Fell Beastie and his Witch King friend

Games Workshop makes two excellent fell beasts in their Lord of the Rings line. The model is fragile, but has some nice details and is highly evocative of the scenes in the film. Here are some collected images from my recently completed Witch King on Fell Beast model.

The model itself was a challenge to assemble. There were many large gaps that needed a good amount of putty work, but who needs a few hours of their life away from something this cool?

The beast was base-coated with a dark dark brown and built up with increasingly lighter shades of gray. Burnt umber washes were applied to many parts that I felt were getting too monochromatic gray. I thought this model was going to be simple to paint, but it's subtleties were a real challenge. Some passages make me particularly happy: the glow from the sword on the rider, crosshatching on the beast's neck, veins in the wings, detail around the teeth/mouth, and armor on the head. Giving the rider reins attached to the head of his mount was an effort worth the annoyance. If you want a headache some evening, try painting thin, white filament a dark color and attaching it to a 28mm scale model.

The base was given equal attention and I tried some new techniques. Thanks to PsychosisPC on the WWHFB.com forums for a tip: mixing Italian seasoning herbs into the sand of the base! The leaf clutter gives the ground a little more visual interest. I took another look at The Two Towers film for foliage inspiration and created the little dead grass puffs to match some of its scenes.

The Witch King model originally came with a giant mace. I've seen some other folks convert him to carry a flaming sword and I wanted to do the same. The sword has a larger scale than the rider as it is a green-stuffed WHF orc weapon, but I liked the hightened attention it's scale brings. Boom! That dude has a big flaming sword. If only we were all so lucky.

Here's a shot during the conversion:

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Krox and friends

Another weekend and another bit of work on the Lizard army. After spending some time with the 'completed' Kroxigor model this week, I decided there was nothing wrong with gilding the lily and worked back into some of the painted model and base to dress him up a bit. There is more flora and some highlights that helped flesh out some of the geometry of the model.

No one should be alone in the world, so the Krox received a friend - another 5th edition model in the same painting scheme and with similar basing elements. I wanted these guys to have a naturalist feel to them and was thinking of a dense and humid Bornian jungle during their creation. If these guys don't look hot and muggy, let me know.

"What are those objects in front of them," you might ask? Huge, delicious, powdered donuts...

or a way to track wounds! My original idea was to create a flower stem on its own 20mm base onto which green-stuffed flowers could be placed to track wounds, but I eventually decided to make the counters a part of the model. I think it works - pleasing to the eye and functional... just like my wife. Can't do much better than that.

Below is a shot of the pair with their skink contingent. This is nearly the formation they will take on the tabletop per the new Lizardmen codex rules. The final unit will have 16 skinks.

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One Cool Krox

I spent the Valentine's weekend with two things I love: My wife, and an 11 year old model of a foolishly named lizard-creature: the Kroxigor. One of those two is tucked into bed with me every night, and the other will do the dishes every now and again if I ask sweetly.

This is the model that was destined for the product of 'Basing 202'. Again, I wanted the model to be based in the natural world and referenced a number of my photos from the local zoo before deciding upon a hybrid alligator/iguana color scheme.

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Dwarven Battle Company

The stunties are ready to strut their stuff on the tabletop. These minis will be incorporated into my Battle Company games in Lord of the Rings. My goal was to create a visually cohesive force comprised of individually recognizable Dwarves. Battle Company rules allow for a lot of customization and after a number of games, these guys started to flesh themselves out as real characters. I wanted their painting to reflect that and allowed their development in the game to inform their finished appearance.

A flock of midgets

There were opportunities for some fun little conversions. One of my company seemed to use his shield better than others, so I highlighted that by lopping it and his hand off the front of the model and moving the shield around to his back. A quick bit of grey stuff and a strap was created as well as the hand holding it. The skull was also quickly modeled with the remaining bit of grey stuff from the project.

Before and After

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Lizzie's Lizzie's Everywhere...

... and not a drop to drink. But really - who would want anything, let alone water, from these tough guys? In celebration of the new Lizardmen book coming out in 2 weeks, I submit the following images of some recently painted skinks:

Though they be little, they be fierce

I was referencing a number of images from my trips to the zoo for these fellas. Skinks are spritely, so I looked to tree frogs and other small lizards. The colors had to be dialed back a bit from real life - you just can't make up things that wild and my worry was that too much color on the tabletop would be distracting... or froot loopy.

These guys were built up slowly in thin glazes. I didn't spend too much time highlighting as they're only core troops, so stay tuned. The best is yet to come.

Below are some conversions I've begun. The theme of the army was originally going to be a Bayou Blues sort of thing. That's been shelved, but the green-stuffed guitar was too much fun and I'll be seeing this guy through to completion. His neighbor, the amp-holder, isn't pictured.

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