Plastik-Minis der Armee.

Trolls & Company Photo Updates

Hi folks!
At first I have to apologize because I haven't any new miniatures to show you. But since I figured out how to get halfway cool and more realistic looking photographs of my miniatures, I am really kneen on that techniques. So I reshooted the dwarvish company and the three trolls. Hope you like the new pictures!

HvM


Hi Leute!
Als erstes muss ich mich entschudigen, dass ich euch leider keine neuen Miniaturen zeigen kann. Aber seitdem ich rausbekommen habe, wie ich einigermaßen coole und realistischere Fotos von meinen Minis mache, bin ich von dieser Technik sehr angetan. Deswegen habe ich nochmal die Zwerge und die drei Trolle neu fotografiert. Ich hoffe die Fotos gefallen euch!

HvM

Do you know how the Orcs first came into being? They were Elves once. Taken by the Dark Powers. Tortured, and mutilated. A ruined and terrible form of life. And now... perfected. My fighting Uruk-hai.

I haven't posted much since the beginning of this blog, so it's about time now to show a bit of my work! These Uruk-Hai were originally destined for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, but after having been introduced by fellow hobbyists to SAGA ( which can be played with LOTR battleboars available here: http://tabletopdeutschland.wordpress.com/category/fantasy/der-herr-der-ringe/) I think I'm rather going to use them for this system. They still have the 'classical' 25mm bases, typical of GW. I am however going to stick with the trend of flat basing that is becoming more and more popular in the german LOTR tabletop scene. I tried some atmospheric shots, rather than showcase, I find that this style ( used by painters such as Frank Becker, 'Tankred' and my fellow blogger HvM) fits the LOTR miniatures particularly well!

As it can be seen of some of the pictures, I converted a lot of miniatures to create new poses but also new characters.


I hope you like it-feel free to leave feedback!

The Defiler and his Wargriders

Orcs!

Watchful Peace

When Ebob released his new Norman warriors, I immediately had to think of John Howe's famous painting  "Watchful Peace". In my opinion this might be the best depiction of the proud descendants of the Sea Kings around. Unfortunately Weta didn't stay too close to his design.

Although I like the catchy style of Weta's design for the warriors of Minas Tirith, it never felt consistent to the books. Plate armour is never mentioned in the books (with the exception of vambraces) and it always comes to my mind again, when I see GW's tin-can Gondorians of the 3rd age...  In this respect, Ebob's Norman infantry is much closer to the books and in terms of gameplay, the hauberks should suffice as heavy armour as well.

In order to make the Normans fit for warriors of Gondor or even as Citadel Guard, I  had to convert them a bit first... Their chainmail armour and the "high helmets" are already perfect, the Kite shields came in handy as well, when I tried to give them their signature heraldry, but they still lacked helmet wings and some black cloaks. Without further ado, I added those, using some Green Stuff. I tried to avoid too much uniformity here, since I wanted to conserve some of the Dark-Ages-feeling. This is something I consider very important about recreating Middle-earth. There's a multitude of influences that gave distinction to Tolkien's Middle-earth, but the Hastings-period has undoubtely been the most important one for the description of the Kingdoms of Men. (This might be the reason why so many people praise Weta's depiction of the Rohirrim so high.)

Although they only replace GW's Numenorians in my Last Alliance at the moment, I plan to extend my Ebob collection to some larger 3rd Age Gondor warband for SAGA. Ebob has already posted some WIP pics of Norman cavalry that will follow at some point and I really hope for some archers and axemen as well. The cavalry should make some perfect mounted messengers (those with the red arrow...) or Swan Knights of Dol Amroth. Ebob even has some fitting helmets for those in his components section, which I might try.

Reclaiming Moria

Some shots of my recent paintjobs on Grimhammers and Warriors of Erebor.

The Trolls

Showroom: Fin's High Elves

Some recent shots of my finally based High Elves warband, ready to hunt down some Orc.

Fin