Orcs!

Unboxing: Radagast the Brown on Sleigh

After seeing the pictures of this new release for the Hobbit range, I was very excited and decided to get this set, which in my opinion counts among the best miniatures that have been realeased for the Hobbit up to date. In this article, I'm going to get a closer look of the contents of this box and say a few words about the quality of the kit, which is as most will know in Finecast.

After opening the cardboard box, you'll find a plastic box (which is usual with these kind of sets) containing all the different pieces needed to assemble the miniature, aswell as a large base (more words on that later!).

The sprues contain various pieces of the sleigh, the rabbits, Radagast (who is also multi-part) and a few scenic elements to fill up the rather larger base: a large boulder which supports the sleigh, a branch/tree trunk and a raven flying off. So far I couldn't find any large issues, which is always good! No parts were missing and there weren't any deformations.

There was a lot of speculation about the base on the forums. On the official pictures it was impossible to see the real size of this base, and due to its shape, some assumed that Radagast's sleigh would come on the Mumakil base, which is extremely large. In fact, this base is the same size as the dragon's base (thanks River Zora over on one-ring.co.uk). I took a picture with a regular 25mm and a 40mm cavalry base as comparison. The ruler will give you the exact length/scale.  Even if it is smaller than the mumakil base, there is a lot of space for the eager hobbyist to create a nice scenic base (e.g. a forest base).

The pictures above show a more detailled view of some of the sprues contained in the box! In general the quality of the cast is good, I found a few issues (mostly airbubbles) on Radagast (especially the nose an the hat unfortunately) and the rabbits. This certainly can be repaired with some Liquid greenstuff or milliput juice, but it's still kinda annoying. Also there is general mould lines and flash, which can easily be removed with a sharp hobby knife and some small grain sandpaper. As stated above, there where no deformations or major faults. However, I find that the sculpt is not as good as it could have been...compared to Radagast and Sebastian released earlier this year, the sculpt lacks detail, especially in the face. While on the foot version the actor's facial features were greatly reproduced, on this version the face seems to lack detail in general. Some of the rabbits look like they were sculpted in a rush. Apart from this, this really is a good miniature, but it takes some skill, a lot of patience and a very sharp knife to assemble this kit. Due to the fragility of finecast, the different parts should be handled with care, because some parts ( the sleigh in particular) are very thin and therefore difficult to repair if anything should break of.

Despite the minor flaws and the rather complex assembly, this is a miniature I'm really looking forward to painting. I will publish further articles concerning assembly&painting!

I hope this review will be helpful for people who are not decided yet wether or not to get this miniature.

Marc

Erebor Captain + Face Tutorial "The HVM-Way"

Many people asked me about how I paint the faces of my miniatures. Are there any secret techniques? Any special colors? I'm always feel kinda bad as soon as i have to disappoint the people on those questions. I use the same colors, brushes, miniatures, techniques as you do :)

But what i can do is to show you my single steps on painting faces once again. My test miniature for that will be the new captain of the Erebor warriors.

Thanks for reading & have fun with painting some faces.

HVM

Tutorial: Goblin Town Bases - Step by Step

Many people asked how I made the Goblin Town bases of my EfGT Goblins. So here's some step by step tutorial. Actually it's just some few basic components that are used:

- Sand (Obviously...^^ You don't need to buy any overpriced hobby retailers. Just go outside and grab some at every opportunity... The more different sources you have, the more you can vary...)

- Balsa wood (Wooden coffee stirrers would work as well, but are slightly to thick for my tastes.)

- Twine (Mine is black, but colour doesn't matter. You'll paint it anyway...)

- Wood glue / super glue

- Efa Plast light (It's an air hardening modelling clay. Any other brand would work as well. You don't have to buy anything superfine or expensive here. It's just to give the bases some structure.)

- Little stones to resemble Misty Mountain rocks (I use some of Rusus' casts (link is in German), because they can easily be cut into any shape needed, but again, anything you can find outside would work as well...)

- Bases (Yeah, sure...^^ I use washers from the hardware store, since I love the little extra weight they give your miniatures and them being a little bit more subtle than the GW-slottas, but again, that's just personal taste.)

I start buy cutting the balsa wood into fine stripes. Don't be too accurate here. Goblin Town is Orc-made. They are not known for their craftsmanship. Just make sure you get the sizes right. If all your planks have the calibre of a tree trunk it just won't look right.

Tie those planks up. Most of the time I only wrap the planks once or twice and use super glue for fixing. Again, you don't have to be too precise here. Safety is not an issue in Goblin Town... They don't believe in handrails... As you can see, the results look quite random. You don't need to recreate actual walkways. It wouldn't work on 25mm bases anyway. It's just to give some rough "Goblin Town"-impression.

Next, I apply small chunks of the Efa Plast to the bases and press the woodwork and the little rocks into it. Use the modelling clay to blend those items with the rest of the base. It will help to make the whole base look more naturally. For the same reason, I don't use the wooden planks on all the bases. Unless you are absolutely certain you will just play the Goblin Town scenarios, they would look misplaced on any other battlefield.

For this type of scenic base you need to remove the plastic base tabs of the miniatures. Make sure you glue them on before you apply the sand. Rough surfaces are tricky...

Building phase is done. I recommend HvM's painting tutorial for the colours, but you don't have to stick to them too slavishly. Goblin Town is huge and there is not only one kind of "Official Misty Mountain Rock TM colour". Slight colour variations help to make your base look more natural. For detailing the base, there are various opportunities I use some few MiniNatur tufts in drab colours or some occasional BUSCH mushrooms... Anything that would grow in or around Goblin Town. Don't overdo it, it's not the Shire, it's just to give the rocky underground some extra detail... If you're into skulls and skeletons you could as well do some press moulds of the debris on the Goblin Town scenery parts. They work pretty well on bases.

Let's hunt some dwarf... I hope this article will be helpful for some of you. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Fin

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.

Tutorial: Azanulbizar Bases - Step by Step

This guide shows you how to create a rocky base similar to the Azanulbizar battle scene from the Hobbit movie.

Getting started
Before you can start with the painting you have to be a dwarvish miner to get some little rocks for your bases. I used a slate plate from the hardware store and crushed it with a hammer. Make sure that you get various sizes of little stones.



Step by Step
1. Pick up some little slate stones and stick them on your base for assembling a rocky scenery. Use super glue for best results.

2. Next step is sanding your base. As usual you can use PVA glue and modelling sand for filling the leftover base parts. In this case i used one of GW texture colours called "Stirland Mud". The advantage is that you get your texture and a basecoat brownish colour in one step.

3. Once dry, get your base a heavy drybrush of GW Baneblade Brown.

4. Now it's time for highlighting.  Drybrush just the slate areas with Vallejo Game Color Stonewall Grey or GW Administratum Grey.










5. Drybrush Vallejo Game Color Stonewall Grey and GW Ushabti Bone 50:50 mixture

6. Drybrush GW Ushabti Bone and after that a very light drybrush of GW white scar

7. Now ink the whole base with thinned down Vallejo Smoke. This step gives your greyish unrealistic  looking base a very natural beige-coloured look.

8. At least its time for painting the base edge. I suggest brown or grey colours. Advice for better looking bases: keep always the base edge darker than the base top. So you get a better contrast.

For my Azanulbizar styled bases I used Vallejo Model Color German Grey.




Thanks for reading!